On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch – Page 223

My Chapter in The American Civil War on Film and TV: Blue and Gray in Black and White and Color

I get so many books in the mail for me to distribute to reviewers for The Journal of Screenwriting that opening the daily deliveries is like having a birthday party every day – and then I forget that every now and then the book that arrives is one for which I’ve written something – an essay, a chapter, etc – and that brings an extra smile to my face.

Seeing my name in print never ceases to amaze me as it was a goal of mine from a very young age – hence my helming of the 8th grade newspaper at St. Pius X School, the 12th grade “Fourth Estate” at Bedford Senior High and the columns I’ve written for my college newspaper, The Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Los Angeles Times collectively.

Today I was pleased to receive The American Civil War on Film and TV: Blue and Gray in Black and White and Color edited by Doulas Brode, Shea T. Brode and Cynthia J. Miller – it has my chapter: “Hidden Behind Hoopskirts: The Many Women of Hollywood’s Civil War” and as Doug says in the Introduction, this chapter gave me a chance to focus on the portrayal of enslaved females for wherever there was a Southern belle in an old Hollywood movie, there, too would be her maid.

Granted, as a new collection of essays by scholars – and in hardback – the book costs $105 and there are no used copies out yet. But you can always ask your local or college library to stock a copy and then be the first to check it out!

From Amazon.com…

Whether on the big screen or small, films featuring the American Civil War are among the most classic and controversial in motion picture history. From D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915) to Free State of Jones (2016), the war has provided the setting, ideologies, and character archetypes for cinematic narratives of morality, race, gender, and nation, as well as serving as historical education for a century of Americans.

In The American Civil War on Film and TV: Blue and Gray in Black and White and Color, Douglas Brode, Shea T. Brode, and Cynthia J. Miller bring together nineteen essays by a diverse array of scholars across the disciplines to explore these issues. The essays included here span a wide range of films, from the silent era to the present day, including Buster Keaton’s The General (1926), Red Badge of Courage (1951), Glory (1989), Gettysburg (1993), and Cold Mountain (2003), as well as television mini-series The Blue and The Gray (1982) and John Jakes’ acclaimed North and South trilogy (1985-86).

As an accessible volume to dedicated to a critical conversation about the Civil War on film, The American Civil War on Film and TV will appeal to not only to scholars of film, military history, American history, and cultural history, but to fans of war films and period films, as well.

From The Research Vault: Monkeemobile History from Pontiac Enthusiast Magazine

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

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Remember the Ladies from Giving Voice to Silent Films and the Far From Silent Women Who Wrote Them with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (0:56)

Watch this entire presentation

Remember the Ladies from Giving Voice to Silent Films and the Far From Silent Women Who Wrote Them with Dr. Rosanne Welch

A recording of my presentation at this year’s University Film and Video Association (UFVA) 2017 conference.

Transcript:

This whole conference is about inclusion and convergence which made this topic seem useful to me and hopefully to you. I’ve always gone back from my childhood to learning about Abagail Adams — the woman who told John while you’re working on that Constitution, could you please “remember the ladies.” We tend to forget them in this town and int he history of this town. The other book that I’ve got there is “What Happens Next” which everyone uses in their classes and has a paragraph about the women that that entire book covers. He finds time to cover them in a paragraph and that makes my students crazy. They read 5 different books on the history of screenwriting and chronologically and they come to Frances last and they are like why, why have I not heard of her until now and that book was written in the middle so you know some men write books before that book came out. They didn’t know the women existed. Then they knew and they still didn’t’ write about them and it’s important that we are in these books. So. I thought that was my background.

Books Mentioned In This Presentation

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Time for Our Town at the Pasadena Playhouse via Instagram

This way to the Pasadena Playhouse

On our way to see production of Our Town last night.

Pasadena Playbouse Web Site

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A History of Screenwriting – 41 in a series – The Wind – Frances Marion

The Wind 1928 – 2015 Helictite live from resounding silents on Vimeo.

