Robert De Niro at Work is the first critical study to examine how Robert de Niro, perhaps the finest screen actor of his generation, works with screenplays to imagine, prepare and denote his performance. In categorising the various ways in which De Niro works with a screenplay, this book will re-examine the relationship between actor and text. This book considers the screenplay as above all a working document and a material object, present at every stage of the filmmaking process. The working screenplay goes through various iterations in development and exists in many versions on set, each adapted and personalised for the specific use of the individual and their role. As the archive reveals, nobody works more closely with the script than the actor, and no actor works more on a script than De Niro.

Off the Page examines the business and craft of screenwriting in the era of media convergence. Bernardi and Hoxter use the recent history of screenwriting labor coupled with close analysis of the screenwriting para-industry-from "how to write a winning script" books to screenwriting software-to explore the state of screenwriting throughout the US media industries. They address the conglomerate studios making tentpole movies, expanded television, Indiewood, independent animation, microbudget scripting, the video games industry, and online content creation. This book is designed to be used by students and writers who want to understand what studios want and why they want it, but also how scripting is developing in the convergent media, beneath and beyond the Hollywood tent-pole. By addressing specific genres old and new, across a wide range of media, this essential volume sets the standard for anyone in the expanded screenwriting industry and the scholars that study it.

Each time a border is crossed there are cultural, political, and social issues to be considered. Applying the metaphor of the 'border crossing' from one temporal or spatial territory into another, Border Crossing: Russian Literature into Film examines the way classic Russian texts have been altered to suit new cinematic environments. In these essays, international scholars examine how political and economic circumstances, from a shifting Soviet political landscape to the perceived demands of American and European markets, have played a crucial role in dictating how filmmakers transpose their cinematic hypertext into a new environment. Rather than focus on the degree of accuracy or fidelity with which these films address their originating texts, this innovative collection explores the role of ideological, political, and other cultural pressures that can affect the transformation of literary narratives into cinematic offerings.

The original screenplay, The Gardener's Son, is the tale of two families: the wealthy Greggs, who own the local cotton mill, and the McEvoys, a family of mill workers beset by misfortune. Two years ago, Robert McEvoy was involved in an accident that led to the amputation of his leg. Consumed by bitterness and anger, he quit his job at the mill and fled. Now, news of his mother's terminal illness brings Robert home. What he finds on his return stokes the slow burning rage he carries within him, a fury that ultimately consumes both the McEvoys and the Greggs. This taut, riveting drama was Cormac McCarthy's first written screenplay. Directed by Richard Pearce, it was produced as a two-hour film in 1976 and received two Emmy Award nominations. This is the first UK publication of the film script in book form.

Die literaturwissenschaftliche Studie widmet sich den Werken des oesterreichischen Schriftstellers Robert Musil (1880-1942) und des israelischen Filmemachers Amos Gitai (*1950). Die Analyse erbringt erstmalig den Nachweis, dass sich Gitai in seinen Filmen mit dem beruhmten Musilschen Moeglichkeitsdenken auseinandersetzt. Vor dem aktuellen Hintergrund des Israel-Palastina-Konfliktes wird der Moeglichkeitssinn dabei als innovatives und visionares Modell erkennbar, das sich sowohl in ethischer, in medienphilosophischer und letztlich auch in aktuell-politischer Hinsicht als Transmedium einer beweglichen kritischen Praxis auszeichnet.

This is the first book to critically examine the recruitment and working practices of screenwriters. Drawing on interviews with screenwriters and those that employ them, Natalie Wreyford provides a deep and detailed understanding of entrenched gender inequality in the UK film industry and answers the question: what is preventing women from working as screenwriters? She considers how socialised recruitment and gendered taste result in exclusion, and uncovers subtle forms of sexism that cause women's stories and voices to be discounted. Gender Inequality in Screenwriting Work also reveals the hidden labour market of the UK film industry, built on personal connections, homophily and the myth of meritocracy. It is essential reading for students and scholars of gender, creative industries, film and cultural studies, as well as anyone who wants to understand why women remain excluded from many key roles in filmmaking.

