This article explores academic and industry perspectives on the use of dialect, slang, and historical language in screenwriting. It offers a chronological overview of major screenwriting manuals' treatment of dialect and slang (or lack thereof) 1946-2020. It then presents survey data of 53 currently-practicing screenwriters' views on working with…

Network Text Analysis (NTA) involves the creation of networks of words and/or concepts from linguistic data. Its key insight is that the position of words and concepts in a text network provides vital clues to the central and underlying themes of the text as a whole. Recent research has relied on inductive approaches to identify these themes. In…

Examines the classical paradigm in which both temporal and spatial cohesion constitute a popular and desirable characteristic in presentational story-telling. Argues that fragmentation's maneuvers are as effective as a configurating tool and as cohesion because they advance the ideological, psychoanalytic, aesthetic, essentialist, and story…

Examines the published film scripts for three movies in discussing the value of reading such scripts as a part of film study in the classroom. (RD)

Suggests American screenwriters experiment with the lighting, colors, perspectives, angles, and positioning of images in works of art to generate narrative. Argues that American screenwriters, unlike European counterparts, unnecessarily adhere to the concept that characterization is essential to generate narrative. (KEH)

Examines similarities and differences between writing short, live-action narrative films and writing feature films. Examines market influence, budget, structure, and story factors. Describes useful procedures for inclusion in a scriptwriting class. (KEH)

Discusses the differences in the characterization of the hero between James Dickey's novel and screenplay, "Deliverance." (TO)

Defines and analyzes the ideological conditions which motivate a writer to conclude a screenplay with an open ending. Questions whether screenwriting instructors in the 1990s should encourage their students to write nonclassical Hollywood cinema endings. (KEH)

A film is the successful combination of two distinct groups of elements: (1) the technical elements by which the film is made (camera, lighting, sound and editing) and (2) the esthetic elements that transform the craft into an art. This book attempts to combine the study of these elements by providing technical information about the process of…

This essay is an examination of a particular kind of change which has been made with some frequency in recent motion pictures derived from novels. Because the market for cinema is youth and the young people of the country are largely disenchanted with foreign languages, motion pictures derived from novels are occasionally rewritten in such a way…

Presents a sample of college and university screenwriting programs for writers and directors. Includes opinions of faculty and professionals in the field of writing on the specific objectives of screenwriting courses, as well as methods of teaching. (JMF)

Argues that contemporary screenwriters have much to learn from journalism and from theater, especially in the move away from the linearity of the high-concept film to a richer, more complex screen story. Examines the writing skills and techniques of journalist and playwrights in developing both foreground and background stories. (KEH)

Bound in a slipcover rather than in signatures, this "book" is made up of thirteen separately bound booklets. The first booklet is an introduction to the use of film in the classroom both in teaching the filmic art and in increasing the visual literacy of students on the high school and early college levels. The twelve other booklets each treat a…

This book covers the aesthetic and production aspects of the 1951 musical film, "An American in Paris," through interviews with many of the production specialists who helped make this motion picture. The film represents the genre of the color Hollywood musical. It was the winner of six Academy Awards, featured a major star and a developing star,…

This book makes a comparative study of the prose fiction of Graham Greene and the films made from that fiction. Special attention is focused upon the "cinematic" style of Greene's prose, the effect of Greene's screenwriting on his novels, and the characteristics of Greene's filmscripts. The book is divided into considerations of Greene…