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This article investigates, through interviews, the script development processes of four female-identifying web series creators, contributing to scholarship around web series’ ability to serve diver...

The screenwriting of sketch comedy and, in particular, how female writers of sketch comedy engage with this form to illuminate female experience, are topics not yet widely theorized. This article reviews the scholarship, in order to bring together histories, definitions and distribution of sketch comedy from which to investigate how this form of comedy screenwriting can contribute to feminisms that ‘engage openly and playfully with humor and irony as weapons of choice’ (Willet et al. 2012). Drawing on anecdotal accounts and available archives fromA Black Lady Sketch Show(2019–present),French and Saunders(1987–present),Inside Amy Schumer(2013–present),Wood & Walters(1981–82) and others, this article considers these against the theories of writing sketch comedy to draw some conclusions on how this short form, combined with its most popular form of distribution, can accommodate multiple perspectives and serve their audiences. This article offers itself as a starting point in identifying the unique challenges and strategies for women writing sketch comedy, and the possibilities offered by the form more broadly, while highlighting the need for further empirical exploration of the creative practice of female sketch comedy writers, and further critical attention to short form comedy screenwriting.

Refereed/Peer-reviewed Drawing on interviews from industry professionals, this article explores both the collaborative and, less documented, individual manifestations of script development. Researchers have noted that within screenwriting and screen production, script development practices and processes defy definition over various modes, media, global contexts and production cultures. This article argues that part of this flux is the ways in which individual pursuits of script development are mis/understood and/or dismissed. Screenwriting scholarship often questions the discourses within which individual pursuits of script development are promoted, especially the ‘how-to’ market of screenwriting manuals, using the ‘practical realities’ of the screen industry as a basis for this critique. This article builds on this work to problematise script development as a solely collaborative pursuit. Those interviewed for the research occupy a breadth of script development roles across their respective countries and industries, including screenwriter, script consultant and script editor. While the how-to market often neglects the practical realities of script development by reducing it to the individual pursuit from idea to draft, it is not simply the case that the industrial perspective is always collaborative either, as these professionals reveal. This article investigates the relationship that exists between collaborative practices and the contributions of the individual.

Overwhelming catastrophic events have become part of the ‘new normal’ of climate change. This essayistic, collaborative lived experience report by a group of writers, each of whom lived through Australia’s 2019—2020 Black Summer of catastrophic bushfires, demonstrates how the effects of shared but different proximate relations can produce an affective, care-ful account of the lived experience of climate change. Our project asks: how might a practical entanglement with others allow for a meaningful response to climate change? How might collaboration allow for a mode that places care at the centre of writing practice?

Script development is one process of many in the production of a screen work. It is a creative, commercial and social practice in which ideas, emotions, people and personalities combine and work within the practicalities, policies and rapid movements of the screen industry. It is experienced in multiple ways depending on the scale and stage of the project and the production culture within which it is practised. As such, we might suggest it is a process that resists both definition (Batty et al. 2017, 2018) and delineation (Taylor 2015), because the elements of the practice—drafts, revisions, feedback and so on—may continue into other erstwhile discrete aspects of production. With the rise of new forms of digital technology, new kinds of script development are also being facilitated: online, for new and networked platforms, and for transmedia story worlds, all of which are challenging traditional notions of script development and are opening up new possibilities for practice.

In this chapter, we explore the notion of improvement as it relates to script development discourse and experience. In an attempt to open up debate for further conceptualisation and theorisation, we draw on two distinct datasets: script development guidelines from Federal and State/Territory screen agencies in Australia, and interviews with script development professionals. Screen agency documents were collated and analysed in 2018 for their explicit or implicit directives towards improvement, including analogous concepts such as betterment, quality and success. These were then considered in relation to 14 interview transcripts, the results of which were themed into groups. The interviews were conducted with industry professionals from Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US in 2017, who have worked in a variety of script development roles across these countries, including as screenwriter, script consultant, script editor, story editor and storyline writer. This rich and diverse dataset is useful for comparing lived experiences—of both developing and being developed—with the discourses espoused by screen agencies.

