FAVz085 Introduction into Screenwriting Studies

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2020
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Claus Tieber (lecturer), Mgr. Šárka Jelínek Gmiterková, Ph.D. (deputy)
Mgr. Jitka Lanšperková (assistant)
Mgr. Kateřina Šardická (assistant)
Mgr. Šárka Jelínek Gmiterková, Ph.D. (alternate examiner)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Šárka Jelínek Gmiterková, Ph.D.
Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Patrycja Astrid Twardowska
Supplier department: Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Tue 10. 11. 14:00–15:50 VP, 16:00–17:50 VP, Wed 11. 11. 10:00–11:50 VP, 12:00–13:50 VP, Thu 12. 11. 16:00–17:50 VP, 18:00–19:50 VP
Prerequisites
There are none.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
An overview about the theory, history and practice of screenwriting.
The terminology and basic skills to analyse screenwriting will be taught.
Learning outcomes
After completing the course students will be:
- able to understand the question of authorship vis-a-vis screenplay
- able to compare various locally specific screenwriting histories and methodological approaches
- introduced to various case studies
Syllabus
  • Lecture 1: Screenwriting ontology or: What is a screenplay?
  • The status of the screenplay is the starting point of the discussion about the very nature of the screenplay. Two opposing positions tend to emerge: the screenplay as a type of text that has its own literary value and is therefore worth studying in detail versus the screenplay as a means for the production of film (or any audio-visual media in general) that can give scholars new and different insights to those obtained by reading the film text alone.
  • The two ends of this spectrum also inevitably question authorship: in the literary line the screenwriter finally gets his/her recognition, whereas production studies read development more as a collaborative process, thus countering traditional auteuristic approaches.
  • Lecture 2: Screenwriting historiography
  • As with any other field of research, an understanding of the history of the research object is an essential part and starting point. The history of Hollywood and its American and global alternatives leads us to questions about the relation of modes of production and narratives structures and towards the discourse about the universality of audio-visual storytelling.
  • Lecture 3: Approaches to storytelling
  • The vast distribution of manuals on the one side and narratological approaches on the other, will give an overview about theories and methods to analyse the screenplay as a narrative and dramatic construct.
  • Lecture 4: Screenwriting and the screen industries
  • Screenwriting soon became a profession, a creative labor and an important aspect of production culture. This leads us to the history of the profession including unionization, censorship and the history of the blacklist. Case studies of important screenwriters will be presented.
  • This chapter also include modes of script development in an industrial context and the role of the screenplay as a tool of control and a means of communication within the production process.
  • Lecture 5: Manuals and the discourse of screenwriting: How screenwriting is taught
  • Looking at the international revival of manuals in the late 1970s has seemingly led to a widespread adoption of a “doxa” in teaching practices around the globe.
  • The history, role and functions of screenwriting manuals, screenwriting “gurus” and the institutionalization of screenwriting at universities will be discussed.
  • Lecture 6: Excurse on Music in Screenplays, Conclusions and final Discussion
  • Finally, a case study of screenplays by Walter Reisch will demonstrate how screenwriters shaped films in more than just story and dialogue. The use of music in these screenplays will be analysed in detail and compared with other, international ones. In addition questions of format (one, two and three column) will be discussed.
Literature
    required literature
  • Janet Staiger: Blueprints for Feature Films, in: Balio, Tino: The American Film Industry. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press 1985, pp. 173 – 194
  • Ian Macdonald: Disentagling the Screen Idea, in: Journal of Media Practice 5:2, pp. 89-99, Jan 2014
  • Steven Price: The Screenplay. An Accelerated Critical History. Journal of Screenwriting 4.1, 2013, pp. 87-97
  • Claus Tieber: Stories, Conferences and Manuals, paper 2012 at SIECE conference
  • Steven Maras: Screenwriting. History, Theory and Practice. London: Wallflower 2009 1st chapter: Putting History, Theory and Practice together. pp. 9-26
  • Steven Price: A History of the Screenplay. Basingstoke: Palgrave 2013. Introduction pp. 1-22
Teaching methods
Apart from reading the items on the required reading list students have to watch two films - Devdas (2002, India, dir. Sanjay Leela Bhansali), Little Miss Sunshine (2006, USA, dir.Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris), Die Hard (1988, r. USA, dir. John McTiernan) and The Front (1976, USA, dir. Martin Ritt). All of the films you can find in the study materials (with English subtitles). This course consists of 6 lectures, including film clips and discussions.
All lectures will be taught in the online form through MS Teams. The course will take place in the week of November 9th to 13th. The exact schedule as well as reading list will be provided soon.
The schedule:
Lesson 1 (L1) - Tuesday 10. 11. - 14:00 - 15:50
L2 - Tuesday 10. 11. - 16:00 - 17:50
L3 - Wednesday 11. 11. - 10:00 - 11:50
L4 - Wednesday 11. 11. - 12:00 - 13:50
L5 - Thursday 12. 11. - 16:00 - 17:50
L6 - Thursday 12. 11. - 18:00 - 19:50
Assessment methods
Apart from the compulsory attendance students will have to pass two test. First test is preliminary and it will take place just before the start of the first lecture. With two questions, the test will check the knowledge of the required items from the reading list for the first three lesson. The other test is final, consisting of three questions testing both students' acquaintance with the reading list as well as their knowledge and skills gained throughout the course itself. Ten points maximum can be gathered from both of the test; five points are the necessary minimum in order to pass the course successfully.
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught only once.
Teacher's information
Mag. Dr. Claus Tieber is a principal investigator of a research project about screenwriting and musical numbers at the University of Vienna. He teaches film studies at universities in Vienna, Brno, Kiel and Salamanca. After working as a commissioning editor for TV movies at the Austrian Broadcast Company (ORF) he started to write his Habilitation (post-doc thesis) about the history of the American screenplay (Schreiben für Hollywood: Das Drehbuch im Studiosystem, Münster: Lit Verlag, 2008) and switched from practice to research. His publications include a monograph on storytelling in silent cinema (Stummfilmdramaturgie. Erzählweisen des Amerikanischen Feature Films 1917 – 1927) and an edited volume on film music in silent cinema (The Sounds of Silent Films: New Perspectives on History, Theory and Practice, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillian, 2014, ed. with Anna K. Windisch).
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/autumn2020/FAVz085