CTEC Media Production – Y2

AfL: Unit 10 – Media Adaptations

Task 1: Case Studies
Produce a detailed comparative analysis of a range of media adaptations. You must explore a minimum of three case studies.

Case Study 1:

TRAINSPOTTING

Original Text Original Target Adaptation New Target Audience Key Changes in genre, style, form etc. Legal/ethical Issues
Audience
The original film The film One of the obvious
Originally a target adaptation adaptation is changes in the film Copyright. Classification.
book by audience I released in still aimed compared to the book is BBFC, Intellectual
Irvine Welsh, would say is 1996. at adults that there is music in property & permissions,
published in adults Directed by because the the film. The music Royalties
1993. because of Danny Boyle. film is rated definitely changes the
the content 18. This is effectiveness of the
The novel has only a people A British probably for scenes and gives them a
been called of a certain cult film. the same different mood than if
“the voice of age and reason as the the audience were to
punk, grown understanding novel, the read about them
up, grown would be able very mature instead. Another change
wiser and to follow the and from the book to the
story. complicated film is that it is
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AfL: Unit 10 – Media Adaptations
grown content. The easier to understand in
eloquent” film’s film form, the novel is
soundtrack written as if it is in
targeted a a Scottish accent so it
range of key uses a lot of Scottish
audience slang and spells words
sectors. a lot differently. This
makes it hard for
people who are not
Scottish to ‘decipher’.

The genre pretty much

stays the same because
the content and the
story has not changed.
Similar with the themes
of the story, they
remain the same.
Notes on overall success of the transmedia adaptation:
Popularity / Wider audience / New franchise / Financial Success / Reviews etc
The film was very popular and has been ranked the 10th best British film ever in a poll of actors,
directors, writers, producers and critics. In 2004 it was voted the number 1 best Scottish film of all
time. The film has been nominated for an Oscar as well as 33 other nominations and has won 23 other
awards. The massive success/ popularity of the film meant that more people became aware of the book
which boosted the financial success of Trainspotting. The book earnt £500,000 more in the first 18
months after the film was released than it did before the film. Overall the book sold over 1 million
copies in the UK alone and has been translated into 30 different languages. The book being made into a
film created a wider audience which obviously had a massive impact on the success.
The estimated budget for the film was £1.5 million and on the opening weekend, 15th of March 1996, the
film made £4,703,433 in the UK alone. The overall box office in the UK was an approximate £48 million.
The film got very good reviews; critic’s felt that it was “acted out with freedom of expression that’s
often astonishing”, Empire magazine gave the film 5/5 stars and described it as “something Britain can
be proud of and Hollywood can be afraid of”. The film was praised on its portrayal of the experiences
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AfL: Unit 10 – Media Adaptations
that drug addicts go through and was labelled as brave for the way it went into detail with topics that
most people ignore or are scared of.
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AfL: Unit 10 – Media Adaptations
Case Study 2:

10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU

Original Text Original Target Adaptation New Target Audience Key Changes in genre, Legal/ethical Issues
Audience style, form etc.
Originally a The target In June 1999 a I’d say that the The genre and
film written audience I novelistion of the target audience style pretty Copyright. Classification.
by Karen would say is film was released, remained pretty much remained BBFC, Intellectual
McCullah Lutz teenagers, the story adapted much the same as the same, the property & permissions,
and Kirsten specifically by David Levithan. the storyline form changed Royalties
Smith and teenage girls It retold the same was hardly from a film to a
directed by as it is a way as it is in changed. The book and a TV
Gil Junger. romance/ the film but each release of a show but the
The film was chick flick chapter is written book and making storyline and
released which is from the point of the film into a characters
March 31st genres of view of each one series remained the
1999. The films definitely same.
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AfL: Unit 10 – Media Adaptations
film is an typically of the main widened the
adaptation of enjoyed by characters. audience as it
William females. was more widely
Shakespeare’s In October 2008, available.
The taming of ABC Family aired a
The Shrew. Add detail about pilot episode of a
Although the the target 10 Things I Hate
film is only audience, About You series Add detail about the
loosely based based on the film. new target audience,
demographics and
on this, The director of
psychographics. demographics and
there are the film directed
Global / National psychographics. Global
significate many of the
similarities etc. episodes. The show / National etc.
such as the premiered on July
main 7th 2009 and lasted
character 20 episodes.
names being
the same
(Katherina in
Shakespeare
and Kat in
the film, and
the younger
sister
Bianca).