© 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Comedy writers use their practice to raise questions and create awareness about social, political and cultural issues, but can these practitioners be considered academics? With creative modalities of enquiry now commonplace in universities–where research is used to shape one’s practice, resulting in creative work that embodies that research–when does comedy writing start to take on a different function? In this article, we discuss comedy screenwriting in an academic setting, arguing that it has potential as a rigorous mode of research that can sit happily alongside art, design, creative writing and media practice. Much has been written about creative practice research, yet not so much has been written about the form this type of research takes; specifically, why one might choose comedy to express, embody or otherwise perform the findings of research. Here, then, we draw on our experiences of undertaking screenwriting projects using comedy to discuss the ways in which researchers might use the comic mode to present their findings in imaginative, innovative and fun ways that can expand understanding and, potentially, garner impact.

In 2015, writer, comedian and actor Rebel Wilson was at the centre of an expose, courtesy of what she called ‘the shady Australian press’. Thrown into question were her birth name, age, upb...

Much has been written about screen cities, and within this literature it is suggested that the city itself becomes screen language with its light, colour, and architecture. But there are fewer, if any, scholarly explorations on the practice of screenwriting the city, whereby this language must first be realised in words. Moreover, traditional screenwriting models emphasise the importance of plot, but not necessarily the creation of those worlds into which viewers so readily enter. This paper draws from the author's own practice and pedagogy to discuss experiments in using the city - and the screen world more broadly - as a starting point for screen stories. It makes particular reference to the script development process of a Melbourne-set screenplay, and the development and delivery of an undergraduate media studio, one that used the location-as-inspiration approach suggested by Kathryn Millard's invitation to 'write for place' (2014). In presenting the attendant discoveries, this paper aims to open a conversation around writing the city and the ways in which notions of 'world' impact upon, or intersect with, other aspects of screenwriting practice. It is hoped that this leads to practical ways, in learning, teaching and script development environments, to approach a story's world.

Dr Helen Jacey is a screenwriter and script consultant, and teaches scriptwriting at Bournemouth University, UK. Her research interests include creative and critical approaches to screenwriting, screenwriting and gender, and screenwriting genre theory. Her book The Woman in the Story: Writing Memorable Female Characters (2010) was the first screenwriting guide for writers developing female driven projects. As a professional writer, she has written numerous film, television and radio projects for UK, US and European production companies and is currently developing a series of crime fiction novels, Elvira Slate Investigations. She is a story consultant for international filmmakers and film agencies.Editors Louise Sawtell and Dr Stayci Taylor asked Dr Jacey a series of questions relating specifically to the themes explored by the special issue: gendered practices, processes and perspectives in screenwriting. The following are the insights generously offered by this leader in the field.

This article is concerned with the ways in which a screenplay might be ‘gendered’ or gender identified and, more specifically, how screenwriting practice is informed by, and performs, notions of gender. It asks, in what ways might screenplays be gendered? What is the role of gender in the individual screenwriter’s own practice? And how might cultural assumptions around gender be enacted by and within screenwriting practices (especially mainstream script development processes) and discourse? The article discusses the potentially gendered biases of mainstream screenwriting frameworks (and the how-to market disseminating the same), and then the ways in which this impacts, in particular, the practices, perspectives and representations of women coming to the page, and also briefly examines the tactic of writing for gender-blind casting, concluding that this liberal feminist strategy does not address the inherent cultural assumptions at play in script development processes. Ultimately, the article argues that in cultural system that are inherently gendered, then gendered assumptions may underpin the commercial mainstream script development process.

Here we set out to map, through epitextual moves, the first year of our practice-based research into 'diary performance', taking up Watkins and Krauth's call for 'new ways of "doing" and of "writing up" research that are discipline and form/genre relevant' (2016. "Radicalising the Scholarly Paper: New Forms for the Traditional Journal Article." TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses 20 (1)). We offer the emergent methodology we call diarology much as it was discovered: chronologically, playfully and intuitively, through voicings, listenings, space for awkward silences and the serendipitous, and increasing attention to the metissage of our interleavings. We draw on the possibilities of playful practices both as means of inquiry and as sources of new knowledge, recalling Halberstam who encourages scepticism around modes of 'disciplinary correctness', suggesting they confirm the 'already known according to approved methods of knowing [but] do not allow for visionary insights of flight or fancy' (2011. The Queer Art of Failure. Durham: Duke University Press). The outcome re-purposes found materials to create new life narratives, each iteration finding form and gathering vitality within the extemporaneous/ephemeral architecture of 'essayesque dismemoir' (Murray 2017. "Essayesque Dismemoir: w/rites of elder-flowering". PhD Thesis, RMIT University). Refereed/Peer-reviewed

