This article discusses the vital importance of expanding a screenwriting curriculum to demonstrate screenwriting techniques and finding originality by initially deriving story ideas from students’ life experiences, emotional memories and insights. It highlights the inherent problem common to a number of screenwriting students who desire to ‘race for originality’ that tends to imitate films they have already seen rather than finding the inspiration from a world they are better familiar with. The article introduces examples and results where the stories have first been solidly rooted in the writer’s own experiences. The qualitative research question is, how do students benefit from learning to write from the inside? The article challenges the order in which basic elements must be disseminated to students and suggests that alongside the traditional structures and tools of storytelling in teaching screenwriting, teachers should first and foremost guide students towards the private sources of their individual experiences and memories, highlighting their unique potential and originality. The article is based on qualitative research materials collected from screenwriting workshops the author has conducted in various film schools in Finland and Belgium between 2017 and 2021 using an emotional mapping method.
{"title":"Teaching screenwriting from the inside out: The importance of writers’ inner, emotional discoveries in understanding the tools of screenwriting","authors":"Arto Koskinen","doi":"10.1386/josc_00130_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/josc_00130_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article discusses the vital importance of expanding a screenwriting curriculum to demonstrate screenwriting techniques and finding originality by initially deriving story ideas from students’ life experiences, emotional memories and insights. It highlights the inherent problem common to a number of screenwriting students who desire to ‘race for originality’ that tends to imitate films they have already seen rather than finding the inspiration from a world they are better familiar with. The article introduces examples and results where the stories have first been solidly rooted in the writer’s own experiences. The qualitative research question is, how do students benefit from learning to write from the inside? The article challenges the order in which basic elements must be disseminated to students and suggests that alongside the traditional structures and tools of storytelling in teaching screenwriting, teachers should first and foremost guide students towards the private sources of their individual experiences and memories, highlighting their unique potential and originality. The article is based on qualitative research materials collected from screenwriting workshops the author has conducted in various film schools in Finland and Belgium between 2017 and 2021 using an emotional mapping method.","PeriodicalId":41719,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Screenwriting","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48972505","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
There is a close relationship between pulp fiction and film noir. The link is the adapted screenplay. While there has been extensive critical work on film noir for almost 70 years there has not been an equally intense scrutiny of the process of adaptation and its product, the adapted screenplay. This article offers a critical discussion of the complex literary-cinematic ecology of the noir adaptation/screenwriting process for The Maltese Falcon and the role of fidelity in the adaptation as a key ingredient of the film’s success. The methodology involves examining the various factors, methods and players involved in the creation of the screenplay with an emphasis on a comparative study of the literary text and its screenplay. The article concludes that fidelity in adaptation was central to the film’s appeal and that the film’s success raised the profile of the novel. The level of screenwriting talent, the nature of the relationship between the screenwriter and the director and the depth of cultural resonance found in the original literary text were vital influences on the adaptation process and the resulting film. These factors turned The Maltese Falcon screenplay into a standard for future pulp to noir adaptations.
{"title":"The stuff that dreams are made of: The Maltese Falcon and the art of adapted screenwriting","authors":"George Melnyk","doi":"10.1386/josc_00129_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/josc_00129_1","url":null,"abstract":"There is a close relationship between pulp fiction and film noir. The link is the adapted screenplay. While there has been extensive critical work on film noir for almost 70 years there has not been an equally intense scrutiny of the process of adaptation and its product, the adapted screenplay. This article offers a critical discussion of the complex literary-cinematic ecology of the noir adaptation/screenwriting process for The Maltese Falcon and the role of fidelity in the adaptation as a key ingredient of the film’s success. The methodology involves examining the various factors, methods and players involved in the creation of the screenplay with an emphasis on a comparative study of the literary text and its screenplay. The article concludes that fidelity in adaptation was central to the film’s appeal and that the film’s success raised the profile of the novel. The level of screenwriting talent, the nature of the relationship between the screenwriter and the director and the depth of cultural resonance found in the original literary text were vital influences on the adaptation process and the resulting film. These factors turned The Maltese Falcon screenplay into a standard for future pulp to noir adaptations.","PeriodicalId":41719,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Screenwriting","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43682315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Japanese cinema in the early twenty-first century has seen the emergence of Japanese-language films written by non-Japanese screenwriters. The arrival of these screenwriters and screenplays complicates existing discourses on ‘nation’ and the transnational in Japanese cinema. In particular, it adds to the tensions around East–West binaries that often permeate considerations of non-Japanese contact with cinematic representations of Japan and requires industry practitioners and researchers to re-consider notions of ‘Japan’ and cultural contact in cinema from Japan. Drawing on the concept of ‘accented cinema’, this article positions Japanese screenplays by non-Japanese screenwriters as accented Japanese screenplays. Two such screen texts are critiqued to suggest the dialogic inevitability of polyvocal interpretations of accented Japanese screenplays with regard to issues of privilege and marginalization, as well as the national and the transnational.
