posted
I've been re-reading "Ender's Shadow" recently, trying to picture how it would be implemented in a screenplay when combined with "Ender's Game."
I'm really curious to see how this will be done. I imagine portraying Bean's thoughts on the screen would be a considerable challenge, given that the book often traces Bean's lines of thought for pages at a time. Just as a for instance, the night that Bean was first in the air ducts and eavesdropped on Dimak and Graff, he hears a short bit of conversation, considers what he heard, and a page or two later, decides that his goals have changed. He must appear normal in behavior, he must understand how loyalty works, he must guage the loyalties of his peers, and above all, learn to emulate Ender Wiggin. Traditionally, this thought process would be executed in a screen-play through a conversation between two characters. In Bean's case, however, we have a character who is far too individual for me to even imagine him confiding in another person.
I'm not a creative enough person to envision how moments like these could be carried out, but maybe some of my fellow Hatrackers are. If any of you have creative ideas for this particular challenge, I'd love to see them.
posted
Except that Ender's Game the Movie isn't so much about what Bean thinks, it's about what Ender thinks. It's just the storyline of Ender's Shadow that's combined with that of Ender's Game.
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posted
Well, technically speaking the "Ender's Game" movie isn't about ANYTHING at this point. :-p
However, I've heard it mentioned that the movie would incorporate plot segments from both stories. The simple way to solve my question is to simply omit any scene that involves Bean's though processes. But rather than dodge the question through this, or by saying "That's not what it's about," I'm simply curious to see if any of you can think your way into a solution. Consider it to be a hypothetical conversation, rather than actually practical.
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posted
Would not showing what Bean is observing, and then later showing how he acts on what he learns, be enough? He's an observant person. Since when has dialogue, from the character in question, been good during an observation?
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posted
My simple thought is that whatever it is it must be action. So the observing-Bean-observe-then-watch-him-in-action model is essentially exactly what the doctor ordered. Then the action of the other departments, camera, sound etc can unlock Bean's internal world in their own ways. Perhaps it is Bean's differences to Ender that tells the story just as well.
Good screenplays are often about wholly insular lives, but they don't have to be at all ambiguous or slow-paced. They let us observe the characters, as you said, making decisions and acting or not acting on them; the story, and character, all the good-stuff is in the accumulated actions, themselves. Very rearely in voice-over's expressing mental processes.
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posted
My bad, i didn't realize that this could be SPOILERish............. . . . . One method, that would never be used because it doesn't fit with the plotline, would be to have one character that doesn't get it and bean has to explain everything to him. Or, Bean's thought line could be shown when he is writing the false journal entries and giving obviously false information to Achilles. That would show his in depth thought process without having to hit you over the head with it. Does inner dialogue count as narration? because obviously that is out.
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Personally, I'm liking Cheiros' and tms' idea of us seeing Bean observe, then seeing Bean act in ways that demonstrate his genius -- we probably don't NEED to see the exact line-by-line though process, just the end result.
PLEASE, though, voice-over and/or narration is definitely OUT of the question!
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posted
I've read the Ender series and the shadow series (minus Shadow Of The Giant.. I'm reading it slowwww for a reason)
After watching the Abyss and reading the book, I'd rather see the movie "Enders Game," follow more like the Abyss.
In the Abyss, you saw rather limited yet well defined characters. In the book, you understood the underlying motivation for the characters. I think getting the motivation for every character in a movie (as written in a book) would be time consuming. However, we can get the over-all motivation if the script is written well.
We can generally understand Bean, Ender, and even Archiles. The audience is the general public who does not need to know the three dimensional characters we have known.. however the movie does need to show enough to makes us relate to a particular character.
Bean is my favorite, always has been. But in this movie, the protagonist is Ender-Bean is secondary. I'm sure they will find a suitable balance to make us love it and still remain true to the writings.
The Abyss is a good example that both movie and book can stand alone and yet compliment eachother regardless of which came first. I'm hoping they do the same with Ender's Game.
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Roseauthor, I had forgotten about The Abyss.
Though in that case, it is a showcase of Card's talent for DISCOVERING motivation behind a character - after all, Card adapted the screenplay INTO a novel, instead of vice-versa. Now, with the Abyss, they had the somewhat unique advantage of doing the novelization DURING filming, allowing the actors to gain a clear idea of what their past history was, which in turn gave insights into their present motivation, even though NONE of that was referred to in the movie.
Your last paragraph is certainly the truth, though, Rose.
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