한국영상문화학회

This study aims to present a new approach to understanding media transformation and adaptation by examining the inflection points of Films based on webtoons from a character-driven perspective. Compared to plot- and event-centred analyses, such a perspective can better reveal the storytelling strategies of Adaptation works. This study is expected to play a complementary role in areas that have been neglected in existing plot-centred studies of media transformation and adaptation. It is based on the assumption that certain character elements can have a significant impact on story value. To confirm this, this paper examines the characteristics of the protagonist in the first Films based on webtoons ‘Apartment’ and the original webtoon ‘Apartment’. In terms of research methods, we used Stanislavski's theories on character construction and character realisation. Accordingly, we explored the protagonist's ‘Super-objective’, which reflects the story's proposition, and reorganised the character's ‘given circumstance’ and motivation formation. From this perspective, we analysed how the character's changes affect the narrative in the process of Adaptation. The results showed that the change in the protagonist's ‘given circumstance’ in the film ‘Apartment’ affected his motivation and ‘Super-objective’, and significantly influenced the reader's acceptance of the plot and the formation of his expectation horizon. Accordingly, we found that the transitions of character and plot must necessarily be homologous in order for a cross-media work to gain narrative momentum. In the future, we will continue to explore the narrative strategies of story content while refining the character-driven research methodology.