Pitts, V. 2013. Writing from the Body: Kinesthetics and Entrainment in Collaborative Screenwriting. Journal of Media Practice. 14 (1), pp. 61-78. https://doi.org/10.1386/jmpr.14.1.61_1
| Title | Writing from the Body: Kinesthetics and Entrainment in Collaborative Screenwriting |
|---|---|
| Type | Journal article |
| Authors | Pitts, V. |
| Abstract | The predominant industry mode of screenplay development involves writers sitting alone at a computer to produce numerous drafts in periodic consultation with producers, directors and script editors. The exception to this rule is the process of devising screenplays through guided actors’ improvisations. However, in the development of my film, Beat (2010), a dialogue between dramatic and choreographic improvisations was established and a process of “kinesthetic writing” evolved as a result. Script consultant, Joan Scheckel, employs comparable processes to develop narrative feature films collaboratively. The success of films developed by her demonstrates that, where appropriate, an economic case can be made for the higher investment required of collaborative script development. Based on my own film practice, in-depth interviews with Joan Scheckel, and scholarship in disciplines ranging from the arts and humanities through cognitive psychology to neuroscience, this essay employs the praxical knowledge and inductive theorising germane to practice-based research to investigate how musicality, movement and dance can be utilized in the collaborative development of narrative screenplays, and proposes that the embodiedness of human understanding evident in processes of entrainment such as kinesthetic empathy and mirroring may be harnessed to enliven scriptwriting and function more generally as a modus vivendi. |
| Keywords | screenplay development |
| creative process | |
| practice-based research | |
| entrainment | |
| kinesthetic empathy | |
| mirroring | |
| Journal | Journal of Media Practice |
| Journal citation | 14 (1), pp. 61-78 |
| ISSN | 1468-2753 |
| Year | 2013 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis |
| Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1386/jmpr.14.1.61_1 |
| Web address (URL) | https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjmp20/14/1?nav=tocList |
| Publication dates | |
| Published in print | 2013 |
| Published online | 03 Jan 2014 |