Blog #4, Adaptation

In reading all three screenplays, A Boy's Life, The Apartment, and Adaptation, it was easy to notice the differences among the three. Mathison's A Boy's Life was very descriptive in almost every aspect, such as visual descriptive when describing the settings and appearances of objects and also descriptive as far as the technical side of things, such as camera angles. This allowed me to actually visualize the film taking place while reading, and see each scene in detail. Wilder's and Diamond's The Apartment flowed very well, even when switching among characters. It seemed more like a novel than a screenplay, which made it an easier read, and kept the audience involved, and while it wasn't as descriptive as A Boy's Life,  it was still easy to visualize the scenes. As far as Adaptation is concerned, I felt it was a very unique approach to read a screenplay about the screenwriter writing the screenplay as he went, however I didn't feel as drawn in with the other scripts. Jumping from story line to story line randomly I felt took away from the script a bit, not having transitions into it, such as The Apartment did. However, I did enjoy the voice overs, which helped to explain what was taking place when descriptions were missing. With Adaptation it was a bit harder to visualize the scenes. I think this gives the director more creative freedom, but makes it a bit slower when reading.

Are voiceovers and narration a good idea, or should the story be told through dialogue?

I think that when done properly voiceovers and narration can help a film, such is the case with Adaptation. It helps to have someone to help explain the story, and help the film progress, however if there is already an abundant amount of dialogue taking place, this is not necessary. 

Discussion questions:

1. Out of the three screenplays, which authorial voice do you find works better when trying to sell a script?

2. Do you think that Adaptation could have been a stronger screenplay had Kaufman written about mainly his side of the story, or about the actual story itself?

-Zachary Linville