Unit information: Adapting the Text in 2014/15

Unit name	Adapting the Text
Unit code	DRAM10021
Credit points	20
Level of study	C/4
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Pete Falconer
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	none
Co-requisites	DRAM11007 Production Skills for Film
School/department	Department of Film and Television
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit runs alongside DRAM11007 Production Skills for Film. Production Skills for Film emphasizes practical filmmaking skills, while Adapting the Text gives Single Honours Film students the opportunity to extend and apply these skills through a filmmaking project that adapts an existing short non-filmic text or an excerpt from a screenplay. Through activities such as storyboarding, cinematography and editing, students will apply practical skills to the creation of a short film. Working creatively within constraints and demonstrating the ability to use the potentials of film aesthetics and narrative, students will develop skills in adapting and expressing work from other media.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. apply key production processes and professional practices relevant to film and television industries;

2. produce work within a collaborative project-oriented team;

3. demonstrate an understanding of some of the ways in which aesthetic and formal qualities create meaning in film;

4. reflect upon their own work in key production areas, engaging with issues of authorship, creativity and adaptation;

5. evaluate their own work in a reflexive manner, with reference to academic and professional issues;

6. demonstrate knowledge and use of safe working practices.

Teaching Information

weekly 2-hour workshop/seminar, production tutorials (within workshop sessions), practical work (both independent, and supervised within the context of the workshop sessions), 30 hour intensive production period for film, partially supervised.

Assessment Information

3-6 minute film (50%) ILO 1-3, 6

2000 word reflexive account of practical work (50%) ILO 3-6

Films will be made in groups. The required length of the film will vary, depending on the number of students involved and the specific nature of the project. Films made in groups will be awarded a single grade.

Reading and References

• Rachel Carroll (ed.), Adaptation in contemporary culture: textual infidelities (London: Continuum, 2009)
• Deborah Cartmell, Screen adaptation: impure cinema (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)
• Brian McFarlane, Novel to film: an introduction to the theory of adaptation (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1996)
• Robert Stam (ed.), Literature and film: a guide to the theory and practice of film adaptation (Malden: Blackwell, 2005)

Further reading for this unit will be closely related to the particular material that is being adapted, and will change year on year depending on the material chosen.