You already know how a written scene works from Module 1: plot, character, dialogue, the details a writer chooses. Today you put the same tools onto film.
You will read one short kitchen scene twice, once as prose and once as a shot-by-shot film version, weigh what each medium does on four shared criteria, then write a page-to-screen comparison of a scene from a book and film you know, for your Communication Portfolio.
Here is the same scene written two ways. Read both before you move on. Notice how adaptation, visual storytelling and characterisation shift between page and screen.
On the page
She pushed the kitchen door with her shoulder because her hands were full. The bag went down first. Then the keys. Her mother was at the table with a mug that had gone cold an hour ago, looking at the empty chair opposite as if someone might still sit in it.
"You're late," her mother said, without looking up.
"The bus was cancelled."
"Was it."
Not a question. The clock on the wall ticked once, loud in the quiet. She left the bag where it was and went to the sink for a glass of water she did not want.
On the screen
Shot 1: Wide. Kitchen at dusk, one overhead light. Woman at the table with a mug. Empty chair opposite. Door in the background.
Shot 2: Door opens. Teenage girl enters with bags. Camera holds from behind as she stops.
Shot 3: Close-up. Bag hits the floor. Keys land beside it.
Shot 4: Mother's face still turned to the empty chair. She does not look round.
Shot 5: Close-up on the girl's face. Waiting.
Shot 6: "You're late." Mother still not looking.
Shot 7: Wider. Both in frame, space between them. "The bus was cancelled."
Shot 8: "Was it." Cut to the wall clock. One loud tick.
Shot 9: Girl at the sink, back to camera. Water runs into a glass. She does not drink.
Before you weigh the two versions, place yourself on each line. These claims are talk starters about adaptation, not a vote on the rules.
Then we lock four fixed criteria for the rest of the lesson: plot, characterisation, dialogue and visual storytelling. You will judge page and screen against that shared list.
Keep both kitchen versions visible as a model. After a quick shared look at how page and screen handle the empty chair and the line "Was it.", your only typed job is two claims against the four criteria: practice for your own comparison next.
Your portfolio piece is a Page-to-Screen Comparison of one scene from a book you know and the same scene in its film. Use your Module 1 anchor text if you have seen a film of it; if not, any book and film pair you know (a TV series made from a book counts). Work from memory or your own copy of the book.
Warm-up (a few minutes only): use the grid to rate the kitchen scene's page against its screen on the four criteria and set how much each criterion matters.
Main task: write your comparison in the work box. Name the book, the film and the scene. Cover plot, characterisation, dialogue and visual storytelling: say what each version does, what changes when the story moves from page to screen, and which version works better for you, and why.
Draft and file: start the draft in class; polish can finish at home. File it as m3_l84_page_to_screen_<your-initials>.docx.
Only if you know no book and film pair at all, compare the kitchen scene instead and say so at the top.
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