Screenwriting theory

A distanza di oltre vent’anni dalla stesura della tesi che ha dato origine a questo volume, il desiderio di tornare a Solaris di Andrej Tarkovskij non nasce solo dalla volontà di pubblicare un lavoro che per molto tempo è rimasto confinato nella sua finalità accademica, ma soprattutto dalla consapevolezza dell’attualità e della profondità del tema centrale che attraversa tanto il film quanto il romanzo di Stanisław Lem: il rapporto tra l’uomo e la tecnologia. All’epoca della mia ricerca, l’interrogativo su cosa distinguesse l’umano dalla macchina era già una questione filosofica ineludibile, ma la sua portata rimaneva confinata in ambiti teorici. Oggi, in un’epoca in cui l’intelligenza artificiale non è più materia di fantascienza, ma una presenza concreta e pervasiva nella nostra quotidianità, il dibattito è entrato in una fase nuova e decisiva: la riflessione proposta da Tarkovskij e Lem assume un significato che non è più solo premonitore, ma urgente.

La tecnologia pensante che interroga l’uomo, lo specchio che non solo riflette, ma amplifica le sue contraddizioni e le sue paure, costituisce il cuore pulsante di un discorso che oggi più che mai ci riguarda da vicino. Solaris è un pianeta che non risponde alle logiche umane, non è né ostile né accogliente, non stabilisce con gli astronauti una relazione lineare di causa ed effetto. Il suo oceano pensante si limita a restituire all’uomo le proprie angosce, riformulandole sotto forma di presenze che sfidano la ragione, fantasmi della memoria che si materializzano in corpi perfettamente tangibili. Questo meccanismo, che nel romanzo di Lem assume i contorni di un esperimento scientifico fallito, nel film di Tarkovskij si trasforma in una parabola filosofica sull’identità umana e sulla possibilità stessa della conoscenza. Oggi, di fronte all’avanzare dell’intelligenza artificiale, Solaris non è più solo una metafora: è una domanda aperta sul futuro del nostro rapporto con il pensiero non umano.

Se l’attualità tematica del film di Tarkovskij rappresenta un motivo per tornare a questo studio, altrettanto significativa è la sua rilevanza metodologica. L’idea fondante, allora come oggi, era quella di lavorare su una critica testuale, ma le circostanze specifiche della vicenda editoriale del film hanno imposto un approccio interdisciplinare che ha abbracciato la filologia, la storia e il giornalismo d’inchiesta. L’indagine si è sviluppata su due livelli: da un lato, l’analisi delle differenze tra il film e il romanzo, mettendo in luce le implicazioni estetiche e filosofiche della trasposizione cinematografica; dall’altro, lo studio delle alterazioni che Solaris ha subito nella sua distribuzione italiana, attraverso il ritrovamento di documenti inediti e testimonianze dirette.

La prima sfida fu quella di comprendere l’impatto dei tagli apportati al testo filmico: in Unione Sovietica, il rapporto conflittuale tra Tarkovskij, uomo di fede cristiana e profondamente religioso, e la burocrazia atea del regime sovietico ha lasciato un segno indelebile sulla sua opera. Una volta ricostruita la genesi dei tagli sovietici, l’indagine si è spostata sulla versione italiana, decurtata di quasi un’ora e ulteriormente compromessa da un doppiaggio che, pur avendo la firma autorevole di Dacia Maraini e Pier Paolo Pasolini, fu condotto in una direzione discutibile, con l’adozione di inflessioni regionalistiche che hanno amplificato il disorientamento prodotto dai tagli alla pellicola. Questi interventi non solo hanno alterato il significato del film, ma hanno anche posto un interrogativo fondamentale: cosa rimaneva ancora comprensibile e coerente di Solaris nella sua forma mutilata? La risposta non poteva che passare attraverso un lavoro di ricostruzione filologica e comparativa, supportato da testimonianze esclusive – tra cui l’intervista a Dacia Maraini riportata integralmente nel testo – e da un’analisi che intreccia la storia culturale, la critica cinematografica e lo studio del testo filmico come opera d’arte.

Ma oggi questa ricerca si arricchisce di una nuova prospettiva. L’avvento dell’intelligenza artificiale ha reso più pressante una riflessione che in Solaris era già presente in nuce: cosa accade quando l’uomo si trova di fronte a un’intelligenza che non può comprendere? Come interagiamo con un’entità che non imita la coscienza umana, ma ne rivela i meccanismi più profondi e spesso irrazionali? Il dibattito contemporaneo sulla coscienza artificiale ci costringe a riformulare le stesse domande che Lem e Tarkovskij avevano posto più di cinquant’anni fa. Se i sistemi di intelligenza artificiale oggi sono in grado di produrre testi, immagini, decisioni e analisi sempre più sofisticate, siamo davvero sicuri che il criterio della “comprensione” sia ancora quello centrale per definire l’intelligenza?

