New project progress

I first read the short story Kansas in the 1999 edition of THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES when I was a student at Notre Dame.  I was immediately struck by the story and, in my idealistic youth, envisioned it as a film.  It was tight, it was powerful, it was accessible but complex.  Now, more than six years later, I've taken it on as my next project.  I wrote a rough draft of the screenplay, tracked down the author online, and was fortunate enough to receive his blessing to go forward with adapting his work.

There are certain responsibilities that come with adapting someone else's work into a film.  It's an interesting process, because you simultaneously want to preserve the author's vision and recast it as your own.  Inevitably your interpretation of the story differs in some way from the author's (even if only on a minor point), and it becomes a struggle for you as a filmmaker to both stay true to yourself and honor the story's original intent.  Of course, many stories or novels only serve as springboards for films, which should more appropriately be credited as "inspired by..." rather than "based on..."  This may be the case for my film adaptation of Kansas.  In his letter to me, Stephen Dobyns wrote that the story functioned as a personal metaphor for himself but that he also understood that by being reinterpreted as a film, it would become a different metaphor for someone else.  The director of a film becomes a second author of the work, and while many words and narrative events may stay the same, the tone or way in which they occur may change the story's meaning.  No matter how faithful a director may attempt to be, the very act of representing a story visually rather than in a literary context changes something fundamental to the story (especially one as literary as Kansas).  Thus the comparison "the book was better," or "I liked the movie more than the book" that so often occurs when we watch films based on books (or read book adaptations of a film) is really missing the point.  They function differently and very often have different goals in mind.

For Kansas (which will be retitled due to the fact that it will be taking place in Texas), I plan on changing the narrative arch of the story fairly significantly.  While the short story begins with the main character being nineteen and ending on his deathbed, the short film will take place entirely in his youth.  The "multiple ending" scenarios will be played out as projections of the future rather than would-be memories of the past.  Still, I hope to recreate the feeling I had when finishing the short story for the viewers of the film.

We are early in the process, but I hope to shoot the film late this summer.  I'm working with two enthusiastic and talented filmmakers to make the project happen in a professional and timely manner. 

I'm excited to once again begin the adventure that is filmmaking.

Comments

[Brett Swanson]

woot woot!