From Breakfast at Tiffany’s to In Cold Blood from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (0:26)

You Can Please Some of the People Some of the Time… None of the People All of the Time: A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More!

Dr. Rosanne Welch speaks on A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! at the California State University, Fullerton Library

Part of the program series for Dune by Frank Herbert: A 50th Anniversary Celebration.

Watch this entire presentation

From Breakfast at Tiffany's to In Cold Blood from A History of the Art of Adaptation

 

Transcript:

the one they adapted much better is “In Cold Blood” which is one of those books that if I start reading the first page I have to shut up and go read the rest of the book. It’s quite a brilliant book and this one they followed almost to the letter. Obviously you can’t include everything in an adaptation, but they didn’t make any real changes because the story was so well known and it was based on a true serial murder. So, he (Capote) was happy with that and he actually got very involved with the actors in that. He hated this movie (Breakfast at Tiffany’s).    

About this talk

Dr. Rosanne Welch (RTVF) speaks on the craft of history of film adaptations from the controversy of the silent film Birth of a Nation (protested by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1915) to Breakfast at Tiffany’s (to which author Truman Capote famously said, “The only thing left from the book is the title”) to The Godfather . Naturally, the behemoth in adaptation – Harry Potter (which depended on the relationship created by adapter Steve Kloves and author J.K. Rowling) will be discussed, as will the subject of this month’s celebration: Dune.

Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm

About Dr. Rosanne Welch

Dr. Rosanne Welch is a professor in the Low Residency MFA in Screenwriting Program from Stephens College, California State University, Fullerton, Mount San Antonio Community College and Cal Poly Pomona.  In 2007, she graduated with her Ph.D. in 20th Century U.S./Film History from Claremont Graduate University.  She graduated with her M.A. in 20th Century United States History from California State University, Northridge in 2004.

Welch is also a television writer/producer with credits for Beverly Hills 90210 , CBS’s Emmy winning Picket Fences and Touched By An Angel . She also writes and hosts her own podcasts on 3rdPass.media, her first one titled “Mindful(I) Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch.”

Her upcoming book, “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture” will be published in Fall 2016

Three Ring Circus: How Real Couples Balance Marriage, Work and Kids and The Encyclopedia of Women in Aviation and Space are two books she has written. Los Angeles Times and the Journal of Screenwriting hold some of her published articles.

Dr. Rosanne Welch Web Site and Blog

Follow Dr. Welch on Twitter

Dr. Rosanne Welch on YouTube

Women Who Run the Room: A Conversation with Showrunners at the WGAw and co-sponsored by the Stephens MFA in Screenwriting Program [Photo]

Women Who Run the Room: A Conversation with Showrunners at the WGAw and co-sponsored by the Stephens MFA in Screenwriting Program [Photo]

Women Who Run the Room: A Conversation with Showrunners at the WGAw and co-sponsored by the Stephens MFA in Screenwriting Program. 

Photos of the panel and the full house/sold out audience from Women Who Run the Room: A Conversation with Showrunners. The Stephens MFA in Screenwriting co-sponsored this event with the Writers Guild Foundation. (from left to right: Dr. Rosanne Welch, moderator; Alexa Junge from Grace and Frankie; Dee Johnson from Nashville; Laurie McCarthy from Reign; Lizzy Weiss from Switched at Birth; SJ Hodges from Guidance)


Do you want to be a screenwriter? Check out these books!

More books on screenwriting from Amazon.com

1960’s TV Censorship and The Monkees with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (21:34)

1960's TV Censorship and The Monkees with Dr. Rosanne Welch

 

“1960s TV Censorship and The Monkees” gives a brief overview of where censorship standards were in the era – and how The Monkees pushed the envelope with its mentions of the Vietnam War – and Sunset Strip riots – and even with the outrageous storytelling behind “Frodis Caper”, the episode that celebrated the saving of an alien plant that very closely resembled a marijuana plant…  

Writer Treva Silverman said the staff got away with such jokes because the network executives were just old enough not to understand any of the references.
Presented at Stephens College MFA in Screenwriting classes on Friday, August 5, 2016


Buy “Why The Monkees Matter” Today!

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

 

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


About Dr. Rosanne Welch

Dr. Rosanne Welch is a professor in the Low Residency MFA in Screenwriting Program from Stephens College, California State University, Fullerton, Mount San Antonio Community College and Cal Poly Pomona.  In 2007, she graduated with her Ph.D. in 20th Century U.S./Film History from Claremont Graduate University.  She graduated with her M.A. in 20th Century United States History from California State University, Northridge in 2004.

