education – Page 35 – On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Pavel Jech Presents on short film screenplay writing at the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting Winter Workshop

Guest lecturer Pavel Jech, former Dean of FAMU, the Film and Television School of the Academy of the Performing Arts in Prague and currently at Chapman University, gave excellent insights into the craft of writing a short film screenplay at January’s MFA workshop.

Questions about the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting?

Leave a comment here or email me, Executive Director, Dr. Rosanne Welch and I’ll be happy to answer your questions.

Visit Stephens.edu/mfa for more information.Follow @StephensMFA on Instagram

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From The “When Women Wrote Hollywood” Archives 14: My Secret Mother: Lorna Moon by Richard de Mille

Months of research went into the creation of the essays in “When Women Wrote Hollywood.” Here are some of the resources used to enlighten today’s film lovers to the female pioneers who helped create it.

From The “When Women Wrote Hollywood” Archives 14: My Secret Mother: Lorna Moon by Richard de Mille

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† Available at Los Angeles Public Library

The adopted son of Cecil B. de Mille traces the life of his biological mother, a screenwriter during the silent film era, and the privileged but uneasy youth he enjoyed in Hollywood while being kept in the dark about his origins.

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† Available from the LA Public Library

Claudia Puig Speaks On Film Critique at the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting Winter Workshop (3 photos)

Claudia Puig, President of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, came to January’s workshop to discuss the art of film critique as well as the current state of Diversity in Media. She also curates two film festivals and spoke about how to work the festival circuit to gain attention for your writing career.

Questions about the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting?

Leave a comment here or email me, Executive Director, Dr. Rosanne Welch and I’ll be happy to answer your questions.

Visit Stephens.edu/mfa for more information.Follow @StephensMFA on Instagram

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39 Buffy The Vampire Slayer from The Sisterhood of Science Fiction – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (48 seconds)

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The Sisterhood of Science Fiction: A Walk Through Some Writers and Characters You (Should) Know And Love

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This one allowed me to riff on some of my favorite female science fiction writers across time, whether they be novelists or television writers. It also opened up a good conversation on what art we support and include in our lives – and what that art says to us and about us. — Rosanne

Transcript:

Moves us into the world of Buffy which is part horror/part sci-fi I would say blending and I think really finally a powerful woman though yes she does use weapons but it’s also about her inner strength and her buddy Willow who doesn’t have to be sexy she’s just a cool really smart girl. So we’re trying to get some more normal representations of women. However when they sell the box set, uhhh, that’s a pretty like it yeah, an overtly sexual pose that doesn’t really thrill me, but the series is pretty brilliant and she’s pretty powerful in it and there’s an ending to it — not gonna spoil it — but there’s a choice made in the last episode in terms of how men would take having to deal with their power issues and how a woman decides to save the day. — what she does and it’s a big interesting thing.

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Screenwriter Jane Anderson Presents at the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting Winter Workshop (5 photos)

One of the highlights of January’s Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting workshop came in the form of a story structure seminar with screenwriting Jane Anderson (The Wife, Olive Kitteridge, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio) held on the Henson soundstage. Her energy and honesty in discussing her work and her life in the business was greatly appreciated.

Questions about the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting?

Leave a comment here or email me, Executive Director, Dr. Rosanne Welch and I’ll be happy to answer your questions.

Visit Stephens.edu/mfa for more information.Follow @StephensMFA on Instagram

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41 Madelyn Pugh, Lucy and Desi from “When Women Wrote Hollywood” with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (39 seconds)

Part of the California State University, Fullerton Faculty Noon Time Talks at the Pollak Library.

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Transcript:

…and of course we have to realize the only reason we know her work and we know Lucy’s work is because Desi was smart enough to have all of their work filmed and he owned the film. He paid for the film and that’s why it is in rerun perpetually. There are so many other shows from that era that we could know as well but all of the stuff disappeared right? It was taped over and all that stuff. So his brilliance is why she gets to be Lucille Ball to us today which I think and around the world. I went to the Lucy Museum at Universal years ago and there were people speaking all kinds of languages and everybody understood Lucy because it was like a silent film. It’s all visual. You could manage that right? So Madelyn Pugh is pretty brilliant.

Dr. Rosanne Welch discusses the women in her new book “When Women Wrote Hollywood” which covers female screenwriters from the Silents through the early 1940s when women wrote over 50% of films and Frances Marion was the highest paid screenwriter (male or female) and the first to win 2 Oscars. Yet, she fails to appear in film history books, which continue to regurgitate the myth that male directors did it all – even though it’s been proven that the only profitable movies Cecil B. de Mille ever directed were all written by Jeannie Macpherson film ever won for Best Picture was written by Robert E. Sherwood (who people have heard of, mostly due to his connection to Dorothy Parker) and Joan Harrison.