One of the major considerations in creating a premise for an enduring television series is choosing what is variously termed the “hub” or “precinct.” Focusing primarily on the television series ​Wentworth ​ (2013–) and its antecedent, ​Prisoner (Cell Block H) (1979–1986), this chapter looks to practices of screenwriting, script editing and serial drama development through the lenses of television studies and genre theory, to suggest that the unique appeal of women-in-prison series is broader than a general fascination with life on the inside. We argue that the prison-as-hub more broadly does much of the work of facilitating the internal logic of the interconnected lives and storylines of the characters. We contextualize these ideas within a broader investigation into how the prison hub functions within script development processes and suggest that this is a more productive conceptualization of the “hub” than the more common “world-building.” These factors pave the way for the greenlighting of a female-centered series, with transformative possibilities. We aim to also draw conclusions around the wider function of the female hub as a catalyst for industry change, especially at the level of series commissions. By focusing on gender in relation to script development processes, we hope to augment and deepen concurrent discourses on gender and representation, particularly in the television series. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Public diary-reading events, arguably originating in the USA in 2002, continue to draw participants eager to share their teenage angst and juvenilia, yet there is little scholarly reflection on this peripheral practice of performative writing. Having birthed our own version in 2017 within the safe harbour of the academy and using an intuitive, practice-based methodology we believe there are some useful questions to pose about the autoethnographic contributions of this mortification rite. Eighteen months in, we are further moved to ask, what is happening in the presentational and performative space as we show our younger selves to one another as we have, and do? This article, a follow-up to our previous Diarology for beginners (2019), formally reiterates on the page the associative leaps and communal meaning-making arising from our explorations so far. Prompted by questions, such as, Is the practice of diary keeping inherently gendered? Is it about becoming visible? Audible? Memorable? What? And what is the impulse to publicly share the archives? (Munro, Murray and Taylor 2019), we draw on the literature around diary keeping, as well as theories on voice, gender and creative autoethnography, as a way into understanding diary performing and the public sharing of juvenile shame. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

While plenty has been written about gender representation on screen, much less has been written about gender in regards to screenplays. Emerging scholarly research around screenwriting practice often focuses on questions of the craft – is screenwriting a technical or creative act? – and whether or not the screenplay’s only destiny is to disappear into the film (Carriére, cited in Maras 1999, 147). Thus there might be room for further exploration into screenwriters and their practice – to ask who (in regards to gender) is writing screenplays, especially considering the assertion of Dancyger and Rush that the three-act structure (a dominant screenwriting practice) is ‘designed to suggest the story tells itself’ (2013, 38). Moreover, questions of gender representation on screen might be considered from the perspective of screenwriting practice, given this same ubiquitous structure means that barriers, including those related to gender, ‘are still presented as secondary to the transcendence of individual will’ (Dancyger and Rush 2013, 36). This special issue of Networking Knowledge, then, brings together a collection of scholarly perspectives on screenwriting theory and practice through the lens of gender.

