Martha,
You answered all of my questions except the one at the beginning, and I
should have addressed that to Greta de Groat. You did not make the
statement about actors being a characteristic of the work rather than the
expression. I apologize for the confusion, although I would still like
an answer from someone.
I certainly agree with what you say about the adaptation in making a
visual work from a textual one and about the cases you cite. I wonder,
however, if the same arguments could not also be said of a stage
production of Shakespeare. Recordings of stage productions are treated by
cataloging rules as versions of the play, but the textual component of a
play is the very bare bones of the play. Plays, as operas, are frequently
performed with cuts of text, but addition of scenery, blocking,
inflection, direction, production are analogous to film activities. They
don't seem to go over the edge to being a new work, and I am somewhat
curious how it is that they do not. The intent of the producers, actors,
designers, etc. could be argued to make the difference, but intent might
not be as easy to establish as one would think. Is the difference made by
the intellectually creative difference made by the cinematographer and
director, and editor(s), who shape what we see in perhaps a more
fundamental way than the stage director? Or is it the textual adaptation
required in moving a text from print or stage to screen?
Larry Creider
On Wed, 12 Mar 2008, Martha Yee wrote:
Creider's asks, "One question I have for Martha is why a change in actors
results in a different work?" I would argue that moving images are
essentially visual works, not textual ones; in order to change a textual
work into a visual work, adaptation is inherently necessary. The situation
is complicated by the fact that it is possible to use moving image as a
mere recording medium. I don't mind identifying a stage performance of
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet as a work by Shakespeare when the stage
performance has been recorded by a stationary video camera. When
Shakespeare's play is transformed into a moving image (visual) work by the
contributions of screenwriters, cinematographers, editors and directors,
however, I believe a new related work has been created. Anglo-American
practice hitherto has agreed with me, as does FRBR in the Zeffirelli
example...
Hope that clarifies my position?
Martha
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Martha M. Yee
Cataloging Supervisor
UCLA Film & Television Archive
1015 N. Cahuenga Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90038-2616
323-462-4921 x27
323-469-9055 (fax)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Email at work)
Campus mail:
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"You have a dollar. I have a dollar. We swap. Now you have my dollar and I
have your dollar. We are not better off. You have an idea. I have an idea.
We swap. Now you have two ideas and I have two ideas. Both are richer. When
you gave, you have. What I got, you did not lose. That?s cooperation"?Jimmy
Durante quoted in Schnozzola, by Gene Fowler, 1951, p. 207-208.
Laurence S. Creider
Head, General Cataloging Unit &
Special Collections Librarian
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, NM 88003
Work: 505-646-4707, 505-646-7227
Fax: 505-646-7477
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