Nel film, il protagonista Chris Kelvin si scontra con l’impossibilità di dare un senso univoco a ciò che vede. I suoi parametri razionali si rivelano inadeguati, e ciò che inizialmente considera un’allucinazione si trasforma in un’esperienza concreta, tangibile. L’intelligenza artificiale oggi pone la stessa sfida: non è più una macchina calcolatrice che esegue operazioni secondo schemi rigidi, ma una forma di elaborazione capace di apprendere, adattarsi, rispondere a sollecitazioni non previste. Se l’oceano di Solaris genera simulacri che sembrano avere autonomia emotiva, non possiamo dire che i modelli avanzati di intelligenza artificiale producano oggi risposte che ci costringono a ridefinire il confine tra umano e artificiale?

L’attualità di questo lavoro risiede proprio in questo approccio: un’indagine che non si limita a raccontare una vicenda storica, ma che si propone come un modello di analisi rigorosa per la comprensione di un testo filmico e, più in generale, di un’opera d’arte. Solaris non è solo un film sulla fantascienza o sulla tecnologia, ma un’opera che interroga il rapporto tra realtà e illusione, tra memoria e identità, tra coscienza e alterità. Oggi, più che mai, queste domande sono essenziali per capire come il nostro rapporto con la tecnologia stia trasformando la nostra percezione del reale.

Questa nuova edizione, che riporta un diverso titolo rispetto all’originale, non è solo una ripubblicazione del lavoro originario, ma un’opera che guarda al presente e al futuro. Integrare l’introduzione di ventiquattro anni fa, qui rielaborata, con questa nuova prefazione vuole offrire al lettore una chiave di lettura attuale, capace di connettere il passato di Tarkovskij e Lem con le sfide del nostro tempo.

Va inoltre ricordato che questa ricerca ha preso forma nell’anno accademico 2000-2001, quando discutevo la mia tesi di laurea in Lettere Moderne presso l’Università “La Sapienza” di Roma. Relatore era il professor Orio Caldiron, titolare della cattedra di Storia e Critica del Cinema; correlatore il professor Flavio De Bernardis; presidente della commissione il professor Pierluigi Petrobelli, ordinario di Storia della Musica presso la Facoltà di Lettere e Socio nazionale dell’Accademia dei Lincei, nonché socio onorario dell’American Musicological Society e della Royal Musical Association. A loro va il mio ringraziamento per aver sostenuto e guidato questa ricerca, che oggi trova nuova luce in un volume pensato per guardare oltre i confini accademici e aprirsi al dialogo con il presente, rileggendo Solaris non solo come un capolavoro cinematografico e letterario, ma come uno specchio che ci interroga ancora oggi, un luogo in cui l’uomo si confronta con l’ignoto – che sia un oceano pensante o un’intelligenza artificiale – e, inevitabilmente, con sé stesso.

Alla 23a edizione dell'Ischia Film Festival abbiamo incontrato uno degli attori italiani più amati dal pubblico Luca Zingaretti ha presentato all'Ischia Film Festival la sua prima regia cinematografica, "La casa degli sguardi" (2024), parlando del suo desiderio di passare dietro la macchina da presa dopo una lunga carriera di attore tra teatro, cinema e televisione, raccontandoci il suo rapporto con Andrea Camilleri e il personaggio che lo ha reso più celebre: il commissario Montalbano.

Il contributo analizza il film Malmkrog (2020) di Puiu nella sua dimensione di riscrittura intersemiotica dell’opera di Vladimir Solov’ev Tri razgovora o
vojne, progresse i konce vsemirnoj istorii, so vključeniem kratkoj povesti ob Antichriste (1900). L’analisi non si limita al rapporto tra pellicola e testo letterario, bensì estende la sua indagine all’ambiente della casa che fa da sfondo all’azione (o meglio, alla mancanza di azione). L’obiettivo è quello di far emergere le somiglianze tra la costruzione del film e la costruzione della forma museo, illuminando così gli aspetti più rilevanti delle dinamiche intertestuali. Una serie di riflessioni visuali – confronti,
ingrandimenti, tagli –, in cui la didascalia diventa strumento metodologico, permette infine di inserire Malmkrog all’interno di una più ampia costellazione artistica.

This paper introduces Screenplay Cinematic Logic (SCL), a mathematical framework for modeling latent film theory behavior in screenplays. The approach separates preference from computation, and thereby enables diagnosis without prescription. Outputs are lightweight, interpretable, traceable, and compatible with LLM classification pipelines. The framework is designed for adaptation across authorial, analytical, and production environments. It supports real-time feedback in screenwriting tools, is adaptable for augmenting editorial and previsualization diagnostics, and can serve as an interpretive layer for studio-specific AI systems without requiring extended retraining. For theorists and academics, it offers a formalized bridge between film theory and contemporary computational practice.

