On Monday 10 November at 4pm (in PG142) Dr Craig Batty from RMIT University, Australia will be speaking to the Narrative Research Group about ‘Smartphone Screenwriting’, discussing the use of digital tools in screenwriting (full abstract below).
All very welcome – please do alert any colleagues or students who might be interested – and hope to see you there!
Monday 10 November, 4-5pm, PG142
Smartphone screenwriting: Creativity, technology and screenplays-on-the-go
Dr Craig Batty, RMIT University, Australia
The market is awash with digital screenwriting tools and apps. From the early days of software packages that promised to give screenwriters access to an ‘industry standard layout’ (Final Draft, Celtx, etc.), we have entered an era where everyone wants a slice of the screenplay action: Scrivener, Slugline, Plotbot, Scripped, StorySkeleton, to name just a few. Although not as explicit in their aims as the much-criticised screenwriting ‘guru’ seminars, such tools and apps do in some way promise ‘success’ to their users, at the very least in their advocation of being able to help them get to the true work of writing their screenplay. They are digital interventions designed to both shape and be shaped by creative practice.
But what are these digital tools and apps really doing? Are they intervening, and if so, how? Do they help the writing process, or just the processing of writing? This paper will explore some of the digital screenwriting tools and apps on the market and investigate what they offer to screenwriters. Focusing on values, branding and functionality, it will examine if and how they are actually helping the practice of screenwriting. The paper will also pose broader questions about the role of digital tools and apps in the context of creative practice.
Biography
Dr Craig Batty is Creative Practice Research Leader in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University, Australia. He is author, co-author and editor of eight books, including Screenwriters and Screenwriters: Putting Practice into Context (2014), The Creative Screenwriter: Exercises to Expand Your Craft (2012), and Movies That Move Us: Screenwriting and the Power of the Protagonist’s Journey (2011). He is also a screenwriter and script editor, and his latest project as script editor, the feature film I am Evangeline, is due for release in late 2014.