How Does Stephen King Use Film Techniques In Stand By Me

Assignment Task #6: Book to Film

Stephen King’s “The body” 1982 adapted into a screen-play called “Stand by Me” in 1986 and was directed by Rob Reiner. Reiner’s use of different techniques to transform the original novel into a new medium for audiences. Four twelve-year-old boys living in a small town called Castle rock in 1959, one day their lives changed by the chance to embark on an adventure to find the body of Ray Brower, who had recently been missing. Throughout their travels the boys come face to face with different obstacles. The scenes that were used most effectively with different techniques was the train dodge scene and the feud between Teddy Duchamp and Milo.

One effective scene that the author and director used techniques to

The four boys Chris, Gordie, Teddy and Vern were walking on the train tracks only to see a train near by, slowly closing in. All three boys get off the tracks besides Teddy, he says to the boys he can dodge it. Inches away from the train he gets saved. King constructed this scene to show more within Teddy’s personality. He used this through using the character’s tone of voice and motives, that helped to get more of an understanding from Teddy’s personality. He used the train dodge scene to let readers know that Teddy is a crazy character who has no fear of risking his life, “‘No, I'm going to wait till it's close and then jump.' He looked at me in excitement.” King uses this quote on page 16 to help the viewers under that Teddy was truly fearless of his life ending and was determined to dodge the train without a seconds thought. The end of the quote then again begins with Gordie narrating saying that Teddy looked at him with excitement, Teddy was indeed crazy and this helped the intensity build through the use of detail within the character’s description as he made it quite clear that this boy was crazy and wild. The intensity of this scene was helped by using different techniques to help

Reiner used many different techniques to help build the suspense within this scene by using camera shots, dialogue and clothing. The camera shots were close ups of the character’s faces showing their true emotions to the event being held, whereas the dialogue was mostly yelling to help build how serious this scene truly is. The clothing worn by the two main characters for this particular scene Teddy and Chris were resembling their nature through the colorings they wore. Teddy wore a green shirt which resembles his ambition in life and to dodge the train without a seconds thought, he also wore dog tags to show that he truly wanted to join the army and bravery to dodge the train. Throughout the film Teddy wore big thick glasses that was extremely important in this scene as the glasses resemble how he reflects on life differently to others, like an outsider. Chris wore a white shirt that resembled his purity, safety and goodness he has in his heart as he saves Teddy from