Welch is also a television writer/producer with credits for Beverly Hills 90210 , CBS’s Emmy winning Picket Fences and Touched By An Angel . She also writes and hosts her own podcasts on 3rdPass.media, her first one titled “Mindful(I) Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch.”

Her upcoming book, “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture” will be published in Fall 2016

Three Ring Circus: How Real Couples Balance Marriage, Work and Kids and The Encyclopedia of Women in Aviation and Space are two books she has written. Los Angeles Times and the Journal of Screenwriting hold some of her published articles.

Dr. Rosanne Welch Web Site and Blog

Follow Dr. Welch on Twitter

Dr. Rosanne Welch on YouTube

Gay, but not gay, in Breakfast at Tiffany’s from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (1 min)

You Can Please Some of the People Some of the Time… None of the People All of the Time: A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More!

Dr. Rosanne Welch speaks on A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! at the California State University, Fullerton Library

Part of the program series for Dune by Frank Herbert: A 50th Anniversary Celebration.

Watch this entire presentation

Gay, but not gay, in Breakfast at Tiffany's from A History of the Art of Adaptation

 

Transcript:

The characters exist, right? They are true. However, in real life George Peppard’s character, Turman Capote, in the book, the character’s gay. That’s why the 2 of them never end up together. It’s not a love tory. It’s a friendship. It’s a buddy story between a gay man and a woman. This is “Will & Grace” before there was “Will & Grace.” The problem is, you couldn’t do that onscreen. So, how can we show he’s doing something wrong sexually that isn’t being a homosexual. Oh! He’s a gigolo. Just like she makes her money from rich men, he makes his money from a rich woman who “keeps” him and buys him suits and that’s the perversion that he’s allowed to have onscreen and it’s with Patricia Neal, a famous actress back in the day. And I always thought that was so sad because they make her out to be this little old lady. She’s not that much older than he is actually at this moment. So, that’s kind of funny. So, that’s a huge change and to Truman Capote a huge loss in his particular story.    

About this talk

Dr. Rosanne Welch (RTVF) speaks on the craft of history of film adaptations from the controversy of the silent film Birth of a Nation (protested by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1915) to Breakfast at Tiffany’s (to which author Truman Capote famously said, “The only thing left from the book is the title”) to The Godfather . Naturally, the behemoth in adaptation – Harry Potter (which depended on the relationship created by adapter Steve Kloves and author J.K. Rowling) will be discussed, as will the subject of this month’s celebration: Dune.

Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm

About Dr. Rosanne Welch

Dr. Rosanne Welch is a professor in the Low Residency MFA in Screenwriting Program from Stephens College, California State University, Fullerton, Mount San Antonio Community College and Cal Poly Pomona.  In 2007, she graduated with her Ph.D. in 20th Century U.S./Film History from Claremont Graduate University.  She graduated with her M.A. in 20th Century United States History from California State University, Northridge in 2004.

Welch is also a television writer/producer with credits for Beverly Hills 90210 , CBS’s Emmy winning Picket Fences and Touched By An Angel . She also writes and hosts her own podcasts on 3rdPass.media, her first one titled “Mindful(I) Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch.”

Her upcoming book, “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture” will be published in Fall 2016

Three Ring Circus: How Real Couples Balance Marriage, Work and Kids and The Encyclopedia of Women in Aviation and Space are two books she has written. Los Angeles Times and the Journal of Screenwriting hold some of her published articles.

Dr. Rosanne Welch Web Site and Blog

Follow Dr. Welch on Twitter

Dr. Rosanne Welch on YouTube

A Woman’s Voice in the Writers’ Room – An In-Depth Interview with Dr. Rosanne Welch in Creative Screenwriting Magazine

A Woman’s Voice in the Writers’ Room - An In-Depth Interview with Dr. Rosanne Welch in Creative Screenwriting Magazine

A Woman’s Voice in the Writers’ Room

Rosanne Welch on writing for female characters, changing the pronoun in a script, and the power of research.

Rosanne Welch is a TV writer, author, professor, and feminist, who’s able to combine her passion in one place thanks to her current position as an adjunct professor at Stephen’s College (the oldest women’s college in the U.S.) for its screenwriting M.F.A. program.

