C2DiálogoSéries3 min
From Page to Screen
Uma escritora e um argumentista discutem quanto do romance dela pode ficar na série.
Uma conversa sobre adaptação e fidelidade ao original. Repara nas finas gradações entre concordar e discordar, e em quem cede a quem no fim — e porquê.
Before you say anything, I know the first ten pages of the script are not in your book.
That is one way of putting it. The first ten pages of your script are not in any book I have ever written. My novel begins with a woman sitting alone in a kitchen for twelve pages. Yours begins with a car crash.
Your kitchen is the best opening I have read in years. It is also twelve pages of a woman thinking, and a camera cannot film thought. On the page, the reader is inside her head. On screen, we are outside her head, looking at a woman not moving.
So you replaced her thoughts with a crash.
I replaced them with the thing she is thinking about. The crash is in your book; it is simply on page two hundred, as a memory. I moved it to the start so that the audience carries it into the kitchen with them. When we finally see her sitting there, they know what she knows.
Which removes the whole point of the kitchen. The reader is supposed not to know. The novel works because the reader spends two hundred pages getting her wrong.
That is a fair objection, and I do not have a perfect answer. Television audiences are less patient than readers, and the people paying for this want them to still be watching after fifteen minutes.
I understand that very well. I simply would rather the series be honest about what it is changing than claim to be faithful and quietly be something else.
Then here is a compromise. We keep the crash out of the opening. We start in the kitchen, but we keep it to three minutes, and we let the audience see one detail that does not make sense yet: the car keys she cannot stop turning in her hand.
Three minutes and a detail. That I can live with. And the crash?
Stays where you put it. End of the fourth part.
You realise you have just agreed with me.
I realise I have just found a better scene. Whether that counts as agreement is a question for your next novel.
Before you say anything: I know the first ten pages of the script are not in your book.
They are not in any book I have written. My novel begins with a woman sitting alone in a kitchen for twelve pages. Your script begins with a car crash.
Your kitchen is a wonderful beginning. But it is twelve pages of a woman thinking, and a camera cannot film thoughts. In the book, the reader is inside her head. On screen, we only see a woman who does not move.
So you replaced her thoughts with a crash.
The crash is in your book, on page two hundred, as a memory. I moved it to the beginning, so that the audience knows what she knows when they see her in the kitchen.
But then the kitchen has no point. The reader should not know. The novel works because the reader has the wrong idea about her for two hundred pages.
That is fair, and I do not have a perfect answer. But television audiences are less patient than readers. The people who pay want them to keep watching.
I understand that. But I want the series to be honest about what it changes.
Then here is a compromise. No crash at the beginning. We start in the kitchen, but only for three minutes, and we show one strange detail: she keeps turning the car keys in her hand.
Three minutes and a detail. I can accept that. And the crash?
It stays where you put it. End of the fourth part.
So you agree with me.
I have found a better scene. Maybe that means I agree with you.
Um clique numa palavra procura-a no vocabulário deste sítio.
Mais frases sobre isto em «A língua em uso»: Inglês em séries e filmes
- Palavras
- 364
- Frases
- 32
- Palavras por frase
- 11,4
- no vocabulário
- 100 %
- nível medido
- B1
- Tempo de leitura
- 3 min
Gramática neste texto
Estas formas aparecem no texto em uso real. Com «Mostrar gramática», por cima do texto, ficam destacadas a cor.
would rather the series be honest
Depois de would rather + sujeito aparece aqui a forma base (conjuntivo): I would rather the series be honest. O conjuntivo inglês →
we let the audience see
let + complemento + forma base: we let the audience see one detail. «Deixar» e «mandar»: let, make →
That I can live with
Ênfase por anteposição: That I can live with. em vez de I can live with that. Dar ênfase: I do believe →
As palavras a partir de C2 neste texto
Não as palavras difíceis em geral, mas as do teu nível: todas as 2 das 170 palavras deste texto estão em C2 ou acima. Tudo o resto já conheces quando chegas aqui.
objection
a reclamação graciosa
C2series
a série documental
C2
As listas de palavras deste texto
As palavras deste texto estão em 33 listas deste sítio; o número a seguir diz quantas vêm de cada lista. Quem leu o texto acabou de precisar precisamente destas palavras — e pode praticar exatamente essas.
Perguntas de compreensão
5 perguntas sobre o texto. A cada resposta aparece a frase em que ela está — uma pergunta cuja resposta não se encontra no texto não avalia nada.
1. Como começa o romance da Clare?
A primeira fala da Clare.
Repara na palavra «kitchen».
My novel begins with a woman sitting alone in a kitchen
2. Porque é que o Owen acha difícil filmar a cena da cozinha?
Lê a primeira fala longa do Owen.
Repara na palavra «camera».
a camera cannot film thought
3. Porque é importante para a Clare que o leitor não saiba do acidente ao princípio?
Lê a fala da Clare que começa com «Which».
Repara em «getting her wrong».
the reader spends two hundred pages getting her wrong
4. O que propõe o Owen como compromisso?
Lê a fala do Owen com «compromise».
Repara nas chaves do carro.
we keep it to three minutes
5. Onde aparece agora o acidente?
A resposta do Owen a «And the crash?».
Repara na palavra «fourth».
End of the fourth part