A Study of Adaptations 

By Meghan Dion, Into the Zone: A Study of Adaptations

     In the Fall of 2013, a group of seven undergraduate students from the University of California, Santa Barbara formed an academic research team with the purpose of understanding adaptation across multiple media platforms. Titled Into the Zone: A Study of Adaptations, the group believed that when a story is converted over different media forms, an element of that story remains consistent. Specifically, tone and theme were two literary components the research team looked to compare. As the most general literary devices, tone was defined as the specific attitude a story achieved, while theme referred to the overall message the story tried to convey. In order to prove that these two elements remained the same, the group examined a story that had been adapted across different platforms. In particular, the science fiction novella, Roadside Picnic, written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, and its respective film and video game counterparts, Stalker (1979) and Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl, were chosen for this task. The group divided into three two-person cells wherein each cell was assigned a specific adaptation to experience. After each cell experienced their allocated form, they then participated in a questionnaire and an emotional survey created by team leader, Sean Mabry, the only team member to have experienced all adaptations. Mabry then examined the results and led the group in a discussion, comparing and contrasting their media forms to determine the elements of the story that remained and the elements that changed. Finally, the group collaborated in order to create their own adaptation using the modern app, Vine. The following is an in depth description of their process and the findings Into the Zone: A Study of Adaptations discovered during their time together.

     First, the group began by conducting their own individual forms of research, creating annotated bibliographies and reports to clarify their project’s purpose and its relationship to the academic world. Notably, many of the reports focused on media theory and theorists who viewed media as decisive social forces. For example, Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore’s collaborative project, The Medium is the Massage, was a valuable piece of work analyzed by the group for many reasons. First, The Medium is the Massage introduced the idea of technological determinism, a controversial theory, even today, that claims technology directly and decisively determines how people think and act in the world around them. McLuhan argued media, rather than human agency, shapes society. In contrast, the group sought to reject this hypothesis. By producing their own project, the group argued that their very act of analysis would disprove technological determinism. Second, The Medium is the Massage provided pivotal insight into the history of media. McLuhan began his work by describing the importance of oral tradition and proceeded to discuss media’s evolution from oral to print to electronic outlets of information. Into the Zone: A Study of Adaptations sought to uncover how today’s media is defined in relation to the social world it stems from. Specifically, the epoch they uncovered was a digital one, an era defined by touch screens, apps, and the cloud. Finally, The Medium is the Massage, acted as an inspiration for the team’s creative project. McLuhan and Fiore littered their work with graphic artwork and other visual elements in order to create their own form of propaganda. Just as their text described the principles of technological determinism, the text as a whole served to demonstrate its effects. Likewise, Into the Zone: A Study of Adaptations decided to use a modern medium, Vine, in order to demonstrate how the process of adaptation affects the way a message is received. In the end, the research conducted before Into the Zone: A Study of Adaptations began served as inspiration for the events that would ultimately take place.

     The group then divided into three two-person cells with one acting administrator overseeing the entire process. Each cell was assigned a specific media form to experience. The first subgroup, Meghan Dion and Morgan Schuler, read the Strugatsky Brothers’ novella, Roadside Picnic. The novella depicts the story of a future dystopian earth. Specifically, the plot is set in Harmont, Canada, an area located next to one of six zones left in the aftermath of an alien visitation, and is told from the perspective of a man named Rederick “Red” Schubert as he reflects on the nature of the Zone and the stalker culture that has arisen because of it. In the novella, the stalkers are a group of underground thieves that infiltrate the Zone in order to steal the mysterious extraterrestrial artifacts that lie within its walls and sell them for profit on the black market. As a stalker, Red constantly finds himself pulled back inside the Zone, never understanding its power over him, both physically and emotionally. Next, the second group, Parker Lanting and Chloe Babauta, watched the 1979 film, Stalker (1979), directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. Like the novella, the movie focuses on stalker characters as they enter the Zone. However, unlike the novella, the stalkers are not portrayed as illegal thieves, but as tour guides. Furthermore, the movie contains very little plot development aside from walking and the discussions concerning the nature of the Zone. The slow-paced rhythm of the film parallels the humdrum lives of the characters themselves. Like the characters, the viewers are left to contemplate what the Zone is, and whether or not it exists at all. Lastly, the final cell, consisting of Phil Horlacher and Ian Davis, played the video game, Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl. In contrast to the other mediums, the post apocalyptic survival game takes place in the aftermath of a nuclear disaster, rather than after an alien visitation. From the perspective of a stalker, the players engage in a series of first person shooter missions, entailing obstacles such as avoiding anomalies, collecting artifacts, and killing strange creatures that lurk inside the Zone. The subgroups took note of their medium's stories and regrouped for the next part of their procedure.   

     After the subgroups read, watched, and played their assigned forms, they met to fill out one emotional survey and one questionnaire per person designed by the team administrator, Sean Mabry. It is important to note that Mabry was chosen to direct the tests because he was the only member of the group to have previously experienced all the media forms. During the emotional survey, members were asked to rank certain emotions such as “despair”, “happiness”, and “disgust” on a scale of 1 to 10. Meanwhile, the questionnaire required a more in depth analysis of particular objects and characters found across the different media platforms. The emotional survey focused on tone, and the questionnaire sought to identify common themes present in the stories. Ultimately, upon meeting to discuss the results of these two tests, it became clear that many of the objects present in the questionnaire were not present in all three adaptations. For instance, the nuts and bolts the characters in the book and the video game used to uncover hidden anomalies were not used in the film. Moreover, many of the topics that were consistent across each platform still varied in definition. For example, stalkers, while evident in all three texts, were portrayed differently in each one. In the book, stalkers were an underground group of thieves. In the film, they were tour guides. In the video game, they were guerilla soldiers. Furthermore, the emotional responses revealed that each subgroup gleaned different feelings when immersing themselves in their texts. Those who read the book experienced mostly anxiety, disgust, and high levels of empathy. Those who watched the film felt mostly boredom and frustration. In contrast, the video game subgroup interestingly experienced positive emotions such as amusement and delight. As these differences were examined, it became clearer that tone and theme were not the literary devices that remained consistent across each platform.