The Stephen’s College screenwriting M.F.A. program is certainly unique: it’s the first low-residency program specifically for TV and screenwriting, and is explicitly designed to increase the number and impact of women working in film and TV. It’s the perfect fit for Welch, who teaches all four of its History of Screenwriting courses, from the Silent Era throughout modern day, as well as a One Hour Spec Script course, and Writing the One-Hour pilot.

Senior Hall, Stephen’s College. Image by HornColumbia (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia CommonsSenior Hall, Stephen’s College. Image by HornColumbia, via Wikimedia CommonsThe idea for the program came from Ken LaZebnik, who Welch had met decades earlier when they both wrote for Touched By An Angel.

According to Welch, “Ken LaZebnik came up with the idea for the program, to create a Master’s program for screenwriting, opposed to extension or continuing education screenwriting programs where there is no degree at the end of it, you just have the experience of writing in the program.

“He needed someone to do curriculum, he needed someone who had a PhD on staff, and he also only wanted to hire writers who were part of the Writer’s Guild, because he wanted the students taught by working writers and writers who had experience.”

Fortunately Welch fit the criteria. “I was really excited because a lot of Master’s programs focus on directing or film production or being a master of all trades, and he just wanted to focus on screenwriting.”

Welch’s current life as an academic is a far cry from her days as a secretary at Stephen J. Cannell productions, back when he was the biggest independent TV producer with shows like The A-Team and 21 Jump Street.

Read the entire interview on Creative Screenwriting

More on Breakfast at Tiffany’s from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (1:03)

You Can Please Some of the People Some of the Time… None of the People All of the Time: A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More!

Dr. Rosanne Welch speaks on A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! at the California State University, Fullerton Library

Part of the program series for Dune by Frank Herbert: A 50th Anniversary Celebration.

Watch this entire presentation

More on Breakfast at Tiffany's from A History of the Art of Adaptation

 

Transcript:

But more importantly, change wise, we have George Peppard — who some of you will remember in childhood as part of the A-Team — but he’s a huge movie star in this period. He’s a leading man and he’s a write in this piece. He rally stands in for Truman Capote. This is really a story about Truman Capote’s first time in New York getting his first novel sold. So, George Peppard in the movies, this is a love story and they fall in lovd with each other in the end even though she’s a free spirit. She’s never going to fall in love with anybody. She doesn’t want to be tied down by a man. Becomes a lovely romance. By the time we’re done, the cat is a symbol of how she won’t commit, because she never names her cata and at the very end of the movie — to prove she doesn’t need anybody — she dumps the cat out of a taxi int eh rain and it goes sauntering off and gets all soaking wet and the proof that she’s changed and grown is that she jumps out of the taxi and chases down the cat and she saves it. Then she names that cat and we’re like “Ok. She’s grown. She’s changed. What a beautiful love story.” There’s a small problem with that adaptation. even Truman Capote himself said “The only thing they took from my book was the title.”   

About this talk

Dr. Rosanne Welch (RTVF) speaks on the craft of history of film adaptations from the controversy of the silent film Birth of a Nation (protested by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1915) to Breakfast at Tiffany’s (to which author Truman Capote famously said, “The only thing left from the book is the title”) to The Godfather . Naturally, the behemoth in adaptation – Harry Potter (which depended on the relationship created by adapter Steve Kloves and author J.K. Rowling) will be discussed, as will the subject of this month’s celebration: Dune.

Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm

About Dr. Rosanne Welch

Dr. Rosanne Welch is a professor in the Low Residency MFA in Screenwriting Program from Stephens College, California State University, Fullerton, Mount San Antonio Community College and Cal Poly Pomona.  In 2007, she graduated with her Ph.D. in 20th Century U.S./Film History from Claremont Graduate University.  She graduated with her M.A. in 20th Century United States History from California State University, Northridge in 2004.

Welch is also a television writer/producer with credits for Beverly Hills 90210 , CBS’s Emmy winning Picket Fences and Touched By An Angel . She also writes and hosts her own podcasts on 3rdPass.media, her first one titled “Mindful(I) Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch.”

Her upcoming book, “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture” will be published in Fall 2016

Three Ring Circus: How Real Couples Balance Marriage, Work and Kids and The Encyclopedia of Women in Aviation and Space are two books she has written. Los Angeles Times and the Journal of Screenwriting hold some of her published articles.