{"title":"The accented Japanese screenplay: Transnational currents in contemporary Japanese cinema","authors":"A. McAulay","doi":"10.1386/josc_00128_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/josc_00128_1","url":null,"abstract":"Japanese cinema in the early twenty-first century has seen the emergence of Japanese-language films written by non-Japanese screenwriters. The arrival of these screenwriters and screenplays complicates existing discourses on ‘nation’ and the transnational in Japanese cinema. In particular, it adds to the tensions around East–West binaries that often permeate considerations of non-Japanese contact with cinematic representations of Japan and requires industry practitioners and researchers to re-consider notions of ‘Japan’ and cultural contact in cinema from Japan. Drawing on the concept of ‘accented cinema’, this article positions Japanese screenplays by non-Japanese screenwriters as accented Japanese screenplays. Two such screen texts are critiqued to suggest the dialogic inevitability of polyvocal interpretations of accented Japanese screenplays with regard to issues of privilege and marginalization, as well as the national and the transnational.","PeriodicalId":41719,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Screenwriting","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46145826","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article examines the question, ‘Does increased representation of women in screenplays and film lead to greater box office revenue?’ Employing a data set of 2343 films released between 1960 and 2018, we estimate fixed-effects regression models on North American and ‘international’ box office revenue, using two indicators of female representation: the percentage of female dialogue in a film’s screenplay and the Bechdel test. We account for other variables: inflation, film budget, genre and film runtimes. Our results indicate that including just one conversation between two female characters is associated with approximately 23 per cent higher box office revenue in the North American domestic market and 27 per cent higher box office revenue outside of North America. Not all representation is created equal: quality representation (in contrast to a ‘quantity’ measure of representation) has a more significant relationship with the box office. Contrary to often-stated beliefs that increased representation of women in film results in lower economic returns, our findings indicate that there is a significant economic benefit to increasing female on-screen portrayals.
{"title":"The economic case for equality in screenplays: The Bechdel test, female dialogue and box office revenue","authors":"Jeremy K. Nguyen","doi":"10.1386/josc_00124_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/josc_00124_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the question, ‘Does increased representation of women in screenplays and film lead to greater box office revenue?’ Employing a data set of 2343 films released between 1960 and 2018, we estimate fixed-effects regression models on North American and ‘international’ box office revenue, using two indicators of female representation: the percentage of female dialogue in a film’s screenplay and the Bechdel test. We account for other variables: inflation, film budget, genre and film runtimes. Our results indicate that including just one conversation between two female characters is associated with approximately 23 per cent higher box office revenue in the North American domestic market and 27 per cent higher box office revenue outside of North America. Not all representation is created equal: quality representation (in contrast to a ‘quantity’ measure of representation) has a more significant relationship with the box office. Contrary to often-stated beliefs that increased representation of women in film results in lower economic returns, our findings indicate that there is a significant economic benefit to increasing female on-screen portrayals.","PeriodicalId":41719,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Screenwriting","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45271862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Review of: Ernest Lehman: The Sweet Smell of Success, Jon Krampner (2022) Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 396 pp., ISBN 978-0-81319-595-7, h/bk, $27.73
{"title":"Ernest Lehman: The Sweet Smell of Success, Jon Krampner (2022)","authors":"Craig Weisz","doi":"10.1386/josc_00126_5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/josc_00126_5","url":null,"abstract":"Review of: Ernest Lehman: The Sweet Smell of Success, Jon Krampner (2022)\u0000 Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 396 pp.,\u0000 ISBN 978-0-81319-595-7, h/bk, $27.73","PeriodicalId":41719,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Screenwriting","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44012946","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This abstract introduces the 14.2 issue of the Journal of Screenwriting. It recognizes the wide-ranging approaches to screenwriting research and the range of topics that are covered. It also refers to the large number of non-screenwriting peer reviewers who are now assessing articles for the journal. It then goes on to outline the issue’s contents.