The Wind is a 1928 American silent romantic drama film directed by Victor Sjöström. The movie was adapted by Frances Marion from the novel of the same name written by Dorothy Scarborough. It features Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson and Montagu Love. It was one of the last silent films released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and is considered one of the greatest silent films.[1][2]

Gish came up with the idea of making a film adaptation of the novel of the same name. Irving Thalberg immediately gave her permission to do so. Gish recalled wanting Lars Hanson as her leading man after seeing him in a Swedish film with Greta Garbo. She also assigned Victor Sjöström as the director herself. Sjöström directed Gish before in the 1926 film The Scarlet Letter.[3]

The film was shot partially near Bakersfield and the Mojave Desert, California.[4]

In the original novel, the heroine is driven mad when the wind uncovers the corpse of the man she has killed. She then wanders off into a windstorm to die. According to Gish and popular legend, the original ending intended for the film was the unhappy ending, but it was changed due to the studio’s powerful Eastern office decreeing that a more upbeat ending be shot.[5] It is rumored that this tampering caused Seastrom to move back to Sweden. Mayer’s biographer rejects this on account that the “sad ending” is not known to exist in any form, written or filmed. Regardless of whether an unhappy ending was originally intended, in the resulting film the “happy” ending replaced the original ending against the wishes of both Lillian Gish and Victor Seastrom.[6] — Wikipedia

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* Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!

I teach several classes for the Stephens College Low-Residency MFA in Screenwriting, including History of Screenwriting. In fact, I created the curriculum for that course from scratch and customized it to this particular MFA in that it covers ‘Screenwriting’ (not directors) and even more specifically, the class has a female-centric focus. As part History of Screenwriting I, the first course in the four-class series, we focus on the early women screenwriters of the silent film era who male historians have, for the most part, quietly forgotten in their books. In this series, I share with you some of the screenwriters and films that should be part of any screenwriters education. I believe that in order to become a great screenwriter, you need to understand the deep history of screenwriting and the amazing people who created the career. — Dr. Rosanne Welch

News: Archie to Meet The Monkees in Comic Book Crossover via Hollywood Reporter

I know this has been posted elsewhere, but the fact that one TV show’s characters are set to meet the characters from The Monkees over 50 years since they all were staples on TV… that just speaks to the power of pop culture – and fandom. I wanted to highlight this quote:

“Artist Joe Eisma agrees, adding, “From day one, The Monkees have been trailblazers in the entertainment business, and I’m excited and honored for the chance to draw their appearance in The Archies. It’s going to be a wild one!” (I also wanted to use cover art with The Monkees!”

Archie to Meet The Monkees in Comic Book Crossover via Hollywood Reporter

Archie Andrews has met some pretty big names during his comic book career — including Kiss, Marvel’s The Punisher, and even President Barack Obama — but his latest co-stars might beat them all. If nothing else, they get the funniest looks from everyone they meet.

The fourth issue of The Archies, the new comic book series centering around the musical ambitions of Archie and his pals and gals, will bring the band face-to-face with the Prefab Four themselves, as the Monkees guest-star for an issue. The meetings happens as the result of some good old-fashioned time travel, allowing the Riverdale gang to meet Peter, Mickey, Michael and Davy in their 1960s prime.

Alex Segura, co-writer of the series, tells Heat Vision that the two bands are “a perfect pairing, and they resonate in really similar ways — embracing pop sensibilities, crossing over from different mediums and just channeling the most fun parts of whatever they’re doing, be it TV, music, comics and beyond.”

To Segura’s co-writer, it’s also a dream come true.

Read Archie to Meet The Monkees in Comic Book Crossover via Hollywood Reporter

22: More on Peter Tork and The Monkees : “Why The Monkees Matter” Interview with Jean Power [Video] (0:54)

Rosanne Welch talks about “Why The Monkees Matter” with Jean Hopkins Power

Watch this entire presentation (45 mins)

Jean Powergirl takes the host reigns and welcomes her guest Rosanne Welch, PhD to the show! They’ll be discussing Roseanne’s book, “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture.”

