Scriptwriting as a research practice: expanding the field

Journal of British Cinema and Television vol. 5 no. 2, 2008

First, there was the question of good training in scriptwriting. Europe has been lagging behind the US for almost half a century. In his Story, Robert McKee (1997:16-17) writes about the story problem and the loss of craft. He notes that:

2018

Here the authors discuss the role of fiction in screenwriting practice research. The screenplays included in the 'Screenplays as Research Artefacts' special issue of TEXT present a range of stories, worlds, characters, visual scenarios and dialogue exchanges that function as vessels for theories and ideas. These eleven screenplays all use creative practice approaches to research across a wide variety of discourses. All of the works embrace fiction as an important method to convey their respective critical concerns, which, the authors argue, evidences an emerging hallmark of screenwriting (as) research when compared with associated forms in the creative writing and screen production disciplines: fiction as a staple of its storytelling, creative practice and research methodology. The authors suggest that the use of fiction to perform research and present findings illuminates the ways that knowledge can be affective, not merely textual or verbal, something that is exemplified in the selected screenplays.

Critical Studies in Television, 2015

1973

The genre of screenwriting began right from the days of cinematographic history and so is over a hundred years old. Yet many people scoff at the idea of defending the screenplay as a form of literature and serious critics maintain that it is not an end-product, that it is just a stop-gap measure. A brief survey of this art-form shows that in the first few decades of this century, instead of according literary recognition to the screenplays of that day, critics were concerned in discussing not the individual merits of the writer but instead their literary motivations. Did they write for the screen in order to express themselves in a way impossible in any order medium, yet with the same dedication and meticulousness as writers in the more traditional literary arts? Or did they consider their screen writing endeavours as mere "hack" assignments, undertaken only to give them the financial support necessary to embark on a real "labor of love," such as writing a good n...

Submitted Thesis This thesis is a practice-led inquiry into the practice of screenwriting with the intention of comparing and contrasting the actual process of screenwriting with the methods and rules espoused by both commercial screenwriting manuals and the approach adopted within the Academy. After establishing the theoretical framework for the approach towards the practice-led research and its relationship to the form and content of the exegesis, I will review the conventions and ideas that inform and govern the approach towards the teaching and training of screenwriters. This will be followed by an analysis of the process of conceiving and writing an original screenplay, through the interrogation of a detailed development journal that was maintained throughout the development of the screenplay, including those moments where as writer I followed directions and ideas that ultimately had to be discarded. Throughout this section I will identify and share the variety of influences that informed me as a writer, with the intent of providing an exploration of the writer at work, revealing the self as writer, and the writer as researcher. I will also explore specific aspects of the manualist approach towards screenwriting with particular reference to the ‘hero’s’ journey and to genre. An essential element of the inquiry is an exploration of the status of the screenplay itself, and the status of the screenwriter within the industry and within film theory. Finally, I will consider firstly how my own practice as a screenwriting tutor has altered as a response to the practice-led inquiry, and in consequence how this might inform the development of a different approach towards the education of screenwriters, particularly within the Academy.

Journal of Screenwriting, 2014

It's literature I want, Ivo, literature!' literature as screenplay as literature. or, how to win a literary prize writing a screenplay 1 abstRact Ivo Michiels, besides being one of the most acclaimed and radical experimental literary authors in Dutch literature, is arguably the first Flemish professional screenwriter. These two occupations, that he continuously tried to combine, resulted in screenplays that either have been published as novels (and awarded important literary prizes) or repurposed as fragments in the Journal Brut cycle. Michiels developed a specific style for the screenplay by turning away from economical concrete descriptions. Instead he pursued a more literary way of writing, using narrative strategies aiming at certain effects in the mind of the reader, over conventional description. This article situates Michiels' script writing as 'performative' in its intention and offers a case study of his work, as an expanded notion of the screenplay that elevates the form beyond mere description of what will be visible/audible on-screen. In Michiels' practice, a screenplay is not just a text that 'desires to become another text', in the words of Pier Paolo Pasolini. In contrast, this article frames Michiels' screenplays as KeywoRds Ivo Michiels screenwriting adaptation transmediality performative writing intertextuality Flemish/Belgian film-making

