Textual Crossings: Literary Adaptation

Rear Window Adaptation

The origin of the REAR WINDOW adaptation began as I explored what would happen if I replaced the protagonist from both the Hitchcock and Woolrich REAR WINDOW texts with a young child. Having the plot of REAR WINDOW carried out through the eyes of a child would change the connotations associated with both the Hitchcock and Woolrich adaptations. The inclusion of the Lisa character in Hitchcock’s version reinforces associations with heteronormative behaviour in society. When I changed the main character this shifts the focus onto the child’s point of view and connotations of innocence. During the planning phase I analysed both the Hitchcock and Woolrich texts and discovered that it would be difficult to simply copy each plot point faithfully. This is because the agency of a child is different to that of an adult, therefore if a child called the murderer and orchestrated a covert operation in the apartment opposite it would not be believable within the context of the revised situation. Therefore significant changes needed to be made to the plot, and the inclusion of a parent or guardian would be practical.

After coming up with some plot points, I noticed how difficult the adaptation process was. This is because I was making a short film only five minutes long which would require significant compression of the narrative. After I had compressed the plot I realised that I needed to add something else into the story to make it work. The adapted plot involved having the child witness the murder from across the street, then tell his parents about what happened, only to be dismissed and reprimanded. I contemplated having the child phone the police, and then a false alarm being raised, however due to the short nature of the text that I was creating this seemed misplaced, as it made the climax less important if the police had already been involved. I decided to hold off on calling the police until the child was in danger, or had managed to convince an adult of his story.

The basic plot that I had developed changed as I began the development process. At first I considered making a live action version, filming actors and creating a script, however as I began planning I was unable to source a child actor to play the role and I decided to make a found footage film instead. Found footage is defined by Guldemond (2012, p. 10) as ‘material that can be used within the concept of his or her work’. Through this definition I have aimed to create my own version of the text REAR WINDOW, replacing the main character with a child and the mother to replace most of the other characters in the story. I decided to make a found footage film from stock footage, short films and feature films from the 1940’s and 50’s in America because that is the time period in which Woolrich wrote IT HAD TO BE MURDER (1942) and the decade in which Hitchcock’s REAR WINDOW (1954) was released. I trawled through hundreds of videos in order to construct a narrative out of what was already filmed and available. A majority of the videos in a domestic setting involved instructions on child rearing and public service announcements including what to do in the event of a nuclear holocaust. During my search I managed to find a feature film titled THE WINDOW (1949), based on another of Woolrich’s texts ‘“The Boy Who Cried Murder” from 1947, later retitled “Fire Escape”’ about ‘a young boy sleeping on a fire escape’ who witnesses a ‘murder through an open window’ (Wojcik, 2011, p. 216). This text was very similar to the REAR WINDOW texts because a murder was witnessed and the protagonist attempts to convince people that the murder did in fact happen. After finding this text, it enabled me to work in several of the plot points from THE WINDOW into my piece because of the parallels between REAR WINDOW and the desired adaptation.

The use of the found footage allowed me to construct my own meaning from the various texts used. I was able to manipulate the images on screen to mean something other than the original intended meaning. For example, I use images from an instructional video from the 1950’s about how to reassure your child to not be afraid of the dark in a way that subverts the original meaning. I did this by adding a foreboding soundtrack and the faint noise of an argument to imply that there is something to be afraid of outside. The intention for the entire piece, alongside creating an adaptation, was to see if it was possible to construct a new text from existing texts and successfully manipulate and create new meaning.

Applying Leitch’s Modes of Adaptation

Revision

Originally I sought to revise the plot of REAR WINDOW by changing the main character to a child. This revision would ultimately change the meaning contained in both Hitchcock and Woolrich texts. Voyeurism is a central theme that runs through all of the texts, however having a child observe the action changes the connotations associated with voyeurism. Hitchcock implicates Jefferies and the audience in this voyeurism, however a child is seen as innocent and instead being implicit in a crime, the child witness is seen as a victim. This changes the underlying theme and meaning of voyeurism. In Hitchcock’s version, Jefferies himself questions whether or not it is ethical to spy on one’s neighbours as he states ‘Do you suppose it’s ethical, to watch a man… Do you suppose it’s ethical even if you prove he didn’t commit a crime?’ (Hayes, p. 112). However, the child is seen as innocent when confronted with the corrupt morality of the murderer and therefore attempts to bring the perpetrator to justice to restore balance and defeat evil.