{"title":"Editorial","authors":"Craig Batty","doi":"10.1386/josc_00127_2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/josc_00127_2","url":null,"abstract":"This abstract introduces the 14.2 issue of the Journal of Screenwriting. It recognizes the wide-ranging approaches to screenwriting research and the range of topics that are covered. It also refers to the large number of non-screenwriting peer reviewers who are now assessing articles for the journal. It then goes on to outline the issue’s contents.","PeriodicalId":41719,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Screenwriting","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41619950","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Review of: Inclusive Screenwriting for Film and Television, Jess King (2022) Abingdon: Routledge, 268 pp., ISBN 978-0-36777-218-5, p/bk, $34.36 ISBN 978-0-36777-220-8, h/bk, $136.00 ISBN 978-1-00317-031-0, e-book, $34.36
{"title":"Inclusive Screenwriting for Film and Television, Jess King (2022)","authors":"Madison río de Estrellas","doi":"10.1386/josc_00125_5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/josc_00125_5","url":null,"abstract":"Review of: Inclusive Screenwriting for Film and Television, Jess King (2022)\u0000 Abingdon: Routledge, 268 pp.,\u0000 ISBN 978-0-36777-218-5, p/bk, $34.36\u0000 ISBN 978-0-36777-220-8, h/bk, $136.00\u0000 ISBN 978-1-00317-031-0, e-book, $34.36","PeriodicalId":41719,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Screenwriting","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46997004","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This research seeks to contribute to knowledge of the structural characteristics and narrative complexity that define the web series format. To do so, we look at the case of Colombia’s prolific web series production, undertaken by professional and amateur producers and promoted by institutional and educational programmes. This research analyses the structure of 26 productions (thirteen professional, thirteen amateur) using a mixed-methods approach and an exploratory-descriptive scope. It uses analytical tools created inspired by narratology. Specifically, it offers data that allow us to develop the definition of web series: characteristics of their plots, characters, aspects of narration (time, mood, voice) and forms of endings. The results indicate that Colombian web series mostly present traditional serialized narrative structures and plot simplicity. They have linear, chronological and elliptical narratives developed in the present tense. They also tend to tell a single narrative, albeit through different stories, and leave open endings. Finally, there are only slight differences in these aspects between the two types of producers. These results, based on a specific geographical and industrial context, contribute to knowledge of web series form and its relationship to conventional serialized fiction.
{"title":"Narrative structures in Colombian fictional web series published on YouTube","authors":"Diego F. Montoya-Bermúdez, María T. Soto-Sanfiel","doi":"10.1386/josc_00123_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/josc_00123_1","url":null,"abstract":"This research seeks to contribute to knowledge of the structural characteristics and narrative complexity that define the web series format. To do so, we look at the case of Colombia’s prolific web series production, undertaken by professional and amateur producers and promoted by institutional and educational programmes. This research analyses the structure of 26 productions (thirteen professional, thirteen amateur) using a mixed-methods approach and an exploratory-descriptive scope. It uses analytical tools created inspired by narratology. Specifically, it offers data that allow us to develop the definition of web series: characteristics of their plots, characters, aspects of narration (time, mood, voice) and forms of endings. The results indicate that Colombian web series mostly present traditional serialized narrative structures and plot simplicity. They have linear, chronological and elliptical narratives developed in the present tense. They also tend to tell a single narrative, albeit through different stories, and leave open endings. Finally, there are only slight differences in these aspects between the two types of producers. These results, based on a specific geographical and industrial context, contribute to knowledge of web series form and its relationship to conventional serialized fiction.","PeriodicalId":41719,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Screenwriting","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46773864","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article examines, through the study of screenplay-related archive documents, the various manifestations of narrative, visual and sound discontinuity in three iconic New Swiss cinema movies directed by Alain Tanner: La Salamandre, Le Milieu du monde, and Jonas qui aura 25 ans en l’an 2000. According to its central hypothesis, the aesthetics of these movies are heavily influenced by the participation of art critic and novelist John Berger as a co-screenwriter, and in particular by the specific modes of writing in tandem developed by Tanner and Berger. The aim is twofold: first, to consider the ways Tanner’s production of a public discourse celebrating ‘auteur cinema’ and the importance of the mise en scène stage has downplayed Berger’s role in the conception of these films; second, to comment on the genesis of the screenplays for those three films by paying attention to the specific ways Berger’s contribution materialized, especially since the art critic’s preoccupations (notably those related to the representation of gender relations) are reflected in these texts. The genetic study of the screenplays, conducted thanks to the director’s personal archives deposited at the Swiss National Film Archive, allowed us also to measure the degree to which Tanner’s first fiction films, although seemingly improvised, were defined in a very precise manner already at the writing stage.