Journal of Screenwriting, 2018

Both a process and a set of products, influenced by policy as well as people, and incorporating objective agendas at the same time as subjective experiences, script development is a core practice within the screen industry – yet one that is hard to pin down and, to some extent, define. From an academic research perspective, we might say that script development is a ‘wicked problem’ precisely because of these complex and often contradictory aspects. Following on from a recent Journal of Screenwriting special issue on script development (2017, vol. 8:3), and in particular an article therein dedicated to reviewing the literature and ‘defining the field’, an expanded team of researchers follow up on those ideas and insights. In this article, then, we attempt to theorize script development as a ‘wicked problem’ that spans a range of themes and disciplines. As a ‘wicked’ team of authors, our expertise encompasses screenwriting theory, screenwriting practice, film and television studies, cultural policy, ethnography, gender studies and comedy. By drawing on these critical domains and creative practices, we present a series of interconnected themes that we hope not only suggests the potential for script development as a rich and exciting scholarly pursuit, but that also inspires and encourages other researchers to join forces in an attempt to solve the script development ‘puzzle’. CRAIG BATTY RMIT University RADHA O’MEARA University of Melbourne STAYCI TAYLOR RMIT University HESTER JOYCE La Trobe University PHILIPPA BURNE University of Melbourne NOEL MALONEY La Trobe University MARK POOLE RMIT University MARILYN TOFLER Swinburne University of Technology

Quaderns del CAC , 2003

The translation of The Writer's Journey, by Christopher Vogler, and the practically simultaneous publication of Story, by Robert McKee, revived the debate about books on film and TV scripts, in which guides, descriptive studies and academic analyses are mixed together in a field where often the borders between different particular issues are crossed. This intersection of theoretical writings discloses a great deal of agreement between academic conclusions and the ones screenwriters reach in their day-to-day practice, which can produce the question: in what ways do screenwriting manuals and analytical studies complement each other and how do they exchange contributions?

Journal of Screenwriting, 2017

Writing the script for a documentary film can be problematic. According to some documentary filmmakers, it is not possible at all, because one cannot know beforehand what is going to happen. On the other hand, some attempt to produce a written script is often required to obtain financing for a documentary project. This article deals with different work practices and forms of documentary script. It analyses two case studies: the writer’s own films A Man from the Congo River (2010) and Kusum (2000). The first is the story of an engineer who worked in colonial Congo at the beginning of the twentieth century. It is based on diaries and other historical material, and therefore it was possible to construct a very precise script for the film. Kusum is an observational documentary film following the healing of a young Indian girl. The script was produced prior to production, but during the shooting process many core elements changed, including the main character and storyline. The form and dramaturgy of documentary films are created in the filmmaking process and in dialogue between the film-maker and real people. A documentary script can be considered a hypothesis about the reality that the film-maker will encounter via the process of filmmaking. Instead of ‘a screen idea’ we could speak about ‘a documentary idea’.

This thesis is a practice-led inquiry into the practice of screenwriting with the intention of comparing and contrasting the actual process of screenwriting with the methods and rules espoused by both commercial screenwriting manuals and the approach adopted within the Academy. After establishing the theoretical framework for the approach towards the practice-led research and its relationship to the form and content of the exegesis, I will review the conventions and ideas that inform and govern the approach towards the teaching and training of screenwriters. This will be followed by an analysis of the process of conceiving and writing an original screenplay, through the interrogation of a detailed development journal that was maintained throughout the development of the screenplay, including those moments where as writer I followed directions and ideas that ultimately had to be discarded. Throughout this section I will identify and share the variety of influences that informed me as a writer, with the intent of providing an exploration of the writer at work, revealing the self as writer, and the writer as researcher. I will also explore specific aspects of the manualist approach towards screenwriting with particular reference to the ‘hero’s’ journey and to genre. An essential element of the inquiry is an exploration of the status of the screenplay itself, and the status of the screenwriter within the industry and within film theory. Finally, I will consider firstly how my own practice as a screenwriting tutor has altered as a response to the practice-led inquiry, and in consequence how this might inform the development of a different approach towards the education of screenwriters, particularly within the Academy.

Postdramatic Theatre and Form, 2019

In this chapter, we aim to shed light on the expanded forms of postdramatic writing by analyzing a largely overlooked aspect of theatrical practice, that is, the creative process and how it is charted – whether consciously or not – in the multifarious ‘writings’ that are produced along the way. Looking beyond the script in its finalized stage and beyond the actual staging of the text, we want to delve into how working documents offer illuminating insights into postdramatic stagings, precisely because they contain the seeds of the formal aesthetics for particular performances. Insofar as various forms of writing correlate to whatever form postdramatic theatre might take on stage, it is necessary to look more closely at these traces of creative labour, which often escape attention as they remain only latently present in the eventual work. Our discussion here will centre on two leading directors, Romeo Castellucci and Guy Cassiers, each of whom has been instrumental to the development of postdramatic theatre, despite profound differences between their respective approaches. Juxtaposing their notebooks will therefore not only bring into relief the specific characteristics of their postdramatic practice, but also – and most importantly – how these distinct aesthetics germinate in the working documents.