Adjustment

The adaptation adjusts the original texts in a way that both compresses and expands the plot. The plot was compressed into key plot points such as the murder and the eventual discovery and revelation. Also, detailed nuances in the behaviour of the neighbours became unnecessary to the new adaptation and were therefore removed. In the feature film REAR WINDOW the neighbours could be established and therefore it was easier to show the disappearance of the wife, however in a shorter narrative, it would have been difficult to maintain these details, therefore they were removed.

Once the story was pared down, sections needed to be built up in order to for the narrative to be seen as complete. Certain characters that had been removed in the compression phase needed to be added to develop the story further. After the plot points about the child observing the action were added, the inclusion of a mother character was included for believability and also as a physical barrier between the protagonist and their goal of bringing the murderer to justice. The expansion phase was akin to plugging holes that were left during the compression phase. However, the bulk of the narrative was decided by choosing what must remain and what could be omitted.

Analogue

At first the adaptation was to be a straight revision of REAR WINDOW, however as the project progressed, the adaptation strayed away from the original texts. The main plot points in REAR WINDOW including the letter that was put under the door, phone call to the neighbour and breaking into the apartment were all omitted from this adaptation. Therefore the final adaptation is analogous to REAR WINDOW. The changes that were made, including the choice to create a found footage film have shaped the final product. The availability of footage also determined the final product as it was not possible to find the exact footage that was desired, therefore it was necessary to use pieces of unrelated footage to create a new meaning, one that could not be captured in footage that already existed. The plot points of analogy between REAR WINDOW and the adaptation include the discovery of a murder, spying on a neighbour, the attempt to contact the authorities and finally bringing the perpetrator to justice.

Deconstruction

The adaptation also touches upon the idea of deconstruction as the text is constructed from various other texts. Leitch (2011, p.112) states that the deconstruction texts focus on ‘examining the problems of arranging or staging preexisting material’. The adaptation uses footage from existing films and videos to create a new meaning when edited together. The audience could therefore rebuild or infer the original meaning from the source text, however at the same time understanding its function within the new text. This emphasises an association with the construction of narrative and questions what is an authentic text as many existing texts already expand and build upon existing texts. This is shown in the feature film REAR WINDOW as it expands on the original short story by Woolrich. The film also emphasises the connections between various texts as the footage of THE WINDOW that was used which contained similar themes to REAR WINDOW and both texts originated from the same author.

Critique

The shortcomings of the work contained continuity errors such a the use of different boys playing the lead role, taken from four different sources, including selected instructional videos, short films and feature films. The mother character also changed as the desired actions could not all be found within one text, therefore the meaning needed to be constructed by cutting and pasting actions from different films. This resulted in a gap in believability and lack of fluidity of the piece as a whole. There were also issues with auditory continuity as I recorded and manipulated my own voice because dialogue that was crucial to understanding the plot did not exist. The voices are also inconsistent because of the lack of continuity, which also contributes to the gap in believability.

Also, due to the use of different shot types and sizes, some eyelines do not match up when cut together. This was unfortunately unavoidable as the adaptation needed to be constructed from existing footage and not every edit worked well.

The plot was also lacking in coherency, and some attempts were made at constructing meaning through audio. For example, in the first scene, sounds of a distance fight were added. This foreshadow the later event of the murder. Therefore the meaning however was not as strong as if it was constructed as a live action film.

In conclusion, the found footage aesthetic suited the modes of adaptation that were selected and apart from the weaknesses described above, the adaptation applied Leitch’s modes in an effective and constructive way.

Creative Adaptation short film

Below is the link to watch the short film adaptation of REAR WINDOW using found footage.

Rear Window Adaptation By Jen Farrow from Jen Farrow on Vimeo.

References

Guldemond, J 2012, ‘Found Footage: Cinema Exposed’, in M Bloemheuvel, G Fossati & J Guldemond (eds), Found Footage: Cinema Exposed, Amsterdam University Press, EYE Film Institute Netherlands, pp. 9-16.
Hayes, JM 1953, ‘Rear Window’, Daily Script, 1 December, viewed 30 May 2016, <http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/rearwindow.pdf>.
Leitch, TM 2007, Film Adaptation and Its Discontents: From Gone with the Wind to The Passion of the Christ, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.
Rear Window, 1954, DVD, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, LA.
The Window, 1949, DVD, RKO Radio Pictures, LA.
Wojcik, PR 2011, ‘The Author of This Claptrap’, in D Boyd & BR Palmer (eds), Hitchcock at the Source: The Auteur as Adapter, SUNY Press, Albany, NY, pp. 213-227.
Woolrich, C 1942, ‘It Had To Be Murder’, Dime Detective Magazine, Dell Publishing, New York, NY.
Woolrich, C 1947, ‘The Boy Who Cried Murder’, Mystery Book Magazine, Mercury Publications, New York, NY.