Writing-for-the-cut: What can screenwriters learn from film editors about storytelling?
- Submitting institution
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Ravensbourne University London
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- GL01
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
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10.1386/josc.9.1.85_1
- Title of journal
- Journal of Screenwriting
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 85
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 1
- ISSN
- 1759-7137
- Open access status
- Deposit exception
- 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
-
-
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This academic article grew out of my Ph.D. by practice, which I completed at University of Exeter in 2016. It explores the narrative synergies between screenwriting and film editing. The Journal of Screenwriting (JOS) is one of the few peer-reviewed journals of record in this field.
What can screenwriters learn from film editors about storytelling? In answering this question, I identify a number of narrative properties that might be passed back to the screenwriter. Collectively, these ‘cutting patterns’ may form the basis of an approach to screenwriting that mimics the language of film. Writing-for-the-cut is founded on 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 better shaped for the screen.
I began work on this Journal of Screenwriting article in spring 2017, a year after completing my PhD. The process of writing this article was to distil and revise my earlier findings and to contribute fresh research and insights, some based on academic feedback.
The article was peer reviewed by two academics, and the editor Associate Professor Craig Batty (RMIT).
Writing for the Cut, both as a journal article and as a book has attracted a wide range of complimentary reviews from academics and seminal practitioners including: Betsy A McLane, Director Emerita of the International Documentary Association; Walter Murch, editor and commentator; David Peoples, screenwriter.
This article sits between my PhD thesis and the publication of my book, and marks an important developmental milestone. It further elaborated my model of ‘poetic juxtapositions’, and proposes ways of embedding the cut in the writing.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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