Blog 24

I am analyzing parts of the interview that I will be using towards the paper, as well coming up with categories (which are in bold).

Research Question: How do you viewers view adaptation between novels and films?

C: Can you tell me a story of a time where you did see a film of a novel that you read? Like for example - what were your thoughts throughout the film? and Did you keep comparing it to the novel?
G: (nods her head) Yes you can't help but not compare because you're watching the movie and you're waiting to for something that you saw in your head while reading the book um and if something got left out, you were wondering what the heck happened (laughs) because they changed, not that they changed the story but they change to consolidate a lot of the story line in the book but some books because they are so long they make more of a movie and so they put everything in the movie and so you're just like wow that's exactly how I picture it.
C: So it was either one or the other?
G: Yeah it's either one that you're waiting to see something that you know they should've left in there (pause) or they include everything and so you get even more of the movies, that's why they had to make The Lord of the Rings, four hours and Harry Potter, they had to make every single movie.
C: Did you like the novel or film better?
G: In (pause) that's hard to say, I a lot of times like the novel better because the characters that you see in your head when you're reading the book are not the same as you see on the screen. but then you get to like with the Godfather you have a different picture but then you have another novel with the characters on the screen are exactly as you picture them in the book so it depends on the book that you've read.

Enthusiasm: My participant seemed to be enthusiastic during the interview, showing that she likes the subject that I am researching about.  Another way of knowing is of how much information she gives me of how she felt throughout reading the novels that she has read and also watching that film, it has been adapted to.
         
When I asked her to tell me a story of when she has seen a film of a novel that she has read, she goes right into saying that "you can't help but not compare" and goes on saying that after reading the book, of course you are going to because you want what you saw in your head while reading the book to happen but most of the time, it doesn't happen.  But then she says that sometimes the film does turn out the way she imagined in her mind.

Knowledge: One of the first questions I asked my participant, I asked her to tell me about a few novels that she has read. She named a few and seemed to know what she was talking about and also named a few more when she was talking which shows knowledge of novels and the films of those novels.


C: If you could have made changes to the film, would you? and what would those changes be?
G: No well other than having the movie go forever and put everything in and no.
C: Can you explain to me why you think why that is?
G: Well the movies that I've seen that were made from books were best-selling books written by best-selling authors and they were made and they turned out to be well made movies and by well made well named directors and they did justice to the movies they made, they did exactly what they set out to do so I see no additions that could be made because they would take too long.
C: Have you ever read a novel, only because there was an adapted film of that novel coming out?
G: (pause) No but I read seen a movie that turned into a book which I read and when I saw the movie after I read the book. I didn't understand it because usually it's the other way around that things are included in the movie but this time it was included in the book and not in the book.
C: And what book was that?
G: That was Nicholas Sparks' The Last Song.
C: What was missing?
G: There were a couple characters, there was a minister in the book that wasn't in the movie and just little things that I picked up on.
C: Do you believe that you should read the novel first before watching the film?
G: Well most of the time the books that I have read I've read years before they were turned into a movie um and a lot of times I thought twice about going to see it because I didn't want to change what was in my head. I wanted my head to like remember what I read from the book so no I wouldn't recommend it because you're going in with too many expectations of what it's going to be.

These questions and answers help be identify whether or not she feels adaptation works and if she as a viewer likes the way adaptation works. My participant says that she would not make any changes to the films that she has watched and that the directors who have made those films made sure that they did the novels "justice".  She brings a point about when she has read a novel that has been made after a film has been done but read the novel first and was confused throughout the film, because it wasn't done the way it usually is.  Film is normally done after the novel, instead The Last Song written by Nicholas Sparks was written after Sparks wrote the screenplay for the film and there was differences between the two like missing characters in the film.

Different kind of advice: Normally people would advise you to read the novel before you watch the film because it might change your thoughts about the story line. My participant spoke of a different kind of an advice towards of what she thought about if people should read it or not, and she says she doesn't recommend reading a novel before watching the film "because you're going in with too many expectations of what it's going to be."

C: Do you think the actors play a role in how the movie portray the novel?
G: Absolutely, I think that the directors take great care in selecting who they want to play and hope that they can have the person because sometimes you picture exactly who that character is and if you can't get it, another character can totally change the whole theme of the movie.

This was an important question to ask because the actors who portray the roles can make a difference on how a viewer views adaptation and my participant agrees that actors do have a role in how the movie portrays the novel. She also talks about how the movie can change if a different person portrayed a character instead of the original.

C: Would you like adapters stop adapting novels to movies or keep it happening?
G: No because I want them to keep it happening because a lot of people don't read those novels and the only way that you can get people to see classics, stories from classics, is to make it into a movie and for those people who have trouble reading classic classic books like Shakespeare make them into a movie and then adapt it so that people can understand it so that they'll at least know that they see something is written even hundreds of years ago.

Opinion: This question was made for my participant to come up with an opinion on if she would like adapters to stop adapting novels to movies or if she would want them to keep going.  She answers with that she would want them to keep going because to her, it helps people see the classics if they don't feel like reading the actual novel because of how long classics tend to be.