24 Women in Modern Westerns from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

Host: Didn’t you write a book on westerns?

Rosanne: I’ve written chapters in some books on westerns yes – on women and how women are portrayed in westerns. One of them actually yeah one of them had to do with westerns from the 20th – from 2000 to the modern day and the scary thing was you assume the women would be more powerful and more have their own sort of agency but the most powerful woman I found in a movie from the 2000s to now was in “Rango” and she’s a little animated –– what is she –– I forget –– she’s like some lizard or something her name is Beans and she is the most empowered woman I found in any of the western and “Rango’s” beautifully written film. It’s just so hilarious, plays on all the western tropes, and yet actually tells a heartfelt story. I often have students watch that movie because the very first half hour the Rango character narrates the process of writing a script. He literally says that when this is my midpoint. I wonder what I’ll do from this point on. I mean it’s hilarious. It’s like you have to know screenwriting technique to get the inside jokes in that movie but yeah.

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.

RMW Rosanne Signature for Web

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.

Journal of Screenwriting Cover

23 “The Mandalorian” from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

23

Transcript:

 

Host: Your own writing is more on TV so what did you make of “The Mandalorian” speaking of “Star Wars.” Have you managed to watch that?

Rosanne: Yes. Yes. My son was the first one to check it out. I am fine with the new right? I’m such an old “Star Wars” fan that I don’t appreciate the prequels. I don’t ever need to see those again. The next three were fine. I’m debating how much I love them or not really I mean because I’m so tied to the first three but so I wasn’t sure about “The Mandalorian.” I didn’t rush to see it but my son who’s 22 did and he was like you’ve got to see this –  it’s and we’re both –  I mean I’m the one who of course introduced him to “Star Wars” and would sit on the couch and watch “The Empire Strikes Back” over and over again when he was you know a toddler. So on his word I said okay. Check it out and of course, what’s lovely about that is it’s a western. It’s a western and westerns are pretty cool. I like westerns. I’ve seen a bunch of them…

Host: …they’re my favorite genre.

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.

RMW Rosanne Signature for Web

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.

Journal of Screenwriting Cover

22 “Star Wars” from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

22

Transcript:

Rosanne:…and then, who doesn’t love “Star Wars?” I mean, I was a kid who, you know, was in line for the second one and, in fact, I was in high school or early college, I guess, when “The Empire Strikes Back” came out. Yeah and no one had ever ended a movie on a cliffhanger. Like that didn’t happen. Right? The movie should end and I remember sitting in the audience and Harrison Ford is all in the stuff and they’re taking him away and Luke is looking out the window right, and I’m looking at my watch going “This is going to be a really long movie. They’re going to have to save him really in a stupid fast way. This is..how are they going to…”and then slowly they walked to the window and it’s him and Leia and they’re sort of almost waving goodbye to the thing and I’m like “This is.. like your wasting time. Get to the rest of the rescue…” and then the movie ended and my brain wasn’t even thinking and I shouted some cuss words out loud in the theater. I mean you can’t end a movie like that and my friends were like “Rosanne. Sit down you’re embarrassing us.” “But but…”and I vowed to never see the other one because it would take 2 years to finish the story and you know, 2 years later, I was in line for the midnight movie the first time that it was going to show. I was like, ‘You can’t not tell me how this ends.”

Host: Genius that was.

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.

RMW Rosanne Signature for Web

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.

Journal of Screenwriting Cover

21 “Norma Rae” and “Silkwood” from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

21

Transcript:

Rosanne: I love a movie like “Norma Rae.” I think “Norma Rae.” is an excellently written film and that’s Harriet Frank, Jr. and Ivan (Ravetch) her husband. They were a married writing team. That’s a quite perfect film and Sally Field does a perfect job and it’s it’s so raw and honest but I like “Silkwood”, too and that’s by Nora Ephron. More whistleblower than union representative.

Host: Okay I don’t I’ve seen that one. No. Now i don’t think so no.

Rosanne: Yeah. Well you know you can’t find it streaming now. There’s some issue with whatever studio eventually owned it or the music rights to it. It’s Meryl Streep and Kurt Russell. Karen Silkwood was – worked in a nuclear power plant in the late 70s and she found them cutting corners that were dangerous and she was on her way to meet a New York Times reporter with paperwork showing what side cuts they were taking which would make things dangerous and her car unexplainably ran off the road, crashed into a tree, and she died and there were no papers found in her car when they found the body. So it’s always been a mystery but her and Kurt Russell are a couple and he works at the plant and Cher – it’s one of Cher’s early films and she got nominated for supporting actress Oscar but she didn’t win but it’s just a really well-written piece about this woman who’s kind of a goof-off but she has to get serious when she realizes this is bigger than her. It’s bigger than just I don’t want to be an unsafe place but what could happen if kind of thing. So that’s a really good movie. Nora Ephron.