Notes on overall success of the transmedia adaptation:

Popularity / Wider audience / New franchise / Financial Success / Reviews etc
The film was very popular; it was ranked number 49 on the list of best high school movies by
Entertainment Weekly. In the opening weekend the film was at number 2 at the domestic box office behind
The Matrix. It was a breakthrough role for the actors Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger and Joseph Gordon-Levitt
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AfL: Unit 10 – Media Adaptations
who were then nominated for various awards. In the box office, the film is ranked 10th in Teen Romance,
18th in high school comedies and 96th in comedies.
The budget for the film was $30 million. In its opening weekend, the film was shown in 2271 theatres in
the US and Canada and made $8,330,681, the overall box office in the US was an approximate $53.3 million.
The novelisation definitely made the franchise more successful as the movie had a significant amount of
dedicated fans who bought the book, a few reviews said it was “like reading the movie” because of how
well the characters and plot were portrayed.
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AfL: Unit 10 – Media Adaptations
Case Study 3:

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

Original Text Original Target Audience Adaptation New Target Audience Key Changes in Legal/ethical Issues
genre, style, form
etc.
Originally a book The original Film the target the genre
by John Green; target audience adaptation audience pretty stayed pretty Copyright. Classification.
published in 2012. I would say is released in much remained much the same BBFC, Intellectual
The title is teenagers/ young June 2014. the same however from the book property & permissions,
inspired by a scene adults, it definitely to the film Royalties
in Shakespeare’s particularly Directed by made the range as it still
play Julius Caesar teenage girls as Josh Boone. wider because in had the same
where a character it is a romance this generation storyline,
says “the fault, novel which is people generally the form
dear Brutus, is not typically watch films more changed from
in our stars, but favoured by Add detail about than they read a written
in ourselves…”. females. However the transmedia books so the text to a
CTEC Media Production – Y2
AfL: Unit 10 – Media Adaptations
the mature format. Dates. film version was screenplay so
themes of Production details. more popular there were
terminal illness Key facts than the book various
means that it and attracted a differences
would be older wider range of here.
teenagers that audiences. The
it fits more film was age
because they rated PG-13.
Add detail about the have to be old
original media format. enough to
Dates. Production details. understand it.
Key facts

Add detail about the

Add detail about the new target audience,
target audience, demographics and
demographics and psychographics. Global
psychographics. Global / National etc.
/ National etc.
Notes on overall success of the transmedia adaptation:
Popularity / Wider audience / New franchise / Financial Success / Reviews etc
The film was extremely popular and had massive success, the first trailer was released on the 29th of
January 2014 and had over 3 million views in less than 24 hours and more than 15 million views in its
first week.
The movie had a budget of $12 million and the approximate overall box office was $307.2 million. The film
made $26.1 million on its opening day. During its opening weekend the film earned $48,002,573 from 3,173
theatres at an average of $15,128 per theatre, making it number 1 in America. The film won 18 out of the
27 awards it was nominated for, including best romance and best film.
At the premiere of the film, author of the original book John green said “I didn’t want to sell it,
because Hollywood sucks at making unsentimental movies about illness”. But the movie was such a huge
success that it made the already best-selling novel become even more apparent. The book debuted number 1
on the New York Times Best Seller list and remained at number one for seven consecutive weeks, within a
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AfL: Unit 10 – Media Adaptations
year of its release the book had been sold nearly 1 million times and after the movie was released it
sold another 10.7 million copies.
CTEC Media Production – Y2
AfL: Unit 10 – Media Adaptations
Task 2: Adaptation Ideas
Select one creative product. Generate three potential adaptation ideas. Produce either a written report or a detailed graphic organiser.
Consider:

 The original creative

 The most suitable medium for your adaptation
 The feasibility of adaptation (e.g. budget, locations, number of characters etc.)
 Technological limitations (e.g. for creating imaginary worlds)
 Main facts of historical events/true life events (e.g. specific locations, timeline, main protagonists),
 New opportunities
 Use of new technology/effects
 New possible interpretations of creative product or part of it
 New characters/characterisation
 Additional storylines etc.
 New audiences - age, gender, interests, spending power, lifestyle

