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Lecture 12:Lecture 12:Between the Frames Between the Frames

&Carrying the Narrative&Carrying the Narrative

Professor Daniel Cutrara

300 (2006)Frank Miller and Lynn Varley (graphic novel)

Zack Snyder & Kurt Johnstad and Michael Gordon (screenplay)

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Previous Lesson

• Adaptation• One Flew Over The

Cuckoo’s Nest• From novel to play

to film.

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This Lesson

• Adaptation• 300

– From graphic novel to film.

• Chicago– From musical to film

• Assignments

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Between the FramesBetween the Frames

Lesson 12: Part I

Challenges in Adaptation

• Pascal Lefevre points out the following:– Audience Expectations– Rewriting the Story– Page layout to single screen frame– Static drawings into moving photographic

images– Silence to sound

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Audience Expectations

• You can’t give them what they’ve gotten from a different medium.

• The purists expect a “transcription” of the story.

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Rewriting the Story

• Simplifying the plot– Eliminating scenes, subplots

• Character changes– Cutting and Combining characters

• Staying true to spirit or not– Sacrificing the literal adaptation

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Graphic to Cinematic

• Page layout to single frame– Different modalities– Split screen

• Static to Motion– Snapshots– Detail must be added– Actors vs.

caricatures

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Silence to Sound

• Greater realism

• The bubble made flesh– Dialogue and its delivery

• Added dimensionality– Music, sound effects

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Lesson 12: Part II

300 (2006)

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BackstoryBackstory• Graphic Novel

– 1998, Frank Miller – Inspired by the 1962, The 300 Spartans

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The Film

• 300 (2006) Warner Bros.

• Remaining true to the graphic novel

• Zack Snyder – Director

• Remake of Dawn of the Dead (2004)

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From Page to Screen

• Visual manipulation of film to evoke graphic style.

Choices in Adaptation

• Staying true to Graphic Novel creates consequences as the story shifts to a more realistic medium.– Is there enough story?– Do the historical inaccuracies undermine

the narrative? – What is the fall out in terms of

representation?

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Audience Reception

• The Context for Reception– Post 9/11 – The War on Terror

• Film as Propaganda– Freedom vs. Slavery

• Sparta was a slave state

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West vs. East

• Pause the lecture and watch the first clip from 300. – Watch how Xerxes and his camp followers

are represented.– How is Ephialtes, the traitor, represented?

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Orientalism• White vs. Non-White

– mongrels, monsters, mysticism, etc. Immortals- Japanese ninja, demons

• Feminized, Eroticized, and Perverse– Xerxes androgynous– The Persian camp

followers

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The Superior Race

• Pure vs Mongrel– White Spartans vs

Xerxes hodgepodge • Hunchback as traitor

– 19th century literary motif

• Modern application– White West vs Middle

Eastern Other

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Sexuality

• Pause the lecture and watch the second clip of Leonidas and the 300.– What is its importance to the story?– What does it say about masculinity?– What is the effect of the historical

innacuracies?

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Sexuality and More

• Masculinity– Hard, strong– The Irony

• Sparta– institutionalized man boy love

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Homophobia vs Homoeroticsm

• The visuals• Ahistorical

costuming• The male body as

object of desire

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Reason vs. Faith

• Freedom as product of Reason

• Faith as superstition– Priests demonized– Betray Sparta

• Oracle– Historically old

woman, sexualized.

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Framing the Narrative

• Dilios rallies the troops in their final battle in the war against Xerxes.– Subjectivity – Oral history and

the stuff of legends

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Additions to the Story• Addition of Gorgo subplot

– Adds arc for Leonidas– Appeals to female audience– Enhances rhythm allowing

cutaway from battle.– Grounds the emotional core

in family and nation. What makes the sacrifice of the 300 noble.

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Adapting the Musical

Lesson 12: Part III

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The Musical Genre• Grew in popularity in

the 30s and 40s culminating in the 50s.

• Second half of 20th C. relatively few made.

• Resurgence with Moulin Rouge and Chicago

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ChicagoChicago (Backstory) (Backstory) • Original 1920s play based on two Jazz era

killers. – A housewife– A cabaret singer

• Adapted into a silent film in 1927. • A musical in 1942 (William Wellman)• Broadway musical 1975 (Bob Fosse)

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Chicago Chicago (2002)(2002)

Chicago (2002)

Bill Condon (Screenplay)

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The MovieThe Movie• Harvey Weinstein of

Miramax wanted to adapt the Broadway musical.

• The conundrum, how to shift from the real world to the musical numbers.

• Rob Marshall comes up with the solution. 29

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The SolutionThe Solution• Pause the lecture and watch the first clip

from Chicago. – Notice not only how the tone of the film and the

world of the story is introduced, but more importantly, what solution did Marshall discover?

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Roxie’s Imagination

• Roxie’s imagination bridges the real world to the world of the stage.

• Her desire drives the story, and grounds the musical numbers.

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Genre/Tone

• Black Comedy– Main characters ignoble and successful– The innocents suffer

• Satirical– Critique legal system– Criminals becoming Celebrities

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The Musical Numbers

• Give backstory• Reveal the inner

feelings of characters• Advance plot within

the number• And through

intercutting

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Razzle Dazzle

• Pause the lecture and watch the second clip Razzle Dazzle from Chicago.– How does this number move the story

forward?– How does it address theme?

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Razzle Dazzle 2

• Courtroom Drama unfolds– Billy Finn manipulates the judge and jury

• Theme reinforced– The courts as spectacle– Money not justice

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The Wrap Up

• Adaptations– Graphic and Musicals

• The best adaptations respect the original source and the medium they’re adapted to.

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AssignmentsAssignments

Lesson 12: Part IV

Chicago

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E-Board Post #1E-Board Post #1

• Approximately 200 words. Check the Eboard for your specific assignment.

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End of Lecture 12End of Lecture 12

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