The comedy web series is often celebrated as a mode of production which allows for a creative voice ‘[un]diminished by consensus’ (Miller cited in Williams, Web TV Series: How to Make and Market Them. Harpenden: Kamera Books, 2012, 179), providing an opportunity for content to be produced and distributed to audiences whilst still being developed (Williams, Web TV Series: How to Make and Market Them. Harpenden: Kamera Books, 2012, 67). This iterative approach to development challenges traditional notions of key creative roles, as content creators have the potential to engage in feedback with their audience before an episode is even realised. This chapter will focus on two of these roles, the Writer and Producer, investigating how they function throughout the development of a comedy web series across three different contexts: pedagogical, independent (self-funded) and what we’ll call commercial (projects that have received external funding). This will include a definition of what these roles are in each context, where they intersect and where they remain distinct. Further to this, an argument will be put forward about how these roles are evolving into what Cunningham and Silver refer to as ‘entrepreneurial and innovative creators’ (Ellingsen, Media International Australia, Incorporating Culture & Policy, 150, 106–113, 2014); those who can identify opportunities presented by a form for which few conventions appear yet to be established, and have the ability to not only create and distribute their content, but also integrate promotional outcomes and commercial opportunities into their concepts from the outset. Ultimately, the purpose here is to investigate the development phase of a comedy web series, and for this discussion to be centred on a practitioner-based enquiry of key creative roles within this form, in order to better understand the opportunities and limitations that working within this form presents.

This chapter focuses on screenwriting pedagogy through the lens of script development, asking what might be gleaned from industry that helps students to learn about aspects of writing for the screen beyond the screenplay itself. In other words, is script development a more viable pedagogy for teaching and learning the craft of screenwriting, one that exposes students to the wider world of industry and career ‘success’ than merely focusing on the writing of a script? The chapter draws on a dataset of 14 interviews with industry professionals from Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the USA. The interviewees have worked in a variety of roles in the screen industry across these countries, including as screenwriters, script consultants, script editors, story editors and storyline writers; and as screenwriting educators in universities, colleges and private training and consultancy settings. They represent a rich and diverse dataset for the discovery of new insights into what this chapter argues could be an important and distinctive screenwriting pedagogy.

This article argues that, for Australian comedy series creators, the web platform has opened a new space in which the ‘rules’ of script development are being expanded, enhanced or otherwise refashioned through having direct connection with and input from their audience. With the audience’s potential as a ‘comedy gatekeeper’, the web series audience becomes integral to the ways in which these texts are developed, namely skipping the erstwhile second-guessing of demographic tastes by more traditional broadcast development executives and commissioners. Referring to a range of well-known Australian comedy web series, such as Bondi Hipsters (2011–2017) and The Katering Show (2015–17) – including what their creators, writers and audiences have said about them – we investigate the processes behind the success of these series to argue that a new form of script development has emerged: namely, that development is both facilitated and influenced by the direct line that exists between comedy creators and their viewers. Furthermore, we suggest that through such a collaborative and open-access process of script development, comedy writers and performers might also benefit from an expanded form of talent development. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

© 2018 Intellect Ltd Article. Both a process and a set of products, influenced by policy as well as people, and incorporating objective agendas at the same time as subjective experiences, script development is a core practice within the screen industry –yet one that is hard to pin down and, to some extent, define. From an academic research perspective, we might say that script development is a ‘wicked problem’ precisely because of these complex and often contradictory aspects. Following on from a recent Journal of Screenwriting special issue on script development (2017, vol. 8:3), and in particular an article therein dedicated to reviewing the literature and ‘defining the field’, an expanded team of researchers follow up on those ideas and insights. In this article, then, we attempt to theorize script development as a ‘wicked problem’ that spans a range of themes and disciplines. As a ‘wicked’ team of authors, our expertise encompasses screenwriting theory, screenwriting practice, film and television studies, cultural policy, ethnography, gender studies and comedy. By drawing on these critical domains and creative practices, we present a series of interconnected themes that we hope not only suggests the potential for script development as a rich and exciting scholarly pursuit, but that also inspires and encourages other researchers to join forces in an attempt to solve the script development ‘puzzle’.

