Adaptiations

I think all of the adaptations of Jane Austen novels could be used to study adaptation. Her narrators are often strongly omniscient and so translating her work into film is difficult and it is interesting to consider what kinds of choices filmmakers make in order to get the story across in a manner that honors the book, but is also good filmmaking. I also happen to love Jane Austen and most of the adaptations of her work are quite good.

I also think that watching adaptations of Shakespeare is helpful to students because his plays are often difficult for students, especially struggling students to follow. Additionally, a lot of the adaptations put the plays into contemporary times, so they become more relevant to contemporary students.

I also think that if an adaptation is well made and is true to the original, or at least respectful and doesn't cheapen it, it is valuable for students who struggle with reading, learn better visually, or are just an ordinary student in the 21st century who has been exposed, most likely, to far more movies than books.

In order to get students thinking about adaptations, I would use programs like VideoAnt (the way Jane and I did for our final project, for example), VoiceThread, iMovie, etc. First, I would have students reflect on the adaptations using VideoAnt and then have them construct their own adaptations using iMovie. In our Crosswinds unit, we had students work with script writing, storyboarding, and filming as a way to lead up to the final production. I thought this was a good progression because the students were able to consider all the little things that go into transforming words into pictures and vice versa.