Tips for turning novel into film..

[jstam]

For my English class, I have to make a 15-20 scene storyboard, converting a part of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" into film.. Now, I've never actually done any filmmaking before, and only have the very basics in camera angles etc..

So, I have a few questions I'd like to ask about techniques and affects.

First of all, would it be wise to use colour tints in certain scenes? There's a rather violent scene I'm incorporating, and I'm considering tinting it red. Then again, none of the other scenes would be tinted, so would this be something I might do?

Second, how might I create a film that incorporates sound that wasn't there in the book? As I look at my storyboard, half the scenes have no talking in it, and I don't want silence.. Can anyone point me to a website that suggests certain pieces of music for a particular mood, or scene?

Thanks!

[Chance1234]

Hi jtsam ,

grrrr i hate it when english teachers set task like this cos there talking b*llcks for one, i remember being a wee nipper of 12 and we were set the task of creating a location report like a film, so there me was researching this for my homework, as coulnt be arsed that much at the time i had a location report in a book from Gremlins the movie so i just copied that. handing it in the next day i got dragged up to the fornt and my work read out and scrorned not for coyping but apparently my location report wasnt really a location report. my use of english was bad and the piece held no substance and as a location report it stank acording to the teacher. and i got a black mark in me contact book doobrie

They ask for a lcoation report i give them a location report but it wasnt what the muppet of an english teacher had in mind,

anyway, reading your post kind of bought back that memory, i guess from reading it your young and not really into film much so trying to search the web for a majic answer so you can finish your homework early and get on with living, good on you if you are boiy wished the internet was around a good 6 or 7 years earlier anyway

to help you out

15-20 scene storyboard ?

ok your trivia bit a scene in film is when the location or time or day change or a new character enters a location. i guess what your english teacher is asking for is is 15 - 20 drawings, each one of those drawings is a shot not a scene. (tell them that and tell them to get there facts right before preaching to the masses)

so going to your shot list for your storyboard, lets say we have a scene where there is a house on top of a hill you could have a

FS: Full shot where we see the hill and the house at a distance
MS:Mid Shot where we would jsut see the brow of the hil and the house
or
CU: CLose Upwhere we would maybe see the fornt of the house with the door and
XCU: Extrem Close Up where maybe we see the door bell

if were talking about a man standing by the house and we wanted to see him

we would have
FS: we would see the man and the ground aroud him
MS: we would see waist up
MCU: Medieum Close Up, we woudl see his shoulders head
CU: head
XCU:eyes

thats is very simplified but you can get away with those shots

Tints , mmmmm with the age of digital i guesds a lot of people would say wait till we see the film in post but i guess that doesnt help you much. There are several different styhles of film making one of which is the continuity style where you trick the viewer into thinking htey are seeing once continous piece of action and never notice the cuts. if you were going down this route then you would think about how would each scene look against the next so your tints would be important there. or you could be really daring and have lots of wild images and bang bang jump cuts with strange colours to tell the story

i dont the know the "heart of Darkness" but try and picture it in your mind as you read it as a film, if it helps think of a film you like watching and imagin it in that style


Sound is just as important as vision, even silence is golden there this thing called white sound which is basiclt silence but its copuyrighted and hollywood pay a fortune for it to go in there films, also theres pink noise which is rather sppokey but thats another story. the best example i can think of re sound in a film to build up the tension set the mood when there is no dialouge is either Jaws, you know the dum dum dum dum dum dum or Pyscho in the shower EK EK EK EK EK !

Sound is jsut as important as the vision,if theres a love scene you have the big romantic ballads come on, if there tragedy out come the violins, if a battles go to happen bring on the march ! etc. as well as picturing the story imagine what sort of sounds would be there as well.

One thing and if you english teacher disagress with this ill personally come round and smack him, there is no right or wrong in this

say you have a scene where bosnia is just about to sign the peace treaty and your english teacher asks you to storyboard that.

if you want to represent it with a giant duck dressed in suspenders while a french maid yodels in the background doing cartwheels put it down, its your imagination your iterpretation.

dunno if that helps at all, in a funny mood tonight

Chance




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[eddie]

Im not sure which scene you are working on but if it is a silent scene (no talking) why not use the music of the jungle in the background? Why not make the music a part of the set, and have a background of African insects whirring and trilling in the background. I have spent some time in jungles in Malaysia, and I can tell you that the jungle is anything but silent, especially in the evenings.
The heart of darkness is 'about' Africa, or at least one mans bleak vision of his place in it. Is African drumming too obvious to use?
If its a silent scene your camera work needs to do the 'talking' for you. The pace of the editing and the camera angles need to emphasis the expressions on actors faces in order to tell the story.
You could bear in mind that a low angle can suggest dominance. Tight close ups on peoples faces are more dramatic than wide shots. (although it depends on how much action is going on in the scene)
What is going on in the scene? Is someone scared? What of? Are they contemplating the wide expanses of the country, or wrapped up in the darkness of their own thoughts?
Is someone trying to dominate someone else? Is someone trying to figure something/someone else out?
Red tint sounds like a cool idea.

[Red House Painter]

I'm sure you already know this but Heart of Darkness was the basis for Apocalypse now i believe, why not find some original storyboards from that on the internet and use them to give you ideas.

[shirt]

If you want to go with Red's idea, then here is a whole boatload of info about the film... http://film.tierranet.com/films/a.now/script.html

Hope it helps...

[Red House Painter]

sorry, i was talking rubbish, the book heart of darkness was made into a film called...er, heart of darkness, check that out. it's got tim roth and john malchovich

[jstam]

actually, apocalypse now was inspired by HoD.. So you weren't wrong after all