This short screenplay casts the screenwriter as investigator of screenplay formatting, through the writing of a script within which she performs this practice. That is to say, the writer uses a creative practice methodology to critique and examine screenplay formatting conventions through screenwriting practice itself. Specifically, she explores the role of the slugline (or scene heading) and the creative possibilities of this element of ‘scene text’ (Sternberg 1997), beyond its practical function in screenwriting and screen production. The writer drinks with authors, theorists and the fabled typing monkeys in her exploration of the slugline as punctuation; asking how it might contribute to rhythm and transitions in screenplays. She considers the slugline in its capacity as ‘extrafictional voice’ (Ingelstrom, 2014) and asks: can sluglines guide editing and mise-en-scene, as Claudia Sternberg suggests of the impersonal narrative voice? Can sluglines be used repetitively (as in songwriting) to reinforce imagery and rhythm? The work critically engages with the traditional INT. and EXT. and also floats a broader question: what might the language of online abbreviations have to offer screenwriting conventions? A subplot sees a cast and crew meet for a table read, putting voice to an industry potentially suspicious of such an endeavour, and providing a playful commentary on the different ways in which the roles within screen production engage with the traditional screenplay.

© Max Schleser, Marsha Berry 2018. In his chapter "Smartphone Screenwriting: Creativity, Technology, and Screenplays-on-the-Go", Craig Batty argues that while technological advances might seemingly be breeding new types of screenwriting practice via apps and digital tools, in fact they are almost exclusively responding to market demands and facilitating existing, rather than inspiring new, practices: "every tool and app is still reliant on what the screenwriter brings to it" (Batty, p. 113, in: Berry and Schleser (eds) Mobile Media Making in an Age of Smartphones. Palgrave, New York, 2014). The question still remains: if technology can determine the type, style and form of screen media being produced (e.g. smartphone filmmaking, the web series), can it also influence the ways these works are written, beyond replicating what happens in the analogue world? How might the capabilities of mobile media shape and enhance the story-making practices of a screenwriter?

By approaching different aspects of screenwriting and its place in the growing field of creative practice research, this paper reflects on our experiences of undertaking PhDs by creative project. We acknowledge the challenges that come with any creative practice research degree, such as generating new knowledge in ways not always easily measured by more traditional rubrics, and are especially interested in the added complexities that arise with screenwriting, a practice with fewer PhD completions to draw from and with an uncertain footing in the fields of both (or neither) creative writing and screen production. In order to come to a better understanding of what it means to write a screenplay in the academy, and more specifically, how a researcher responds to the challenges of framing a screenplay as a research artefact, we posed a series of questions to ignite discussion and debate. Covering topics that range from research design to screenwriting-as-creative-writing, the themes below represent a summary of these questions, collated in a way that we hope will invite further conversations in the field of screenwriting-as-research. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

This article contributes to the emerging body of research on screenwriting practice by drawing together perspectives from industry that reveal an often hidden aspect of the creation of a screen work – script development. Using the same set of interviews that informed a previous work, this article mines those same discussions for insights relating specifically to what is to date a largely unexplored element of screenwriting practice. The perspectives we draw together – from our pool of screenwriters, script editors, script executives and script consultants – serve to both highlight the ambiguity that troubles the term ‘script development’, and also contribute to wider research seeking to define both the concept and the practice for screenwriting scholars and practitioners from an industry outlook. It has been 10 years (at the time of writing) since Peter Bloore wrote of his research that, ‘none of the books available about the film industry and scriptwriting really covered the reality of development [and none] really dealt with the development process as I knew it’. His book is still one of only a few attempts to address this gap in screenwriting research, and so by focussing specifically on the people who experience it, the intention of this article is to try and articulate how we might better understand extant practices of script development Refereed/Peer-reviewed

What does it mean to write the city? And how do you write the city if you live on the streets? This chapter explores the implications of writing (and editing) the city through a collaborative creative project that non/fictionLab at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University has developed in Melbourne in conjunction with STREAT, a social enterprise that provides homeless youth and young people who are experiencing severe disadvantage with supported pathways from living on the street to a sustainable livelihood. As an experiment in applied creative writing, #STREATstories aims to foster a meaningful sense of belonging and connection through the making and distribution of place-based urban stories and poetic expression as a way to create prospects for social change. If we take maps to be representative documents, this case study asks: what is the potential for the act of mapping through a process of collaboration, and the maps themselves, to reconfigure representations of homelessness? Furthermore, if we explore the ways this project might be expanded, transferred and shared, what are the implications for who is represented, how they are represented and how the material outcomes are received by varied audiences? Through facilitating workshops, collecting stories and ‘composing’ the stories into material artefacts, we have explored both the potential for shared storytelling to positively affect participants and their communities—and the potential for applied creative writing to enrich the aims of social enterprise itself.