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.

RMW Rosanne Signature for Web

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.

Journal of Screenwriting Cover

20 “The Godfather” from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

20 “The Godfather” from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

Host: Let’s hear a few of your other favorite movies in general but let’s do it from a screenwriter’s perspective. What other movies do you think have been the best written?

Rosanne: Well you have to credit this although it is both the author and the writer/director. “The Godfather.” In the movie – if it comes on tv I can’t wherever it is when I flip to that channel although no one flips anymore, but you know, I can’t – I have to keep watching. Everything about that movie to me is perfect. Now the novel is quite perfect but there’s much in the novel that didn’t make it into the film, which i miss, but you only know that if you know the book but it’s so tight and it’s so beautifully – the story of a family and one of the things that I teach my students is that drama is about making decisions and “The Godfather” is entirely about one man who made one decision. I’m not going to follow my father and life won’t let him do that. So then he doubles down and makes the other decision that if I’m going to then I’m going to be the most powerful one and I’m going to save his empire instead of leave it.

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.

RMW Rosanne Signature for Web

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.

Journal of Screenwriting Cover

19 More Favorite Films from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

19 More Favorite Films from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

Host: Is that your is that your favorite period of filmmaking or are you you know are you all over the place with what you watch when it comes to cinema.

Rosanne: I am all over the place because it depends on the story and and the stories that stick with me you know. I love that movie. I love a lot of movies from that period but I also love a lot of movies like “Bonnie and Clyde.” How could you not love “Bonnie and Clyde?” Warren Beatty films are wonderful and but on the – and there I am two gangster movies – but I also love “Heaven Can Wait” another Warren Beatty. Written by Elaine May who’s wonderful and gets lost in the history books but yeah that’s a beautiful film. So I like that period. You know it’s funny.

Host: Is that the new Hollywood period kind of thing?

Rosanne: The New Hollywood Period but also the movies that then I grew up with when they were new. I mean I think when you think about scripts “Back to the Future” is the absolute most tightest best-written movie I can think of. You can watch that movie in every single bit. There’s a great bit in the beginning you know he’s got to have that piece of paper that tells him that when the clock is going to strike – when the lightning’s gonna strike and it’s because his girlfriend comes to him – he gets the paper from a lady. Just oh we’re saving the clock tower you know here’s a fundraising flyer but a teenage boy would throw that away. So you know they had to sit there and go why would he keep it? Well, his girlfriend comes up and says I’m staying at my grandmother’s house this weekend. Here’s her number so you can call me. so it’s his girlfriend’s phone number that’s important and of course, you couldn’t do that in the modern day because he’d have a smartphone and he wouldn’t need the piece of paper but just every detail is so perfectly covered in that movie that you cannot love it.

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.

RMW Rosanne Signature for Web

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.

Journal of Screenwriting Cover

18 ”Angels With Dirty Faces“ from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

18 ”Angels With Dirty Faces“ from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

Host: What are your what’s your favorite Jimmy Cagney movie if you have one?

Rosanne: Oh gosh I like angels and actually have my students watch “Angels With Dirty Faces” because it’s such a very perfect movie from that period right? It’s him and Pat O’Brien. He’s the gangster who’s about to go to the death you know to to to be executed and Pat O’Brien is a priest and the beginning of that movie is their two little boys – two young boys – who are robbing a train like you know stealing pencils or something and they the cops see him and they start running and the cops catch Jimmy Cagney but they don’t catch Pat O’Brien’s character and of course the concept is he goes to juvenile hall he learns how to be a bigger criminal whereas the other guy gets to go and become a priest and so it’s the perfect like I mean it’s funny because it seems cheesy but in fact it’s really about the fact that it’s about nurturing right and and how we should take children and give them better things so they want to be they can be better in life and then there’s a great ending that no one’s ever sure and it’s wonderful when the ending makes the audience think because the priest goes to his friend on the eve of his execution because there’s a bunch of boys in the neighborhood who think he’s cool and the priest is like oh no they’ll grow up to be like him and not like me. So it goes to his friend and he says you gotta do something that keeps them from making a martyr out of you and he’s like I’m never gonna do that. I’m strong and brave and everything and then they come to take him to the electric chair and he falls apart and you never know is he really just not he’s a coward he’s scared to death of dying or is he doing his priest friend a favor.

Host: Yeah i think it’s a very powerful movie.

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.

RMW Rosanne Signature for Web

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.

