Novels are often adapted into feature films, but the differences between the two media usually require dropping sections of the source text from the movie script. Here we study this screen adaptation process by constructing narrative alignments using the Smith-Waterman local alignment algorithm coupled with SBERT embedding distance to quantify text similarity between scenes and book units. We use these alignments to perform an automated analysis of 40 adaptations, revealing insights into the screenwriting process concerning (i) faithfulness of adaptation, (ii) importance of dialog, (iii) preservation of narrative order, and (iv) gender representation issues reflective of the Bechdel test.

翻译：长篇小说常被改编为电影，但两种媒介的差异通常要求从电影剧本中删减源文本的章节。本文通过结合Smith-Waterman局部对齐算法与SBERT嵌入距离构建叙事对齐，量化场景与书籍单元间的文本相似度，以此研究银幕改编过程。我们利用这些对齐对40部改编作品进行自动化分析，揭示了编剧过程中涉及（i）改编忠实度、（ii）对话重要性、（iii）叙事顺序保留及（iv）反映贝氏测试的性别表征问题的洞察。