Well-known writers of TV, film and novels took part in an interactive session at Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) yesterday (Monday) 2015 called “Colored Lights, Drama: From Text to Screen”. Widad Al Kuwari, a renowned Qatari writer known as ‘the engineer of Gulf drama’ who has won numerous awards for her work; Khalid Al Bdoorn, an Emirati poet and screen writer; Anisul Hoque Bangladeshi screenwriter, novelist and playwright, and Peter Solis Nery, a popular Pilipino writer discussed the journey from text to screen.Moderator, Mohammad Hamida opened the session saying, “All drama production is based fundamentally on a written text which can come in the form of a story, a novel or even a scenario that is exclusively prepared for visual production, and in order for the written text to move to the screen, they have to undergo a process.
” Hamida asked the panel, how does the director chose a particular novel and then present it as a cinematic vision in a way that goes beyond the text and show every aspect of the text?Peter Solis Nery, who won the Palanca gold medal for his writing six times, said that it was impossible to get everything from text to screen in stories, “As a writer I would like my text to be adhered to but I know it’s not always possible. You cannot cover everything that is in your story but you can be faithful to the story. Directors will spend time on a certain angle, think of an audience, make adjustments as he goes. So what you might envision as writer might not really come out as you expect.”Khalid Al Bdoorn agreed and said that the finished result is often very different from the written version. He said, “When you go from text to screen you move from the literary word to real people. The text will pass through many stages and many people to get to the end result. The material will be changed by actors, mixers, producers and directors and even camera men. Directors and producers look for good texts but the language of writing for screen is completely different then for literature, for cinema it must be written with the visual impact in mind.”
Anisul Hoque, who has written hundreds of scripts for TV and film said, “When writing your script or novel you can do anything. You can send your character to the moon or have them complete incredible stunts, but in film you are dealing with reality and not fantasy, and so what can be done will be dependent on many other decisions like resources, money, and realism. You might set your story in winter but the filming takes place in summer, or have your character swim in an icy lake, but find the actor is unwilling to do this. So your material will go through changes that you as a writer have no control over.” Widad Al Kawwari said that there wasn’t enough good material in the Arab world and that it was a big problem. She said, “A good actor cannot make bad material work and we have so few really creative directors in the Gulf region. Most directors do not add much to the text and also Arab TV channels encourage such low quality production because they consume so much material and this contributes to the deterioration of the medium in the Arab world. Al Bdoorn agreed and said that the failure of Arab TV drama was that director is separated from those who watch the content and therefore the content was of low quality. The panelist said that the most important elements of writing for screen included good, well developed characters and an engaging story. “Good Arab TV drama is important as its influence can grow across continents and be good for tourism, industry, and politics”, said Al Kuwari.