FICTION ADAPTATION: (Lecture) Briefing & Haiku Challenge

Today we had a briefing with Mike Rymer about the fiction adaptation unit. We have the choice between this one or the professional practice unit. From the start of the second year I have said I would do the professional practice unit because I want to get a lot of experience under my belt but it was good to have a glimpse of what the fiction unit would be like. 

Haiku

- A form of poetry that traditionally follows a pattern of 5-7-5 syllables
- Originating in Japan between the 9th and 12th centuries, there were 4 master haiku poets
- Known as ‘the Great Four’, they would wonder the countryside, perfecting their craft with years of observation and experience. 

Haiku challenge
We had to pick from different haiku's and collect together stock footage to create a short adaptation. I chose the following haiku:

First autumn morning 
the mirror I stare into 
shows my father's face. - Murakami Kijo (1865 – 1938)

Note the imagery the writer use?
- Autumn, leaves, orange, brown
- Reflection, man sees man in mirror
- Father figure

What are they trying to communicate?
- There could be a deeper meaning to the 'father' part

How might this be achieved visually?
- Focus on the same two people throughout the piece, showing the audience that there is a strong connection between the two characters - not sure what connection but it is strong - gets the audience thinking about who they could be

Does it need to be literal? 
- It can be, I think it is an easy piece to put literal videos to e.g. using autumn shots and a father figure 

I went down the literal side to this haiku and started searching for autumn clips. All the clips I found were such beautiful shots, I struggled to pick just a couple. Next, I looked for a clip with a mirror in it, maybe with someone looking in it - maybe the father? Whatever I could find with a mirror in it would be great. However, I struggled to find a clip with those specifications so I went down the route of reflections and managed to find some clever shots of reflections. 

I thought my short film went well, it didn't really make much sense because I made it so literal, the clips looked slightly random and not like they should be in the same film, but it depends how you look at it and what it makes you think of. 

Final video:



Mike's feedback:
- More depth into it than first thought
- More into the father - is he a smoker? ill? dead? son has never seen him?
- "the mirror I stare into" interesting that the clip is someone looking into a computer screen

Is it a successful adaptation if it needs text? Is it then a visual poem, as we should be able to tell the adaptation just through the moving images. 

Today's lecture and task have changed my view slightly on the fiction adaptation unit. Before today I was positive that I wanted to do the professional practice unit but hearing from Mike and actually enjoying the task, has left me undecided. I have had a look at the sonnets that we will have to base our project on and there are a couple that have given me ideas, but I still don't think I will do a good enough a job to get a good grade at the end. 

I am currently still thinking about the pros and cons of both the fiction adaptation unit and the professional practice unit.