04 The “A Film By” Problem from Why I Created a History of Screenwriting Course [Video] (0:52)

A clip from my presentation at the 11th Annual Screenwriting Research Network conference. Held on the campus of the beautiful Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan.

Watch the entire presentation 

04 The

In the presentation, I covered the reasons writers have been marginalized – and the reasons they oughtn’t to be so disrespected. Then I talked about how my course works, what books I assign, what guest speakers I invite, what research the students do – and ended on a high note by introducing ‘When Women Wrote Hollywood’ – the book of essays from our inaugural class which has now been published by McFarland.

Transcript:

You’ll notice in this particular poster it’s Frank Capra’s film and we have to really down here to see who wrote the movie right? Who broke the movie is this marvelous couple Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, a married couple who wrote for 50 years together. They wrote the play and the film version of The Diary of Anne Frank. They won a Pulitzer Prize for that. Capra never won a Pulitzer Prize. Why is that Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life? Explain that to me. I don’t like that. They also adapted the Thin Man films which were highly successful and there’s a book about them which is lovely but much less read than the biography of Frank Capra. There is a Capra story that I tell my students it may be anecdotal but Robert Riskin — who wrote many of Capra’s best films and won Academy Awards in his life — was said to have heard often Frank Capra say “I have the Capra touch”. It makes the movies beautiful and one day Riskin handed in 200 blank pages said put your fucking touch on that! Excuse the Americanism but seriously Riskin in the man who made all those films. Why is it we are not talking about him?

Watch the entire presentation

Subscribe to Rosanne Welch, Ph.D on YouTube

 

Buy a signed copy of when Women Wrote Hollywood

Paperback Edition | Kindle Edition | Google Play Edition

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library

Amy Banks presents on Screenwriter Jane Murfin via Instagram

Amy Banks presents on Screenwriter Jane Murfin via Instagram

Amy Banks presents on Screenwriter Jane Murfin

How Women Wrote Hollywood Book Reading and Signing, Skylark Bookshop @skylarkbookshop , Columbia, Missouri during the Citizen Jane Film Festival 


When Women Wrote Hollywood Book Reading and Signing, Skylark Bookshop, Columbia, Missouri

On Saturday, November 3rd, 2018 several of the contributors to When Women Wrote Hollywood gathered at the Skylark Bookshop in Columbia, Missouri for a signing and launch party that functioned like a mini-reunion of the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting Class of 2017.

Many thanks to all who came to hear them each speak with passion about the research subjects who became whole chapters in this book of essays on female screenwriters from the Silent Era into the 1940s.

Check it out!

Video: When Women Wrote Hollywood Book Reading and Signing, Skylark Bookshop, Columbia, Missouri

 

Buy a signed copy of when Women Wrote Hollywood

Paperback Edition | Kindle Edition | Google Play Edition

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library.
Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library

Jennifer Anne Martin presents on Julie Plec via Instagram

Jennifer Anne Martin presents on Julie Plec via Instagram

Jennifer Anne Martin presents on Julie Plec

Watching several current and alumni students of the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting who shared their research on female screenwriters with professional presentations at the Citizen Jane Film Festival in a panel titled: Frank and Funny Female Screenwriters Who Should Be More Famous”. @citizenjanefilmfestival 

Instagram and Follow

Review: When Women Wrote Hollywood via Offscreen

Another wonderful and well-detailed review of When Women Wrote Hollywood came out today, written by film historian Elaine Lennon and appearing in Offscreen, the longest running monthly online film journal.

Check it out!

Review: When Women Wrote Hollywood
Offscreen

This new collection of 24 essays on women screenwriters offers fascinating insights into early Hollywood and beyond. Editor Rosanne Welch (herself a screenwriter) set her Stephens College MFA History of Screenwriting students a task: to outline the achievements of those screenwriters who have been systematically erased from the majority of film studies. The foreword by film historian Cari Beauchamp sets the tone in the first sentence, reminding us that “almost half of all films made before 1925 were written by women” (1). This volume is a sparky assemblage which not only acts as a corrective to conventional screenwriting historiography, it highlights careers which were multi-faceted, wide-ranging and virtually Renaissance in their scope.

Read the entire review

Buy a signed copy of when Women Write Hollywood

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library

28 Comics and Festivals from How the Monkees Changed Television [Video] (1:00)

What this entire presentation — How The Monkees Changed Television with Rosanne Welch, PhD (Complete Presentation and Q&A) [Video] (45:06)

28 Comics and Festivals from How the Monkees Changed Television [Video] (1:00)

Rosanne Welch, PhD, Author of Why The Monkees Matter, presents “How The Monkees Changed Television” at a Cal State Fullerton Lunch Lecture on May 8, 2018.