This article explores ‘the exegesis now’ from the perspective of the screenwriting practice PhD. Using as a playful homage to traditional screenplay structure, the archetypal Hero’s Journey, it maps the landscape and offers examples of how the screenwriting exegesis/dissertation is occurring at RMIT University. This includes a comedy feature film about gender and perspective; a multiple-protagonist feature film set in the world of avid Doctor Who fans; and a hybrid form, the screen novel, set in the politically corrupt world of contemporary Melbourne transport infrastructure. Guided by their supervisor ‘mentor’, two candidates and one recent graduate embark on a collaborative journey that probes, prods, prises open and proposes what the screenwriting practice PhD can do and look like, and by doing so raise important points about the purpose and form of the dissertation. Collectively, the authors assume the simultaneous roles of the candidate who is doing, completing and has completed; the experienced supervisor; and the in-training supervisor.

Through an extensive survey of the field, this article asks, what is script development? How is it defined in industry discourse and in screenwriting scholarship? While definitions of script development can be found across the spectrum of screenwriting and screen production resources, ranging from the instructional guidelines offered by funding bodies to references in the how-to market, the article posits that academic scholarship on the practice is still emerging. As such, this article seeks to establish a platform from which we can both define and conceive of further research into script development - however it might be named, practiced and studied - possibly as a sub-discipline of screenwriting studies and/or central to the study of screenwriting practice. The article brings together extant definitions and documented experiences of script development, to offer a basis from which to discuss both academic and practice-based approaches to the phenomenon. While not suggesting that the practice of script development should be standardized or limited by definition, the article does argue for the importance of investigating the available definitions and identifying the gaps in literature. By seeking out the various angles and overlaps of those researching in this field, the article proposes to begin a conversation and invite further research around what script development is and looks like in various international contexts. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

STREATstories is a storytelling project focused on the artistic activities and interventions of a social enterprise that successfully supports homeless and disadvantaged young people in Melbourne's inner city. The project explores an 'applied creative writing' approach to creative fieldwork, critical perspectives and imaginative inquiry for researchers keen to employ their writing/research skills and interests to matters of social injustice and inequity. This paper goes 'behind the scenes' to uncover the orientation of four collaborators on this creative research project, all of whom come from very different creative practices, and examine what informs their approach - what and how they do what they do as co-creators and what brings them into this collaborative space. Areas of approach and interest range across ideas of friendship and 'lovence', the 'intimacy of failure', notions of 'giving' voice, and the 'collaboration' between artists and materials. The four contributors to this paper explore how these various interests influence the process of collaboration and co-creation as they negotiate 'that simple but enigmatic step, joining hand, eye and mind' (Carter 2004: xiii). Key words: social enterprise; collaboration; applied creative writing; industry partnerships

Script development is a creative, commercial and social process in which ideas, emotions, people and personalities combine, cohere, clash and are contested by the practicalities, policies and rapid movements of the screen industry. It is an activity often controlled by hierarchical and financial powers, yet experienced by individual and usually sensitive practitioners trying to tell their stories to an outside world. Script development is a highly exciting yet potentially very daunting aspect of screen production and in recent times has crept into the university, with academics and academics-in-training developing screenplays for research projects and degrees. In this article we discuss and provide examples of the academy as a site for research based script development, an activity that draws on creative practice research methodologies to find ways of conceiving and executing screenwriting differently. By taking away the commercial constraints of the industry and instead incubating ideas in a research environment, we consider the potential of the screenwriter to use the academy as a space in which their practice can be broadened, deepened, expanded and experimented with. While this practice might sit outside of the industry while in process, we see its results as having the future potential to be used in - or at least valued by - that very industry. As creators, writers, storyliners and script editors of a range of screen works across a range of industry settings, we draw here on our collective screenwriting practice experiences within the academy to focus on the notion of thinking through the screenplay - using research to underpin creative practice, resulting in what we might call an 'academic screenplay' - as a way of writing differently for the screen. Refereed/Peer-reviewed