Adaptation | Research

This unit is all about adapting someone else's work, and putting our interpretation on it through video. I decided to do some research on adaptation's to help me understand a little bit more about them, and to help me throughout this project.

The definition of adaptation is

1. "the act of adapting."

 2. "the state of being adapted; adjustment."

 3. "something produced by adapting: an adaptation of a play for television."

Literary theorist Linda Hutcheon describes adapting as

"the desire to transfer a story from one medium or one genre to another" (Hutcheon, 2006:39)

A film adaptation is the transformation of turning written work into a film a TV series, usually shown in different parts. The director is usually the one who influences the adaption as they interpret the story in their own style.
Sergei Eisenstein, a Russian filmmaker and theorist, has suggested that novels actually contain written notes of visual filmmaking techniques like fades and other transitions and editing techniques. It has also been argued that there are many similarities in the storytelling method of both a film and a book.

However, there are differences between a film adaptation and the original text. The film will inevitably be shorter and may not contain every detail and scene that is written in the book. This is due to the length of the novel, and the fact that the audience won't want to watch a film that is longer than roughy 2 hours. A TV series adaptation will be closer to the story, as it will be split up into different parts meaning the whole story can be shown and told if the director wants it to be.

There have been a range of different reactions and opinions of certain adaptations from novel to screen, some being praised and others not. However, this reaction will be done to the type of audience the book and possibly the cast and crew have. The 'loyal' fans of the book may find the screen version not to their liking due to their loyalty to the original novel. However, fans of the director and or the cast may prefer the film due to their liking of the people on screen or the person who adapted it.

When relating this research to my poem, I need to make sure that I interpret the poem to my liking, but also take into consideration what the real meaning and story behind the poem is.

www.dictionary.com/browse/adaptation.com
Hutcheon, L. (2006) Hutcheon page stage. [online] At: http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca/essays/hutcheon_page_stage.pdf (Accessed on 28 November 2016)
(Hutcheon, 2006)