Now he scrutinises the changes – and particularly the omissions -author John Ajvide Linqvist made when adapting his own novel Let the Right One In for the screen.

I saw Let the Right One In (dir. Tomas Alfredson, 2008) before I read the novel. I was immediately impressed by how Alfredson balanced purely cinematic elements and yet maintained a distinct lyrical, at times poetic, edge to the visual narrative.

The screenplay was written by the novel’s author John Ajvide Lindqvist and it’s a dramatically tight and emotionally sustained piece of cinematic writing – a very impressive debut for a feature screenplay adaptation.

I’m not sure what early drafts of the screenplay were like, but for the shooting script Lindqvist had cut more than one character from the novel and jettisoned a major climax

What usually happens when a novel is adapted into a movie is that a number of sub-plots are jettisoned and peripheral characters are amalgamated. This is due to cinematic time constraints, and is also an effort not to clutter the narrative with too many characters.

It’s curious that what works easily in prose doesn’t necessarily work well for cinema. I’m not sure what early drafts of the screenplay were like, but for the shooting script Lindqvist had cut more than one character from the novel and jettisoned a major climax that occurs during the last third of the novel, turning the film into a more conventional boy meets girl romance.

Author John Adjvide Lindqvist

The basic premise of both novel and movie is this: 12-year-old Oskar meets a Eli, a girl of roughly the same age. Oskar is an only child and is bullied at school. Eli is a vampire who lives with her middle-aged caretaker Hakan. Oskar and Eli become friends, while Eli continues to live the life of a vampire, killing in order to consume blood, in order to survive.

As it turns out Eli is not really a girl. And herein lies the novel’s brilliant twist. It is a twist which, curiously, Lindqvist decides to not address anywhere near as directly in the movie as he does in his novel.

What usually happens when a novel is adapted into a movie is that a number of sub-plots are jettisoned and peripheral characters are amalgamated.

In both the novel and the movie Eli explains to Oskar that she is not really a girl. The audience has already assumed that Eli is a vampire, so they are making the connection that by saying she is not a girl, Eli is hinting she is a vampire.

However there is more to this. Later in the novel Eli kisses Oskar and in doing so initiates a kind of memory transference: Oskar experiences a memory of Eli’s as if it is happening to him.

In the memory Eli is a young boy who is tied down and has his genitals cut off by a middle-aged man. Eli also tells Oskar that his real name is Elias, which is a boy’s name. Oskar eventually realizes the truth, but his fondness for Eli is not dampened.

Eli

When I saw the movie I was initially shocked, then very intrigued by it. I wasn’t sure what I’d seen.

There are only two visual references to Eli not being a girl in the movie. The first is when Eli kisses Oskar (the memory transference) and tells Oskar “try being me for a moment”. As Eli breaks the kiss and pulls away the audience sees for a brief moment that Eli is not a girl but a grown adult man but with the same features.

The other moment, which is also in the novel, is when Oskar peeks at Eli dressing after having had a shower and glimpses a horizontal scar where Eli’s genitals should be. When I saw the movie I was initially shocked, then very intrigued by it. I wasn’t sure what I’d seen. In fact, I hadn’t registered the scar, but simply that Eli had no genitals. It didn’t occur to me that Eli might be a boy.

In this respect it seems a conscious decision was made by Alfredson and Lindqvist to leave that side of Eli’s character more cryptic and mysterious. It certainly adds a dark, phantasmogorical element to the movie.

Hakan

In the movie Eli has an assistant, a middle-aged man named Hakan. He has to do Eli’s dirty work, collecting the blood from young boys for Eli to drink. In the novel Hakan is a pedophile, and there is a scene where he buys the services of a young pubescent boy who it turns out has no teeth.

Hakan’s aberrant character is toned down immeasurably for the movie. In fact there is no direct reference to him being a pedophile. It can be safely assumed that director Alfredson and/or producers decided that having Hakan as a pedophile would severely damage the audience’s sympathy for Eli, despite Eli being a supernatural killer. Curious, still, is Alfredson’s decision to cast a girl in the role of Eli instead of an androgynous boy.

I find it hard to believe that Hollywood would embrace those darker more perverse elements of the novel for the movie

Another change from novel to movie is this: In the novel 12-year-old Oskar has a friend, Tommy, a 16-year-old who lives in the same apartment complex and uses the basement to sniff glue and hang with his teenage mates. He offers to sell Oskar toys (no doubt stolen). Tommy might have dodgy morals, but he’s not a villain character.

Eli and Tommy represent two halves of what Oskar desires. In Tommy he sees the confident “adult” who can look after himself and not have to worry about being bullied, which is what is happening to Oskar in and out of school. In Eli he sees the pretty girl whom has stolen his heart.  Yet Tommy is not included in the movie.

Tommy’s mother Yvonne is also dropped from the story, along with his father Staffan. In the movie the name Yvonne is given to Oskar’s mother, who is never named in the novel.