In this textbook, I tried to explain the features of constructing a dramatic plot based on considering the concept of action. In our opinion, six categorical units characterize each character’s action in any work: 1. The character’s original existence; 2. External disturbance; 3. A metastable state resulting from external disturbance impact; 4. The goal the character sets for themselves to overcome the situation; 5. Means by which the character achieve their goal and 6. The end state reached by the hero. By pairwise opposition of these six categorical units, fifteen so-called perspective pairs were composed, in which the categorical unit placed first precedes the opposing unit in work’s real-time. By opposing categorical units in such perspective pairs, a comedic effect can be achieved in the viewer. This happens when the initial psychological attitude of the viewer changes as they watch the actions of a hero endowed with human qualities.

ესაა მასალა დრამატურგიის თეორიის ლექციების კურსისათვის, რომელსაც ვკითხულობდი 1987-2020 წლებში თბილისის სხვადასხვა სახელოვნებო სასწავლებელში. სასარგებლო იქნება მომავალი სცენარისტებისა და დრამატურგებისათვის, ჟურნალისტებისთვის, რეჟისორებისთვის, ოპერატორებისთვის, მემონტაჟეებისთვის, ფოტოგრაფებისთვის და ა. შ.

ესაა დრამატურგიის თეორიის ლექციების კურსის პროგრამა, რომელსაც ვკითხულობდი 1987-2020 წლებში თბილისის სხვადასხვა სახელოვნებო სასწავლებელში. სასარგებლო იქნება მომავალი სცენარისტებისა და დრამატურგებისათვის, ჟურნალისტებისთვის, რეჟისორებისთვის, ოპერატორებისთვის, მემონტაჟეებისთვის, ფოტოგრაფებისთვის და ა. შ. ეპიკური და დრამატურგიული საწყისები ლიტერატურაში.

დრამატურგიის თეორიის ლექციების კურსის მე-2 საკითხი, რომელსაც ვკითხულობდი 1987-2020 წლებში თბილისის სხვადასხვა სახელოვნებო სასწავლებელში. სასარგებლო იქნება მომავალი სცენარისტებისა და დრამატურგებისათვის, ჟურნალისტებისთვის, რეჟისორებისთვის, ოპერატორებისთვის, მემონტაჟეებისთვის, ფოტოგრაფებისთვის და ა. შ. ეპიკური და დრამატურგიული საწყისები ლიტერატურაში.

დრამატურგიის თეორია (პროგრამა) ესაა დრამატურგიის თეორიის ლექციების კურსის პროგრამა, რომელსაც ვკითხულობდი 1987-2020 წლებში თბილისის სხვადასხვა სახელოვნებო სასწავლებელში. სასარგებლო იქნება მომავალი სცენარისტებისა და დრამატურგებისათვის, ჟურნალისტებისთვის, რეჟისორებისთვის, ოპერატორებისთვის, მემონტაჟეებისთვის, ფოტოგრაფებისთვის და ა. შ.

Schmendrick joins the unicorn’s journey.  There are some differences between the scenario and the final film.  Especially, at the encounter with forest bandits, the final film depicts the crow indicating them where Schmendrick is hiding among the branches.
As neither of the scenario or the storyboard mention him, it seems his appearance may have been decided later in the process of the making.

Fin dall'inizio, il cinema ha sempre fatto molto affidamento sugli adattamenti di opere letterarie. Questo saggio discute alcuni importanti problemi nel processo di adattamento. In primo luogo, il fatto che la letteratura e il film sono due diversi "sistemi di segni", ognuno con i suoi modi e mezzi per trasmettere significati ed emozioni. In secondo luogo, il numero di false ipotesi sulla presunta difficoltà, se non impossibilità, del cinema di raccontare storie con la stessa efficacia della parola scritta. In terzo luogo, il problema che per lungo tempo gli adattamenti sono stati valutati sulla base di quanto fossero "fedeli" al testo originale, impedendo così una valutazione dell’adattamento in quanto “nuovo testo” originale e creativo. Infine, il ruolo cruciale del pubblico nella percezione degli adattamenti “in quanto adattamenti,” vale a dire come testi che si riferiscono ad altri testi, in un equilibrio dinamico tra ripetizione e variazione, familiarità e novità, rituale e sorpresa.

