Harry Potter

Part of what makes a compelling story is finding the right point of view to tell it from. It's always a balance between suspense and resolution, and very restrictive to stick to one character. Most stories jump between scenes and show the events in a story building from multiple viewpoints. In the Harry Potter books the story mostly follows Harry from day to day, both internal and external. Now imagine how different the Harry Potter series would be if told from the viewpoint of Draco Malfoy.

When a story written for one media is converted to another it fails to do the original justice, the fans are disappointed and it's considered a flop. There are many reasons for this which I'll explore more in other posts. In this post I'm going to explore the concept of being lost in translation. This is not about language, nor is it about local cultures; these can be worked around. It's about moving from one media to another. Like so much in life, every project is different, some are better adapted than others. It really comes down to the motivations and priorities of those involved.