Adaptation: Literature, Film and Society

Classroom Activities

Teaching Film Terminology Activity

First, it is important to have students understand what a shot is.  A shot is “the amount of visual information contained within a frame” and “a sustained point of view recorded by the camera.”⁴³ Once they understand this concept, I want to define and demonstrate the different types of shots, such as the long shot, the close-up, and the medium shot. The long shot is where the camera is far away. You can see the whole body in the shot, and typically, these shots are used to show a sweeping setting in a film; think when we are first introduced to The Shire in The Fellowship of the Ring. The opposite of a long shot is a close-up usually of a face or object that is being focused on. These types of shots help to convey emotion or intensity. Next, there is the medium shot. This shot is between the long shot and close-up and usually show someone from the waist up and is considered a more neutral shot. I plan on using Golden’s paper camera technique to have students experience these shots as we go over the definitions.  For example, Golden has student roll up their paper camera tightly so it focuses on another student’s face, giving the close-up effect.

After our short discussion of shots, we will move on to camera angles. Camera angles are “where the camera is in relation to the subject.”⁴⁴ A low angle shot is one where the camera is down below and it looks up on a person or object. The effect of this angle is to make something or someone look “huge, powerful, dominating, and in control.”⁴⁵ In making something or someone appear “small, weak, powerless, trapped,”⁴⁶ you would use a high angle where the camera looks down on its subject. Eye level is exactly as it sounds and is another type of neutral approach. Again, using the paper cameras, I will have students stand on desks or lie on the ground to see what these particular angles look like.

Camera movement is another component to make students aware of. Golden explains, “When the camera pivots along the horizontal axis…, the movement is called a pan.”⁴⁷ Without leaving their seats, I will have students follow me as I walk across the front of the room and this should demonstrate what this movement is. Next, I would have them use their paper cameras to look me or another student up and down and let them know that this movement is called a tilt and is “an extremely effective way to communicate distance, size, and strength.”⁴⁸ Then, you have the zoom. Most students should be aware of this type of shot because it’s a shot that is frequently done on their phones while using Snapchat. Helping to focus on a particular object, the zoom is when “the focal length of lens changes, thus making the object appear to move closer or further away.”⁴⁹ Again, using their makeshift cameras, students will be in a long shot position looking at me at the front of the room and slowly tighten their paper camera so that I become in a medium shot position. The last movement to review with students is the tracking shot. A tracking camera movement is where “the camera is attached to a mount that moves on a horizontal axis, along tracks, attached to a motorized cart, or on the back of a moving vehicle.”⁵⁰ Golden argues that this is the most unique of the movements because “it can enter and actually move us through the imaginary space of the film... We can now go with the action, become a part of it, or even go behind it, instead of merely watching as it passes us by.”⁵¹ To demonstrate this movement, Golden has students take their paper camera, or again, students could use their phone camera, and sit on a chair with wheels. While I walk around the room, students will push the chair with wheels as the camera follows me.

Different types of lighting can affect a shot as well. You have high-key, low-key, bottom or side, and front lighting. I would demonstrate high-key lighting, as Golden suggests, by opening up all my blinds, turn on all the lights which students should notice the brightness and lack of shadows.⁵²  In contrast, low-key lighting, I would turn off all the lights in the room and have only a singular source of light such as a phone light or flashlight, which should create dramatic shadows, have high contrast between light and dark, and give off a certain ominous or mysterious feeling.  Keeping the lights off, I would then shine my flashlight underneath my chin to demonstrate bottom lighting and then have someone shine the light from the side of my face for an example of side lighting.  Both examples create distortion of the subject, high contrast shadows, and has “the effect of creating characters that may be evil, are hiding something, are morally ambiguous, or are conflicted in some way.”⁵³ For front lighting, take your flashlight and shine it on a student’s face which should produce a halo effect and is used to convey innocence and honesty.

Next, I want to introduce two categories to discuss sound. Diegetic sound is the sound that is heard by the characters in the film which includes background noise and dialogue. Nondiegetic sound is the sound that is not meant to be heard by the characters in the film. An example would be a soundtrack song playing in the opening scene, helping to establish the mood of the film.

Finally, I will introduce the term mise-en-scène which includes the artistic aspect and aesthetic of the setting, the arrangement of actors, the lighting, color, and costume.

Filmmaker Notes and Mind Map Activity

Now, when I present this “annotation” of the novel, I plan on calling this filmmaker notes.  Because annotating a whole novel can be intimidating for students, I would give my students guidelines to help them through this process. Using sticky notes, I would expect that students have at least three to five important scenes heavily annotated for theme, characterization, imagery, important dialogue, and dynamic, imagistic figurative language, although there might be smaller annotations throughout the novel. I would periodically check these annotations in the two weeks that students are reading their books; this will give students accountability while reading. Their heavily annotated scenes should not only include pointing out these authorial techniques, but should include their initial emotional reaction and commentary and any ideas or images, actors, sounds, songs that come to mind.  This will ultimately help them with their final project and again by cleverly disguising literary analysis as filmmaker notes, students should be less resistant to this type of close reading.

Students should do three adaptation mind maps during the course of reading their novel. These mind maps should represent the beginning, middle, and the end and focus on how they are translating this dated novel to the modern teenage audience.  I will give topics they can think about as they work through their ideas like setting, actors, music, costumes, tone, film techniques to help create their adaptation mind maps. Ultimately, this mind map technique will be used to figure out their thoughts on their modern adaptation and style of their final project.

