A Kiddie Movie? I Think Not

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, an epic adventure of children wondering through a dream world called Narnia with mystical creatures, witches and forever Christmas. To some this is a premise of a childish movie with a happy ending, but you have to take a closer look to see that it is indeed intended for adults as well as children. Screen Writers took into consideration that the use of visual effects would triumphantly lead this movie to top box office seats. With the unique characters, lions, witches and half man there was much room for interpretation of what these characters cold look like. There were pleanty of different elements to incoprerate into the movie. Since the writers of the book used pure imagination, adding visual effects gave a much wider relem for the screen writters to build on. It is important to keep the basic ideas incoperated in the plot, the mystical world, the flamoibient charachters, all of these things are what made the book unique and should transfer over to film. Another concern is to make the movie appealing to all different types of auidences. The ceatures, snowy world and colorfull backrounds intrest children. The interesting plot line and constant wanting to find out what will happen next and hope for a happy ending is what the older audiences appeal to as well as action and visual effects. As long as the central ideas of the writters vaules are transferd over to film along with action, visual effects and a strong interesting plot line, this movie should be a hit in the box offices in no time.

Great Expectations... The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

Great Expectations *sigh*. Thats most people's reactions after getting through the novel and two sets of movies made in different time periods, but further analazaytion must be done to say you know the in's and out's. Radical translation from page to screen is the topic, this is a much more broad field of information then most would think. To start the film and the movie differ and are the same in some aspects, obviously the time period has changed, the setting and characters all changed but the premise is still the same. Most people see a change in all that but don't realize the values and theme's remain true to the text. Charles Dickens wrote a novel that is considered an American Classic, this is up for interpretation but everybody is entitled to their opinion. The screen writers obviously knew they wanted to keep the same premise but they knew they had to add some Hollywood, after watching the older versions of the movie they knew people's attention spans would not hold up through a movie like that. Hence adding the sex, beach and modern technology. I think the screen writers did a good job of translating Dickens's values and idea's into film considering they kept the audience interested and still modernized the film to keep the viewer awake. All in all it was a good radical translation from page to screen, if given enough though, credit should be given to everybody involved in the making of the film

The Key To Success

Don't we all wish we could be screen writers and take a book and transfer it all into a movie. I know i would, but its not that easy, there are many different variables when it comes to producing a movie. Literary and dramatic elements being one of them. Some of the most important parts of the movie beyond the action, romance and ... alligators are the central idea's and theme that the movie is based off of. Without a good premise you might as well take those car chases and explosions and throw them out the window. There must be a combination of both elements and holly wood to keep people interested and have a movie worth watching. The second thing that must be incoperated is plot change and cliff hangers. Nobody is going to watch a movie that has no change in plot, if the book has a radical translation, so should the movie. Even more so in the movie since there can be use of sound and visual effects. These things keep the viewer watching and eager to figure out the next part. Since in todays society people have next to attention spans the need for plot twists and cliff hangers has increased. The final and arguably most important part of a translation is the ending. People always remember the ending to a movie more than anything else simply because its the last thing you see and its expected to be good. Even shown in Adaptation a powerful ending will drive people wild "ex. mod 3-4 Page To Screen class". You can even mix and match these factors, in most action movies there will be a powerful ending along with a cliff hanger or unfinished story line to keep people interested and thinking, looking for a second movie. All of these things contribute to a successful translation from page to screen, its been happening for a long time and will continue to happen as long as people keep reading and watching.

Adaptation... how about that ending

So what do i have to say about Adaptation?. Simple, it was drawn out, long and barley kept my interest.. until the end that is. Yes there were ups and downs to the movie, showing what life is like for a struggling screen writer battling his wit to write a screen play that people will find amusing in movie format. Although i did find satire watching Charlie debate with his twin about story lines and such, seeing that subconsciously he was talking to himself, just not realizing what he was actually capable of. The character of Laroche was real to me, this is how most average Americans acted during this time. His personality reflected his behavior and was played out well, even the part of him asked to be played by himself was a paradox within itself. Susan was the troubled writer trying to find her way and a place in the world, easily sculpted by others she falls into the crutch of Laroche and takes the high road of drugs to ease her stress, she soon finds herself snorting plants to get high and making obtuse sounds on the phone. Of course the climatic ending of a car chase and ALLIGATORS, of course! every movie should have somebody being eaten alive. All in all it was decent, not something i would rent in my spare time but it was informative. I think Nicholas Cage did a good job of exerting the challenges of writing a screen play and how it can be a quite tedious process if not taken by the right mindset