Frustration Friday: Not Everything Has To Be Everything

Frustration Friday: Not everything has to be everything

If its a book, it must be a movie.

if it's a movie, it could be a TV series.

if it's a comic, it could be a game.

Look, seriously World Media, I love adaptions.  I love media synergy.  I'm all for it – I mean come on, aren't I the one always pushing for more cross-media work?  Aren't I the guy always speculating on what new technology and media means, and how we should look to Japan for ideas of what to do?

But you know, I think we've got to ask ourselves if some of these media translations and crossovers and the like are a good idea.  I of course speak of things like The Last Airbender film, which is dismal.  And the A-Team film which really has no where else to go.  And The Last Airbender Film.  OK, you get my drift here.



There's a time, in short, to stop adapting stuff, because know what?  Sometimes it doesn't work.  When it fails, it degrades people's opinions and attitudes toward the property.  When it's done, it reduces effort put into making cool new things.

I' no Twilight fan, but the manga itself is rather nice and seems to fit the story very well, and from what I can tell they're at least visually nice.  Comic adaptions to film have worked.  Tremors, as I've noted, made a dynamite TV series.  Sometimes adaptions and extensions work.

But seriously, media people, progeeks, and all, sometimes these adaptions and extensions fail.  Sometimes they don't work.

Sometimes some things just don't adapt to another media.  Trying to make it happen can waste resources, time, and just make you look bad.  Plus you loose money.

Sometimes there's nothing more to do with a property.  Any new idea or extenuation is just getting blood out of a stone – you can do more with your time and money.

Sometimes there's no reason to do anything.  It's done, over with.  It had it's time.

So, next time we get some wild idea of adapting things, my fellow media pros and progeeks, let's ask if it's worth it.

- Steven Savage

  • http://genjipress.com Serdar

    Motion extremely seconded.
    This is why I am constantly trying to think about what books to read that are simply books — that work best because they are books and not because they lend themselves to being filmed.
    The more we get into the habit of creating something that’s simply a piece of raw material to be re-made, the less we see the end result as something in itself — and the less we take advantage of the native capacities of the medium. If every book is written to be filmed, then more and more of the things that are only possible on the page disappear.

  • http://www.lastres0rt.com Rachel @ Last Res0rt

    Well, seeing as how I just finished developing an RPG for my webcomic…
    Adaptations still have their purpose; in my case, I made the adaptation not only because a fan asked, but also because I felt it capitalized off both the art and the world-story of the comics.
    I seem to’ve avoided most of the adaptation issues because the only version that exists right now is a free PDF prototype, so what I’m really doing right now is putting feelers out to see what the demand is, while providing myself an out to improve upon it later.
    In my defense, even if it’s not a superior product, at least I made the adaptation myself as opposed to outsourcing the job to someone else to mangle. :-p

  • http://www.stevensavage.com/ Steven Savage

    Rachel,
    I have no problem with adaptions – I have problems with it being overdone,inappropriate, bad synergy, or that just doesn’t appreciate the medium it’s adapted in.
    Oddly, I find RPG adaptions a mixed bag – some work, some don’t. Frankly there’s quite a few things out there that could make great RPGs or RPG-like games.