This volume explores how to engage audiences both beyond and within the academy more deeply in environmental research through arts-based forms. It builds on a multi-pronged case study of scripts for documentary film, audio-visual and stage formats, focusing on how the identity of a place is constructed and contested in the face of environmental concerns around fossil-fuel extraction in a globalized, visual society--and specifically on the rising, international public-relations war over Alberta's stewardship of the tar sands. Each script is followed by discussion of the author's choices of initiating idea, research sources, format, voices, world of the story, structure and visual style, and other notes on the convergence of synthesis, analysis and (re)presentation in the script. Included are lively analysis and commentary on screenwriting and playwriting theory, the creation and dissemination of the scripts, and reflections to ground a proposed framework for writing eco-themed scripts for screen, audio-visual and stage formats.

This book offers the first comprehensive discussion of the relationship between Modern Irish Literature and the Irish cinema, with twelve chapters written by experts in the field that deal with principal films, authors, and directors. This survey outlines the influence of screen adaptation of important texts from the national literature on the construction of an Irish cinema, many of whose films because of cultural constraints were produced and exhibited outside the country until very recently. Authors discussed include George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Liam O'Flaherty, Christy Brown, Edna O'Brien, James Joyce, and Brian Friel. The films analysed in this volume include THE QUIET MAN, THE INFORMER, MAJOR BARBARA, THE GIRL WITH GREEN EYES, MY LEFT FOOT, THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, THE SNAPPER, and DANCING AT LUGHNASA. The introduction features a detailed discussion of the cultural and political questions raised by the promotion of forms of national identity by Ireland's literary and cinematic establishments.

McGee studies historical representation in commodified, popular cinema as expressions of historical truths that more authentic histories usually miss and argues for the political and social significance of mass culture through the interpretation of four recent big-budget movies: Titanic, Gangs of New York, Australia, and Inglourious Basterds .

Women Screenwriters is a study of more than 300 female writers from 60 nations, from the first film scenarios produced in 1986 to the present day. Divided into six sections by continent, the entries give an overview of the history of women screenwriters in each country, as well as individual biographies of its most influential.

This study provides the first book-length critical history of storyboarding, from the birth of cinema to the present day and beyond. It discusses the role of storyboarding in key films including Gone with the Wind , Psycho and The Empire Strikes Back , and is illustrated with a wide range of images.

In Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting (1979), Syd Field first popularized the Three-Act Paradigm of Setup, Confrontation and Resolution for conceptualizing and creating the Hollywood screenplay. For Field, the budding screenwriter needs a clear screenplay structure, one which includes two well-crafted plot points, the first at the end of Act I, the second at the end of Act II. By focusing on the importance of the four essentials of beginning and end, and the two pivotal plot points, Field did the Hollywood film industry an enormous service. Nonetheless, although he handles the issue of overall structure expertly, Field falls down when offering the screenwriter advice on how to successfully build each of the three individual Acts. This is because Field did not recognize the importance of another layer of analysis that underpins the existence of plot points. This is the level of the plot genotype.This book will offer you a richer theory of plot structure than the one Field outlines. It will do this not by contradicting anything Field has to say about the Hollywood paradigm, but by complementing it with a deeper level of analysis. Plot genotypes are the compositional schemas of particular stories. They are sets of instructions, written in the language of the plot function, for executing particular plots. This book outlines the plot genotypes for The Frog Prince, The Robber Bridegroom, Puss-in-Boots, and Little Red Riding Hood and then shows how these genotypes provide the underpinnings for the film screenplays of Pretty Woman, Wrong Turn, The Mask, and Psycho. By means of a detailed study of these four Hollywood screenplays, you will be able to offer a much richer description of what is going on at any particular point in a screenplay. In this way, you will become much sharper at understanding how screenplays work. And you will become much better at learning how to write coherent screenplays yourself.