{"title":"Discontinuous aesthetics as a result of collaborative screenwriting: A genetic approach to John Berger and Alain Tanner’s screenplays1","authors":"Alain Boillat","doi":"10.1386/josc_00120_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/josc_00120_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines, through the study of screenplay-related archive documents, the various manifestations of narrative, visual and sound discontinuity in three iconic New Swiss cinema movies directed by Alain Tanner: La Salamandre, Le Milieu du monde, and Jonas qui aura 25 ans en l’an 2000. According to its central hypothesis, the aesthetics of these movies are heavily influenced by the participation of art critic and novelist John Berger as a co-screenwriter, and in particular by the specific modes of writing in tandem developed by Tanner and Berger. The aim is twofold: first, to consider the ways Tanner’s production of a public discourse celebrating ‘auteur cinema’ and the importance of the mise en scène stage has downplayed Berger’s role in the conception of these films; second, to comment on the genesis of the screenplays for those three films by paying attention to the specific ways Berger’s contribution materialized, especially since the art critic’s preoccupations (notably those related to the representation of gender relations) are reflected in these texts. The genetic study of the screenplays, conducted thanks to the director’s personal archives deposited at the Swiss National Film Archive, allowed us also to measure the degree to which Tanner’s first fiction films, although seemingly improvised, were defined in a very precise manner already at the writing stage.","PeriodicalId":41719,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Screenwriting","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45419428","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A frequent assumption made in Anglo-American screenwriting manuals asserts that in most, if not all, ‘successful’ screen stories, the protagonist goes through a significant emotional transformation, sometimes referred to as a ‘character arc’. However, many classic, highly profitable and critically acclaimed feature films centre on protagonists who are emotionally ‘constant’, in that they do not appear to emotionally transform. As a result, these otherwise successful narratives have either been omitted from analysis or their analysis has been distorted to fit the orthodox yet vaguely defined understanding of a character arc. In this article, I will outline a new model of character arcs called ‘Arc Analysis’ that, by taking account of both the ‘internal’ and ‘external’ worlds of the protagonist, has the capacity to accurately describe the arcs of emotionally ‘constant’ characters. I will demonstrate the Arc Analysis model using an analysis of Jaws (1975), a highly successful film that, I will argue, features a protagonist who does not emotionally transform and, as a result, is frequently misinterpreted. Furthermore, I will, using the key components of Arc Analysis, propose a new and more precise definition of a character arc.
{"title":"Arc analysis: Redefining character arcs for ‘constant’ characters","authors":"A. Mullins","doi":"10.1386/josc_00122_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/josc_00122_1","url":null,"abstract":"A frequent assumption made in Anglo-American screenwriting manuals asserts that in most, if not all, ‘successful’ screen stories, the protagonist goes through a significant emotional transformation, sometimes referred to as a ‘character arc’. However, many classic, highly profitable and critically acclaimed feature films centre on protagonists who are emotionally ‘constant’, in that they do not appear to emotionally transform. As a result, these otherwise successful narratives have either been omitted from analysis or their analysis has been distorted to fit the orthodox yet vaguely defined understanding of a character arc. In this article, I will outline a new model of character arcs called ‘Arc Analysis’ that, by taking account of both the ‘internal’ and ‘external’ worlds of the protagonist, has the capacity to accurately describe the arcs of emotionally ‘constant’ characters. I will demonstrate the Arc Analysis model using an analysis of Jaws (1975), a highly successful film that, I will argue, features a protagonist who does not emotionally transform and, as a result, is frequently misinterpreted. Furthermore, I will, using the key components of Arc Analysis, propose a new and more precise definition of a character arc.","PeriodicalId":41719,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Screenwriting","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48458001","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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