In this talk, she shows how The Monkees, and specifically their presence on television, set the stage for large changes to come in the late 1960s.

 

Transcript

They also had their own comic book and comic books are cool. We always love a comic book. So that means you’re you’ve seeped into the culture at the moment. Peter Tork was at the Monterey Pop Festival and at one point they asked him to quiet the crowd down because a rumor came that the Beatles were there and they weren’t and people were getting agitated that they’d been lied to and they asked Peter Tork to stand up while the Grateful Dead were performing, interrupt the show, and say I just need for you all to calm down and they listened to Peter. He was that important that he could shut the crowd up at a rock festival right an early version of Coachella. So I think that’s pretty cool. Hirschfeld if you know anything about Broadway musicals and Broadway performance Al Hirschfeld does drawings of all the famous people in New York. For TV Guide he did this drawing of the Monkees in 1966. So they were important enough for Hirschfeld to do a drawing of them which is pretty cool.


 Buy Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture

 

A hit television show about a fictitious rock band, The Monkees (1966-1968) earned two Emmys–Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directorial Acheivement in Comedy.

Capitalizing on the show’s success, the actual band formed by the actors, at their peak, sold more albums than The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined, and set the stage for other musical TV characters from The Partridge Family to Hannah Montana. In the late 1980s, the Monkees began a series of reunion tours that continued into their 50th anniversary.

This book tells the story of The Monkees and how the show changed television, introducing a new generation to the fourth-wall-breaking slapstick created by Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers.

Its creators contributed to the innovative film and television of 1970s with projects like Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Laugh-In and Welcome Back, Kotter. Immense profits from the show, its music and its merchandising funded the producers’ move into films such as Head, Easy Riderand Five Easy Pieces.

McFarland (Direct from Publisher) | Amazon | Kindle Edition | Nook Edition

Want to use “Why The Monkees Matter” in your classroom?

Order Examination Copies, Library and Campus Bookstore orders directly from McFarland

McFarland Company logo

When Women Wrote Hollywood – Jane Murfin – 44 in a series

To highlight the wonderful yet largely forgotten work of a collection of female screenwriters from the early years of Hollywood (and as a companion to the book, When Women Wrote Hollywood) we will be posting quick bits about the many films they wrote along with links to further information and clips from their works which are still accessible online. Take a few moments once or twice a week to become familiar with their names and their stories. I think you’ll be surprised at how much bold material these writers tackled at the birth of this new medium. — Rosanne Welch

When Women Wrote Hollywood – Jane Murfin – 44 in a series

When Women Wrote Hollywood - Jane Murfin – 44 in a series

Jane Murfin (October 27, 1884 – August 10, 1955) was an American playwright and screenwriter. The author of several successful plays, she wrote some of them with actress Jane Cowl—most notably Smilin’ Through (1919), a sentimental fantasy that was adapted three times for motion pictures. In Hollywood Murfin became a popular screenwriter whose credits include What Price Hollywood? (1932), for which she received an Academy Award nomination. In the 1920s she wrote and produced films for her dog Strongheart, the first major canine star. — Wikipedia

Watch clips from “What Price Hollywood”

More about Bella and Sam Spewack


Buy a signed copy of when Women Wrote Hollywood

Paperback Edition | Kindle Edition | Google Play Edition

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library.
Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library

Ready for the book signing! Step right up! via Instagram

Ready for the book signing! Step right up! via Instagram

Ready for the book signing! Step right up!

How Women Wrote Hollywood Book Reading and Signing, Skylark Bookshop @skylarkbookshop , Columbia, Missouri during the Citizen Jane Film Festival 


When Women Wrote Hollywood Book Reading and Signing, Skylark Bookshop, Columbia, Missouri

On Saturday, November 3rd, 2018 several of the contributors to When Women Wrote Hollywood gathered at the Skylark Bookshop in Columbia, Missouri for a signing and launch party that functioned like a mini-reunion of the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting Class of 2017.

Many thanks to all who came to hear them each speak with passion about the research subjects who became whole chapters in this book of essays on female screenwriters from the Silent Era into the 1940s.

Check it out!

Video: When Women Wrote Hollywood Book Reading and Signing, Skylark Bookshop, Columbia, Missouri

 

Buy a signed copy of when Women Wrote Hollywood

Paperback Edition | Kindle Edition | Google Play Edition

 

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library.
Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library

Quote from “America’s Forgotten Founding Father” by Dr. Rosanne Welch – 39 in a series – Prisoners

Learn more about the American Revolution through the eyes of an important, Italian Immigrant, Filippo Mazzei.
Read his story today!

Quote from

 ““Just the other day General Washington sent a letter to General Howe,” Filippo began. “demanding respectable treatment for our Colonel or we’d do the same by their Brigadier-General, man by the name of Prescott.”

