On the Same Page: an Exploration of the Co-Screenwriting Experience Is Entirely My Own Work Except Where Indicated Via Bibliographical Reference
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On the Same Page An Exploration of the Co-Screenwriting Experience. Submitted in total fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Masters of Film and Television (by Research) Andrew O’Keefe September, 2014 Master of Film and Television (Research) Film and Television Faculty of the VCA & Music The University of Melbourne 234 St Kilda Rd Southbank, Vic. 3006 Australia Produced on archival quality paper. ABSTRACT Most commercial screen product created in the last century has been the result of collaboration between two or more writers. However, while there exists a significant body of research into the areas of both ‘collaboration’ and ‘screenwriting’, very little exists which interrogates their nexus. This practice-led thesis begins to address that gap by firstly investigating the process of co-screenwriting through my writing collaboration with John Studley on the feature-length screenplay, The Last Resort. Throughout the writing of the screenplay I maintained observational diaries, transcribed audio recordings of writing sessions and reflected on communication and collaboration patterns. Secondly, this thesis also attempts to contextualise this collaboration between two screenwriters constructing a feature-length screenplay by examining various co- authoring models used. In spite of the fact that the majority of film scripts are credited to one writer, I suggest that collaborative screenwriting within the film industry is highly prevalent, particularly in Hollywood, where it takes many guises, both overt and covert, willing and unwilling. I further suggest that historically, the rigid modern screenplay format used by many contemporary screenwriters developed as a by- product of studio-enforced collaborations during the silent-movie era of Hollywood and, therefore, this particular form of the screenplay may be ideally suited to co- writing. Through the examination of my own collaborative screenwriting practices, I conclude that a prolonged and well-considered prewriting phase may be highly desirable to the quality of the final screenplay and the health of the collaborative process. I propose that conversational collaboration (writing every word together) can be an effective technique between two screenwriters; and that conversational collaboration significantly enhances the vocabulary required to successfully co-write and strengthens what is, possibly, the most important ingredient of all successful collaborations: trust. i TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract i Table of Contents ii Declaration iii Preface iii Acknowledgements iv Introduction 1 Chapter One: Critical Review and Research Design 9 Chapter Two: The Influence of Format, Style and Genre 22 Chapter Three: Why do Screenwriters Collaborate 29 Chapter Four: The Construction of the Screenplay 51 Conclusion 85 Bibliography 89 Appendix One: The Last Resort screenplay – the first ten pages Appendix Two: Notes on the Process – co-writing diary Appendix Three: AWG Collaborative Writer’s Agreement ii DECLARATION This is to certify that: (i) the thesis comprises only my original work towards the Masters degree except where indicated in the Preface, (ii) due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used, (iii) the dissertation is 29,772 words in length, inclusive of footnotes, but exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices. PREFACE The dissertation On the Same Page: An Exploration of the Co-Screenwriting Experience is entirely my own work except where indicated via bibliographical reference. Extracts from the screenplay The Last Resort (First 10 pages submitted as an appendix) are the result of collaboration between myself and John Studley and we share a 50/50 ownership of copyright. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks go to John Studley, my writing partner, without whom the partnership could not have been studied. Thanks also to Annabelle Murphy, my Supervisor, whose direct feedback and guidance was given and relished. Considerable gratitude is extended to Marleena Forward whom edited the dissertation. To Stephen Cleary, whose feedback on numerous drafts of the screenplay was generous and invaluable. Finally, my love to Tuuli Forward and our daughter Maija both of whom made this dissertation much more difficult to write than it ought to have been; their company being infinitely more rewarding than that of this thesis. iv It is never the case that one person suddenly had a brilliant idea, which is then accepted by everyone in that original, untouched form. The really good idea is always traceable back quite a long way, to often a not very good idea which sparked off another idea that was only slightly better, which somebody else misunderstood in such a way that they then said something which was really rather interesting. John Cleese (Schrage, 1990) v INTRODUCTION In this thesis I explore the often-misunderstood practice of collaborative screenwriting; or, to be even more specific, the practice of co-screenwriting - the act of two writers