An imagination of possibilities, of miscalculations, of futures off-kilter "Probability is a chimera, its head is true, its tail a suggestion. Futurologists attempt to compel the head to eat the tail (ouroboros). Here, though, we will try to wag the tail." -Vilem Flusser Two years after his Vampyroteuthis Infernalis, the philosopher Vilem Flusser engaged in another thought experiment: a collection of twenty-two "scenarios for the future" to be produced as computer-generated media, or technical images, that would break the imaginative logjam in conceiving the social, political, and economic future of the universe. What If? is not just an "impossible journey" to which Flusser invites us in the first scenario; it functions also as a distorting mirror held up to humanity. Flusser's disarming scenarios of an Anthropocene fraught with nightmares offer new visions that range from the scientific to the fantastic to the playful and whimsical. Each essay reflects our present sense of understanding the world, considering the exploitation of nature and the dangers of global warming, overpopulation, and blind reliance on the promises of scientific knowledge and invention. What If? offers insight into the radical futures of a slipstream Anthropocene that have much to do with speculative fiction, with Flusser's concept of design as "crafty" or slippery, and with art and the immense creative potential of failure versus reasonable, "good" computing or calculability. As such, the book is both a warning and a nudge to imagine what we may yet become and be.

"Looking for Eric" is a magical, social realist film about a football fanatic postman on the verge of a nervous breakdown who finds a very special life-coach in the guise of his hero, Eric Cantona. Eric the postman is slipping through his own fingers - His chaotic family, his wild stepsons, and the cement mixer in the front garden don't help, but it is Eric's own secret that drives him to the brink. Can he face Lily, the woman he once loved thirty years ago? Despite outrageous efforts and misplaced goodwill from his football fan mates, Eric continues to sink. In desperate times it takes a spliff and a special friend from foreign parts to challenge a lost postman to make that journey into the most perilous territory of all - the past. As the Chinese, and one Frenchman, say, 'He who is afraid to throw the dice, will never throw a six.' This title features the full screenplay, including extra scenes, sixteen pages of colour photographs, plus introductions from Paul Laverty, Ken Loach, Eric Cantona and production notes from the cast and crew.

If there is one skill that separates the professional screenwriter from the amateur, it is the ability to rewrite successfully. From Jack Epps, Jr., the screenwriter of Top Gun, Dick Tracy, and The Secret of My Success, comes a comprehensive guide that explores the many layers of rewriting. In Screenwriting is Rewriting, Epps provides a practical and tested approach to organizing notes, creating a game plan, and executing a series of focused passes that address the story, character, theme, structure, and plot issues. Included are sample notes, game plans, and beat sheets from Epps' work on films such as Sister Act and Turner and Hooch. Also featured are exclusive interviews with Academy Award (R) winning screenwriters Robert Towne (Chinatown) and Frank Pierson (Dog Day Afternoon), along with Academy Award (R) nominee Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich).

The Big Lebowski begins with a case of mistaken identity which escalates when Jeffrey Lebowski, alias The Dude, attempts to seek recompense for the despoliation of his cheap old hallway rug, and then finds himself entangled in a kidnapping caper as a bagman—a situation that goes from bad to worse due to the interference of his hapless bowling partners. In this typically smart, funny, engaging, and well-written film, the Coen brothers give the world of Raymond Chandler a decidedly postmodern spin, while at the same time leaving Philip Marlowe's ethos intact as The Dude wanders through the fractured Los Angeles of the 1990s trying to do the right thing. Like the brothers' award-winning Fargo, The Big Lebowski is suffused with a droll humor and a verbal felicity that are both delightful and startling.

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.

Screenwriting in a Digital Era examines the practices of writing for the screen from early Hollywood to the new realism. Looking back to prehistories of the form, Kathryn Millard links screenwriting to visual and oral storytelling around the globe, and explores new methods of collaboration and authorship in the digital environment.

This unique book explores the social processes which shape fictional representations of police and crime in television dramas. Exploring ten leading British and European police dramas from the last twenty-five years, Colbran, a former scriptwriter, presents a revealing insight into police dramas, informed by media and criminological theory.

Though screenwriting is an essential part of the film production process, in Britain it is yet to be fully recognised as a form in itself. In this original study, Jill Nelmes brings the art of screenwriting into sharp focus, foregrounding the role of the screenwriter in British cinema from the 1930s to the present day. Drawing on otherwise unseen drafts of screenplays, correspondence and related material held in the Special Collections of the BFI National Archive, Nelmes's close textual analysis of the screenplay in its many forms illuminates both the writing and the production process. With case studies of a diverse range of key writers - from individuals such as Muriel Box, Robert Bolt and Paul Laverty, to teams such as the Carry On writers - Nelmes exposes the depth and breadth of this thriving field.