Adapting Books for the Big Screen

On Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 7:00 pm, the New Hampshire Film & Television Office presents a discussion: From Page to Screen -- The Art of Adaptation.

Did you know that 59 of the 81 films awarded Best Picture at the Academy Awards were based on another medium? 44 of those films were adapted from novels and short stories. Since the dawn of Hollywood, filmmakers have been adapting previously published material for the big screen, including the 1962 Oscar winner To Kill a Mockingbird. This panel discussion, presented by the New Hampshire Film & Television Office as part of The Big Read: NH Reads To Kill a Mockingbird, will focus on the art of adaptation and will present attendees with first-hand insight from regional writers who have either penned an adapted screenplay or have had their original material turned into one. Panelists include screenwriter Dana Biscotti Myskowski and writer/director Aaron Wiederspahn. Matthew Newton, Director of the New Hampshire Film and Television Office, moderates the presentation. Attendees will be encouraged to join in on the discussion.

Dana Biscotti Myskowski, screenwriter, playwright, professor, producer, & mom, teaches part time at the University of New Hampshire-Manchester. Her ten-minute play, “No Skating,” will appear in an anthology published by Smith & Kraus later this spring that features plays produced at last year’s Boston Theatre Marathon XI. She adapted Merle Drown's novel Plowing Up A Snake, which has been read in a NH Film & Television Office-sponsored stage reading at Red River Theatres in Concord, NH. Her short screenplay "The Provider," which is based on one of her father's many real-life brushes with the mob, is in pre-production with a713production. Her latest projects have her penning two new drama series, occasionally writing on a children's animation series that is under consideration, and editing her newly launched "Green Chair Reader," an on-line journal of fabulous short screenplays, which resides at http://sites.google.com/site/greenchairreader/home. Dana can also be found at http://greenchairpictures.blogspot.com.

Aaron Wiederspahn is the writer/director of the feature film “The Sensation of Sight. Before” forming Either/Or Films, he spent twelve years working in film, theatre, music and radio, freelance production jobs on independent films, commercials, and music videos to acting and producing for the stage, from years of touring and recording with rock bands to associate producing talk radio. Aaron has written the screenplay for his follow-up feature Someplace Like America, which he will also direct.

Matthew Newton is the director of the New Hampshire Film and Television Office, promoting the state as a filmmaking destination for media projects and working to support New Hampshire’s in-state film and video industry. Newton is a 1997 graduate of the film studies program at Keene State College in Keene, NH, where he returned to teach film production in 2003 and 2004. He is formerly a production coordinator and editor at C.2K Entertainment, a commercial production company in Los Angeles, CA and has worked in a variety of capacities on feature film and television projects on the west coast. Newton is also Vice Chair on the board of directors for Concord TV.

The Big Read: NH Reads To Kill a Mockingbird is a project of the Center for the Book at the NH State Library. The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest. For more information on The Big Read, visit http://bigreadnh.org.