You already know how a written scene works from Module 1: plot, character, dialogue, the details a writer chooses. Today you put the same tools onto film.

You will read one short kitchen scene twice, once as prose and once as a shot-by-shot film version, weigh what each medium does on four shared criteria, then write a page-to-screen comparison of a scene from a book and film you know, for your Communication Portfolio.

Here is the same scene written two ways. Read both before you move on. Notice how adaptation, visual storytelling and characterisation shift between page and screen.

On the page

She pushed the kitchen door with her shoulder because her hands were full. The bag went down first. Then the keys. Her mother was at the table with a mug that had gone cold an hour ago, looking at the empty chair opposite as if someone might still sit in it.

"You're late," her mother said, without looking up.

"The bus was cancelled."

"Was it."

Not a question. The clock on the wall ticked once, loud in the quiet. She left the bag where it was and went to the sink for a glass of water she did not want.

On the screen

Shot 1: Wide. Kitchen at dusk, one overhead light. Woman at the table with a mug. Empty chair opposite. Door in the background.

Shot 2: Door opens. Teenage girl enters with bags. Camera holds from behind as she stops.

Shot 3: Close-up. Bag hits the floor. Keys land beside it.

Shot 4: Mother's face still turned to the empty chair. She does not look round.

Shot 5: Close-up on the girl's face. Waiting.

Shot 6: "You're late." Mother still not looking.

Shot 7: Wider. Both in frame, space between them. "The bus was cancelled."

Shot 8: "Was it." Cut to the wall clock. One loud tick.

Shot 9: Girl at the sink, back to camera. Water runs into a glass. She does not drink.

The statements on the line below are there to get you talking about adaptation. There is no right answer.

Your two claims below are practice for your own comparison in the next step.