It is important to give students questions to guide their filmmaker notes and adaptation mind maps. Linda Seger points out that when adapting a novel to film that “choices need to be made.  Among all the themes, which is the one I want to explore? Among all the characters, whom do I consider the most important? Among the myriad plots and subplots, which ones are dramatically worth pursuing?”⁵⁴ I will tell students to focus on questions like these as they begin their exploration and analysis of their book. Seglem advises having students consider the following questions: “When you think of your book, what first comes to mind? If you were going to recommend your book to a friend, what specific parts would you describe to convince your friend to read it? What is the underlying theme or message of your book?”⁵⁵ I would type these questions out and give these to students as a bookmark so that students have these questions at the forefront as they are making their filmmaker notes and adaptation mind maps.

For students’ filmmaker annotations and mind maps, I will give direction to which scenes in the book could make a dynamic scene to analyze for their modern adaptation movie clip or trailer. Now, obviously, this will be students who need a little direction; students can ultimately choose other scenes that peak their interest or speak to them.

The Catcher in the Rye has a wealth of images and scenes that would lend themselves to well to film.  Have students pay close attention to the description of Allie’s death in chapter 5, chapter 6 has his fight with Stradlater,  when he leaves Pencey and yells “Sleep tight, ya morons!” in chapter 7, chapter 12 has Ernie’s Nightclub, in chapter 13, there is the prostitute scene, the scene in chapter 14 where he gets beat up by Maurice and pretends he is dying, the date with Sally scene in chapter 17, Mr. Antolini scene in chapter 24, the “f--k you” and the carousel scenes in chapter 25. I would also have students pay close attention to the imagery of the red hunting hat, the ducks and Central Park, Allie’s baseball glove, and the juxtaposition of innocence and impurity.

For The Bell Jar, I will direct students to chapter 2 where there is the Lenny and Doreen scene and the bathtub scene, chapters 3 and 4 which contain the overindulgence of caviar at the Ladies’ Day luncheon and subsequent food poisoning scene, and chapter 9 where Marco attempts to rape Esther, she mindlessly walks through the streets of New York City, and she throws her entire wardrobe out the window. chapter 13 is a rich chapter and is one of the most dramatic because her suicide attempts are described. You have images of her swimming out to sea, her first suicide attempt, her trying to hang herself, going to her father’s grave site, and the final almost successful suicide attempt. Chapters 14 and 15 could yield some interesting mental asylum scenes. Chapter 19 is when she finds out her friend Joan has killed herself, chapter 20 when she is talking to Irwin on the phone in the asylum and rejects his chauvinistic advances by exclaiming “Never!”(Go Esther!). Again, this novel is rich with images including the bell jar, the fig tree, mirror reflections, etc., so I will have students pay close attention to these descriptions as they could be useful when creating their final project.

Persuasive Letters to Salinger and Plath Activity

After reading the novel, those students who read The Catcher in the Rye should read Salinger’s letter to Mr. Herbert explaining why he will never sell the movie rights. During this activity, I would go over the conventions of formal letter writing and addressing an envelope. I will review the concept of ethos, pathos, and logos and identify the rhetorical strategies used in his letter. After analyzing some loosely-based Holden characters mentioned earlier in the unit and solidifying their own adaptations, I would have students write a persuasive letter to Salinger’s family asking for the rights of the movie and proposing their film adaptation.

For the students who chose The Bell Jar, I will have them review clips from the 1979 adaptation, specifically the opening scene where Esther seems to be thriving, the scene where she parties with Lenny and Doreen, the scene when she throws her wardrobe out of the window and we see her become unhinged, the scene of her almost successful suicide, and finally, the scene where Joan professes her love of Esther and Joan’s suicide.  After critically analyzing these few scenes, telling them about the trouble Julia Stiles’s attempted adaptation, and going over the conventions of letter writing, I will ask them to write a persuasive letter to Plath’s family, asking for the rights of the movie and proposing their film adaptation, just like The Catcher in the Rye kids.

Culminating Activity: Modern interpretations using Movie Trailers, Scenes, and Soundtracks

Ultimately, I want to challenge my students to create a modern concept and adaptation of their mid-century coming-of-age novel.  To showcase their translation, students will have the choice of filming a scene from their movie or a movie trailer and must have an accompanying soundtrack. In groups of three to four, students will take their filmmaker notes and adaptation mind maps and come together to create a final concept for their group adaptation, which may be an amalgamation of their adaptations or they may find that one student’s idea really shines.  Students will create a plan for their adaptation through informal storyboarding or outline, and then, in class they will film and edit their scene or trailer using the classroom iPads or their own phones. I will suggest that some outside class time should be used to create a stellar product.

Along with their modern adaptation movie clip or trailer, each person in the group will be asked to each pick one song for their chosen novel to design a contemporary soundtrack for their movie adaptation.  For each song, students will write one paragraph indicating the artist and title of the song, the chapter and page number where the song would be played, how the song would be used as background music while characters are speaking, as the main sound of a scene, while a character/s is not speaking, as an introduction to a scene, or transition to another scene. The paragraph will also explain how the song and scene are connected and why that particular song captures the essence of the scene.  For this part of the project students can create a Spotify playlist and share with me -- a playlist we could listen to for the rest of the year.

As part of the project or as an enrichment, I do plan to have each student write a rationale and reflection paragraph explaining why they made some of the adaptation choices that they made, who their intended audiences is, and finally, what they felt was successful about their project and what needed improvement.

Each group will make a presentation, showing their trailer or scene and playing snippets of their soundtrack. With the presentation, “An added benefit is that the audience grows interested in the books they did not read.”⁵⁶ I would hope that this would create interest in the novel they didn’t choose to read and that maybe, just maybe they will read that one too.