Hey everyone. I wrote a full length play, When Mom Died on Saturn, and it won 1st place in a writing competition here in Las Vegas and it was produced. I've been told it would make an awesome movie, but converting it to the screen is causing me a great deal of frustration. I guess the trick is to change the enviornment (int. ext.) and keep the dialoge, but new places means new problems and conversations to me. I guess I need to cut a lot of dialoge, but I'm irridable about what to cut, and I can already tell the screen play and play will be totally different. Any works of wisdom out there?
Screenwriting : Help: Turning a Stage Play into a Screenplay by Brandon Oliver Jones
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words of wisdom* Thanks! :)
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Hey Brandon, The process of adapting work for the screen is about much more than putting it into the proper screenwriting format with INT., EXT. and dialogue. It's about creating a blueprint for visual storytelling where every scene must move the essential story forward and you transmute exposition into action that we can see on screen. I would recommend doing at least some research by choosing a play (or book or article) that was adapted into a screenplay and produced, then compare the forms. I just googled 'plays adapted into film' and got a huge list. Good luck with it.
That is interesting. I am young so I may not know but I do not recall that being done. Correct me if I am wrong someone. I know movies have been turned to plays like, Annie and West side story.
Thanks for your response, Jacqueline. I've written screen plays before, so I know what you're saying, but when I'm trying to convert my play, it takes me to different places, and I get new ideas, and I get lost in thought. I thought it was going to be easy because I have this big block of stone, and I just need to chizzle away at it, but the whole story takes place in a house. I don't know, maybe this why J.K. Rowling had someone help her convert her books to movies. I'm scared about it though. I mean 9 times out of ten the book is better than the movie...
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Sure - I hear you. There are different philosophies, but I subscribe to the idea that comparing the book or play to the movie doesn't do anyone any favors, even though people do it all the time! They are different mediums & experiences and attract different audiences. The play is its own thing, then the movie is its own thing - I guess I find that idea liberating.
I guess I have to accept that. lol
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Keep the theme of the piece intact. There are scenes that add to that but aren't necessary to make the plot tangible. Also use the atmosphere to make your scenes portray the feeling of the scene. I'm just getting started as a screenwriter - that's the best advice I've got.
You have to be a lot more direct in screen dialog. In some ways on screen you are telling a story in pictures on stage you are telling it with speech.
Tabitha is spot on. If you can say it in pictures, cut the dialogue. Film is a visual medium. For example, on stage, you wouldn't have someone walking from side to side endlessly for several minutes, but in film there are countless scenes of characters walking through cities thinking through their thoughts. Adaption isn't the best word: it's translation from one language to another. Good luck!!
A few years ago I took a story from Novel to Screen play to Stage. It was amazing what needed to be changed or could be added to.
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Yeah, yeah yeah! Okay, I'm getting exited. I just realized all the stuff I can show, instead of explaining it through dialoge. and I think that will help me cut down the dialogue and paint a pretty picture. Thanks so much everyone for your imput!
I've written a play that's very panoramic in terms of expansive desert, mountain and Lake scenes and I think it might make a better movie than play, but I don't want to get in the way of potential directors or cinematographers or by providing too much direction in terms of angles of camera, closeups, etc. Any advise on that?
Here's a kinda old ScriptMag article I wrote on the topic... http://www.scriptmag.com/features/craft-features/adapting-a-book-into-a-...