Writing for the Cut: Shaping your Screenplay for Cinema
- Submitting institution
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Ravensbourne University London
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- GL02
- Type
- A - Authored book
- DOI
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- Publisher
- Michael Wiese Productions
- ISBN
- 978-1615933006
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2018
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
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- Research group(s)
-
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The output is a sole authored book published in 2018 by Michael Wiese Productions, publishers of film education books.
This output is annexed to a contextual information template attached to this submission. The contextual information template incorporates a section called ‘Output and Description’ which identifies and describes the submitted output for evaluation. The sections of the template that follow provide contextual information, such as research narrative, funding, dissemination, reception, which accompany the submitted output.
The book is a fresh approach to screenwriting; it looks at one craft through the lens of another. It starts from the premise that film is made in the edit suite; that editing continues the writing project begun by the screenwriter. It suggests that by anticipating and embedding the dynamics of the cut in our writing, we may deliver scripts that are closer to the big screen. The benefits of such an approach would be better stories, less narrative waste, and significant savings in both budget and time.
The contextual information explains that the book marks a major development as it reformulates theory and method developed in prior research (Loftin, G. (2018) ‘Writing-for-the-cut: What can screenwriters learn from film editors about storytelling?’, Journal of Screenwriting, 9(1), pp. 85-102, submitted as GL01 in REF2) into a series of practical strategies for screenwriters. Central to this project was the key concept of ‘poetic juxtaposition’; the collision of images/sounds having the potential to ignite fresh ideas in the mind of the viewer. In this way viewers become active participants in the storytelling, they discover the story for themselves. In my prior research, I identified three varieties of poetic juxtaposition used by editors and therefore of service to the screenwriter: suggestion, puzzle, and kinesis. In the book this idea is elaborated into a series of practical for-the-cut strategies.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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