Thoughts On Adaptation
This summer, I took my last literature class (the one I’ve been waiting to take since I started the MFA program at Emerson), Novel Into Film. As the title suggests, it was a study of adapting books into films. My only experience in screenwriting had been original work, and with about half of movies being adaptations, I thought it a good skill to learn. My one attempt to adapt my own work back as an undergrad (from script to short story) had failed miserably.
There was one sentence that the professor said in the first class that was worth the price of admission for me: “The only obligation a screenwriter has when adapting a book is to make a good movie.”
While I would change “only” to “main” as a personal preference, this helped me break through whatever mental block I had about adaptation. If there is one thing I’ve learned throughout my screenwriting workshops, it’s how to construct a good story for film. The secret then is not to look at a book and try to figure out what parts you can streamline to fit into the condensed film medium, but to figure out what elements will work well in a film. Though that seems obvious, it can be a hard concept to focus on. Once you do, things are a whole lot easier.
As my first major adaptation project, I’ve decided to take a stab at writing a screenplay based off my stage play, Goodbye Dolly. It is still very much in the “fermenting” stage at this point, but once I get the two screenplays I have in progress of my plate, I think that will be my next big project.