Fiction Adaptation: Idea Development (Feedback)

On Thursday we had a group meeting to discuss our ideas for our fiction adaptations. I had brainstormed my ideas, exploring a few possibilities for location and the narrative. However, I think that I had been thinking a little too literally about how to interpret the poem. I had written in my notes that I would use a coastal location as the poem takes place in Brighton. However, after feedback from Helen and the group, who suggested I think more creatively about lation, I have decided to exclude this as a possibility and to only hint at this, possibly through sound design. The narrative of the poem comes across as very abstract and subject to interpretation, with plenty of visual description that I think could be pictured in many different ways. Therefore, I have decided to choose my own narrative for the poem, retelling the story in my own way. It is clear in the poem that it features two sisters, however, their reason for being at Brighton in unknown to the reader. There are also mentions throughout about a 'mannequin'. We are told that he is naked and being asked to leave the beach, however, we do not know who he is or what he is doing there. Therefore, I have decided to give him a motive and connection to the other two characters, incorporating the memories of him from one of the girls' point of view. In terms of location, I will be using a bedroom where the two sisters will be when the poem starts, I may then plan to include a few other locations as the poem progresses. I think that the meeting was very useful and allowed me to broaden some of my ideas and think out of the box a little more in terms of character development and location possibilities.

Fiction Adaptation: Montage (Group Project)

What is Montage? 

-To use oppositional images presented in juxtaposition to create new meanings.

-The technique of producing a new composite whole from fragments of pictures, text or music.

For this unit, we have been asked to adapt a piece of fiction, in the form of a poem into a visual film. The brief expects us to illustrate the text in the most inventive and creative way possible to allow the audience to visualise the poem and bring the words to life. The use of Montage is likely to be apparent in every film, where the images are unrelated but edited in a sequence so that they relate to the written text. This technique is often used in film and television. For example there are a few montages throughout the film 'Hot Fuzz'. The clip below shows Simon Pegg's character Nicholas illustrating events in his life that enabled him to get to where he is at present, as a Police Officer. As he explains each event after another, this is shown on screen in a couple of sequences, almost in list form. This tells us and shows us a little about the character in a very obvious way so we are left feeling like we understand the character.

In order to learn more about montage and how to address it for our own projects, Helen has asked us to get into groups of four and create a short montage (3.00m). I will be working with Ellen, Saskia and Cheyenne. We were given four emotions, of which we must choose one and represent in our montage. The options are Joy, Hope, Despair and Fear. We decided to choose Despair as we felt we could be creative with it, we also felt like negative emotions are generally easier to convey. We had a meeting this afternoon to discuss ideas and have come up with a few possibilities for the story. Cheyenne suggested we show the character having a terrible day, highlighting all of the things that go wrong in montage form, resulting in them being in complete despair by the end after their life has fallen apart. I think we could be quite creative with this idea, combining some quite fast, visual imagery and even experimenting with colour to convey emotion. We have planned to have another meeting tomorrow to extend our ideas and develop on this initial idea. 

Fiction Adaptation: Research into Poet

I have found some information about the poet Antosh Wojcik who wrote the poem I have chosen to adapt for this unit. Although there isn't much online about him, I have read his article 'My experiences of poetry' which allowed me to find out a little more about his career and works. He describes his view on poetry at a young age. 'A lot of the time, I had no idea what any of it meant and didn't want to care about the poet's plight, so I rejected it the moment I no longer had to study it'. I found this quite interesting as he describes poetry as something he never had a huge passion for and something he just fell into in later life through writing short stories. He expanded on his poetry during university by performing what he had written at open mic nights, of which he received great feedback. In terms of his other poems, including one entitled 'Poem 364', which feels quite personal, he reads them through first person starting his sentences with 'I'. This immediately makes him the character of the poem, something I can imagine to be quite engaging when he is performing. He uses this as a platform for telling his stories in a very personal and direct way.

