HomeWhere the hell is the screenwriter?

Where the hell is the screenwriter?

Mais où est donc passé le scénariste ?

The place of the screenwriter within the film's team and the process of cinematographic creation

La place du scénariste au sein de l'équipe du film et du processus de création cinématographique

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Published on Monday, September 17, 2018

Abstract

Like the scenario he conceives, a complex transitional object, sometimes unloved but also a source of covetousness (people are fighting over a good script!), indispensable but soon denigrated, the scriptwriter occupies an ambiguous place within the film making process. He can sometimes be the key figure who provides the right subject, allowing to bring together the filmmaker and the producer, but in other cases, he is only one component of massive writing teams; he can also quickly be dismissed, his work being taken up by others. We would like to question the different modalities of the scriptwriter(s)’ integration within the creative process. What are the common practices within the different film production spaces? What discrepancies or innovations can be observed? What evolutions? What legacies?

Announcement

The Conference "Where the hell is the screenwriter?" will be hold in Lyon, November 26-27, 2018

Argument

This conference takes part within the work of the research group "Collective creation in cinema", which focuses on the issues related to the film team. It aims at questionning the place of the scriptwriter and of the script in the process of film creation.

Like the scenario he conceives, a complex transitional object, sometimes unloved but also a source of covetousness (people are fighting over a good script!), indispensable but soon denigrated, the scriptwriter occupies an ambiguous place within the film making process. He can sometimes be the key figure who provides the right subject, allowing to bring together the filmmaker and the producer, but in other cases, he is only one component of massive writing teams; he can also quickly be dismissed, his work being taken up by others... This ambiguous position can probably be related to the singular place of the script in cinematographic creation, at the margin of the film: first because it generally occurs very early in the creative process, but also because of its very nature. Contrary to the découpage, directly related with the directing process, the screenplay remains mostly understood as a mainly narrative, literary document. According to Truffaut: "Whether we write a novel or a screenplay, we organize meetings, we live characters’ lives. It is the same pleasure, the same work: we intensify life". However, the distinctions are not always that clear. The forms taken by the script can vary or evolve according to the degree of integration of the scriptwriter(s) into the overall creative process of the film. The final script covers different states of writing which result from many stages of collective creation, stages during which writing is being shaped by a dynamic of exchanges between the scriptwriter(s), the producer(s), the filmmaker, or the other members of the film team.

We would like to question the different modalities of the scriptwriter(s)’ integration within the creative process. What are the common practices within the different film production spaces? What discrepancies or innovations can be observed? What evolutions? What legacies? We wish to analyze certain specific configurations, whether we consider for example the case of scriptwriters attached to a studio, or on the contrary those working independently, or production systems favouring specific practices, whether individual or in pairs, or in writing teams. From a contemporary perspective, we would like to question the persistence of certain traditional configurations, but also the emergence of new ways of functioning, linked for example with the integration of the film industry into the audiovisual industry.

We also would like to explore more specifically the writer's relationships with the other members of the film team. It should be interesting to focus on the relationship between filmmakers and screenwriters: in what terms does the artistic cooperation take place, how is creation shared? What about co-signing? How are the copyrights distributed? And how can these questions be addressed in the specific case of documentary cinema, or even animation movies? More broadly, in what ways do the relations of the scriptwriter(s) with other members of the team (whether one thinks of the specific exchanges between scriptwriters, dialoguists, directors and actors around the creation of the fictional characters, or other collaborations - for example between the scriptwriter and different members of the technical team) contribute to enrich the process of cinematographic creation? Furthermore, what place is there for the screenwriter on the set or even during the editing?

Keynote speaker: Patrick McGilligan, Film Historian

Submission guidelines

The proposals (2000 signs maximum) must be sent

by September 20th, 2018

to the Scientific Committee (contact below) accompanied by a brief bio-bibliographical note of the author.

Proposals must be sent to : colloque.scenariste.lyon@gmail.com

Scientific Committee

  • Bérénice Bonhomme (Université Toulouse II, LARA-SEPPIA)
  • Martin Fournier (Université Lyon 2, Passages XX-XXI)
  • Réjane Hamus-Vallée (Université d’Evry Val d’Essonne, Centre Pierre Naville)
  • Kira Kitsopanidou (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle -­‐ Paris 3, IRCAV)
  • Nedjma Moussaoui (Université Lyon 2, Passages XX-XXI) Katalin Pór (Université de Lorraine, 2L2S)

 

Conference organizers

  • Bérénice Bonhomme (Université Toulouse II, LARA-SEPPIA)
  • Martin Fournier (Université Lyon 2, Passages XX-XXI)
  • Nedjma Moussaoui (Université Lyon 2, Passages XX-XXI)
  • Katalin Pór (Université de Lorraine, 2L2S)

Places

  • Lyon, France (69)

Date(s)

  • Thursday, September 20, 2018

Keywords

  • études cinématographiques, métiers du cinéma, histoire du cinéma

Contact(s)

  • Katalin Pór
    courriel : katalin [dot] por [at] univ-paris8 [dot] fr

Information source

  • Katalin Pór
    courriel : katalin [dot] por [at] univ-paris8 [dot] fr

License

CC0-1.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.

To cite this announcement

« Where the hell is the screenwriter? », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Monday, September 17, 2018, https://doi.org/10.58079/10ut

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