Film – Page 14 – On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch

02 On The Importance of Screenwriters from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch and Intellect Books [Video]

Transcript:

So I mostly am interested in that and screenwriting because in Hollywood the issue has always been — we have that “Auteur Theory” which has been fought about and we’ve argued about. We’re getting there but you still read in the newspapers the review of a film and they’ll say it belongs to the director. They’ll name you know so and so such and such film and maybe four paragraphs in you’ll find oh that person also wrote it. So they’re a writer-director. Why didn’t you say that right or five paragraphs in they’ll now mention who wrote the thing and you’re like well that’s what I want to know. That’s where the idea came from. I get it. Directors do cool things and they run the set and whatever but the theme and the characters and the dialogue — which is what we quote all the time — came from the writer and that’s the person that I feel like we should be — I don’t say they have to be higher than the director. Let’s get equal again, right, which again we were in the Silent Era. So that stuff interests me a lot.

One of the benefits of attending conferences is that you can meet the editors from the companies that have published some of your books face to face. That happened at the recent SCMS conference where I met Intellect editor James Campbell and he invited me to be a guest on his InstagramLive show.

We chatted about my work with the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting, and then my work with co-editor Rose Ferrell on the Journal of Screenwriting’s special issue on Women in Screenwriting (Volume 11, Number 3) that came out recently and which featured articles about an international set of female screenwriters from Syria, Argentina, China and Canada (to name a few).

We even had time to nerd out on our own favorite classic films across the eras which brought up fun memories of Angels with Dirty Faces, Back to the Future, Bonnie and Clyde, and of course, all things Star Wars from the original 3 to The Mandalorian. It’s always so fun to talk to fellow cinephiles.

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With Intellect Books Editor James Campbell (@IntellectBooks)

Speaking with Dr. Rosanne Welch, Author, teacher, and television screenwriter. Today we cover everything from women in screenwriting to our favorite Jimmy Cagney movies and Friends.

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Failing to Credit Screenwriters Once Again…

A funny thing happened to me on the way to making my own list of 25 Films Written By Women to counter the “52 Films by Women” put out by the WIF (Women In Film).

Their list only included films directed by women and didn’t even bother listing the names of the writers (some of whom were also women).

So I Googled ’20 Films Written by Women’ to see what someone else may have collected and found this list of “128 Best Movies Written by Women of All Time”.

Can you find the flaw in the way they list the movies?

I can and it’s driving me CRAZY…

…and then I found that even though they list the writers in the opening paragraphs, they omit the screenwriter’s name from the movie’s details.

WTF?

01 Introduction and Stephens College MFA In TV and Screenwriting from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch and Intellect Books [Video]

Transcript:

James: I just want to say welcome to everyone who’s joining us today. This is In Conversation. We’ll be chatting for another 45 minutes or so. I’m very pleased to have Dr. Rosanne Welch with me today who is a practicing screenwriter with some serious writing credits to her CV, which we’ll get into as well, but also she runs an MFA program and works as a major researcher involved in Intellect’s Journal of Screenwriting which we can also definitely discuss. So why don’t you tell us a little bit about your research interest? Is it just screenwriting you focus on or is there other aspects of film and history?

Rosanne: Well it’s largely yes film history as well but it kind of always focuses on women in film history because they’ve sort of been left behind on the cutting room floor. We’re getting there we’re seeing more involvement in that. I actually had a great conversation with the documentarian from the BBC who found me because I put a lot of my lectures online and in one of them I discuss research that we’re trying to do into a woman named Jennie Louise Toussaint. She was an African-American screenwriter in the Silent Era but the problem is her work was not preserved right? The films we know disintegrated. There are no paper scripts around. We know she existed because of advertisements in newspapers advertising her films that were playing. So they noticed that I had mentioned her and just said here’s someone we need to find more research on and they’re doing a BBC documentary on famous sisters of famous brothers — on accomplished women who were sisters of famous brothers and her brother was a Harlem Renaissance photographer. So they were like do you know anything more about her so we can do more on her. This is what I have. We’re all building on the knowledge. I mean that’s what a journal is for. We build on the knowledge that other people have found and eventually we get a bigger picture that didn’t exist.

