f

Film

adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work. A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction (including journalism), autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even other films. From the earliest days of cinema, adaptation has been nearly as common as the development of original screenplays.

What are the factors to be considered while going for adaptation Or Why adaptation of novels to films has attracted the critics Or What are the common differences between the literature or film

 Erich

von Stroheim attempted a literal adaptation of Frank Norris's novel McTeague in 1924 with his film, Greed. The resulting film was over sixteen hours long. A cut of the film only eight hours long, then one running to four hours, appeared. Finally, the studio itself cut the film to around two hours, resulting in a finished product that was entirely incoherent. Since that time, few directors have attempted to put everything in a novel into a film. Therefore, elision is nearly mandatory.

Film adaptations also interpolate scenes or invent characters especially if the novel is part of a literary saga. Incidents or quotes from later or earlier novels will be inserted into a single film. Film makers will invent new characters or create stories that were not present in the source material at all. Given the anticipated audience for a film, the screenwriter, director, or movie studio may wish to increase character time or invent new characters. Characters are also sometimes invented to provide the narrative voice.

 For

example, William Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Ironweed, had a very small section with a prostitute named Helen. Because the movie studio anticipated a female audience for the film and had Meryl Streep for the role, Helen became a significant part of the film.

 The

concept of adaptation has increased in the past two decades Generally revolves around the Fiction and restricted to Hollywood. In present great work of literature are being converted to films all round the globe.

My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the powers of written word, to make you hear, to make you feel it is, before all, to make to see. -- Joseph Conrad,1987 The task which I am trying to achieve is above all to make you see. -- D.W. Griffith,2003

A study of literature casts light on the meanings in the film, and the study of the film can illuminate the full value of the literature.

 The

above statement will seek to show the relationship between film and literature and the effects that result from such adaptations. In order to examine this relationship, the techniques used in film making will be required. It projects comparing and contrasting as crucial skills and examining the variations between a novel and the movie based on it which come about from the demands of the conventions imposed by the art form.

 The

fact that since the creation of the Academy Awards over three-fourths of all Best picture films have gone to films that are adaptations of novels adds relevance. Furthermore, these critical abilities will also translate into enhanced cultural consciousness in their own world that will have life long effects.

1.
2. 3.

4.

How do different media tell stories ? How stable are stories across media and moment ? How subject to intervention and adjustment is stories according to medium and moment? How do receiving communities read stories difficulty according to the medium of presentation and the moment of the telling?

1.
2.

3.

Semiotic dissimilarities. Appropriate influence of the historical perspective towards the appreciation of the literature and film. Finding a possible scheme of effective film adaptation of literature.

 Narrative

voice Fluctuations in point of view Subtleties in characterization Shade of descriptions.

What relation should a film have to the original source? Should it be faithful Can it be faithful To what it should be faithful
Fidelity criticism depends on the notation of the text as having and rendering up to the reader a single, correct meaning which the film maker has adhered to or in some sence violated or tampered with.

 The

idea of fidelity has restricted the idea of adaptation to mere copying from source and pasting it. It ignores the idea convergence Marginalizes the production determinants that which have nothing to do with novel but may be powerfully influential upon the film

1.

2.

3.

Transposition: A novel is given directly on screen with a minimum of apparent interference. Commentary: An original is taken & either purposely or unknowingly altered in some respect, when there had been a different intention of film maker, rather than infidelity or outright violation. Analogy: A fairly considerable departure for making another work of art.

 It

is a series of events, casually linked involving a continuous set of characters which influence or are influenced by the course of events The potential and propensity for narrative is a common element between a novel and a film.

Narrative Functions

Distributional

Integrational

 They

are the proper functions Refer to actions and events Horizontal in nature Strung together linearly through text They have to do with operations They refer to functionality of doing

 Called

as indices A diffuse concept which is nevertheless necessary to the meaning of the story It embraces psychological information regarding the characters, data regarding their identity, notations of atmosphere & representations of place They are vertical, influencing reading of narrative in pervasive rather than a linear way They do not refer to operations but to a functionality of being

Narrative Functions

Cardinal Functions

Catalysers

 Hinge

points: The actions they refer to open up alternatives of consequence to the development of the story. They create risky moments in the narrative & it is crucial to narrativity( the process through which the reader constructs the meaning of the text) that reader recognizes the possibility of such alternative consequences. Linking together of cardinal functions provides the irreducible bare bones of narrative.

 The

cardinal functions or kernels( narrative moments that give rise to cruxes in the direction taken by the events) are transferable. When a major cardinal function is deleted or altered in the film version of a novel, this is apt to occasion critical outrage and popular disaffection. The film maker bent on faithful adaptation must as a basis for such an enterprise, seek to preserve the major cardinal function.

 Complementary

and supportive to cardinal

functions Denotes small actions Their role is to enrich the text They lay areas of safety They are moment to moment minutiae of narrative.

Kinds of narration

First person naration

Omniscient

Mixture of first two

Restricted consciousness

Subjective Cinema

Oral narration or voice over

 Subjective

Cinema: What the characters see & how they experience it is integrated with an objective presentation to these individual points of view. Oral narration: It cant be more than intermittent as distinct from the continuing nature of novelistic first person narration. Here ones sense of the character to whom it is attributed is more likely to be the product of his involvement in the action directly presented than on his occasional comment upon it.

All materials of cinema function narrationally: Camera Speech Gesture Writing language Music color Optical processes Lighting Costume Off-screen space Off-screen sound

Those elements of original novel which are transferable because not tied to one or other semiotic system- that is essentially narrative Those which involve intricate processes of adaptation because their effects are closely tied to one or other semiotic system in which they are manifested- that is enunciation

 Conditions

within film industry

Effect of star personae Studios house style Directors predilections or genre conventions Prevailing parameters of cinematic practice.

Prevailing

cultural & social climate

TRANSFER AND ADAPTATION

Story is basic succession of events. Plot is the way in which story is made strange and creatively deformed
The film and novel can share the same story but the plot is different in case of both.

One might isolate the chief character functions of the original and observe how far are these retained in the film version The characters are grouped in 7 spheres of action like villain, helper etc

 The

mythic value of a myth is preserved even through the worst translation. Not much stress is to be laid to preserve these myths

Some key differences related to area of adaptation are: Two signifying systems The novels linearity and films spatiality Codes Stories told and stories presented

The verbal sign with its low iconicity and high symbolic function, works conceptually, whereas the cinematic sign with its high iconicity and uncertain symbolic function works directly, sensuously, perpetually.

The frame at any moment provides information of at least visual complexity beyond any given word The frame is never registered as a discrete entity The fact that we are always being exposed to the multiplicity of signifiers contained within the space of a frame

 Language

codes Visual codes Non linguistic sound codes Cultural codes

 Difference
Tense Films

between language

spatial orientation

The adaptation from novel to film is a task involving many parameters. A balance has to be maintained between faithfulness to novel and to the real life time situation prevailing and the financial aspects related to movie making.