simultaneously joining forces to construct the approximately one hundred pages of action and dialogue required to make a feature-length movie. Through looking closely at my own creative practices, and researching the literature on the topic, I aim to enlighten the reader regarding the many factors that contribute to collaboration during the writing of a screenplay. I have undertaken many kinds of collaborative screenwriting during the course of the four-year construction of this dissertation (2010–2014); with screenwriters, directors and/or producers on three feature-length screenplays (one of which was produced) and one short film (produced): • Seven Snipers – a feature-length screenplay in development, written by Luke Preston & Matthew Vaughan, of which my credits are “Story By”, Script Editor, Producer and Director; • Crime & Punishment - a feature-length screenplay of which I was the sole screenwriter adapting Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 1866 novel as well as the Director and one of three producers. Crime & Punishment is currently in post- production. • Mother’s Day – a completed short film of which I am Director and uncredited writer of various scenes. However, it is my process of co-writing The Last Resort that is of specific relevance to this dissertation as it pertains most directly to the experience of simultaneous co-writing of a screenplay with another writer. My collaborative screenwriting experience, however, began earlier than that on my first feature film as co-writer and director. Between 2004 and 2007, John Studley and I worked to bring the feature- length film The Independent (O’Keefe and Studley, 2007) to the screen. The first three-and-a-half years proved to be a harrowing co-screenwriting ordeal, while co- 1 directing and producing the film in the final six months was never anything but daunting. For another year or so after the release of the movie we travelled to both rural and metropolitan regions of Australia to continue its promotion, which invariably included question-and-answer sessions with audiences and radio, television, print and online media interviews. One particular aspect of the film seemed to cause endless curiosity and resulted in the same question being asked of us, over and over: During the entire collaborative process of making the film, how did you not kill each other? At first we laughed it off, but the question persisted. Curious audience members would approach us individually to justify their questioning; some were about to take on business partners, one was a share-farmer and yet another was a husband-and-wife academic team. Their common challenge lay in figuring out how to make a collaboration work. Journalist and Research Fellow at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Michael Schrage (1990 p31-32) believes that ‘in a collaborative environment, people spend as much time understanding what they are doing as actually doing it’. It was rare that Studley and I could offer any real insight or valuable advice to our inquisitive audience members. If the truth were told, we had no idea why our collaboration had worked; it had been a sloppy, indirect and improvised creation of a working partnership. There was no demarcation of roles, no discussion as to how we would work, and no legal contracts that defined our relationship. It was sink or swim. Three years after the completion of The Independent, Studley and I began work on our second co-written screenplay, the feature-length romantic comedy The Last Resort (O'Keefe and Studley, 2013), the first ten pages of which accompanies this dissertation as an appendix. This time, I decided our experience co-authoring the screenplay would be the basis of a research project. What I did not consider, due to my then lack of empirical study into the subject of collaborative screenwriting, was that two other projects could also inform my research, albeit to a much lesser degree. 2 Crime & Punishment (Price, 2010) is a feature-length screenplay that I had not considered a collaborative writing experience due to myself being the sole screenwriter. It was during the writing and then the directing of the film that I understood that I had indeed co-authored the script with the 19th century novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky. I felt his words, his intentions guiding me; his presence was felt during the making of our film. In other words, we had collaborated to some degree. Although Dostoevsky is dead, his influence on the final work is not. Writing the screenplay for Crime and Punishment gave me pause to consider the wider ramifications of writing “collaboration”. I shall discuss this greater depth in Chapter One, Critical Review and Research Design. The other feature-length screenplay that came to fruition during this period is one that I began a few years earlier as a solo writing experience. Seven Snipers (Walker, 2013), a suspense thriller set during a sniper training camp, is a story that I had conceived and developed over a five-year period. During that time I grew frustrated with my lack of writing advancement and began to concentrate instead on writing both The Last Resort and Crime & Punishment; but the sniper story would not go away.