01 Introduction From Jeanne to Suso to Julie to Spike: How Jeanne Macpherson’s Manual on Screenwriting Influenced Italian Realism which Influenced Black Independent Film in the U.S. [Video]
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Transcript:
…The woman I’m going to start with is Jeannie McPherson who is also a famous silent film screenwriter of that period. As famous as Marion was in her own day. Forgotten much in the history books because she wrote for Cecil B. Demille. She wrote all the films that he made that made money. She was also one of his three mistresses and so textbooks tell you she was his mistress and they forget the part where she wrote the movies that made him money. Yes. So I love Jeannie and I borrowed this title from this play which I love “Vanyan and Sonya and Masha and Spike.” It just seemed to suit me perfectly but I wanted to credit the author. I did not make up the title. I’m Rosanne Welch. I am working with Stephens College which is in Missouri but we run our MFA programs in Los Angeles. So it confuses everybody because I live in LA. I don’t live in Missouri. Our theme of our program is Write, Reach and Represent which of course suits everything that everyone’s been talking about today. I’m very excited about that. My background is that I came from being a television screenwriter and wrote on all these shows and then came into Academia and was like how are people learning how to do this because not everybody’s very good at it and then I’ve written on these various Books. Thank you for mentioning “When Women Wrote Hollywood” which has chapters on Jeannie and many of these other women we can talk about. I also am the book review editor for “The Journal Of Screenwriting” so if you want to review a book – you have a book that needs reviewing – let me know because we always need more reviews all right. So that’s a good thing and we’re here doing Global Screenwriting.
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At the recent Screenwriting Research Network conference in Vienna, I gave this talk titled “From Jeanne to Suso to Julie to Spike: How Jeanne Macpherson’s Manual on Screenwriting Influenced Italian Realism which Influenced Black Independent Film in the U.S.”
In the talk, I trace the ways a manual about screenwriting by silent film writer Jeanne Macpherson influenced Suso Cecchi d’Amici who began to utilize Macpherson’s ideas and became the queen of Italian neorealism screenwriting in Europe. Then those Italian neo-realist screenwriters in turn inspired the Los Angeles School of Black Independent Film Makers (the L.A. School). In turn, such as Charles Burnett, Billy Woodberry, Haile Gerima, and Julie Dash and their ideas fueled Spike Lee. Finally, when he became the first Black man to head the jury at the Cannes Film Festival (where Suso had once served) his choice of films influenced yet another generation of screenwriters.
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From Jeanne to Suso to Julie to Spike: How Jeanne Macpherson’s Manual on Screenwriting Influenced Italian Realism which Influenced Black Independent Film in the U.S. (Complete)
At the recent Screenwriting Research Network conference in Vienna, I gave this talk titled “From Jeanne to Suso to Julie to Spike: How Jeanne Macpherson’s Manual on Screenwriting Influenced Italian Realism which Influenced Black Independent Film in the U.S.”
In the talk, I trace the ways a manual about screenwriting by silent film writer Jeanne Macpherson influenced Suso Cecchi d’Amici who began to utilize Macpherson’s ideas and became the queen of Italian neorealism screenwriting in Europe. Then those Italian neo-realist screenwriters in turn inspired the Los Angeles School of Black Independent Film Makers (the L.A. School). In turn, such as Charles Burnett, Billy Woodberry, Haile Gerima, and Julie Dash and their ideas fueled Spike Lee. Finally, when he became the first Black man to head the jury at the Cannes Film Festival (where Suso had once served) his choice of films influenced yet another generation of screenwriters.
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The ‘Strongheart’ of Screenwriter Jane Murfin – Dr. Rosanne Welch, Script Magazine, September 2022
Before there was the Lady Gaga remake of A Star is Born there was the 1937 original A Star is Born, written by Dorothy Parker (see Column #3 in this series). Before that, there was What Price Hollywood? (1932), written by Jane Murfin (and Adela Rogers St. Johns) which earned a Best Writing, Original Story nomination for the two female screenwriters at that year’s Academy Award ceremony.
Few Hollywood history books ever reference the name Jane Murfin even though she wrote and co-wrote and directed over 60 produced films in a career spanning over three decades and was a founding member of the Screenwriter’s Guild. She was one of the most prolific writers of the 1920s and ’30s.
