Screen Adaptation: Beyond the Basics

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Thematic Approaches

 

 

 

In 2008–9, I had the pleasure of mentoring Michael Kortlander through his Honors tutorial thesis entitled Introducing the Literary Film: A Study of “Non-Recurring Phenomenon”—Unconventional Screenplays That Should Have Failed, but Succeeded—a copy of which can be obtained through the Ohio University library system. I highly recommend the read. Michael analyzed many of the common ideas taught in screenwriting books, determined to prove that there are many other ways to write screenplays than to simply follow the guidelines of McKee, Seger, and Field. We spent the entire year debating, hypothesizing, challenging, and arguing about the screenwriting process—how it should be taught, and ...