Transcript:

Rosanne: He did — as far as instrumentation — when they started to play their own instruments on their 3rd album, Headquarters, he did and from that point on has been playing on stage forever and he was always though to be the most proficient. He plays 6 different instruments. He eventually taught music after the show was over. So he’s quite brilliant in that aspect. He allowed himself thought to be cast as the village idiot in the show.

Jean: You always had to have a ding-y person on there. Right?

Rosanne: I talked to the writers and as they thought of the characters for each of these 4 individuals to make them stand out, they had an option with the last character. He could either be the idiot or he could be the supremely intelligent one who we make fun of because they can’t connect socially.

Jean: They’re nerding out.

Rosanne: Like Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory and the writers admitted that at the last minute they thought we can make more quick jokes about stupid people than we can about smart people. So let’s just choose that.

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A hit television show about a fictitious rock band, The Monkees (1966-1968) earned two Emmys–Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directorial Achievement 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 Rider and Five Easy Pieces.

Rosanne Welch, PhD has written for television (Touched by an Angel, Picket Fences) and print (Three Ring Circus: How Real Couples Balance Marriage, Work and Kids and The Encyclopedia of Women in Aviation and Space). In the documentary world she has written and produced Bill Clinton and the Boys Nation Class of 1963 for ABC NEWS/Nightline and consulted on PBS’s A Prince Among Slaves, the story of a prince from West Africa who was enslaved in the 1780s, freed by order of President John Quincy Adams in the 1820s and returned to his homeland.

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Join me at the Stephens College’s Citizen Jane Film Festival – Oct 26-29, 2017

Stephens College’s Citizen Jane Film Festival is fast approaching and the Stephens College MFA in Screenwriting will be out in force. Current MFA students will be presenting papers at the Festival, Stephens College will be sponsoring a production of a 5-minute film and hosting a live reading of the winner’s screenplay.

My husband, Douglas E. Welch, will be covering the event for me and the Festival, so watch my Twitter, Instagram and Facebook feeds for up-to-date information, photos and more.

Here are some of our big events:

Citizen Jane Film School
An afternoon of educational- and fun!- film industry discussions!

Studio A @ Stephens College, 1405 E Broadway

11:00 AM

Screen Grab: From Screenplay To Big Screen, Who Will Win?
Judges: Sarah Haas, Ken LaZebnik, Steph Scupham, Kimberly Skyrme

Screenwriters vie for an exclusive production deal pitching their films to a panel of esteemed judges. The top five entries will be discussed and critiqued live before the audience. The winner will be announced before panel’s end. Producer, Sarah Haas, awaits to bring the project to life-a screenwriter’s dream come true!

Watch last year’s session

3:30 PM

Bold Brash Words From Bold Brash Screenwriters

Moderator: Dr. Rosanne Welch
Panelist: Amy Banks, Krista Dyson, Cara Epstein, Betsy Leighton, Laura Kirk, Sarah Whorton

The Stephens College MFA in Screenwriting Program is proud to present six of our fabulous students who will introduce the audience to six female screenwriters whose bold, brash, brilliant words have enhanced our film experience, but whose names have been left out of the textbooks. Help us write them back in and remind us all that Women Ran Hollywood once and are on their way to doing it again!

REHERSED: A CJ TABLE READ WITH GREENHOUSE THEATER PROJECT
Sager Braudis Gallery, 1025 E. Walnut

Sun / Oct 29 / 1:00 PM-3:00 PM

A staged reading of this year’s Screen Grab competition winner. Experience the art of Sager-Braudis Gallery, and watch as one of Columbia’s favorite theater companies reads a short screenplay. Refreshments provided by Harold’s Doughnuts and Fretboard Coffee.

From The Research Vault: They Made a Monkee Out of Me by Davy Jones with Alan Green, 1987

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

Order Your Copy Now!

Introduction from Giving Voice to Silent Films and the Far From Silent Women Who Wrote Them with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (1 min)

Introduction from Giving Voice to Silent Films and the Far From Silent Women Who Wrote Them with Dr. Rosanne Welch

A recording of my presentation at this year’s University Film and Video Association (UFVA) 2017 conference.

