Script to Screen

What goes into making a sucessful film adaptation?

By Pragya Daryani

From Emma to Legally Blonde, book to film adaptations across all genres have historically made an impact in the film industry. However, taking a story from paper and creating a movie or TV show out of it takes an immense amount of work from everyone involved. Behind-thescenes roles such as producers, screenwriters, and designers take details from the original story and work to build on them, making the film a real experience for their audience.

These filmmakers are often innovators in the industry and have to balance content from the books being adapted with aspects of filmmaking. They bring light to the difficult aspects of having responsibility over one role, but also having to match what they create with the ideas and opinions of the rest of the crew. They work to carry the story from paper to screen seamlessly.

Costume designer Rachel Sage Kunin emphasized the importance of every single team member on the set of the 2019 film: Five FeetApart . She strongly believes that details make a difference, and that every person on the set, from actors, to directors, producers, and designers all contribute their own unique skills to the movie. “The art of filmmaking is a huge collaboration,” said Kunin, “and I’m just one little piece of the puzzle.”

Erin Conley shared similar sentiments, and she enthusiastically described her experience as a screenwriter and showrunner’s assistant on the hit Netflix TV show, ShadowandBone. ShadowandBoneis a unique adaptation, based on not one, but two different book series; the ShadowandBonetrilogy and the SixofCrowsduology, both written by bestselling author, Leigh Bardugo. Conley reiterated the importance of everyone on set. She detailed her time working with showrunner

Eric Heisserer and co executive producer Daegan Fryklind, but also highlighted roles like set design, post production editing, and music composition. Conley explained how scenes with minimal action are augmented by beautiful music scores, and described how the composer on set, Joe Trapanese, along with the editing team, added so much value to dialogue heavy scenes through music and post production.

Kirtana Banskota also understands the importance of teamwork and clarity between the different roles on set , and has a very unique perspective on it. Banskota plays multiple roles in many of her films as a director, producer, and screenwriter. She says that while it’s important to know your voice and individuality, it’s absolutely necessary to lean on your team, and work on delegation. Especially with adaptations, everyone has their own opinions on the original story, and you have to work with each other to create the best version of the story possible. Another quintessential factor when it comes to book to film adaptations is an attention to detail.

Conley explained how ShadowandBone was filmed in Budapest, but the story incorporated a variety of different Eastern European languages. In order to remain true to the world that Bardugo, the author, had created, the as a costume designer in the past. FiveFeetApartis based on the true story of a young woman screenwriting team spent hours making sure every scene was brimming with culture and detail from the story. “It was such a rich and exciting fantasy world,” remarked Conley, “everything down to the outfits they’d wear, and the food, and the currency, everything was just so well imagined.”

Likewise, Kunin described the value in implementing details throughout her designing. She delved into the specifics of how the clothing and makeup that actors wear can impact the impression left on the audience, and how costume enhances the story, making it seem real to the audience. Kunin’s work on the film FiveFeetApartwas a unique experience compared to her roles who was hospitalized for cystic fibrosis. Kunin described how she picked the outfits for the leading characters based on the variation of the illness that they contracted in the book and in the movie. “They can’t keep the calories. So I put them in oversized clothing that had a lot of texture, and the clothes kind of hung on them.” She also used different fabrics and styles for characters that had different financial backgrounds, to show their wealth without words, at first sight. Her attention to detail is visible in all the costuming in the film. Possibly the most obvious component of making an engaging adaptation that pleases the fans of the original book as well as people starting with the film, is a deep knowledge of the original book, story, or script. “It’s very important for me to sit down with the writer, and understand what the script is about,” said Banskota. She admitted that working on adaptations could be one of the most challenging things as a producer or director, because she had opinions coming from every direction, and it was practically impossible to satisfy everybody that was involved. Actually understanding the script and the history and culture behind it helped her immensely. She believes that every member of the crew should have a true understanding of the material. “Whether you are on sound, camera, or script supervising, it’s so important to do your research.... just be honest with yourself, and someone out there will connect, and even if one person connects then you’ve done your job right.”

Banskota emphasized.

Conley reaffirmed the importance of knowing the story and the material. She described the time she spent on set with the screenwriting team, reading through the books and marking the lines they wanted to include in the script, and discussing how they would keep the action scenes true to the story. She talked about reading through the books multiple times each, and how a “really deep analysis of the source material is important.” In agreement with Baskota, Conley also saw immense value in sitting down with the author of the source material, and understanding the vision before trying to recreate it. Conley expressed her gratitude towards Bardugo, the author of the books, whose role as an executive producer on the show allowed her to work closely with Conley and the rest of the screenwriting team throughout the drafting process. Many of the changes that were made from the book to the show were run by Bardugo in order to stay true to the story. Making an adaptation really is like putting together a puzzle. The storyline and the actors lay the groundwork, and then the producers, directors, screenwriters, designers, and so many other behind-the-scenes crew help pull the stories together cohesively. They all put in work to highlight details from the books, and analyze the story to make sure they truly understand what they’re working to create, or recreate. “It’s about really focusing on the story you want to tell,” concluded Conley. “What is it about the source material that people love, and want to see on the screen, and how do we preserve that, and enhance that, and make the best product that we can while honoring that [story].”

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