In terms of the poem I am looking at - 'Building a Second Home as it Sinks into the Sea', I think the style is completely different to his previous works. There is no use of 'I' and he tells the story through characters. The poem itself is very complex with graphic imagery such as 'I have been picked clean by sky piranhas, they thought I was a basket of chips carrying a heart'. This line struck me in particular because it seems to be dehumanising the character which brings quite a lonely tone to it as if the character feels unimportant. I wasn't sure what his interpretation of the poem was but for me, I feel like at least one of the two characters in the poem is troubled by something, but it is not made clear exactly what. There are mentions of a mannequin, who is described as a naked man who is asked to leave the beach but he is not brought into the poem later on. Other lines hint to this idea but I think it could be interpreted in many different ways.

Fiction Adaptation: DSLR Camera Workshop

Yesterday, we had a camera workshop with Mike Rymer who has had a lot of experience in the industry with cameras including DSLRs. He has also worked at the Epsom campus, teaching on a similar course. He gave us lots of information about the cameras themselves, and what they are best used for. For example, the DSLRs have better field of vision than the Sony cameras which means that the image is much closer to what we see with our eyes. From my experience, I would say that I have enjoyed using the Canons much more, in particular for the picturesque effect you can achieve with them. He then showed us some examples of camera movements including track, tilt, jib, pan, dutch angle. We have been taught these in previous workshops but it was interesting to learn about them in a bit more depth so we know when they are most appropriate to use and what effects they can give.

Contra-Zoom
Mike introduced us to the technique called a contra-zoom. He showed us some examples from films including a scene in jaws where a character is experiencing shock as children are being attacked by a shark on the beach. It is a technique which involves tracking and zooming in or out simultaneously. This puts emphasis on that person to show what they are feeling. It can also be used to emphasise an object, making it appear bigger than it is. We were then split into groups to experiment with some of the techniques he told us about. We experimented with the contra-zoom, which was relatively successful after a few attempts. It was quite challenging to get the timing right as you cannot zoom faster than the speed of the track otherwise the effect will not work. We also tried to do a 'Michael Bay' inspired shot. He is well known for using a shot which establishes a new location or 'big moment' by using the camera handheld and rotating it around a person for dramatic effect. Mike Rymer described this as a technique often used to tell the audience that something exciting is about to happen. Saskia and I experimented with this shot and found it quite tricky to pull off but we were able to get a general idea of it. I feel a little more confident about using these techniques and camera movements in upcoming projects, if the scene requires it.

Fiction Adaptation: Research - Classics

On Fridays we have been having lectures regarding an essay for the fiction adaptation unit. We had to choose from three possible questions which differed slightly but all came under the same subject, making the lectures easy to relate to any of them. In order to adapt something onto screen, there must be an original text or literary material to work from. We have been looking at classics and why they are so widely adapted for the big screen, and have been re-done over and over again. I am planning to look at the works of Charles Dickens who wrote several classics that have been adapted many times on tv and film.


Why do people choose classics? 
Classics were usually written quite some time ago making them copyright free. They are widely recognised and taught in schools so every one grows up knowing their stories. An adaptation involves the adaptors personal take on not only the classic story, but its wider implications and the prevailing ideology of the time itself. Lots of people can influence an adaptation including the director who will have their own personal vision for how to tell the story. Each performer in the piece will play their character how they want to and bring their own interpretation to the role which will also affect the piece. Other more modern aspects including music and effects will make the story new and bring a more present day feel to it. Classics are interesting to write about because they have so many interpretations where people have taken an original story and come up with a whole new vision for that story.

