There is a meticulous detail to time within these couple of paragraphs from Sandra Cisnero’s The House on Mango Street. There is also a lot of motion going on within the story too, with Earl moving in and out of his apartment and his dogs jumping up and down. In order to convey the motions of time, as well as the recurring nature of what is being depicted, I believe the camera should also always be in motion, and each scene isn’t necessarily connected all the time by the next scene. One scene is shown, then time passes, then the next scene.
The first scene would be Nenny looking at the basement apartment either in the morning as she leaves for school, noting the blinds are close as the sun hits the window. Then, there would be another instance in time where the audience sees Earl leave from his apartment, with an emphasis on the small door, maybe making it seem tiny compared to his frame. Then the next thing would be his dogs, which could be interacting with him outside his home. He could either be playing with them, giving them a cause for always jumping around, or maybe he could be feeding them, and their excitement can be shown through the leaps and somersaults. These scenes would not be motionless in themselves. They will have the camera panning from one side to another. Maybe Nenny walks to school, and she looks at the window as she walks across his place, the camera looking into the window, but the audience only sees blinds.
In order to convey that Nenny is watching all of this happen, it has to come from the side that she is able to see, whether she is looking out the window and sees his place, or is just interacting outside her home and is able to witness him. Now one of the troubling issues that I am not sure would be able to go well into the film without narrator is the sense of dampness, since it uses touch. The second paragraph has a lot of sound based sentences that are easily portrayed as he noisily comes home from work, and is playing with his dogs, as they bark, leap, and cause their tags to jingle. But how does one give a sense of moisture to his place. One, I believe that we do get a glimpse of the room, but only from outside the door, and it should be dark and blue. Maybe there will be greens, because I envision moss on a rock by the sea. Maybe the door could be made to sound as if it has water damage, and it makes that moan as it is opened. Show the room while it’s raining outside? I can also imagine if the surrounding ground is full of moist earth, and thus the room would too be moist as it is underground. Maybe even show a leaking pipe.
The emphasis on time of the story has to be shown with motion and playing with lighting. Early morning, afternoon, and then night time scenes could work perfectly. Then the motion of the camera will make the scenes more dynamic.
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