Oscar and Eli

The movie plays out more conventionally as a boy meets girl romance, where the girl happens to be a vampire, and the boy needs a dose of self-confidence. The novel, however, it is much darker tale, where the vampire’s sexuality has been stunted through castration, and presumably he has lived for two hundred years in this way.

Hollywood is remaking the movie; to be re-titled Let Me In. Rumour has it that screenwriter/director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) plans to stick more closely to the novel. I find it hard to believe that Hollywood would embrace those darker more perverse elements of the novel for the movie, when even the famously open-minded Swedish baulked at adapting the novel as it was.

Bryn Tilly is a shameless cinephile, freelance writer and professional DJ who spends his daytime hosting two movie blogs – http://www.horrorphile.net and www.cultprojections.com. Night time he spins deep funk for jazzed souls at Sydney’s glam hotspots such as The Ivy and The Opera Bar. He provides a ‘Movie of the Month’ review for lifestyle website www.freshmag.com.au.

We’re giving away 5 copies of the novel LET THE RIGHT ONE IN by John Ajvide Lindqvist, courtesy of Text Publishing. To win, send an email to books@thestorydepartment.com and tell us what you think was the most memorable ever film adaptation.

The Story Department screenwriting workshops are travelling across three Australian states again.
Make sure you’re part of it this time around!

• Sat 09 Jan – Sat 05 Jun: Sydney Screenwriters Meetup
  Talk structure and watch films and clips.
  (every first Saturday of the month, $5)
• Fri 15 Jan – Sun 17 Jan: Mark Piper Exclusive Workshop
  Seasoned industry professionals on casting, acting, voice, auditioning, camera, screenwriting and editing. ($695)
• Sun 14 Feb: “3-8-12 The Hollywood Formula.”
  A brand new workshop for those brave enough to face what many Australian writers are afraid of. ($165)
• Sun 21 Feb – Sun 20 Jun : Screen Story Uni
  A training program dedicated to essential, learnable aspects of the screenwriting trade. (every 3rd Sunday o/t month for five months, $495)
• Sun 28 Feb: “Creating Cinema that Sells”
  Full day workshop for filmmakers, organised by the new Australian Film Festival (venue and cost TBC).
• Sat 27 /Sun 28 Mar: “Screen Story Weekend” – Gold Coast
  Semi-Annual Story weekend at the International Film College (IFC)
  Screen Story / Hero’s Journey (cost TBC)
• Sun 11 Apr: “The Damon Touch – Story for Actors”
  A new workshop for actors who are determined to take control of their creative careers. ($165)
• Sat 22/Sun 23 May: “Screen Story Weekend” – ACT
  Semi-Annual Story weekend at the Canberra Writers Centre, Gorman House.
  Screen Story / Hero’s Journey (cost TBC)

“Karel Segers is Australia’s Robert McKee”
– Stephen J De Jager
Creative Director, Roadshow Entertainment

Past Story/Script Workshops:

Sat 5 Sep: Structure Your Screenplay to Sell (Metro Screen Sydney)
Sat 12 Sep: Structure Your Screenplay to Sell (Metro Screen Sydney)
Sat 31 Oct: Screen Story (IFC – Gold Coast)
Sun 1 Nov: The Hero’s Journey (IFC – Gold Coast)
Wed 08 Apr: Story Lightning Presentation (Sydney)
Sat 18 Apr: Screen Story (Gold Coast)
Sun 19 Apr: Hero’s Journey (Gold Coast)
Sun 26 Apr: Screen Story (Sydney)
Sun 03 May: Hero’s Journey (Sydney)

“Karel is my go-to guy for Script Development and/or assessment. His grasp of story and structure is second to none.
- Michael Favelle
International Sales Agent
Top 10 Person to Watch in 2009

Sat 9 May: Screen Story (Canberra)
Sun 10 May: Hero’s Journey (Canberra)
Sun 17 May: Adaptation (Sydney)
Sat 22 May: Short Story/Big Screen (Canberra)
Sun 23 May: Short Story/Big Screen (Canberra)

Karel Segers brilliantly conveys the best of what is currently understood about effective story telling for the cinema. His method of teaching is highly responsive, vividly supported by carefully selected visuals, and, best of all, witty and memorable.”
-Ron Cobb
Concept Artist, Writer, Director

Sat 29 May: Short Story/Big Screen (Canberra)
Sun 30 May: Short Story/Big Screen (Canberra)
Sun 21 Jun: Script Perfection (Sydney)

“I attended a course of Karel’s in 2007 and two years later the details of what I learned have stayed with me. I catch myself automatically observing films and reading books using the critical tools I learned from Karel, and most importantly – how a story could be improved.”
-Marcus Amann
Professional Writer

Sat 1 Aug: Script Perfection (Canberra)
Sun 2 Aug: Adaptation (Canberra)
Thu 6 Aug: TV Series Writing (Wagga Wagga)

Students at the Sydney Hero’s Journey Workshop on 3 May 2009.
(Photo: Lee Sheppard – Click on photo for full size)

Audience at the WIFT MWW on 22 Feb 2009.
(Photo: Jomar Reyes)

Click on the pictures to go back to the info pages.