spielt in der Filmmusikforschung so wenig eine Rolle wie die Musik in der Drehbuchforschung. 44 Dies ist auf die Produktionspraxis zurückzuführen. Der berühmte Sound Designer Randy Thom beklagt die konventionelle Praxis, die Klanggestaltung als Aufgabe der Postproduktion zu sehen, und plädiert dafür, stattdessen das Sound Design zu einem integralen Bestandteil der Filmproduktion zu machen (vgl. Thom 2019; Thom 2011; Balcita 2007). Nach ihm sollte die klangliche Dimension bereits in der Drehbuchentwicklung einbezogen werden: Considerations relating to sound are almost always deferred until late in post-production because it is assumed that only decisions that relate to the visual aspects of the film are crucial early on, and that sound will follow the visual like a loyal soldier. The result of this delay integrating sound design into the storytelling is that the options in sound become narrower and narrower, fewer and fewer over the course of production as decisions are made and implemented in the other crafts until, by the time it is supposedly »time for sound,« sound finds itself in a creative straight jacket, and can often play little more than a remedial or cosmetic role. […] The radical idea I want to put in front of you is this: Someone who thinks creatively in terms of sound and story should be used as a resource during writing or rewriting on many films. (Thom 2019) 44 Die einzigen Forschungsbeiträge, die mir zu diesem Thema bekannt sind, stammen von Claus Tieber (2019) sowie Tieber und Christina Wintersteller (2020), die sich mit der Beschreibung von Musiknummern bzw. diegetischen Musikaufführungen in den Drehbüchern Walter Reischs befassen.

Here the authors discuss the role of fiction in screenwriting practice research. The screenplays included in the 'Screenplays as Research Artefacts' special issue of TEXT present a range of stories, worlds, characters, visual scenarios and dialogue exchanges that function as vessels for theories and ideas. These eleven screenplays all use creative practice approaches to research across a wide variety of discourses. All of the works embrace fiction as an important method to convey their respective critical concerns, which, the authors argue, evidences an emerging hallmark of screenwriting (as) research when compared with associated forms in the creative writing and screen production disciplines: fiction as a staple of its storytelling, creative practice and research methodology. The authors suggest that the use of fiction to perform research and present findings illuminates the ways that knowledge can be affective, not merely textual or verbal, something that is exemplified in the selected screenplays.

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This project utilises Creative Practice as research. It explores warrior-hero archetypes in the Action genre; creates and includes these archetypes in the original Australian screenplay Behold a Pale Horse; and discusses their influence on the screenplay's development. Together, this creative project and accompanying exegesis seek to interrogate some of the inherent codes, tropes, and conventions associated with the Action genre. Moreover, the exegesis seeks to develop and deliberate on character archetypes derived from myth. It also explores their deep association with concepts and archetypical features within the Western genre-the origin of the Action genre. By using Creative Practice as research, the work consists of a detailed analysis of successful Australian films that have featured attributes of the warrior-hero. This practice-led examination is conceptually critiqued against the work of story theorists such as mythologist Joseph Campbell and screenwriting analyst John Truby. These critiques are used to highlight the nuances of the warrior-hero, their relationship to Campbell's Hero's Journey model, and the necessary components of this archetype's deployment in a screenplay within the Action genre. Tested against the generic origins of the Western genre, and using the Australian Bush Myth as a cultural fabric, this analysis and critique is then deployed in the development of the Creative Practice. Through the paradigm of Australian national cinema, the exegesis examines the Action genre in Australia, alongside previous representations of the warrior-hero in key Hollywood examples. Warrior-hero archetypes explored include the Traveling Angel-hero, the Rogue-hero and the Doomed Warrior-hero, alongside a discussion on their cultural relevance to Australian genre cinema. Therefore, the exegesis also seeks to question the dominant national cinema paradigms through which genre are predominantly judged. These investigations are particularly relevant, since Behold a Pale Horse and its warrior-hero protagonist (simply known as Rider) draw upon a suite of codes, tropes, and conventions that are commonly used in a form of film often considered absent of cultural relevance. Finally, this project illuminates how choices are made in the process of writing the screenplay, and where theoretical discussion can drive the development of Creative Practice.

Palgrave Studies in Screenwriting is the first book series committed to the academic study of screenwriting. It seeks to promote an informed and critical account of screenwriting and of the screenplay with a view to understanding more about the diversity of screenwriting practice and the texts produced. The scope of the series encompasses a range of approaches and topics from the creation and recording of the screen idea, to the processes of production, to the structure that form and inform those processes, to the agents and their discourses that create those texts.

Lives of the Saints is a feature-length, multi-story film screenplay, which explores the obstacles and ethical dilemmas of three protagonists, George, Kristine and Marianne, in their struggle for self actualisation. The screenplay is an example of the siege genre. It is largely structured as a sequential narration but also utilises non-linear narration. The work explores the premise that a saint is one who remains true both to the self and to their responsibilities. The protagonists\u27 journeys begin with the death of a young girl, Rosetta, who has a connection to them all. Each protagonist responds to this event in his/her own way and embarks upon a search for a more satisfying way of life, and for freedom of selfexpression. Middle-aged George explores emerging gender and sexuality issues. Adolescent Kristine finds her faith in God, and in her mother, waning but has nothing to replace them with. Marianne, the driver of the car that killed Rosetta, is initially determined to avoid ...

