57101 Writing for the Camera

Handbook description

This subject offers postgraduate screenwriting students an opportunity to investigate new and diverse storytelling strategies for both the big and the small screen. It investigates contemporary experiments in narrative structure, new storytelling possibilities opened up by digital technology, adaptation and visual storytelling. Students can write short- or long-form drama or dramatised documentary, and either develop a new idea or continue developing an existing screenplay.

Subject objectives/outcomes

At the completion of this subject, students are expected to be able to:

1. Write a clear and concise industry standard, script development proposal that engages the reader and maps out an achievable work plan for the semester.
2. Engage critically and creatively with their own work and the work of their colleagues.
3. Investigate a variety of strategies in order to develop the visual and structural aspects of their screenplay.
4. Understand how the production process and performance may change the written text.

Contribution to graduate profile

This subject contributes to postgraduate students' professional capacity to write visually and cinematically and to their understanding of new and diverse approaches to screenwriting in the digital age. It contributes to students' personal capacity to organise an achievable work plan and to students' intellectual capacity to engage with cultural and aesthetic debates, in particular the place of screenwriting within contemporary cultural formations.

Teaching and learning strategies

• Lectures, screenings, and the discussions that follow are designed to inspire students to explore new and diverse approaches to story telling in the digital age.
• Students assess the work of their classmates through participating in class discussions, written feedback sessions and group work.
• Guest lectures with industry professionals are designed to increase students' knowledge base and demystify the industry
• In class writing exercises.
• Workshops with professional actors are designed to give students an opportunity to hear their work read under optimum circumstances and to explore the role that performance can bring to the script development process. Students will workshop a key scene or sequence.

Content

The main focus of this subject is on the acquisition of advanced screenwriting knowledge and craft skills through a creative investigation of new and diverse approaches to screenwriting. Students develop a short or long form screenplay, as well as engaging in research. Contemporary experiments in structure as well as digital technology and adaptation are investigated.

Screenplay formatting

Free screenwriting software for both Mac and PC's is available on the web at www.celtx.com

A screenwriting template is also available free for students to use on the Faculty web site.

http://www.hss.uts.edu.au/ departments/ MAP/ script_style_template_2006.doc

(this is a Word document and is better with Macs than PC's)

Library

All screenwriting students may borrow films on DVD or VHS from Closed Reserve in the library. The library also holds a large collection of screenplays. These collections are constantly being updated.

Assessment

Assessment item 1: The development proposal

Assessment item 2: The project

Minimum requirements

Students are expected to read the subject outline to ensure they are familiar with the subject requirements. Since class discussion and participation in activities form an integral part of this subject, you are expected to attend, arrive punctually and actively participate in classes. If you experience difficulties meeting this requirement, please contact your lecturer. Students who have a reason for extended absence (e.g., illness) may be required to complete additional work to ensure they achieve the subject objectives.

Attendance is particularly important in this subject because it is based on a collaborative approach which involves essential workshopping and interchange of ideas. Students who attend fewer than ten classes are advised that their final work will not be assessed and that they are likely to fail the subject.

Indicative references

Aronson, A (2000) Scriptwriting Updated, AFTRS Allen and Unwin, Australia,

Brady, J (1981) The Craft of the Screenwriter – interviews with six celebrated screenwriters, Simon and Schuster, New York.

Bachelard, G (1958) The Poetics of Space, Beacon Press, Boston.

Benjamin, W (1970) Illuminations, Jonathan Cape Ltd, Great Britain.

Dancyger, K (2001) Global Scriptwriting, Focal Press, USA..

Egoyan. A (1993) Speaking Parts, Coach House Press, Toronto..

Engel, J (1995) Screenwriters on Screenwriting, MJF Books New York, USA,

Horton, A.S. Magretta, J (editors), (1981) Modern European Filmmakers and the Art of Adaptation, Frederick Ungar Publishing Co, USA.

Kaufman, C (1998) Being John Malkovich, photoreproduction of screenplay.

Lynch,D (1999) Mulholland Drive, photoreproduction of screenplay.

McGilligan, P (ed) (1991) Backstory 1 & 2 Interviews with screenwriters, University of California Press, Berkeley.

McKee, R (1999) Story - substance, structure, style and the principles of screenwriting, Methuen, Great Britain.

McQuarrie. C (1994) The Usual Suspects, photoreproduction of screenplay.

Ondaatje, M (2002) The Conversations – Walter Murch and the art of editing film, Bloomsbury Publishing, Great Britain.

Peary. G And Shatzkin,R. (1978)The Modern American Novel and the Movies, Frederick Ungar Publishing Co, New York, USA.

Seger, L (1992) The Art of Adaptation – turning fact into fiction, H. Holt and Co, New York.

Stok, D (ed) (1993) Kieslowski on Kieslowski, Faber and Faber, Great Britain.

Stuart, A (1999) The War Zone - Introduction by Tim Roth, Film Four books, Macmillan Publishers Ltd, Great Britain.

Tarkovsky, A (1987) Sculpting in Time; reflections on the cinema, New York, Alfred A Knopf, Austin: University of Texas, USA.

Ulmer, G (1994) The Logic of Invention, John Hopkins University Press.

Wees, W.C. (1992) Light Moving in Time - studies in the visual aesthetics of avant -garde film, University of California Press, Oxford, England. 1992

Wolff, J. and K. Cox, K (1993) (complied by) Top Secrets – Screenwriting, Lone Eagle Pub Co Los Angeles, USA. 1993

Serials:

Projections – Filmmakers on Filmmaking

Storyline – The Journal of the Australian Writers Guild

Written By – The Journal of the American Writers Guild – West.