From: Nancegar at aol.com <Nancegar>
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:18:11 EST

I'm a bit late with this, as usual, but I'd like to respond to Alyssa Cleland's question, "On another note, do you find that most recent media adaptations of print material allow input and script approval from the original author?"
(Warning: This is a pretty long answer--sorry!)

 In my limited experience, it's pretty rare for a children's or YA author to be allowed to influence a film or TV adaptation much at all. It's usually in the contract that one can't, and the film people usually don't allow changes in that (or in much else, for that matter). When my first novel, WHAT HAPPENED IN MARSTON, which was about a friendship between a black boy and a white boy in a racially tense town, was made into an AfterSchool Special, I had no say at all in the script--but luckily, I was pleased with the result. The ending was changed markedly, but I felt it that since the change accurately reflected a change in attitude in the era--the film was made many years after the book was published--the change was appropriate.

Later, one of my "witchy" books was optioned by a scriptwriter (rather than a film studio; he planned to write a script and then try to sell it to a producer). But when I saw the contract, which luckily contained a pretty clear description of his plans, which involved many so changes in characters, etc., I was so horrified that I refused to sign, and the project was abandoned.

Another of my novels has been optioned for years, and is under option now. Because this novel is especially important to me, I have asked to see the script if and when one is developed, with an understanding that I won't make unreasonable demands for changes and that I fully understand some changes are inevitable. I've received assurances that that clause will be honored, and fairly recently, I did have a conversation with a possible script writer in which she told me some of her ideas. I was a bit skeptical at first about one aspect of her approach, but ultimately agreed that it might work--but haven't heard anything further (as is often the way with these things). Will I see the finished script, if it's accepted, before it's shot? I'm not sure. I've been given vague information that indicates to me it's in production, and plan to inquire about that more forcefully soon--but of course if it is in production, there's probably virtually no chance that I'll be able to have any influence--and I suspect that the phone call with the script writer will be seen by the compmany as having fulfilled the clause granting me some measure of approval. Luckily I've received many indications all along that the company involved feels as I do about the basic story and characters, so I'm not as worried as I might be. Am I still somewhat worried? Yes.

Since I have a theater background, I'm well aware, as has been said earlier in this CCBC discussion, that translating a novel to a film almost always necessitates some changes. The two mediums are very different and what communicates well via one often doesn't communicate at all via the other. Then too, books are often optioned many years after they're published, and actually filmed (if they ARE actually filmed!) many years after that. Times change, and in some cases, in order for the same ideas to communicate to an audience, a situation must be changed -- as was the case with WHAT HAPPENED IN MARSTON. But therein lies a potential problem, for the film folks often seem to make broad assumptions about the changed attention spans or interests of kid audiences -- generalizations that are so broad they don't have much bearing on the kids who, having loved the book, go to see the movie--as has also been pointed out in the CCBC discussion. (But I suppose the movie people would say, "Yes, but what about the kids who haven't read the book? We need to get them into the theaters, too--and chances are there are more of them than there are kids who've read the book.")

I suppose some changes are a little like those we often see in jacket art: we authors rarely have much to say about jackets, and sometimes feel that the art on them violates the spirit of the book (and sometimes the facts--hair color, for example, and other physical spects of characters, details of setting, etc.). But we're usually told that cover art is really advertising, and that the sales folks know better than anyone else what sells best.

Sometimes, too, what one feels about cover art or film comes down to a matter of taste. And that, of course, is so subjective a judgment it's nearly impossible to argue about reasonably.

I've always thought that the more well-known, widely read, and respected an author is the more likely it will be that he or she will be able to get script approval. But I don't think that really works. And I don't think the movie people feel authors in general understand how necessary some changes are. The fact does remain that the two are very different media, and part of me says that maybe we authors should respect that more, and trust it more.

But that doesn't mean it's easy!

Nancy





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Received on Wed 14 Nov 2007 11:18:11 AM CST