Translating Visuals to the Screen

I recently had the chance to see the film version of Doubt, which I thought was brilliantly done. I had seen the play on stage and read it on the page, too. The question of which was best was tough for me to answer, because the stage and the screen are two very different mediums, and I believe that each one was very well done in its own right. But translating the ideas to the screen, they had to do a number of things to make it more engaging--bring it into the realm of a visual medium. All of these elements were crucial in realizing the play as a movie:

1. They had to break up some of the long speeches except for the sermons. If they had translated all of the dialogue to the screen as it was written in the play, it would have been really tough to watch of film because nothing would have been happening. Already, there isn't much action in the play in the sense that all of it is conveyed through talking, but was good that they broke it up. I noticed that their key way of breaking it up was to have the character move through several locations--they walk from the cafeteria to the office, etc. while delivering the lines.

2. They had to create a sense of space beyond just the sister's office. In the play, much of the action takes play in sister's office, in the courtyard and in the church. The play is very minimalist in its sense of space, as it should be, because the emphasis is on the words. In the film, they used many places throughout the school, and they definitely defined with world right outside of the window, showing the New York streets. These visuals definitely helped to add another layer of meaning to the movie.

3. They externalized some of the events which were only talked about in the play. In the play, they talk about "Donald" drinking wine, etc, and the talked about the younger nun's teaching style, but in the film, they showed these. Again, film is a visual, action-oriented medium, and in order to really fill out the world of the movie and give us a deeper sense of what happened, they showed us the world which was only talked about in the play.

4. They used ambiance as a way to add dramatic tension into the story. The open window, the rain, the snow, and the magnificence of the church were all cleverly shot to add dramatic tension into the story. They did a great job of using space visually to add small moments of meaning into the film. I also liked their use of green and yellow to represent the different worlds of the nuns versus the priests.

5. They added characters to fill out the world and make it more real. The play is minimalist, four characters, a couple of locations telling this story. But in the film, they added nuns, students and a whole world in the school to make it real. It added layers of meaning, especially because they were able to externalize many of the ideas that were spoken about in the play, into the world of the movie.

It's a great exercise to read the play and then watch the film, to understand how the mediums are so very different and see how someone with serious skills, like John Patrick Shanely, was able to do both so well.