The Comparative Research Into Drama Language And Film Language Of The Same Play

The expressive function of actor’s lines is of great significance in drama and film arts. Nowadays, no matter in universities or in art-training institutions, line practice is usually a required course for actors and students. Though actors generally have an access to learning artistic techniques in their professional studies, there are many who are disadvantageous in transferring their performing techniques between drama and film acting. This is partly due to an unclear understanding of the similarities and differences between the two fields, drama and film. A misunderstanding also exists that some students believe that drama actors should not involve themselves in film acting.This dissertation aims to look into the artistic characteristics and inner relationship between drama language and film language in combination of teaching practice and relevant theories. Taking Hunger Strait as an example, the dissertation makes a comparative research into techniques of dealing with lines in performing the drama and film version of the same play. It concludes that drama language and film languages share similarities of restriction, action, characterization and life-oriented; their differences are that drama and film languages are respectively distant and close, coherent and disconnected, fixed and flexible, which could be summarized as “three comparisons”. Through a comparative study of drama and film, the dissertation summarizes the rule of drama and film acting and proposes new research topics in the study of lines to help actors gain a solid base of line expression to shape characters and transfer techniques of lines skillfully between drama and film acting. This dissertation is hoped to not only serve as an aid to teaching, but also a guidance for actors who pursue a constant improvement in the art of acting.