Call 0407 955 555 or email info@thestorydepartment.com.au with questions.

In a series about screenwriting software, some of the main screenwriting software titles out there will contribute an article to The Story Department.

We open the series with Mark Kennedy, CEO of Celtx.

“Just a few days ago, we released version 2.0 of the Celtx software.

A lot of people don’t quite get what Celtx is about. I guess people see things from their own perspective. If they are screenwriters, they see a screenwriting application, if they are filmmakers, they see a pre-production package, if they are storyboard artists, they see a media application, if they are comic book creators, they see a new tool to help them make the same. And so it goes, each person seeing in Celtx what is useful to them in their own pursuit of creativity.

Don’t get me wrong. That’s all fine by us. In fact, that’s what we hoped would happen. That people would derive their own benefit based on their own needs. We always figured that there were, are, as many different ways to create media as there are users, so we tried to make the Celtx software as flexible as possible.

Thing is, no matter how they work, whether following traditional bottom up approaches to developing their story, or employing non-linear methods, most every media creator uses a lot of the same tools as the next person. It comes down to Story – characters, a situation, and locations.

You see a lot of references these days about the trend towards “convergence”, the merging of many different media formats – film, game, audio – the re-purposing of one media format for adaptation to another format. This in our view, is only describing what has always been the case. Artists have never been afraid to try new forms; to apply, and expand their skills beyond the confines of a single type of media.

Very few, if any, of the existing media software offerings seemed to recognize that fact, choosing instead to pigeon hole users in to one type of media, and through the use of proprietary file formats, and rigid work flows, preventing those same users from expanding beyond their initial canvass.

This, ultimately, is the opportunity we saw – to provide media artists with a tool that would be as expandable as they wanted it to be. One that let them easily re-purpose their media to other formats, and re-purpose their data to other applications.

What was needed was a universally accepted tool. A platform. Whatever you want to call it. But a way for any and all media creators to use one system that supported all of their requirements and let them collaborate without worrying about data formats, and incompatible technologies. Making media is hard enough without being frustrated by files that won’t open or technologies that limit creativity.

This is why Celtx is open source and uses only open standards. It ensures maximum flexibility and a common platform that all media makers can use.

Being an open source software application, Celtx is open to anyone to integrate their own technology in to the system. Just recently, another company developing a script writing offering had indicated that they are developing a tool that ties in to the Celtx software.

That’s the whole idea. To make Celtx the default system for developing media regardless of the specific application you are using to create different aspects of their project. Once saved in a Celtx Project, the media is unassailable, re-purposeable, convertible, and sharable by all.

This usually begs the question of how do we make money from all of this? What motivation do we have to make Celtx a success (other then for altruistic reasons)?

The growing use of web services is an undeniable, and unstoppable trend in the technology business. Every company developing technology sees the writing on the wall. The future is in selling web services that augment the desktop environment.

When the cell phone industry first got going in Europe, everyone agreed (with the help of some gentle persuasion from the regulators) to a common standard. The risk was that without a common standard everyone would go off madly in all directions, balkanizing the cell phone environment in to a myriad of networks, none of which would talk to each other. The result would have been very bad for users.

Instead, an open standard was promulgated, and everyone rushed to innovate off that open standard, introducing new hand sets and new technologies to gain market share. Nokia became one of the best in the industry at being the first to market with new innovations, gaining more and more users. The rest, as they say, is history.

This is what we hope for Celtx – that it continues to establish itself as the open system for creating and sharing media. We may have invented it, but we don’t own it, any more then Nokia owns the 3G cell phone network that they have so successfully leveraged.

The new Celtx Studios is our first commercial offering based on the open standards Celtx software. It is designed to provide media creators with web based access to their media projects, including optimized archiving for sub-versions, collaboration features and the ability to create protected web Previews.

The same offering, or one similar to it, could be developed by anyone using the open source code of Celtx to achieve their goal, just like the Nokia competitor, Ericsson, has also developed new cell phone technologies that work on the same system as Nokia’s.

One open system, many offerings based on that system, all benefiting users. That’s the promise. That’s the future.”

-Mark Kennedy
CEO Celtx

One Workshop/Seminar at Regular Rate: $165

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Workshop Booking at Student Rate: only $99

I am booking for the following seminar:

The Hollywood Formula The Hero’s Journey The Craft of Adaptation The Perfect Screenplay

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If choosing either of the following options, please email details of your payment to: seminars@thestorydepartment.com.au, including your name, telephone number, how many and which specific seminars you are paying for.

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P.O. Box 565
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Click the PayPal button below and follow the instructions.
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Three Seminars at Student Rate: only $297

Alternative Payment Options

If choosing either of the following options, please email details of your payment to: seminars@thestorydepartment.com.au, including your name, telephone number, how many and which specific seminars you are paying for.

Bank Deposit
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Bendigo Bank
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BSB: 633-000
A/C: 118406719

Bank Cheque
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P.O. Box 565
Lindfield NSW 2070