Novel to Film: Keys to Insightful Adaptation Analysis
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What do the characters or their
relationships represent?
How do the characters’ actions create a
story with meaning?
What kind of life or what actions does the
film want you to value or criticize?
How does the movie make you feel at the
end?
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Do the characters seem realistic, or are they
meant to seem strange or fantastic?
What elements define the characters?
Are the characters static, or do they
experience changes? In what ways do they
change?
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This is a fancy way of referring to items and
elements that appear in a scene.
Elements include:
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Lighting
Costumes
Sets
Quality of Acting
Analysis: Does the arrangement of objects,
props, and characters in the setting have some
significance? Lets take a look at a clip of The
Graduate to practice analysis.
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A shot is what is recorded between the time
a camera starts and the time it stops.
Three Common shots:
 Long Shot/ Establishing Shot
 Medium Shot
 Close-up shot
Analysis: How does the camera angle affect
the audience’s understanding?
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Shows the main object at a considerable
distance from the camera to present it in
relation to its general surroundings
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The head of the actor is at the top of the
frame and the feet of the actor are at the
bottom of the frame
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The camera records a figure from the waist
up
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There is a very short distance between the
subject and the camera
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Tight shot of the actor’s face
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Emphasizes a detail
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Pan Shot: Camera moves from left to right
to right to left along the horizon
Tracking Shot: Camera follows behind a
character as s/he moves through a space
High Angle Shot: The camera is placed
higher than the subject to suggest a God’s
eye view of helpless and vulnerable people
Low Angle Shot: The camera is placed lower
than the subject to produce a towering
figure or object
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Intercut
 inserts shots of other scenes, such as a flashback,
into the narrative of the film; can provide an ironic
comment on the main sequence. Coppola’s iconic
Godfather II illustrates this technique well.
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Parallel Editing
 Intercuts are so abundant in a sequence that two or
more sequences are going on at once. The film
classic, Silence of the Lambs includes an amazing
parallel sequence.
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Films are scenes and sequences of scenes that are pasted
together . The filmmaker creates his desired emotion by
pasting scenes and sequences together in a particular
fashion. Two of several techniques are:
 Montage
▪ Rapidly edited images that suggest the passage of time or events
▪ Does not develop information about characters
▪ Example
 Invisible editing
▪ Uses simple cuts to join film clips in order to create a sense of
real time which makes viewers feel part of the experience
▪ Example
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Points to consider:
 When a filmmaker uses continuity editing, are there
implications concerning the world and society in the
“continuity”? Is the movie trying to create a sense of a
logical or safe world? Do establishing shots, for
example, indicate that the characters know where they
are and should feel at home?
 In films that break away from continuity editing, why
are there so few establishing shots in them? Is it difficult
to say where an action takes place because the scene
begins with a close-up of a character or inside an
unidentified room? Do the characters share the
audience’s disorientation? Is the disorientation related
to the theme of the film?
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More points to consider
 Is there a point of view we can identify with?
Does the filmmaker force us to remain detached
from the ordinary people and to identify with
something or someone else?
 Does the film contain images that seem to have
no place in the story?
▪ Is that image a symbol or part of a character’s
memory?
▪ Why does the unexplained image break the continuity
of the action?
Possible relationships with the image or story:
 Background music
 Source may be on screen or off screen
 Can proceed or follow the image it is linked to
Analysis:
 What is the relation of the sound to the image?
 Is the sound used to link images, or is it
associated with introducing or closing an image?
 Is the sound more important than the image?
 What role does silence play in the movie?
As you watch one of the final scenes from Silence
of the Lambs, practice the analysis of sound.
Remember, the information from this presentation
is what you need to keep your ongoing journal.
 You must evaluate at least three of the following
elements:
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Character Development (narrative device)
Theme development (narrative device)
Mise-en-scene (Cinematography)
Composition (Cinematography)
Editing
Sound
Use the information for each element to create a
logical, informative journal.