Upon reading The Pitcher I like most writers was amazed at how different it is in the format of a screenplay. I don't write screenplays. I tried once but it just dried up on me and I realized I didn't care about fading in or fading out or exterior shots or breaking out dialogue into the middle of the page. A screenplay is shot from the outside and hopefully goes in. Novels are written from the inside and hopefully go out.
Saying that I did have some thoughts on the screenplay and I passed those on. Mostly they had to do with different elements of the script necessary to get the story across to the audience. Lets face it you have ninety minutes to get across a whole novel. That is not a lot of time. Imagine reading a novel that quickly. Your head would be spinning. So right there you know a lot of the book will not make it into the screenplay
Then there is the whole problem of voice. The Pitcher is told in first person so how do you get that voice across in a movie. Ricky's voice is very distinctive and carries the book but you cannot achieve this in a movie unless you have a narrator lording down from above. This was used in the first Great Gatsby and Tom Perrotta's Little Children. In both cases it was clumsy and overbearing.
I think this is why I prefer novels. There is one person controlling the story and I have all the weapons at my disposal to tell a story. Fading in and Fading out just doesn't apply.
The Pitcher
www.williamhazelgrove.com
Saying that I did have some thoughts on the screenplay and I passed those on. Mostly they had to do with different elements of the script necessary to get the story across to the audience. Lets face it you have ninety minutes to get across a whole novel. That is not a lot of time. Imagine reading a novel that quickly. Your head would be spinning. So right there you know a lot of the book will not make it into the screenplay
Then there is the whole problem of voice. The Pitcher is told in first person so how do you get that voice across in a movie. Ricky's voice is very distinctive and carries the book but you cannot achieve this in a movie unless you have a narrator lording down from above. This was used in the first Great Gatsby and Tom Perrotta's Little Children. In both cases it was clumsy and overbearing.
I think this is why I prefer novels. There is one person controlling the story and I have all the weapons at my disposal to tell a story. Fading in and Fading out just doesn't apply.
The Pitcher
www.williamhazelgrove.com
