Screenplay Discourses: Bridging the Screenplay-Film Divide

Abstract

This article suggests that screenplay studies should pay more attention to the meaning that screenwriting and the screenplay are given around, and after, the release of finished films. A review of existing screenwriting and screenplay theory reveals that in the past ten years there has been a tendency to reconsider these terms, relating them to the contexts in which they are culturally operative. Nonetheless, these new academic approaches primarily attach the study of screenplays to films’ development and pre-production, although the term is discussed and used significantly in contexts other than film development. This article identifies different sites where screenplay discourses emerge from finished films, and I argue that it is necessary to study these sites in order to understand how they contribute to current ideas about the screenplay. On the basis that both finished films and published screenplays generate screenplay discourse outside the development and pre-production of films, I contend that each iteration of the screenplay has its particular function. In light of this, no form of the screenplay should be considered subsidiary in screenplay studies, and this includes screen-idea documents, released films and published screenplays. The uses of the different screenplay forms range from commissioning financiers to gaining awards at festivals and securing press reviews to facilitating screenwriting pedagogy. Therefore, it is important to take screenplay studies beyond pre-production stages to better understand the roles of screenplays within contemporary film culture and film studies.