Director's Development of the Projects "Side Effect", "Desire to Live", "The Teachers"

The goal of this graduate work was to create three short films ("Side Effect", "The Hunt to Live" / "Dakimakura", "Teachers") and conduct a theoretical study on the issues of adapting literary works for cinema. The practical part involved filming the movies based on original and literary screenplays with the participation of a creative team. The main objectives were the director's interpretation of the source materials, their visualization through cinematic means, and an organic combination of the literary basis and cinematographic form. In the theoretical part of the study, the author analyzed the phenomenon of adaptation, identified key principles and strategies of a director's work with literary material. Aspects such as text interpretation, transformation of narrative structure, visualization of literary images, and preservation of stylistic and ideological dominants of the source were examined. As a result, three short films of different genres were created, where the literary sources found an original cinematic embodiment through the use of specific capabilities of cinematic language. The theoretical part systematized the experience of working on adaptations, generalized the common patterns and individual approaches of the director-interpreter. The research results showed the need for a deep understanding of the literary work's essence, revealing its cinematic potential, and finding a harmony between fidelity to the source and creative interpretation. The author concludes that adaptation is not a mechanical transfer of literature to the screen, but its "second birth" in a new artistic dimension according to the laws of cinematic reality. The author's recommendations are the necessity for the director to make a conscious and deeply felt choice of literary material, driven by a living creative need. Only in this case will the adaptation become a full-fledged artistic statement, expressing the relevant content and worldview of the director through the literary basis.