Watch this entire presentation

With Intellect Books Editor James Campbell (@IntellectBooks)

Speaking with Dr. Rosanne Welch, Author, teacher, and television screenwriter. Today we cover everything from women in screenwriting to our favorite Jimmy Cagney movies and Friends.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Elinor Glyn Recognized “It” Before Anyone Else -Because She Had “It” – Dr. Rosanne Welch, Script magazine, February 2022

From Marilyn Monroe to Lady Gaga it seems one actress every generation is said to have “It” but few know that a female screenwriter of the silent era coined that still current phrase. Meet Elinor Glyn. Her life as a high society wife in England fed the novel-writing success that brought Glyn an invitation to Hollywood at the age of 56.

Through marriage, she had gained the glamour of being a member of the titled nobility. Yet she soon learned he had less funds than could support their lifestyle, so Glyn became a writer, publishing a book a year to keep her family’s finances afloat. Her ‘naughty’ novels – because they involved women involved in torrid affairs — became best sellers. That success caused the Hearst publishing company to sign Glyn to write articles and – recognizing the power of the film industry – Glyn included a clause for the motion picture rights.

Read Elinor Glyn Recognized “It” Before Anyone Else – Because She Had “It”

Read about more women from early Hollywood

A TED Talk Worth Watching – “Saving the World Vs Kissing the Girl” by Lindsay Doran

I am quite a fan of TED Talks – for their content and the spiffy way they illustrate a talk should go in a quick 20 minutes or so. I often show students one of my favorites – Chimamanda Adiche’s “The Danger of a Single Story” and show my friend, Art Benjamin’s TED Talks in some of my humanities courses. I was deeply pleased to be asked to give my own TED Talk, “A Female Voice In The Room”, when CalPolyPomona hosted their own TED@CPP event a few years ago. So when I find a new one worth sharing – I share it.

The latest TED Talk to catch my attention was given by film producer Lindsay Doran in 2012. “Saving the World Vs Kissing the Girl” is a fascinating look at how ‘action’ movies end on the announcement of the success to someone the protagonist is in a relationship with, making the culmination of the relationship more important than the ‘saving the world’ part.

For instance, at the end of Rocky he doesn’t say “Yo, Adrian, I won” because he doesn’t win the fight. He only survived it. The movie ends with Rocky and Adrian struggling to get to each other in the crowd. When they reach each other, they clutch each other saying, “I love you” over and over again. THAT’s the win.

Using Dirty Dancing, Karate Kid, and The King’s Speech she explains how positive relationships are more important than positive accomplishments in films. They always end with the healing of a primary relationship. Heroes who don’t win their fight (Rocky in Rocky, George Bailey in It’s A Wonderful Life, Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird) are so inspirational because they win their relationships.

Then she says that women don’t need to learn that relationships are more important than accomplishments in life – men do. So perhaps these action films are women’s way of teaching that lesson that no man is a failure who has friends.

I LOVE that idea!

Dr. Rosanne Welch Moderates “More Than Queens and Crowns: Writing Female-Focused Historical Fiction” – Friday, January 7, 2022 – Writers Guild Foundation

Whenever I plan one of the Writers Guild Foundation panels that I host during our MFA Workshop I look for things I’m interested in hearing more about. As I’ve enjoyed a few historical pieces recently it made sense to do a panel of writers in that genre.

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Previous panel at the Writer Guild

More Than Queens and Crowns: Writing Female-Focused Historical Fiction
Friday, January 7, 2022
4:00 PM 5:30 PM
Zoom webinar

The WGF and Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting team up for a virtual conversation on writing female-focused historical fiction TV series.

Whether the show takes place in 18th century England or the American suburbs of the 1960s, we ask TV writers and producers about their process for researching various eras, the creative decisions behind stories about real-life people and events, their experiences adapting from novels and literary works, and other lessons learned while writing in the genre.