Looking for the origins of narrative ideas is a difficult yet stimulating challenge that has always put to the test the studies of cultural processes. Understanding how narrative concepts take root in an imagery concerns also Screenwriting Studies and different Histories of Film around the world. Parent-Altier (1997) described screenwriters as artists indifferent to the origin of their ideas and as authors of a “creative magma”, which only following analysts will be able to make out. In some Italian writers’ opinion, dramatic insight comes mysteriously to the artists, since it naturally and unconsciously emerges from the richness of their knowledge and the variety of their experiences. There are exceptions, though, and we can explore some screenwriters’ creative universe thanks to their memoirs (for the Italian context see Incrocci:1990; Pirro: 2011), useful in Screenwriting Studies thanks to the “discourse frame paradigm” (Maras: 2009).
The screenwriter’s inspiration sources can be verified because they are generally rooted in a series of universal parameters set at the heart of the human experience and placed in the cultural traditions. As well as the studies and sources able to testify to some resisting narrative trends inside the history of Italian cinema (Eugeni: 2008), the paper means to stimulate a reflection about the Italian cinema imagery, its ideas and its creative industries in connection with the possibility this imagery has to become global (Aresu: 2020; Peluffo: 2020).
It also means to answer some questions about Italian cinema as seen in the light of “high concept” (Thompson: 1999) and find traces of this notion within the screenwriting practice of Italian movies. So, it intends to highlight broader themes of reflection between film history and screenwriting studies and, above all between theory and practice.

For over three decades, Italian viewers have been convinced that Penny Marshall-directed Big (1988) is a remake of the Italian film Da grande (1987), directed by Franco Amurri: it was released in Italian theatres the previous year and its concept is nearly the same. The truth is, the two films were shot almost simultaneously: therefore, it is logical – as well as documented – that the former could not possibly be inspired by the latter. This is why Italian critics and Film historians have never spoken of plagiarism, rather of "a casual, yet strange thematic resemblance" (Mereghetti 1998).
Big is narratively built according to the high concept formula (Thompson 1999), typical of most American cinema, but almost completely alien to Italian cinema. Yet, it is possible to trace several films definable as "fantasies of displacement" (Corliss 1998) or "magical comedies" (Schwartzbaum 1998) within the Italian landscape, precisely since the 1980s. In fact, a process of globalization of the collective imagination began at the time, creating more and more "elective affinities" between Italy and the United States. This paper will compare the two films by reflecting on the strange intersections between Italy and Hollywood, whereby the same concept may have travelled on parallel tracks during the same time frame.

Before being about visionary authors, craftsmanship and industry, Italian cinema is about ideas. Aristotle stated the primacy of plot (both in its essential structures and in its being summarisable in few words) as the fundamental condition to deliver meaning, emotions and therefore to get a feedback from the audience. By accepting this statement, as well as the studies and sources able to testify to some resisting narrative trends inside the history of Italian cinema, the essay means to explore the effectiveness of the “high concept” notion in our storytelling and film production. By disproving the thesis which refers this notion only to the aesthetic and the business of the Hollywood giant, we argue that a movie can be defined as such thanks to its deep narrative core as well as the sense of familiarity due to the people’s national imagination. Thus, it is possible to find traces of “high concept” within the storytelling tradition of Italian cinema, as well as its screenwriters’ creative workshop. The attempt is suggest how to identify them and answer some questions about Italian movies as seen in the light of “high concept”: which are those movies? Are they isolated cases? Can they be put into a canon? Did they succeed in the critics’ eyes? We also mean to encourage the drawing of a map including already trodden roads as well as new journeys for tomorrow.

The Devil's Redhead, Done for a Dime (a New York Times Notable Book), Blood of Paradise (nominated for numerous awards, including the Edgar), and Do They Know I'm Running? His short fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Mission and Tenth, The Smoking Poet, San Francisco Noir, and Best American Mystery Stories (2009 and 2011). He has taught both online and in classroom settings through the UCLA Extension's Writers' Program, Book Passage, LitReactor, 826 Valencia, The Grotto in San Francisco, and at numerous writing conferences across the United States.

