metaDRAMA: Translation

Those who know me know that I don't particularly like the idea of adaptations or, as I call it, refranchising. (You can also call it "playcycling.") Sure, I understand that a film adds a visual element to text-only, and I did write my senior thesis on the juxtaposition/use of text (book), text/image (comic), and image (film). And I get that turning theater into film exposes great performances (or gets "bigger" names) to a larger audience. But something in that doesn't add up: the creativity of a novel rarely carries through to a film (which I more and more watch passively, i.e., while doing something else). And certainly the intimacy of theater never carries through to any other media: that arresting moment where you're in sync is never as a real as when it's really there--for you--in that moment, never to be seen again.

Of course, I have my doubt. Such great doubts. (After all, I liked Chicago.) So it's nice to see a Digital Short (albeit an MTV Movie Award Digital Short) address--in a very roundabout way--the way I felt about seeing Doubt on DVD recently. All that fluff that Shanely added for the film was actually distracting from the whole point that we create things out of our imaginations and must wrestle them to the ground. So let's take a moment to recognize that as a video game, Doubt would be even more ridiculous.