New mentorship phase with Lydia. She’s helping me think about prose-to-screen adaptation. Started with Temporary Access since short vignette structure might work as short film.
Prepared concept notes exploring how chat-based narrative translates visually. In prose, you can show conversation through text alone. On screen, you need visual interest. Characters typing on phones isn’t inherently cinematic.
Lydia suggested several approaches. Split screen showing both participants. Visual representation of emotional state through environment. Voiceover reading messages while showing character reactions. Each changes story’s impact.
Completely unfamiliar territory for me. Fiction lets you stay inside character’s head. Film requires externalizing internal states through behavior, through mise-en-scène, through editing choices.
We discussed Temporary Access’s theme. Digital communication creating intimacy between strangers across borders. How to make that visually compelling? Show isolation of typing alone in room, then show recipient’s genuine connection to message? Contrast physical solitude with digital closeness?
She sees scenes where I see sentences. Her photo-art and documentary background makes her think cinematically by default. I think in language. Different creative logics.
The adaptation exercise helps my prose too though. Forces me to consider what’s actually visible versus what’s only internal monologue. Strengthens descriptive writing when you imagine filming the scene.
Several concept pages drafted. Not ready for production but useful thinking exercise.
— Writer Julia Zolotova
