Pre-Production- Research, Screen Adaptation

To help get tips on how to change the novel into a screen play I decided to read this book and take notes.

Screen Adaptation- Dr Kenneth Portney, Focal Press, 1998, Woburn.

Structure- Adaptations always change the structure. A novels structure is sometimes considered to speed up the story.

Characterisations- Characterisation is key to novels and screen plays. But a screen play has less time to sympathise with the character.

Similarities with the source material- all sources require the same imaginative processes as developing original ideas.

Approaches;

1.  Sticking to the source material as much as possible. (This is the method I will chose)
2. Approaching with a loose attitude. 

Scope the chapters- 

• Initial chapters= Characters
• Later chapters= Specific problems 

Structure- 3 part act 

1. Set up- Meet protagonist and supporting characters. Establish conflicts 
2. Start to Solve- Come against more issues escalating into crisis at the end of the act.
3. Solving- Trying to solve issues causes large conflicts. Surprise issues. 

Backstory- write out back stories 

What is the character actually like. 

Character growth- important protagonists to have a change from the beginning of the story to the end. If no change then nothing has been learnt. 

Structure- 

1. Find starting point 
2. Eliminate scenes- decide what to omit. 
3. Condense scenes 
4. Combine characters- combine smaller characters 
5. Reword the start and end 

When going through this book I have decided to use a lot of the information from the book while reading the fiction that I will be adapting.