Dr. Rosanne Welch Web Site and Blog

Follow Dr. Welch on Twitter

Dr. Rosanne Welch on YouTube

How to Succeed as a Female Writer in TV & Film by Rosanne Welch | Writers Digest Online [Article]

How to Succeed as a Female Writer in TV & Film by Rosanne Welch [Article] | Writers Digest Online

I was recently asked to write a guest column for The Writer’s Dig (edited by Brian Klems) on the Writer’s Digest website.  The topic was “How to Succeed as a Female Writer in TV & Film”.  The title caused me to start humming a few bars from a famous musical while I gave the best advice I could.

How to Succeed as a Female Writer in TV & Film by Rosanne Welch [Article] | Writers Digest Online

Being asked, “How to succeed as a female writer in TV & film” makes me hum a few bars from almost any song from the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Not because you don’t need to try – and try hard – to succeed as a female (or any gendered) writer in TV & film – but because several of the clichés in the songs still ring true.

You have to “Alertly Seize Your Opportunities”, learn the “Company Way”, insist to any still-cave-dwelling males who may come your way that a writer’s assistant “is not a toy” (nor is she – or he – meant to fetch your dry cleaning or work overtime for no pay while the producer reaps all the benefits of sending a well-formatted script to the network executives for approval). You should adjust to workdays being “Long Days” and learn “How to Handle a Disaster” (like actors throwing scripts in the trash or writers throwing things across the room). You should be comfortable with the idea that there still is a bit of a “Brotherhood of Man” atmosphere in writers rooms which are still 80/20 male/female. (Having grown up with brothers or a good set of guy friends – or having played high school sports helps.) But most of all you have to remember to “Believe in You” because no one else – not your agent, not your manager, not your producer, and sometimes not your family – will always be in your corner.

If you survived that paragraph and still want to be in the business, good. Such a reality check is necessary because dreams don’t come cheap – but they do come if you keep at your writing and keep making connections along the way. That said, writers take many paths to their careers. I’ve known ski instructors who passed spec scripts off to the wives of producers who eventually hired them. I’ve known limo drivers to producers who gained their trust traveling the 405 for a year and I’ve known writers who passed spec movie scripts to the boyfriends of former college roommates who happened to be directors. (I’m still waiting for the story of the female writer who gets to pass her script off to the former female college roommate who happens to be a director so we can skip this middle-girlfriend step.)

Read this entire article at Writers Digest

Breakfast at Tiffany’s from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (0:53)

You Can Please Some of the People Some of the Time… None of the People All of the Time: A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More!

Dr. Rosanne Welch speaks on A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! at the California State University, Fullerton Library

Part of the program series for Dune by Frank Herbert: A 50th Anniversary Celebration.

Watch this entire presentation

Breakfast at Tiffany's from A History of the Art of Adaptation

 

Transcript:

Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which is a gorgeous movie and a gorgeous novel and a nice little slim novel. People should read it over the weekend, really, it’s brilliant. Of course, written by Truman Capote who was, at that time, an out-of-the-closet, homosexual and that was just a shocking thing. Nobody quite understood what that meant and nobody was sure they liked it, but Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Most people remember this as a brilliant performance by Audrey Hepburn, which it was. It became the film with her. Notice she’s the thing we focus on in this thing. Really, it not just her story though. This is the story of this young woman — unexplainably in the city making money because she’s friendly with a lot of rich men, but we’re not really going to discuss what that friendship entails. Right? So, we don’t say what she does for a living. She just always has rich men hanging around her. So we’ll just kind of slide that under the rug.  

About this talk

Dr. Rosanne Welch (RTVF) speaks on the craft of history of film adaptations from the controversy of the silent film Birth of a Nation (protested by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1915) to Breakfast at Tiffany’s (to which author Truman Capote famously said, “The only thing left from the book is the title”) to The Godfather . Naturally, the behemoth in adaptation – Harry Potter (which depended on the relationship created by adapter Steve Kloves and author J.K. Rowling) will be discussed, as will the subject of this month’s celebration: Dune.

Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm

About Dr. Rosanne Welch

Dr. Rosanne Welch is a professor in the Low Residency MFA in Screenwriting Program from Stephens College, California State University, Fullerton, Mount San Antonio Community College and Cal Poly Pomona.  In 2007, she graduated with her Ph.D. in 20th Century U.S./Film History from Claremont Graduate University.  She graduated with her M.A. in 20th Century United States History from California State University, Northridge in 2004.

