Post 3:

After our discussion in class, I decided to change what I was initially going to talk about in this post. Instead, I wanted to go over certain elements of Part 3 again especially now that I have had time to think about it in relation to what I felt were the most important themes of the book. When I read the novel, it felt as if the coming of age story and the mystery plot were doing combat with each other rather than melting together into a single, solid story. While I feel that the "extravant conclusions" that Blue comes to are important to the story, all of her conclusions can be argued to be false.

Because of this, I believe that the movie should be written in a way that on the surface it feels solely like a coming of age film. A majority of the mystery should be subdued and made more subtle. Hints and clues towards the plot should exist within the frame, but not within direct view and they should not be honored with close-ups. I feel that this way, the mystery can be embedded better into the story. At the same time, mainstream audiences could enjoy the film as a coming of age story while the art house crowd could begin to see a mystery that lied underneath the plot. One of the things that made films such as Unbreakable and The Prestige enjoyable is that due to a certain twist, the movie is not the same film when you rewatch it. I feel that Special Topics should work in a similar vein.

While the adaptation of this novel will be complex with all of the details, I do not think it will be difficult. Many of the descriptions have to do with how other peopel look or how a certain area looks. If anything, I believe this gives the director, set designer/art director, as well as the costume designer a lot of material to work with. Blue's decriptions of other people are often vivid and in it of themselves is essential character development. An example is Zach, who she admits later that she may have misjudged. If anything, I believe the translation of Blue's descriptions allows Special Topics to be a better film than it is a novel.

Even though a director has already been chosen, I can still see Christopher Nolan's style as something that can be emulated for this film. The Prestige itself was a novel adaptation and had a very profound streategy in matching up the visual elements with the voiceovers (which an adaptation of Special Topics demands). In terms of casting, I have kept quiet about this since it may just be me but I can see Winona Ryder casted as the part of Hannah. While I would like to avoid star-power, I do believe she can pull off the subdued tone that Hannah has as well as appear glowing, yet, frail in front of the camera. Again, this may just be my equivalent of Kevin Smith believing that Ben Affleck can play any role. But, I do believe Winona Ryder could defenitely move with the same grace that Hannah often seems to appear with.