Journal of Screenwriting Cover

17 My Favorite Actors and Movies from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

17 My Favorite Actors and Movies from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

Rosanne: I love introducing students to classic films they’ve never seen and they think they know the whole story because so they saw they saw the one James Cameron directed and gee-whiz nobody knows about who wrote the thing and I can’t even quote that off the top of my head because I don’t actually like that movie so… yes but i know the 1920s the Cameron one? Did he write it?

Host: Yeah. I think he may have done. I think I would like to fact check someone fact-check us out but I’m not a big fan of that movie and but the one with Barbara Stanwyck is really cool.

Rosanne: Yeah that’s a really good version of that and Brackett got the Oscar for that so there’s reason for the Oscar and also it was one of the early movies of a young Robert Wagner and I was a big Robert Wagner fan when I was a kid watching his tv shows and whatnot. So seeing him as like a 19-year-old. I loved old movies for that reason. You’d see all these actors, in fact, I was kind of the geeky kid at my all-girl Catholic school and there was a kid who always liked to beat up on me – like verbally not physically – and I remember one time she asked me on the bus going to school who my favorite actor was and without thinking that it would be stupid I said Jimmy Cagney and like half the bus didn’t know who he was and half that did were like oh what’s wrong with you. He’s 85 and I was like I mean from the movies I’ve seen. He’s like really 30 and never mind yeah.

Host: Brilliant. I love Jimmy Cagney. I like the fact that he was able to do those gangster roles and then musicals and then come back later in life and be like a really gnarly gangster again.

Rosanne: When he had done he had done dancing with his sister on broadway so he was really a dancer and that kind of works in the gangster world because there’s that bouncy like you’re always a boxer and dancers and boxers have a lot in common.

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.

RMW Rosanne Signature for Web

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.

Journal of Screenwriting Cover

16 A Few Good Stories from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

16 A Few Good Stories from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

Host: I mean you seem to be such a knowledgeable person who comes to film history, do you have any favorite stories or have you met any maniacs, you know? Have you met any of these great the great directors of the great auteurs or have you had any experiences worth sharing.

Rosanne: I have – gosh – there’s so many stories. I worked in television for 20 years so there are good and bad stories. I don’t need to recount the bad ones but one survives all those and moves forward. That’s what you want to do and it’s been interesting to study the greats and introduce them to students and see how they respond. It’s so interesting because yes we teach Preston Sturges of course because he comes from the screenwriting world. There was a new book a couple years ago based on Charlie Bracket’s diaries and Charlie Brackett wrote with Preston but also wrote with Billy Wilder and that was a big you know. That’s a really interesting pair to piece up because Billy Wilder came to this country and didn’t speak English yet and Charlie Brackett had gone to some Ivy League college so of course he did and yet you know you got the ideas from one and the sort of quippy dialogue from the other until the one caught up to the – you know language is different in every country even between the states and the UK right we have different phraseology. So it was important to catch up to that and then Billy Wilder could go off and write on his own but then Charlie Bracket gets forgot sort of in history but he got an Oscar for writing the “Titanic” that happened in the 1950s with Barbara Stanwick which is a really great version of Titanic.

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.

RMW Rosanne Signature for Web

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.

Journal of Screenwriting Cover

15 Even More On Books I Couldn’t Teach Without from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

15 Even More On Books I Couldn't Teach Without from In Conversation with Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video]

Transcript:

So there’s a ton of those kinds of books. I like any writer’s biography because you want to learn from that. One of the things I always recommend –– I should have a copy sitting in front of me but it’s on my bedside table –– is “Monster: Living life off the big screen.” It was written by John Gregory Dunn who together with Joan Didion wrote several films including the 1976 Barbra Streisand, Kris Kristofferson “A Star Is Born” and “Monster” is a book where they got an assignment from the Disney company to write a movie based on the life of Jessica Savitch who was a TV anchorwoman who died badly. She was a cocaine addict and things like that. They got assigned to write this movie and the book is the story of the nine years it took to get the movie made in which they quit and they were fired and they came back and eventually the movie was made as “Up Close and Personal” with Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer and it is the best look at the ins and outs of a writer’s life and here were the notes we got. Here’s how we answered them and here’s you know the argument we came into and then they hired a new writer and then they didn’t like that draft and they came back and they begged us. So we got a higher fee because we didn’t want to but you know just the negotiations and then dealing with the actors. Finally, the actors signed on to the script – one of the, you know, 27th version of the script, and then the studio thought they needed a polish. So they hired someone else and then the actor said that’s not the script I said yes to. So what are we going to do? We’ll leave the production and so they went back. It’s a great look at the life of a writer and it’s a very thin little book. So it’s fun it’s a fun read.

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.

RMW Rosanne Signature for Web

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.

Journal of Screenwriting Cover