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† Available from the LA Public Library

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Carol Barbee Speaks at Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting Winter Workshop (5 photos)

Carol Barbee, creator and showrunner of Netflix’s Raising Dion came to speak to the combined 1st and 2nd year students during January’s workshop. She outlined how she pitched her take on the original IP, how she hired her writers room, and how the create stories for the first year series – which has been given a pickup for season two so watch for it!

Questions about the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting?

Leave a comment here or email me, Executive Director, Dr. Rosanne Welch and I’ll be happy to answer your questions.

Visit Stephens.edu/mfa for more information.Follow @StephensMFA on Instagram

Follow and Like the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting

From The “When Women Wrote Hollywood” Archives 13: Anita Loos Rediscovered: Film Treatments and Fiction by Anita Loos, Creator of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos, Cari Beauchamp, Mary Anita Loos

From The “When Women Wrote Hollywood” Archives 13: Anita Loos Rediscovered: Film Treatments and Fiction by Anita Loos, Creator of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos, Cari Beauchamp, Mary Anita Loos

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† Available at Los Angeles Public Library

Anita Loos (1888-1981) was one of Hollywood’s most respected and prolific screenwriters, as well as an acclaimed novelist and playwright. This unique collection of previously unpublished film treatments, short stories, and one-act plays spans fifty years of her creative writing and showcases the breadth and depth of her talent. Beginning in 1912 with the stories she submitted from her San Diego home (some made into films by D. W. Griffith), through her collaboration with Colette on the play Gigi, Anita Loos wrote almost every day for the screen, stage, books, or magazines. Film scripts include San Francisco, The Women, and Red-Headed Woman. The list of stars for whom she created unforgettable roles includes Mary Pickford, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Audrey Hepburn, and Carol Channing.

This collection has been selected by Anita’s niece and close friend, the best-selling author Mary Anita Loos, together with the acclaimed film historian Cari Beauchamp. Their essays are laced throughout the volume, introducing each section and giving previously untold insights and behind-the-scenes stories about Anita―her life, her friendships, and her times.

Buy “When Women Wrote Hollywood” Today!

†

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

38 Russell T Davies and Doctor Who from The Sisterhood of Science Fiction – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (57 seconds)

Watch this entire presentation

The Sisterhood of Science Fiction: A Walk Through Some Writers and Characters You (Should) Know And Love

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Transcript:

I’m going to go back to my Russell Davies guy because he said something that is really interesting in one of his interviews about what’s wrong with television. He happens to be a gay man — an out, gay man — in England. So he made sure that most of his pieces involved gay men in partnerships because he wanted to see, again, as a child — he wanted to see that that was normal and acceptable, but he also recognized how badly women are represented on television and he wanted to something about that. So, in Doctor Who, when he took it over, he invented a lot of very interesting female companions who had all their different levels of strength. I could do a whole talk on that. I already have, but of course, the great thing about Doctor Who, post the Russell Davies period we’ve now come up with regenerating — so we’re going back to Virginia Woolfe and Orlando — we’re making the male character — who for 50 years has been represented by a male actor — he regenerated into a female character and so we’re moving forward in the Doctor Who universe as well as a female character.

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From The Journal Of Screenwriting V10 Issue 3: Network television writers and the ‘race problems’ of 1968 by Caryn Murphy

Highlighting the articles in the past editions of the Journal of Screenwriting, of which I am the Book Reviews Editor. Hopefully these abstracts will entice you to did a little deeper into the history and future of screenwriting. — Rosanne

Network television writers and the ‘race problems’ of 1968 by Caryn Murphy

This article examines the development of television scripts in the crime drama genre within the context of US commercial broadcasting in the network era. In 1968, public discourse around race relations, civil rights and violence reached a height following the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr and Robert F. Kennedy, and the release of a government study on urban uprisings by the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. Ironside (1967–75, NBC) and N.Y.P.D. (1967–69, ABC) are two crime dramas that drew on recent events related to black militants and white supremacy in order to appeal to viewers with socially relevant entertainment during this time. The archival records of screenwriters Sy Salkowitz and Lonne Elder make it possible to trace the development of one episode from each series over the course of multiple drafts. This analysis of the script development process explores the relationship between public discourse, industrial context, commercial agendas and creative priorities. Ironside and N.Y.P.D. are both crime dramas, but an examination of both series yields points of divergence which help to illustrate the norms of the network system in terms of act structure, genre tropes, and the oversight of standards and practices.

The Journal of Screenwriting is an international double-blind peer-reviewed journal that is published three times a year. The journal highlights current academic and professional thinking about the screenplay and intends to promote, stimulate and bring together current research and contemporary debates around the screenplay whilst encouraging groundbreaking research in an international arena. The journal is discursive, critical, rigorous and engages with issues in a dynamic and developing field, linking academic theory to screenwriting practice.

Get your copy and subscription to the Journal of Screenwriting Today!

Join me at the Screenwriting Research Network’s Annual Conference in Oxford, UK

* 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!