Examining the piecing together and connecting of a narrative through the shift from novel to film.
The quick cutting emphasizes the shift in medium. The ability to jump in space and time and perspective. Also the editing from rapidly shifting from day to night in a matter of minutes differs from the experience of the book in which you remain with the character of Orlando for a longer duration of his nap. The great descriptions that occur in the opening pages of Orlando may be summarized in just a couple of second long shots in the film.
The final page of the screenplay. This shows the deviation from book to film. Not only in the movement from scene to scene, but in the addition of a completely different ending. Also, one of the most key transitions in any film may not be immediately obvious, but it exists in every film. This the the transition from film to credits. In a novel, there is a final sentence and then it ends. Perhaps there might be an afterwards, but for the large part, the book finished. In the case of the film, there was a transition not only to the present day, but then the use to music to aid the transition from the story of the picture to scrolling word credits traditional in every film.
Transitioning from scene to scene. What gets cut from the novel. There is no in between in film--rather there is cuts. Cutting is in a sense like the start of a completely new chapter. Novels allow for the transition of words to carry on a story from place to place.
The striking out of the sentence here exemplifies the notion of the editing process that takes place in the switch from novel to film, but also how this is placed in the judgement of the director. There is only so much time allotted for a film and some scenes that may have played out easily on page could seem less necessary on screen. This could be for reasons of pace, wanting to move the story along. It could also be for preference to highlighting other moments of the films
Minutes of screen time: can they be correlated to page numbers in a book?
Again though, these are just words on a page that must be translated by the director, the set dressers, the camera operator, and the actor into what will eventually communicate and make its way onto the screen.
Additional items are added to piece together the visual elements of the scene. More than just actions now but props that will be used as well as visual effects that will alter the image further to achieve a specific vision and taste of the director.
Short sentences give snap shots of what can be contained within the frame. However, as sentences are short and sparse, it shows the level of interpretation and malleability that the director has in creating the aesthetic of the film. It can also read as cutting down the words of the novel to losing all of its descriptive richness.