An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Both film and short story follow the same story. Of course there are some differences between the two that can only be done in certain ways because of the different media used.
For example, the film was able to show human expressions and actions, setting and environment, something that in writing can be done, but will likely make the writing longer trying to explain everything. Of course, sound is something that differs from writing. You can hear the voice of the main character when he calls out to his wife, or his last sigh when he is hung. The sound of the swirling water, the birds, the guns, all of that makes the film a different experience from reading. The film did not need a narrator to explain what was going on through the main character’s mind, the camera angles and the actors expressions and movements were enough to explain what was going through his head.
For the writing there is more information given about the character Peyton Farquhar and how he ended up being hung. The film did not give any background story for this character, it only showed his family. The writing was able to explain things that the film did not, the audience might have to figure it out by themselves.
The pacing is different in both medias. The short story can have a slow or a fast pace, it depends on the reader and how they want to process the story. The writing does not feel slow, it feels right for me to be able to read and understand what is going on in the story. The film feels slow in comparison to the short story. The video is about 23 minutes long, and it took me less than that to read the short story. I noticed the film’s pace was slow because the camera was showing the environment around the character. It gave a vast image of what this setting looks like so that we can follow the main character through his journey back home, which ended up only being the character’s imagination.
It is interesting how different both media can be, you can do things to one that can’t do to the other, which makes it fascinating.