SCREENPLAY WRITER DEFINITION MANUALS
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. 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. 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. I will also explore specific aspects of the manualist approach towards screenwriting with particular reference to the ‘hero’s’ journey and to genre. 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. 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. 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. 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. The article also discusses future directions of Screenwriting Studies as a scholarly discipline.
The article argues that the outcomes of this creative research, the screenplays themselves, should be treated as creative research texts in their own right that are deserving of publication irrespective of any staging or production. This article explores the reasons behind the marginal position of screenwriting in the academy, which includes discipline bias, and argues for the repositioning of screenwriting as a valid and valuable creative and research practice. This situation is now changing, with a number of academic journals publishing screenplays as creative research and treating scripts as texts in themselves, irrespective of production. There has been a persistent idea that scripts are not stand-alone works but merely “blueprints” for the films or television programs based on them.
This is largely because scripts written in the academy have not been seen as research or as fully-fledged creative works worthy of publication. To date, it has been difficult to study screenwriting activity in higher education settings, not least because few academic journals publish screenplays. Screenwriting in the academy is an emerging research area.
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