Idea 1:
Hedda Gabler – Henrick Ibsen (1891)
CTEC Media Production – Y2
AfL: Unit 10 – Media Adaptations
THE ORIGINAL CREATIVE:
Hedda Gabler is a play written by playwright Henrick Ibsen. It is about a young woman
called Hedda who has just come home from her honeymoon with husband George Tesman where it
becomes apparent that she does not actually love him and seems to have only settled for
him. During act 1, Mrs. Elvsted (a girl that Hedda knew from school) comes to tell Hedda
that Tesmans old rival and Hedda’s first love, Ejlert Lovborg, has returned to town.
Lovborg was an alcoholic and a failure but has recently reformed and become reasonably
famous from the release of his new book which he is currently writing the next part to.
Hedda manipulates Mrs. Elvsted into confiding in her and telling her that she has feelings
for Lovborg and that she is worried he will start drinking again and ruin his work. When
Mrs. Elvsted leaves, Judge Brack arrives – it is clear that he is a very sexually
manipulative and Hedda ends up admitting to him how bored she is within her marriage and
flirts with Brack which gives him the wrong idea and makes him think that she wants to
sleep with him – later on Hedda realises she has made a mistake by leading him on as he
forces himself onto her and blackmails her. Hedda persuades Lovborg and her husband Tesman
to go to the party that Judge Brack is hosting which ends up in Lovborg getting drunk and
losing his manuscript which he needs to write the second part of his book, he tells Mrs.
Elvsted that he purposely destroyed it which he then reveals to Hedda that he has infact
lost it and has now become suicidal. Hedda being mentally unstable, gives Lovborg one of
her pistols and tells him to have a “beautiful death”. It turns out that Hedda had stolen
the manuscript which we see her burn after this scene. It is reported that Lovborg is in
hospital after shooting himself. Brack arrives and confirms this, and tells Hedda that she
could be involved in a scandal that could blame her for his death; he says that if she lets
him sleep with her whenever he wants (basically become his sexual property) then he will
make sure she does not get the blame for Lovborg’s death. The play ends with Hedda shooting
herself.
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AfL: Unit 10 – Media Adaptations
MOST SUITABLE ADAPTION:
I am planning on turning this stage play into a film. I think this is appropriate because
the play is realism which means it could be recreated easily as a film, also because the
story is detailed enough to give the film a decent plot.
FEASIBILTY OF ADAPTATION:
BUDGET:
LOCATIONS:
CHARACTERS:
- Hedda Gabler – young female, mid-twenties, blonde, atractive.
- George Tesman – slightly older male, mid-thirties, beard, reasonably good looking.
- Mrs. Elvsted – young female, slightly older than Hedda, late-twenties, brunette,
pretty.
- Judge Brack – older male, 40 or older, bald.
- Ejlert Lovborg – slightly older male, mid- thirties, beard, glasses.

TECHNOLOGICAL LIMITATIONS:
This whole play is set in one room and is realism therefore I don’t think that there will
be any part of the story that I wouldn’t be able to recreate. When I went to see this
performance, it had a very minimalistic set therefore I think I could recreate this without
to many complications.
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AfL: Unit 10 – Media Adaptations

NEW OPPORTUNITIES:
this is a new opportunity for me as I have never written a film script before therefore it
will give me experience for if I chose to go into the filming industry.

USE OF TECHNOLOGY AND EFFECTS:

I think lighting will be a
NEW POSSIBLE INTERPRETATIONS:

NEW CHARACTERS/ CHARACTERISATION:

ADDITIONAL STORYLINES:

NEW AUDIENCES:
I think making this into a film will widen the audience because at the minute the play is
not very well known, I only knew about it through taking the subject of drama at college
therefore I think that people who aren’t interested in theatre aren’t aware of this play.
Making it into a film would make it more well-known and more people would view it as
typically films are a lot more popular than stage plays these days.
CTEC Media Production – Y2
AfL: Unit 10 – Media Adaptations