Read The ‘Strongheart’ of Screenwriter Jane Murfin
Read about more women from early Hollywood
On-board our first flight with complimentary champagne. What a way to start our journey! via Instagram [Photography]
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24 Conclusion from Why Torchwood Still Matters (2021) with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]
I recently presented a talk on Torchwood (Why Torchwood Still Matters) where I highlighted a few ways in which the show (airing from 2006 to 2011) came up with progressive and innovative ideas that are being used by other franchises today.
I always enjoy attending the SD (San Diego) WhoCon because the audiences are so well-informed on the Whoniverse and Whovians love Captain Jack and the crew that made this spinoff program so engaging.
![24 Conclusion from Why Torchwood Still Matters (2021) with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/rmw-whocon-2021-torchwood-24.jpg)
Transcript:
…because my argument with my friend that started all of this was that at the end of “Children of Earth” when Jack has to sacrifice his grandson, for all the good work that Russell has done with female characters my argument was, why wasn’t that his son? Because by making it his grandson – if you remember – the mother was outside the room banging on the door. So he usurped his daughter’s power as the parent of her own child and killed him as opposed to – if it was his son – I mean you shouldn’t kill your kid – you know what I am saying – that was like this one degree of separation and that made her character useless and unempowered and I don’t know why that occurred to him at all. So that was my argument and that’s actually what my article is about – why that didn’t work dramatically for me in that it dealt with that female character but it started the whole thing and caused me to be very interested in Torchwood.
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29 International Opportunities from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]
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Transcript:
So I actually have a student right now whose family is – her father worked 6 months of the year in the States and 6 months in Korea and Korean television is exploding. Look at Netflix and all the new interesting shows that they have. She – normally a student would have to write a spec script of a show that exists here in the States. I make an exception for “Doctor Who” because everyone should know “Doctor Who”. So, if you want to be a States person and write that, you can, but this is the first time. She wanted to write a Korean show because she wants to move back to Korea full-time when she graduates and work in that television industry and that fascinated me. She got me to watch a highly recommend, beautiful show on Netflix called “Mystic Popup Bar.” It’s a beautiful story about a woman from ancient days in Korea who’s committed some sort of crime we don’t know, but she is cursed with having to be an – after she’s dead – and in the afterlife, she has to save 100,000 humans from grudges they have and then she can move essentially to heaven as opposed of go to hell for whatever this crime is that you take a while to find out what it was and so what you’re seeing is her encounter humans that need her help and she helps them in order to call up more – and she does it through running this pop-up bar where they come in and have dinner and she hears their troubles and then she goes into their life, but it has this beautiful final four episodes where you get the real ancient story and you start making connections between the other characters in it. It’s just beautifully written. It’s a beautiful, beautiful show. So that is more opportunity for people.
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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Dr. Rosanne Welch at the beach in Stazzo, Italy via Instagram [Photography]
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The accidental pose reminds me of the Venus de Milo.
Dr. Rosanne Welch speaks during Screenwriting Research Network Roundtable in Vienna via Instagram [Photography]
![Dr. Rosanne Welch speaks during Screenwriting Research Network Roundtable in Vienna via Instagram [Photography]](http://welchwrite.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/308939891_866118424343697_5160052849811620089_n.jpg)
Emma Thompson on Adapting “Sense and Sensibility”
On one of my strolls through YouTube, I went down the rabbit hole of wonderful interviews with screenwriter Emma Thompson and landed on this “Making of” Sense and Sensibility.
While it is fun to hear about the casting and the costuming, the best part (naturally) is near the end.
In “Adapting Austen” they discuss choosing the (at that time) relatively unknown-in-the-States Emma Thompson to adapt the novel and then the segment goes over her process in writing the film.
Producer Lindsay Doran had seen some of Thompson’s UK sketch comedy show (then airing on PBS) and knew her favorite novel would need a writer who understood that Austen was funny in her comments about the societal rules she and her sisters were forced to abide.
No surprise Thompson asked for adaptation advice from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who had adapted Howard’s End, the film Thompson was then acting in (and which would lead to her 1993 Oscar for Best Actress.
Creative women helping other creative women for the win!