, incumbent President Barack Obama, then embroiled in a contentious election battle with Republican challenger Mitt Romney, made perhaps the most significant rhetorical blunder of his career. Discussing the current state of the American economy, Obama remarked simply, "If you've got a business-you didn't build that," (Larimore). This comment, grossly taken out of context, was hailed by the Republican opposition as proof positive of the President's anti-business, anti-American, government-driven socialist ideology. In truth, however, the president was making a pointed though not terribly controversial statement about the proper, and otherwise agreed-upon, role of government in supporting economic growth by providing essential services, but this was lost in a fog of opportunistic, partisan distortion. Such political theater has little to do with my acknowledgements, except for this sentimental admission: when it comes to my academic success, I am not ashamed to admit that I didn't build that. As my graduate studies conclude, I believe it is necessary to identify and thank certain individuals whose constant support, expertise, and encouragement has been invaluable to the pursuit of this degree. Firstly, several members of the faculty of the University of New Orleans'

This paper investigates the creative aspect ofthe screenwriting process, specifically how writing and image-making could combine from concept through to script format. The question is whether the screenwriter can utilise written language and literature, or the image and artistic processes. This paper therefore involves a two-way interrogation between the written form of language in screenwriting practice as research and the process of writing with digital production tools, or the camera-sty/a, a term coined by Alexander Astruc to describe the primacy of the auteur fi lmmaker and film language. In film studies the use of colour is usually relegated to a design concern visa -vis the mise en scene, and thus is not considered a direct concern of the screenwriter when constructing the screen idea prior to production. The issue, then, is whether colour, and more specifically if the phenomena of colour affect can be utilised by the screenwriter to influence the emotional tone of a visual narrative that is, beyond a merely descriptive or decorative function to bring about narrative shifts within the screenplay. I propose that a considered use of colour has the potential to express, modulate or structure the emotional tone ofthe cinematic screenplay and to express complex inner states ofbeing in narrative terms. If understood for its narrative power, the phenomenology of colour affect in a cross-boundary exploration of literature research, screenwriting practice and animation, could offer a new integrated practice-led approach to the process of screenwriting.

I would particularly like to acknowledge the thoughtful guidance I received from my thesis committee, comprised of Cindy McCreery, whose great enthusiasm for the concept of the pilot was a great encouragement to me, and Stuart Kelban, whose unwavering belief in my abilities led me to constantly seek out ways to improve as a writer. To my cohort, I thank you for your friendship and camaraderie. As a community, we are bound by a love of writing, but as individuals, we harbor diverse perspectives that made every day inside and outside the classroom a dynamic adventure that I won't soon forget.

Welcome to the new edition of the Journal of Science and Technology of the Arts. In this new number, our first from our 13th year, fosters our editorial view of the journal: a thematic dossier – around sound art – that deepens the research on our focus-areas and CITAR's Strategic Plan (2020-2023), as well as works on complimentary sections: the Audiovisual Essays and the Reviews (books, in this issue). JSTA maintains its devotion to research in the fields of artistic research, finding new paths and new ways of researching art. It follows also the strategic guidelines for indexation and metadata support.

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is a Senior Lecturer in writing, editing and publishing at the School of Arts and Communication at the University of Southern Queensland. He has published dozens of scholarly articles and creative works, including, under the pen name D.J. McPhee, three fantasy fiction novels, Waycaller (2016), Keysong (2017) and Oracle (2017). Dallas has also published a number of short scripts in various respected journals. He is special issues editor of TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses, the peak journal for the Creative Writing discipline in Australia. He is convenor of the Scriptwriting as Research Symposium and co-editor of Recovering History through Fact and Fiction: Forgotten Lives (forthcoming, Cambridge Scholars Press). Dallas' study and research intersect with a number of disciplines: creative writing, scriptwriting, publishing and cultural studies. His current research interests are writing for performance, publishing and 'self-making' in cultural practices such as creative writing, reading and theatre.

Il 31 marzo 1968, due giorni prima della première ufficiale a Washington, lo scrittore Arthur C. Clarke e lo staff della MGM restano sconcertati dalla visione dell’attesissimo 2001: A Space Odyssey di Stanley Kubrick. Nonostante Clarke abbia lavorato a lungo alla sceneggiatura insieme al regista, il film è molto diverso da come se lo era immaginato. Le recensioni negative pubblicate dai critici della East Coast sembrano annunciare un disastro e la sera della première del 2 aprile lo scrittore, alla sua prima esperienza come screenwriter, è visto uscire dal cinema in lacrime. Dopo poche settimane, però, i peggiori pronostici vengono ribaltati e grazie ai critici californiani, e al giovane pubblico di Los Angeles che sembra amarlo, il film inizia una marcia trionfale che lo isserà tra i più celebrati della storia del cinema.
Il 24 aprile, quando ormai è chiaro che il film è avviato a diventare un successo mondiale, Clarke riceve una lettera da Howard Koch, uno dei grandi sceneggiatori hollywoodiani degli anni ‘40, che gli comunica quanto lui e George Pal condividano la sua delusione per 2001, che Koch definisce “freddo, disumano ed esangue". Clarke è d’accordo ma chiede a Koch di tenere per sé questo giudizio, almeno per un po’. Anche la sua carriera è a una svolta.
Come mai nei giorni del successo di Kubrick emerge la complicità tra il popolare scrittore britannico, il regista ungherese famoso per The Time Machine e lo sceneggiatore di Casablanca? La riposta è all’interno dei George Pal Papers contenuti nella Charles E. Young Research Library della UCLA, che rivelano – argomento di questo intervento – come nel luglio 1965 la MGM contemporaneamente a 2001 stava ancora lavorando a un vecchio progetto, Childhood’s End, tratto da un altro romanzo di Clarke. Un film “concorrente”, che può essere ricostruito consultando soprattutto le due versioni della sceneggiatura scritte da Koch. Un film che, qualora realizzato, avrebbe raccontato un’altra storia. Un altro futuro possibile.

