Film making can add or take away elements of biblical stories. It is the choices and depictions of film makers that shapes each unique motion picture Bible story. Part of this variance comes from the fact that the Hebrew language did not use quotation marks. We see the effects of this today as, in different translations of the Bible, quotations often end in different places. This leaves room for film makers to make their own interpretation, causing a variance in film dialogue.
Film makers face an enormous challenge in trying to discern what parts and how much of the scripture to convey. A film maker’s decisions about setting, for example, have a great impact on a story. Things like stage direction, lighting, duration of the scene, camera angles, background setting and characters, etc. all change the way a story is conveyed. In John 3:1-16, the only clue about setting was “by night,” so film makers have obviously had to add their own elements to the setting of the scene. Deeper elements such as the emotions and expressions of the characters may have an even bigger impact on the scene. Information about characters emotions is not often provided in the scripture, so film makers insert their own depictions. We see the effects of this as we watched two different depictions of the same story of the Bible (John 3:1-16). In the first, the interaction between the characters seems almost lighthearted, they were smiling and conversing. The second depiction showed a much more tense and confrontational interaction. As we continue to see, music contributes so much to the connotation of a story, and each film has unique musical additions. It was intriguing to experience how the smallest changes in interpretation can have a huge impact on a story.