[Script] Illicit Adaption

Read the first draft of a friend’s novel this morning that I’ve been considering trying to adapt.*

It was excellent (****), much deeper than I expected. All the character seem vivid, alive in my head. The situations are individualised and fresh. What’s its genre? Existential Torture Comedy – the adventures of a slacker trying to raise $2000 to live with his girlfriend in the UK. Further than that, it’s a novel about the role of money in our lives and how NZ is creating a society that’s driving people away from it. And it’s about more than that too.

The story enthuses me. I’d like to play around with it a little. But [neurosis alert] does my enthusiasm come from the source material or my ideas about what to do with the source material? [/neuroticism]

Originally, I wanted to do this as a movie – low budget, fast and dirty. Now I think there’s enough in there for a TV series. NZ On Air is running something called the Innovation Initiative, applications for which close on 24 March. Should make an enquiry to NZOA about this … Plus, I thought I wanted a simple comedy, but this slices firmly through dramedy country into the realm of the funny drama.

Finally a Brain Dump, … because I don’t even have a word to describe the unfleshed-out concept for the idea I’m about to try and describe…

What’s the (line?) of this novel, its (essence?) that all the scenes in an adaptation would have to reflect or expand on in order for the movie to be true to itself? I’m talking about its (subtextual (truth? identity?)), ... at any rate it’s another form of subtext … that (core?) which makes something the thing that it is. May have to consult with my old aesthetic professor, Ismay Barwell, to get a clearer idea …

Tomorrow, analysing a film synopsis for a friend.

* NB: Haven’t even talked to the author about adaptation yet – it’s just an idle thought, originally inspired by listening to the last 2 tracks off the Fly My Pretties album.