Panelists:

Amberia Allen – Writer and Story Editor, The Wonder Years
Danielle Berrow – Writer and Executive Story Editor, Outlander
Robbie Macdonald – Writer and Executive Producer, Dickinson

Stay tuned for more panelist announcements!

Moderated by Dr. Rosanne Welch, Director of Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting.

Panel starts at 4:00pm Pacific time.

Space is limited so RSVP now. After signing up, you’ll receive information on how to access the Zoom panel.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us at events@wgfoundation.org.

Screenwriter Eve Unsell, Hitchcock’s Mentor Who Saved Universal’s European Operation — Dr. Rosanne Welch, Script magazine, December 2021

Born in Chicago in 1888 (or thereabouts, different sites report different dates), writer-producer Eve Unsell grew up in Caldwell, Kansas. After earning her undergraduate degree and working as a journalist for the Kansas City Post, she attended graduate school at Boston’s Emerson College for a year. There she studied drama and literature before heading to New York. After reading one of her short stories, theatrical agent Beatrice deMille (mother of Cecil and William) hired to work as what was then called a play reader and constructionist. During her career, Unsell accumulated nearly 100 credits as a screenwriter while writing for notable stars including Mary Pickford, Lon Chaney, Clara Bow, Baby Peggy and Jack Benny.

Read Screenwriter Eve Unsell, Hitchcock’s Mentor Who Saved Universal’s European Operation

Read about more women from early Hollywood

On The Writers of Casablanca

While it is fun to look back at this review of Casablanca from when it was released – before anyone knew it would become the classic it is and be voted one of the greatest screenplays of all times – it’s also a reminder of my pet peeve. The reviewer never once names the screenwriters – twins Julius Epstein and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch – in the whole review.

He mentions the producer and the director in the first paragraph. Yet he writes: “through these people, the story of Casablanca is told with expert intensity.” And about the love story, he says: “the triangle is intelligently developed.” And in praise of the director, he notes “the wealth of contributing material that was placed at his disposal” without ever acknowledging the writers who did all of that.

As a final coup de grace he names each of the heads of departments and their “long list of technical achievements”… but never once mentions the writers who envisioned it all – Julius and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch. So I am mentioning them many times in this rant. Jacob and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch created the Casablanca we still watch, love, and teach 80 years after it was written by Jacob and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch.

Read ‘Casablanca’: THR’s 1942 Review from the Hollywood Reporter

Alice Burton Russell Micheaux: “Breaking Barriers on Two Fronts” — Dr. Rosanne Welch, Script magazine, November 2021

Film history texts often neglect female screenwriters and completely omit the names of women of color such as Alice Burton Russell Micheaux, wife of filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. Script contributor Dr. Rosanne Welch rightly so celebrates the female screenwriters who came before us with attainable insight about filmmaker Alice Burton Russell Micheaux.

Read Alice Burton Russell Micheaux: “Breaking Barriers on Two Fronts” — Dr. Rosanne Welch, Script magazine, November 2021

Read about more women from early Hollywood

From Classroom To Writer’s Room with Dr. Rosanne Welch on In The Can w/Lucas Cuny [Audio]

It was a pleasure sitting down in front of some microphones with Lucas Cuny who now teaches Film, TV, and media full time at San Bernardino Valley College.

He also hosts this podcast interviewing people from those areas and he invited me to be the first guest of his second season.

We had the chance to chat about my background as well as the state of the media industry today – and I had the chance to relish the success of this former MFA candidate of mine. One of the best things about being a professor is seeing careers take off like Lucas’ has.

Listen to this podcast

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Episode Description

Rosanne Welch is a screenwriter, author, professor, and all around iconoclast in the field of media education. She wrote on Beverly Hills 90210, written a book about The Monkees, but got her start as a teacher. Hear her journey from the classroom to the writers room.

Lucas Cuny and Dr. Rosanne Welch