A consistent challenge within the design fields is the identification of appropriate research methodologies. The issue of representation has few precedents in other fields; it is unique to design and can be used as a research tool. In this paper, we will discuss the use of representation as a research tool to investigate and express a sense of place in the early stages of urban context analysis. Human experience always occurs in a place and our memory of any experience is always place-specific. Emotional response is intrinsic to place experience and place memory. The emotive place captured in life stories is what contains the meaning of place that needs to be responded to by architecture. Life stories evidence significant urban paths, collective rituals, views, the relevance of no-longer existing buildings and qualities of a place in general. In the case study presented in this paper emotive space evident from life stories analysis, typically expressed in a written form was represen...

Welcome to the new edition of the Journal of Science and Technology of the Arts. In this new number, our first from our 13th year, fosters our editorial view of the journal: a thematic dossier – around sound art – that deepens the research on our focus-areas and CITAR's Strategic Plan (2020-2023), as well as works on complimentary sections: the Audiovisual Essays and the Reviews (books, in this issue). JSTA maintains its devotion to research in the fields of artistic research, finding new paths and new ways of researching art. It follows also the strategic guidelines for indexation and metadata support.

When screenwriter and doctoral candidate, Anthony Mullins, first started studying Konstantin Stanislavsky’s ‘system’ of performance and script analysis, he hoped the well-known acting technique would be a useful tool for screenwriters. Mullins assumed that because Stanislavsky’s technique analysed all the characters of a story (not just the protagonist) it would naturally be a more detailed approach than conventional techniques like the ‘three-act structure’. It also appeared that Stanislavsky’s ‘system’ had the added advantage of being familiar to actors, the very people who would eventually bring the screenplay to life. However, as Mullins began adapting Stanislavsky’s techniques to his screenwriting process he found it was instead counter-productive, particularly in how it mirrored many of the prescriptive limitations of the ‘three-act structure’. Further research of Stanislavsky’s late-career techniques revealed his wariness of “over-analysis” and the embrace of more intuitive and little-known improvisational techniques, referred to by Stanislavsky as ‘active analysis’. The research centres on the creation of three original TV drama pilot scripts and the Stanislavsky-influenced techniques Mullins used to create the screenplays.

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' (Batty et al 2017), an expanded team of researchers follow up on those ideas and insights. In this article, then, we attempt to theorise 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 2 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'.

Textual and content data were extracted from the pilot episode scripts of 183 new, dramatic television series and used to predict the 18-49 demo ratings for the first five episodes of each series’ first season. As expected, the originality of a series’ premise, the track record of success of the its creator(s), and the cognitive complexity of its pilot episode script each explain a statistically significant proportion of the variance in the Nielsen ratings over the first five episodes.

In this study we develop an empirical model to explain failure rates of new television series. Specifically, we test the ability of three factors to predict the success of new dramatic series appearing on 31 cable networks over the last 10 years. Those factors are the originality of the story, the track record of its creator(s), and the cognitive complexity of its pilot episode script—all of which are known well in advance of a network’s decision to greenlight a new series. As predicted, we find that all three variables—both individually and in combination—strongly predict the success rate of new dramatic series in their first two seasons.

In this paper I apply a novel method of network text analysis to a sample of 150 original screenplays. That sample is divided evenly between unproduced, original screenplays (n = 75) and those that were nominated for Best Original Screenplay by either the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences or by major film critics associations (n = 75). As predicted, I find that the text networks derived from unproduced screenplays are significantly less complex, i.e. they contain fewer concepts (nodes) and statements (links). Unexpectedly, I find that those same networks are more cohesive, i.e. they exhibit higher density and coreness.

The paper discusses the ideas that are driving Creative Practice Research as a new approach in the arts where research initiates in practice, moves to theory, criticism and history, and then reverts to practice with insights that can be beneficial to other practitioners in that discipline/area. It elaborates research methodologies, its approach to the creation of new knowledge and the challenges it pose to traditional humanities research within the strictures and structures of universities. The approach is illustrated through the case study of a screenwriting thesis.