“Washington’d prefer trading ‘em to having to keep ‘em,” clearly the barkeep also liked being the most informed man in the room, and didn’t like the idea that Filippo bested him with the most current news.”

 From America’s Forgotten Founding Father — Get Your Copy Today!


Join the Rosanne Welch Mailing List for future book and event announcements!
 

Order an autographed copy of America’s Forgotten Founding Father

Print Edition | Kindle Edition | Apple iBooks Edition | Nook Edition

Also from the Mentoris Project

Want to use these books in your classroom? Contact the Mentoris Project!`

My essay, “As Silent as ABC” appears in New Collection on Buffy The Vampire Slayer [Writing]

Once again I’m honored to be included in one of ATB Publishing’s pop culture collections, this one focused on perhaps my favorite TV series to teach:  Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 

Rosanne's essay

Buy your copy today!

OUTSIDE IN TAKES A STAB: 139 New Perspectives on 139 Buffy Stories by 139 Writers

Among the 139 essays covering all 139 episodes included in Outside In Takes a Stab you’ll find my essay on the Emmy-nominated episode “Hush”. It’s called “As Silent as ABC” as it offers a scene by scene breakdown, illustrating how this episode offers the perfect template to A, B, and C storylines for new writers of one-hour dramas. So it’s for Buffy geeks AND TV writing geeks.  One cool fact is that Editor Robert Smith? donates 50% of the proceeds of all sales to Avert, a UK-based HIV/AIDS charity.  Another cool fact is that my Stephens MFA student Mary Gwen Scott (who wrote her graduate thesis on the enduring influence of Buffy and Harry Potter on the generations that have followed them) will have an essay in their upcoming volume on the Buffy spinoff Angel. 

Put ten Buffy fans in a room, and you’ll wind up with eleven opinions, fourteen heated debates about the nature of the soul and somebody cosplaying Mirror Willow as an Initiative-produced demon hybrid with a stake in her arm. That’s because Buffy fans are gloriously weird, uniquely different and sometimes entirely outlandish. And so is this book.

Celebrating over 25 years of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, OUTSIDE IN TAKES A STAB is a collection of 139 reviews, one for every story of the television series, plus the movie and a couple extras. Well, we say “reviews”, but we mean that loosely: within these pages, you’ll find mix tapes, mazes, recipes, speeches, games, songs, crosswords, plays, policy documents, D&D manuals, documentaries, term papers and a Turing machine. Not to mention insightful and thoughtful articles, examining the world of Sunnydale from just about every aspect imaginable… and then some!

Provocative, engrossing, hilarious and utterly gonzo. These aren’t your mother’s reviews.

Featuring contributions from Susanne Lambdin, Jill Sherwin, Rosanne Welch, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Robert Greenberger, Rich Handley, David A. McIntee, and over a hundred more!

As with all previous OUTSIDE IN volumes, 5% of the full retail price of all sales of this book will be donated to Avert, a UK-based HIV/AIDS charity.

More Outside In collections featuring my work:

Outside in boldly goes OutsideIn4cover

03 The “Capra Touch” from Why I Created a History of Screenwriting Course [Video] (1:08)

A clip from my presentation at the 11th Annual Screenwriting Research Network conference. Held on the campus of the beautiful Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan.

Watch the entire presentation 

03 The

In the presentation, I covered the reasons writers have been marginalized – and the reasons they oughtn’t to be so disrespected. Then I talked about how my course works, what books I assign, what guest speakers I invite, what research the students do – and ended on a high note by introducing ‘When Women Wrote Hollywood’ – the book of essays from our inaugural class which has now been published by McFarland.

Transcript:

You’ll notice in this particular poster it’s Frank Capra’s film and we have to really down here to see who wrote the movie right? Who broke the movie is this marvelous couple Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, a married couple who wrote for 50 years together. They wrote the play and the film version of The Diary of Anne Frank. They won a Pulitzer Prize for that. Capra never won a Pulitzer Prize. Why is that Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life? Explain that to me. I don’t like that. They also adapted the Thin Man films which were highly successful and there’s a book about them which is lovely but much less read than the biography of Frank Capra. There is a Capra story that I tell my students it may be anecdotal but Robert Riskin — who wrote many of Capra’s best films and won Academy Awards in his life — was said to have heard often Frank Capra say “I have the Capra touch”. It makes the movies beautiful and one day Riskin handed in 200 blank pages said put your fucking touch on that! Excuse the Americanism but seriously Riskin in the man who made all those films. Why is it we are not talking about him?

Watch the entire presentation

Subscribe to Rosanne Welch, Ph.D on YouTube

 

Buy a signed copy of when Women Wrote Hollywood

Paperback Edition | Kindle Edition | Google Play Edition

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library