Fiction Adaptation: Chosen Poem

For the practical aspect of this unit, we are to make a film of 3-5 minutes in length that adapts the literary material from an existing poem onto screen, telling the story in the most creative way possible. Helen gave us a booklet with a set of existing poems to choose from. They all differed hugely, all of which told a story, some with more adaptability than others. I read each of them, keeping in mind potential ideas and thinking about where I could take them. Some were incredibly long which was slightly off putting as I felt like there would be way too much to work with within the time frame of the piece. On the other hand, a few were very short which I thought would make it difficult to produce something that would hold the interest of the audience for the duration of the film. After thinking about each one and writing down a few ideas, I decided to choose 'Building a Second Home as it Sinks into the Sea' by Antosh Wojcik. This poem felt very visual from the first sentence. It begins with the concept of a mannequin, something I felt could be interpreted from lots of different angles. I felt like I got a different impression every time I read it which is what attracted me to it, as it left me to imagine a few ideas. I also liked the description the poet used to illustrate a coastal environment, almost in quite an abstract fashion which could also allow me to be as creative as I like with my film.

'Building a Second Home as it Sinks into the Sea' by Antosh Wojcik.

There is a mannequin sunbathing next to us.
We can't tell if it's ours. We didn't give him a name
or barcode him with a birthmark. He is naked.
The police are asking him to leave,
there are children here, they are too young
for the smooth of him. His blank eyes
read the sunbeams. He says nothing.
We are throwing stones into Brighton's ocean
lips while we try to solve each problem.
Pebbles talk in skims on wave skin,
I hurl so many goodbyes the day winds down
into pier lights. I see a tanker resting
on the horizon and say to my sister,
I can sink that boat with this stone.
I don't account for size and distance.
She says, it's nice being this far from home,
avalanches her feet into the tide,
it's nice to be lost somewhere no one can get you.
I have been picked clean by sky-piranhas,
they thought I was a basket of chips carrying a heart.
My sister says, you look thin, If you die soon, 
can I eat your ribs? What would you do 
if you were on Grand Design Revisited
and you came home to see the changes 
and everyone inside had been cut up 
and their skin was used for wallpapering?
My head falls off. She points at the skeleton
of the burned down pier, asks if she did that
I want to tell her that she burns everything
she touches. She lights a cigarette with hand-fire,
starts walking to the B&B we are calling home.
The mannequin has been arrested, his indent
is all that is left on the beach. A waxwork
sits next to me, naked, shiny-dull with night
light. I hope she doesn't fall asleep here,
I don't want to find her melted body
in the morning, clutching the rocks
I will launch into the sea for the whole of tomorrow.

Fiction Adaptation: Unit Overview

For the second unit this term, we have been given a brief under the title 'Fiction Adaptation'. Fiction Adaptation entails the process of translating a written text onto the screen. This can be on any scale and is used all the time in film making. Many timeless novels including the works of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens have been documented on film and television, with many different adaptations, each providing a new spin on the original text.

In this unit, we will be building on our screenwriting skills from the first year by taking a poem which translates a story and adapting this to film. We will also be introduced to the art of adapting literary material, thinking about it in a creative and constructive way to make the piece our own and not think about it in a way that is too literal and a direct copy of the text. The practical film is to be 3-5 minutes in length and can take any form and come under any genre. As we are adapting a poem, we have been instructed to keep the original text in the piece, whether this is on screen or spoken aloud in a voice over or by a character. This should help to illustrate the poem and tell the story through the words.

Along with the practical film, we must write an essay that answers one of three questions. All of the questions cover the same brief as the practical aspect of written texts being translated into on screen productions. By looking at existing examples of Fiction Adaptation, this should help me in thinking about my adaptation and how to approach it in my own individual way. I have decided to choose the following question for the essay component of the unit:

'Discuss the view that “with a successful adaptation, the original work is transformed into something new and different, although retaining many traces of what it was formerly’ with reference to at least one text adapted for broadcast on television'. 

Out of the three questions, this one felt like the most broad option and something that I could talk about in depth and even relate to the practical element. The first person that came to mind was Charles Dickens. He is a prominent figure in the history of literature, with his most well known works being Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and Bleak House, amongst many, many others. When I thought about literary material that has been adapted onto screen repeatedly, Charles Dickens novels seem to have been used over and over again in both TV and film. I may change my mind when it comes to what I discuss for the essay but the works of Charles Dickens was my initial reaction as I feel like there will be so much comparison amongst adaptations.