Welch is also a television writer/producer with credits for Beverly Hills 90210 , CBS’s Emmy winning Picket Fences and Touched By An Angel . She also writes and hosts her own podcasts on 3rdPass.media, her first one titled “Mindful(I) Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch.”

Her upcoming book, “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture” will be published in Fall 2016

Three Ring Circus: How Real Couples Balance Marriage, Work and Kids and The Encyclopedia of Women in Aviation and Space are two books she has written. Los Angeles Times and the Journal of Screenwriting hold some of her published articles.

Dr. Rosanne Welch Web Site and Blog

Follow Dr. Welch on Twitter

Dr. Rosanne Welch on YouTube

Save the Date: Rosanne Hosts “Women Who Run The Room: A Conversation with Showrunners” – Sat. Aug. 6, 2015

Dr. Rosanne Welch will be hosting this WGA panel discussion sponsored by Stephens College MFA in Television and Screenwriting, where she teaches The History of Screenwriting and Writing the One-Hour Drama.

rmw-panel

Women Who Run The Room: A Conversation with Showrunners

Sat, August 6, 2016
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM

On this special Saturday event, a panel of female showrunners discusses their experiences of running a room and the impact of increasing female voices in television.

Panelists:

Alexa Junge – GRACE AND FRANKIE, UNITED STATES OF TARA, FRIENDS
Check back for more panelist announcements.

StephensCollege_PeformingArtsSponsored by Stephens College MFA in Television and Screenwriting.

Doors open at 1:30pm. Event starts at 2:00pm.

All events advertised on our “Events” page are open to anyone who wants to buy a ticket – not just WGA members!

Proceeds benefit the Foundation’s library and archive and other outreach programs.

 

Tickets:

General Admission Ticket $20.00
WGA Member / Student Ticket $15.00
with Membership card or Student Identification

Hays Code Prohibitions in Film from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (0:51)

You Can Please Some of the People Some of the Time… None of the People All of the Time: A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More!

Dr. Rosanne Welch speaks on A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! at the California State University, Fullerton Library

Part of the program series for Dune by Frank Herbert: A 50th Anniversary Celebration.

Watch this entire presentation

Hays Code Prohibitions in Film from A History of the Art of Adaptation

 

Transcript:

These are the many things you can think about that weren’t shown. Miscegenation is interracial romance. That was disallowed for all this time. Notice, you’ll remember from the early days of watching the I Love Lucy show — married couples, twin beds. That went all the way through television. The Brady Bunch — the two, Carol and — what’s his name — I can’t remember Mr. Brady’s first name. Mr Brady! They were the first couple on television to sleep in the same bed — to be seen to be having a double bed in their (living) bedroom. That’s hilarious. So all of these things are rules that now we have to apply to the novels we buy, whether or not we can show those things and I’m particularly going to look at #4 Sex Perversion, which is just their code for homosexuality, which they weren’t going to allow on screen. So this is going to force changes in a couple of very, very important pieces of business.  

About this talk

Dr. Rosanne Welch (RTVF) speaks on the craft of history of film adaptations from the controversy of the silent film Birth of a Nation (protested by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1915) to Breakfast at Tiffany’s (to which author Truman Capote famously said, “The only thing left from the book is the title”) to The Godfather . Naturally, the behemoth in adaptation – Harry Potter (which depended on the relationship created by adapter Steve Kloves and author J.K. Rowling) will be discussed, as will the subject of this month’s celebration: Dune.

Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm

About Dr. Rosanne Welch

Dr. Rosanne Welch is a professor in the Low Residency MFA in Screenwriting Program from Stephens College, California State University, Fullerton, Mount San Antonio Community College and Cal Poly Pomona.  In 2007, she graduated with her Ph.D. in 20th Century U.S./Film History from Claremont Graduate University.  She graduated with her M.A. in 20th Century United States History from California State University, Northridge in 2004.

Welch is also a television writer/producer with credits for Beverly Hills 90210 , CBS’s Emmy winning Picket Fences and Touched By An Angel . She also writes and hosts her own podcasts on 3rdPass.media, her first one titled “Mindful(I) Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch.”

Her upcoming book, “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture” will be published in Fall 2016

Three Ring Circus: How Real Couples Balance Marriage, Work and Kids and The Encyclopedia of Women in Aviation and Space are two books she has written. Los Angeles Times and the Journal of Screenwriting hold some of her published articles.

Dr. Rosanne Welch Web Site and Blog

Follow Dr. Welch on Twitter

Dr. Rosanne Welch on YouTube