Transcript:

I teach the history of screenwriting, not film, to an MFA program for Stephens College, a low residency program. We do workshops at the Jim Henson Studios in Hollywood for 10 days twice a year and then the students do the rest of their work online. I’m also an adjunct at Cal State Fullerton, so I’ve had the pleasure of teaching all three of these gentlemen. So that’s been a lovely thing but I don’t teach this class there, so they haven’t actually seen me do this. With them, I’ve done screenwriting and workshopping, but here I’m going to talk about why I teach this class for a couple of reasons and I gave it this particular name, “Giving Voice to Silent Films…and the Far From Silent Women Who Wrote Them” – you’ll see that one of those books is by Carrie Beauchamp and it is, “Without Lying Down.” The life story of Frances Marion and the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood in the entire Silent and early talkie period and none of my students have ever heard of her and I think it is very important that we hear about her and Anita Loos and a bunch of other important women.

I was pleased to be asked to participate in a panel designed by former student (and current kick-ass professor) Warren Lewis. The panel included two other former students from the MFA in Screenwriting program at CSUF: David Morgassen and Lucas Cuny. For the panel’s theme — “What Else Do We Teach When We Teach Screenwriting: Context And Controversy: Strategies For Teaching Film And Television History And Current Events To Screenwriters” — I chose to present on: “Giving Voice to Silent Films and the Far From Silent Women Who Wrote Them”.

It involves the fact that when teaching screenwriting history, I begin chronologically. In essence I force students to watch the classic films of the silent era (happily accessible for free on YouTube) first because that is when women ran the town as evidenced in Cari Beachamp’s Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood”.) Beauchamp’s book is on my reading list so that they can encounter the careers of Frances Marion, Anita Loos, Lois Weber, Adela Rogers St. Johns, Eve Unsell and a host of other women who ran their own production companies for many years.

Secondly, knowing women once ran Hollywood makes it harder for today’s executives to wonder if today’s women can do the same.

Third, I have learned that teaching silent films reminds modern students that in screenwriting the visual is as important as the verbal.

Fourth, recognizing the birth of major iconic archetypes helps them recognize those archetypes in modern films and develop their own characters more three-dimensionally.

Fifth, I had to embarrassingly realize that in my zest to focus on forgotten females, I forgot to cover the careers of forgotten men and women of color and so expanded my viewing list to include the work of Oscar Mischeaux and other artists of color from the era.

Finally, I stretch back to the silents as a reminder that all artists stand of the shoulders of those who came before them – be they women or men.

Books Mentioned In This Presentation

Follow Dr. Rosanne Welch

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosannewelch
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drrosannewelch/

About Dr. Rosanne Welch

Rosanne Welch, PhD has written for television (Touched by an Angel, Picket Fences) and print (Three Ring Circus: How Real Couples Balance Marriage, Work and Kids and The Encyclopedia of Women in Aviation and Space). In the documentary world she has written and produced Bill Clinton and the Boys Nation Class of 1963 for ABC NEWS/Nightline and consulted on PBS’s A Prince Among Slaves, the story of a prince from West Africa who was enslaved in the 1780s, freed by order of President John Quincy Adams in the 1820s and returned to his homeland.

Welch teaches the History of Screenwriting and One-Hour Drama for the Stephens College MFA in Screenwriting. Writing/producing credits include Beverly Hills 90210, Picket Fences,ABCNEWS: Nightline and Touched by an Angel. In 2016 she published the book Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop; co-edited Women in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia; and placed “Transmitting Culture Transnationally Via the Characterization of Parents in Police Procedurals” in the New Review of Film and Television Studies. Essays appear in Torchwood Declassified: Investigating Mainstream Cult Television and Doctor Who and Race: An Anthology. Welch serves as Book Reviews editor for Journal of Screenwriting and on the Editorial Advisory Board for Written By magazine, the magazine of the Writers Guild.

Dr. Welch also presented, “The Importance of Having a Female Voice in the Room” at the 2016 TEDxCPP. Watch it here.

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