Screenwriters and Screenwriting: Putting Practice into Context

Screenwriters and Screenwriting is an innovative, fresh and lively book that is useful for both screenwriting practice and academic study. It is international in scope, with case studies and analyses from the US, the UK, Australia, Japan, Ireland and Denmark. The book presents a distinctive collection of chapters from creative academics and critical practitioners that serve one purpose: to put aspects of screenwriting practice into their relevant contexts. Focusing on how screenplays are written, developed and received, the contributors challenge assumptions of what 'screenwriting studies' might be, and celebrates the role of the screenwriter in the creation of a screenplay. It is intended to be thought provoking and stimulating, with the ultimate aim of inspiring current and future screenwriting practitioners and scholars.

Table of Contents:
Introduction PART I: SCREENWRITERS AND THEIR SCREENPLAYS 1. White Space: An Approach to the Practice of Screenwriting as Poetry; Elisabeth Lewis Corley and Joseph Megel 2. Narrating Voices in the Screenplay Text: How the Writer can Direct the Reader's Visualisations of the Potential FIlm; Ann Ingelstrom 3. Writing Horror: Blending Theory With Practice; Shaun Kimber 4. Beyond the Screenplay: Memoir and Family Relations in Three Films by Gaylene Preston; Hester Joyce 5. Costume as Character Arc: How Emotional Transformation is Written into the Dressed Body; Craig Batty PART II: SCREENWRITING AND THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS 6. Developing the Screenplay: Stepping into the Unknown; Margot Nash 7. 'The Irish Film Board: Gatekeeper or Facilitator?' The Experience of the Irish Screenwriter; Díóg O'Connell 8. First Impressions: Debut Features by Irish Screenwriters; Susan Liddy 9. 'Sorry Blondie, I Don't Do Backstory!' Script Editing: The Invisible Craft; Paul Wells 10. Scripting the Real: Mike Leigh's Practice as Antecedent to Contemporary Reality TV Texts The Only Way is Essex and Made in Chelsea; Peri Bradley PART III: SCREENWRITING AND AUTHORSHIP 11. Based on a True Story: Negotiating Collaboration, Compromise and Authorship in the Script Development Process; Alec McAulay 12. Sarah Phelps on Writing Television: Adaptation, Collaboration, and the Screenwriter's Voice; Kate Iles 13. Working the Writers' Room: The Context, the Creative Space and the Collaborations of Danish Television Series Borgen; Eva Novrup Redvall 14. And the Screenwriter Created Man: Male Characterisation in Bromance and Bromedy; Helen Jacey 15. Gals Who Make the Jokes: Feature Film Screenwriting for the Satirical Female Voice; Marilyn Tofler 16. Self-Reflexive Screenwriting and LGBT Identity: Framing and Indirectly Reading the Self; Christopher Pullen

About the Author :
Craig Batty is Dean of Research at University of South Australia, Australia Elisabeth Lewis Corley, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA Ann Igelstrom, Bangor University, UK Kate Iles, Roehampton University, UK Helen Jacey, Bournemouth University, UK Hester Joyce, La Trobe University, Australia Shaun Kimber, Bournemouth University, UK Susan Liddy, University of Limerick, Ireland Alec McAulay, Yokohama National University, Japan Joseph Megel, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA Margot Nash, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia Eva Novrup Redvall, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Díóg O'Connell, Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Ireland Christopher Pullen, Bournemouth University, UK Marilyn Tofler, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia Paul Wells, Loughborough University, UK

Review :
'Each essay included in this collection serves two purposes: information and inspiration. Craig Batty has chosen authors who have dual abilities: they understand the creative process and they are able to find the kernels of truth in their topics that speak to both method and practice in screenwriting. This book is absolutely accessible and stimulating. Batty has gathered a compendium of worthy researchers whose studies, inquiries and insights motivate and encourage readers to think more deeply on the screenwriting process and also aid those interested in the formation and construction of screenplays. His goals to shape a collection of work that is relevant to both academics and at-work screenwriters, and to put the art and craft of screenwriting into 'context' have been accomplished.' - Jule Selbo, award-winning screenwriter and Professor of Screenwriting at California State University, Fullerton