{"title":"Serial offenders? Defining the boundaries of series and serial TV for screenwriting practice and theory","authors":"M. Ianniello, C. Batty","doi":"10.1386/JOSC_00048_1","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Serial storytelling dominates the international TV landscape, yet the terms used to describe this form as distinct from ‘series’ vary across industry, scholarship and popular media. While many scholars have observed the series/serial ‘divide’, none of them have done so from the vantage point of screenwriting practice. This article argues there is both the scope and a need to provide clearer definitions for discussion of TV drama screenwriting, particularly as it intersects with extant notions such as ‘complex’ and ‘quality’ TV. In this article, we consolidate the literature on the series/serial and provide our own terms to describe contemporary trends in serial storytelling – finite, infinite and franchise – terms that we hope speak more directly to the screenwriter and screenwriting scholar.","PeriodicalId":41719,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Screenwriting","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Screenwriting","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1386/JOSC_00048_1","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"FILM, RADIO, TELEVISION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
Serial storytelling dominates the international TV landscape, yet the terms used to describe this form as distinct from ‘series’ vary across industry, scholarship and popular media. While many scholars have observed the series/serial ‘divide’, none of them have done so from the vantage point of screenwriting practice. This article argues there is both the scope and a need to provide clearer definitions for discussion of TV drama screenwriting, particularly as it intersects with extant notions such as ‘complex’ and ‘quality’ TV. In this article, we consolidate the literature on the series/serial and provide our own terms to describe contemporary trends in serial storytelling – finite, infinite and franchise – terms that we hope speak more directly to the screenwriter and screenwriting scholar.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Screenwriting aims to explore the nature of writing for the moving image in the broadest sense, highlighting current academic thinking around scriptwriting whilst also reflecting on this with a truly international perspective and outlook. The journal will encourage the investigation of a broad range of possible methodologies and approaches to studying the scriptwriting form, in particular: the history of the form, contextual analysis, the process of writing for the moving image, the relationship of scriptwriting to the production process and how the form can be considered in terms of culture and society. The journal also aims to encourage research in the field of screenwriting and the linking of scriptwriting practice to academic theory, and to support and promote conferences and networking events on this subject.