source material

American  

noun

1. original, authoritative, or basic materials utilized in research, as diaries or manuscripts.

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Example Sentences

Tracy said he wanted to respect the source material, but without feeling constricted by it.

From Barron's

“Cocktails in Heaven” is also the title of Arnold’s unpublished memoir and became the source material for the party’s chef, Gerardo Gonzalez, who scanned for passages where the artist mentioned his favorite foods — mainly hors d’oeuvres and copious glasses of Vermouth.

From Los Angeles Times

That’s a real shame, considering how interesting Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” is if you can divorce yourself from the film’s source material, as its writer-director does with palpable glee.

From Salon

Her film also isn’t far enough from the source material to warrant a full name change; it’s more “Romeo + Juliet” than “Clueless.”

From Salon

If Fennell’s idealistically romantic and aesthetic-minded “Wuthering Heights” is a perversion of the source material, one could just as easily say the same about del Toro’s “Frankenstein”: a less violent, way more maudlin reading of Shelley’s novel about fatherhood and trauma cycles, rather than othering.

From Salon