tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6001825743960552008.post621763815949486240..comments2024-03-27T18:06:04.484-04:00Comments on Murder by 4: Books to Film: Is there a formula?Marta Stephenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14126647102399666578noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6001825743960552008.post-11082892926523513392009-05-25T10:25:18.701-04:002009-05-25T10:25:18.701-04:00Fascinating! No wonder so many novelists are disap...Fascinating! No wonder so many novelists are disappointed at the translations of their books to films. :-) But this does make sense - they are completely different mediums.<br /><br />I've seen very few novel-to-film adaptions that stay more or less true to the book. One is Stephen King's "Green Mile" - there's actually a good amount of dialogue in that movie lifted straight from the book, and it works. But the film did leave out almost all of the "other" story (older Paul's struggles in the nursing home), which was good for the movie.s.w. vaughnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09102544611773720262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6001825743960552008.post-28247207268072353642009-05-25T00:42:50.697-04:002009-05-25T00:42:50.697-04:00Hello everyone,
Memorial Day weekend sluggishness...Hello everyone,<br /><br />Memorial Day weekend sluggishness! Sorry for being a day or so behind on replying on comments! LOL (and I didn't get my reply totally right the first attempt, so I had to delete and repost already! haha) <br /><br />Sheila: I can definitely see what you are getting at, as writer's "see" the scenes in their stories playing out. Visualization certainly helps the writing process, I believe, though the structures of book and film are very different creatures.<br /><br />Marta: The whittling down of a novel into a film adaptation is quite brutal! It definitely is the reason why book lovers are so often disappointed with film versions. So little of the content actually makes it through. It is just the nature of the beast when you have a several hundred page work getting converted to something that is most often less than 2 hours of content.<br /><br />Kim: I see and hear my scenes in my head when I write, but it is so frustrating sometimes writing a screenplay as I have to restrain myself from the temptation to "flesh out" descriptions and such. Coming from working on novels, it is very easy to inject far too much detail into a screenplay attempt.<br /><br />Aaron: I am really glad to be here and would love to contribute again in the future. Just email me and let me know (stephen at stephenzimmer.com ) I think a great majority of writers tend to give a few moments of thought to their work as films since we live in such a visual age. <br /><br />In my opinion, be somewhat careful of slipping too much into a movie-mindset when working on the novel side of things. As the structures of each are different, a different set of techniques and approaches apply to each medium, and there are risks in trying to make a book play out like a film or vice-versa.sgzimmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16350614644688746998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6001825743960552008.post-31478104364159373342009-05-25T00:31:13.608-04:002009-05-25T00:31:13.608-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.sgzimmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16350614644688746998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6001825743960552008.post-7764107865525063502009-05-24T07:51:34.200-04:002009-05-24T07:51:34.200-04:00Stephen,
Fascinating glimpse into the process be...Stephen, <br /><br />Fascinating glimpse into the process behind the scenes, so to speak. ;o) I wonder if all writers imagine their works as movies? I've done so from the start, of course including my favorite actors in the scenes as well. <br /><br />Thanks so much for blogging with us. We'd love to have you come back another time, Stephen. Perhaps you could share with us the mechanical details surrounding scriptwriting? Always wanted to try my hand at it, but never actually saw a "real" script to use as an example. Take care and best of luck with your books and movies!Aaron Paul Lazarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06117814221437165664noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6001825743960552008.post-26895810301463924702009-05-22T16:09:16.531-04:002009-05-22T16:09:16.531-04:00Hey Stephen,
Glad to have you with us today. I am...Hey Stephen,<br /><br />Glad to have you with us today. I am so fascinated with the process of indie filmmaking, AND writing, I can totally see the movie playing in my head as I write!Kim Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13933746166088034102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6001825743960552008.post-35740505301093578982009-05-22T15:27:56.371-04:002009-05-22T15:27:56.371-04:00Hi Stephen. Thanks for joining us on MB4. When my...Hi Stephen. Thanks for joining us on MB4. When my first novel was released, a screenwriter read it, like it, and said he'd have to cut it down to 120 pages. Since I had labored for a couple of years on it and it had just been released, the thought of scrapping over half the book was to ... distressing. But after having read his explanation of what goes into the film process, I understand why we’re usually disappointed with the Hollywood version of the book.Marta Stephenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14126647102399666578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6001825743960552008.post-45986228423969830892009-05-22T13:39:07.471-04:002009-05-22T13:39:07.471-04:00Interesting article. When I first got serious abou...Interesting article. When I first got serious about writing stuff people would read (friends in high school were the people I was aiming for then) I found myself imagining what I wrote as a film, so I could move with the camera and see how it looked. Not that I was interested in making movies (still trying to make books) but I think it helped me write better.Sheila Deethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13465615546936319164noreply@blogger.com