     Upon realizing that their initial hypothesis was incorrect, Into the Zone: A Study of Adaptations set out to discover what remained across the three separate media. Chiefly, the team chose to use the digital tool, Wordle, to create “world clouds” based on their questionnaire answers. These word clouds would enable them to objectively see what words and themes were present in their adaptations. Popular words were depicted in large font, while less frequent words were depicted in smaller font or not at all. For example, the largest words in the book’s word cloud were Zone, Red, stalkers, and Golden. Meanwhile, the film’s world cloud highlighted words such as Zone, stalker, room, color, and powers. Finally, the game’s word cloud brought forth words such as game, kill, and seem. Zone was still present, but the small font revealed that it was used less frequently than its film and book counterparts. Nevertheless, it was clear that what remained consistent across all adaptations was the Zone itself. In fact, during the group discussion the idea of the Zone was often taken for granted. While the group debated the nature of stalkers, different characters, and the anomalies scattered within the Zone’s walls, not once did a member question whether the Zone existed. Indeed, in the film, the concrete existence of the Zone is debated. However, its presence is not. Each adaptation introduces its audience to the Zone, and forces them to question what its purpose in the narrative is.  

     In the wake of this discovery, the team focused their attention on capturing their own version of the Zone. Into the Zone: A Study of Adaptations used the smartphone app, Vine, for this purpose. Notably, Vine was chosen because it was modern medium. Vine was designed so that by touching a smartphone screen, users could cut and produce their own amateur six second long videos. In addition, Vine was chosen because of its public accessibility. The short clips produced by the team could be organized and displayed on one specific forum and viewed at any time. Finally, Vine was chosen because, as a fairly new medium, it had not been explored academically. Into the Zone: A Study of Adaptations wanted to distinguish themselves from other research groups. By using Vine, their work became original. With this in mind, the team gathered together across the span of two weeks at various points on campus to film particular scenes. Furthermore, the group created two types of videos. First, the group constructed videos that exemplified all three of the adaptations’ versions of the Zone. For example, one Vine depicted two stalkers walking toward a Zone fence, a distinguishable Keep Out sign noted in the bottom right corner. In all three adaptations, the Zone is illegal to enter unless designated for scientific purposes. Second, the next group of Vines produced were meant to capture themes of the individual adaptations. Notably, more comedic Vines, such a stalker trapped in a storage room, emphasized the amusing aura of the video game. Nevertheless, both sets of Vines, when organized together, created one version of the Zone.

     In the end, using Vine placed many restrictions on the team’s project. For example, the time constraint proved to be one of the most obvious limitations. With only six seconds to shoot, the team was challenged to think of creative ways that would enable them to convey large amounts of information in a short period of time. Luckily, the touch screen editing enabled the team to cut and reshoot. Moreover, Vine’s specific newsfeed-like presentation encouraged the team to shoot multiple videos. Nevertheless, when considering continuity and clarity, the time restraint became one of the team’s largest obstacles. Furthermore, the team realized that, while they aimed to present their version of the Zone as ominous, another person’s perception of the Zone, based off the Vine adaptation alone, was not guaranteed to achieve the same effect. In fact, when presenting their Vines to fellow classmates, many of the students laughed during clips that were not meant to be funny. This was noteworthy for two reasons. First, it proved what McLuhan stated in The Medium is the Massage. Though the degree is unknown, the medium does, in some way, shape the message. The small clips appeared to the class in a disorienting fashion, causing the original vision to be altered as a result. The Zone itself is a disorienting idea, but amusement was not an emotion Into the Zone: A Study of Adaptations originally aimed to foster.  Second, in response to McLuhan’s idea that the medium is the message, the group discovered another result that ultimately related back to their original hypothesis. While the class’s reaction was not a reaction they intended to achieve, it nonetheless emphasized the role of human agency in understanding a medium’s message. Into the Zone: A Study of Adaptations had previously read and experienced other adaptations. Their perspective would inevitably be different from than their classmates', many of whom were just being introduced to the Zone through the project. Thus, while Into the Zone: A Study of Adaptations discovered that mediums do impact the messages an audience receives, they still disproved the theory of technological determinism by highlighting the role of human agency in one’s understanding of a specific message.

     In sum, Into the Zone: A Study of Adaptations discovered much about the process of adaptation during their time together. Most importantly, the team came to understand how a specific medium can affect the communication of a literary work. Despite their initial hypothesis, tone and theme are two elements that can be, and often are, changed in the process of adaptation. However, through their own group discussions and class presentation, the team also proved that human agency plays a large role in how an audience receives those messages. While Into the Zone: A Study of Adaptations agrees with McLuhan when he states that the medium shapes the message, they reject the idea that the medium is the message. People are not passive observers. Rather, they are active participants in the relationship between media and society. The group leaves behind their tools, survey, and questionnaire in the hopes that future teams will attempt to replicate and build upon their work. Just as McLuhan’s premise of technological determinism was an idea the team sought to elaborate upon, future students can equally look to Into the Zone: A Study of Adaptations in the continuous stream of research to develop hypotheses that will contribute to the field of media theory.