L’attore ha a che fare con le parole: le “maneggia” fino a farle proprie. Il linguaggio verbale può però trasformarsi in una specie di inferno che risponde al nome di testo e per gli aspiranti attori costituisce spesso uno scoglio non facile da superare. Chi recita non sempre riesce a destreggiarsi nei meandri dei testi scritti di notevole complessità che costituiscono il suo repertorio. Nel caso delle performance dal vivo poi, ai problemi di lettura e comprensione si possono aggiungere quelli legati all’imbarazzo di leggere ad alta voce e di fronte agli altri, alla paura dell’uditorio, al fastidio per la propria voce, all’ansia da prestazione. Questo manuale nasce perciò per aiutare gli attori ad affrontare i testi. E parte da due presupposti: per arrivare a un’interpretazione brillante bisogna reimparare a leggere; per reimparare a leggere serve l’uso del corpo, perché senza specifici gesti legati al discorso non si può interpretare in maniera davvero efficace dal punto di vista sia cognitivo che comunicativo. Attraverso riflessioni, principi linguistici ed esercizi, Leggere con il corpo propone un’efficace tecnica di lettura ad alta voce. Per gli allievi attori il percorso proposto sarà un modo progressivo e organico di esercitarsi, per gli attori professionisti un nuovo punto di vista (ad esempio sul funzionamento delle intonazioni e su come trovare quelle più pertinenti al materiale linguistico che si ha di fronte) e per gli insegnanti, non solo di recitazione, un possibile approccio per risolvere le eventuali difficoltà e resistenze degli studenti. Non da ultimo, il libro potrà rivelarsi strumento utile e appassionante per chiunque desideri migliorare la propria capacità di leggere ad alta voce.

Multimedia applications are gaining popularity over smart devices. + haring and using multimedia contents among multiple devices is a hot issue in +-screen environment. In this paper, we are going to investigate how the same stream can be shared by distinct bit rates devices and how several streams can be managed to different devices. We propose control architecture of group communication using + roup Information Control + erver (+ IC+) and + roup + gent (+ +) that assure the delivery of contents to the different bit rates devices on addition or deletion in +-screen environment. In our architecture, the + + is responsible to chec+ the receiving capabilities of a new device with already stream receiving devices whether to group this device with the stream receiving devices or delete some device from the group and group with the new device and start a separate stream. We present results that show our proposed architecture improves networ+ throughput and reduces streaming server load.

Nell'analisi di una struttura narrativa di un film, non sempre è saggio adottare un unico paradigma e trascurare le altre possibilità. Difatti è molto probabile, soprattutto nel cinema contemporaneo, che la struttura risponda a più paradigmi o, perfino, riveli alcuni tratti di uno piuttosto che di un altro.

In this study we develop an empirical model to explain failure rates of new television series. Specifically, we test the ability of three factors to predict the success of new dramatic series appearing on 31 cable networks over the last 10 years. Those factors are the originality of the story, the track record of its creator(s), and the cognitive complexity of its pilot episode script—all of which are known well in advance of a network’s decision to greenlight a new series. As predicted, we find that all three variables—both individually and in combination—strongly predict the success rate of new dramatic series in their first two seasons.

Upon film premiere, a major form of speculation concerns the relative success of the film. This relativity is in particular regards to the film’s original budget – as many a time have “big-budget blockbusters” been met with exceptional success as met with abject failure. So how does one predict the success of an upcoming film? In this paper, we explored a vast array of film data in an attempt to develop a model that could predict the expected return of an upcoming film. The approach to this development is as follows: First, we began with the MovieLens dataset [2] having common movie attributes alongwith genome tags per each film. Genome tags give insight into what particular characteristics of the film are most salient. We then included additional features regarding film content, cast/crew, audience perception, budget, and earnings from TMDB, IMDB, and Metacritic websites. Next, we performed exploratory data analysis and engineered awide range of new features capturing historical in...

Actors frequently misunderstand the work of Konstantin Stanislavsky. A rediscovery of the Russian master by Australian actors is made and a few ways are suggested that screenwriters can use his techniques to heighten the dramatic impact of their stories.

When screenwriter and doctoral candidate, Anthony Mullins, first started studying Konstantin Stanislavsky’s ‘system’ of performance and script analysis, he hoped the well-known acting technique would be a useful tool for screenwriters. Mullins assumed that because Stanislavsky’s technique analysed all the characters of a story (not just the protagonist) it would naturally be a more detailed approach than conventional techniques like the ‘three-act structure’. It also appeared that Stanislavsky’s ‘system’ had the added advantage of being familiar to actors, the very people who would eventually bring the screenplay to life. However, as Mullins began adapting Stanislavsky’s techniques to his screenwriting process he found it was instead counter-productive, particularly in how it mirrored many of the prescriptive limitations of the ‘three-act structure’. Further research of Stanislavsky’s late-career techniques revealed his wariness of “over-analysis” and the embrace of more intuitive a...