Screenwriting Commons^™

Michigan Fiction, Bryce Durfey

Honors Theses

The screenplay Michigan Fiction follows a failing children's book author who is desperate for another taste of success. His father has told him his entire life that success by any means is all that matters. After a chance meeting with a more successful crime-novelist colleague, and learning of his next book idea, he decides to follow him to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to steal his idea for a book. He stays in a motel where the original killer once stayed and killed. Things go awry when he accidentally murders someone. After the town thinks it's the old killer returning, …

Loz, A Feature-Length Screenplay By Audrey Ickes & The Midwest’S Playground: An Autoethnography Of “The Lake” In Accompaniment To The Screenplay Loz, Audrey M. Ickes '25

Honor Scholar Theses

The following screenplay and critical paper mold together into one comprehensive project. The historical context found in the critical paper informs the screenplay as much as the screenplay weaves its way into the critical paper’s autoethnography. For example, the unique section breaks throughout the critical paper were taken directly from my grandfather's letterheads that he used for his seasonal business letters.

Nps-1, Johanna G. Ziegler

Honors Thesis

NPS-1 is a biopic/political thriller feature-length screenplay that follows the true story of Stephen Mather, a public relations whiz and self-made millionaire who dedicated his fortune to lobbying for the creation of the National Park Service, eventually becoming its first director. Navigating political obstacles on the path to establishing the NPS, Mather struggles to conceal his history with manic depression as his erratic behavior becomes an increasing threat to the success of his campaign. Alongside his reliable but in-the-dark assistant Horace Albright, Mather navigates the ethical minefield that comes with park policymaking: can a push for road development, or border …

Come To Jesus, Christopher Cunningham

LMU Theses and Dissertations

"Come to Jesus" is a comedy feature screenplay. With a tonal comp being "Superbad in sunday school", it follows a young evangelical boy named Toby, who attends his final Vacation Bible School camp at church before graduating high school. His lifelong dream of winning a bible college scholarship through his church is put in flux as his biggest rival, Shadrach, returns unexpectedly from his few years away in New York. Possessing all of the natural charisma and charm in the world, Toby sees the writing on the wall - he has no chance of winning this scholarship. That's when he …

Pathos, Spring 2025, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

Pathos

Editor: Adriana Stanzione

Stereotypes Of Female Characters In Disney, Merouge Hazem Elboraie

The Undergraduate Research Journal

The depiction of female characters in Disney films has undergone a significant transformation throughout the decades, reflecting societal shifts and changing perceptions of gender roles. As young girls tend to idolize fictional female characters, ensuring a healthy portrayal of women in animated films is crucial. This paper aims to discuss the portrayal of female characters in Disney movies within certain frames and their impact on the general public through a case analysis of literature reviews. It underscores the dynamic interplay between societal change and cinematic narratives, particularly in Disney. The research’s findings indicate that the negative portrayal of Disney female …

True Love Stays, Sydney Thier

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

True Love Stays is a love story, albeit an atypical one. Inspired by the bond I have cultivated with my dog, Ava, it explores the nature of relationships with other people and myself. As an essayist and a filmmaker, I was inspired by the way that writers like Jo Ann Beard, Joan Didion, and Leslie Jamison write about love and how Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Alice Birch approach the complexities of identity and relationships on-screen. This collected work is meant to be a multi-genre approach to unpacking how love, desire, and grief interact with identity formation through character-driven writing and an …

Personification: A Short Film, Charles R. Adams

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

Personification follows a group of college students as they receive news that mysterious shape-shifting creatures are posing as humans. They quickly turn on each other, realizing there is no one they can trust. In the style of mid-20th - century horror films, notably Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), the short film explores themes of paranoia and the value of human expression in a time when generative AI seeks to replace the creative method. In keeping with this theme, the emphasis for this project was on the act of creation. Pre-production—which included scriptwriting, casting, and various organizational tasks—ran …

Write What You Know: Serving Others Through Purpose Driven And Honest Storytelling, Breanna Porter

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Writing Stories That Have An Impact, Andrew Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Social Justice & Raising Awareness: The Stories That Need To Be Told, Christopher Eastman

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Pathos, Winter 2025, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

Pathos

Editor: Adriana Stanzione

East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon Film Pitch Deck, Micah Anderson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

A pitch deck to present an idea for a film adaptation of the fairy tale "East of the Sun and West of the Moon." The deliverables include a 3-5 minute animatic of a single scene (complete with placeholder audio), the script of the scene, storyboards used to map out each action, at least one model sheet for each major character, and rough sketches of all 30 characters. They are to be presented in an exhibition with the animatic on loop on a TV, a public presentation in the Myers auditorium, and a written paper on the details regarding the medium …

From Ink To Code, From Binary To Boundless Reality—Until All Returns To Emptiness, Weitong Sun

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the entangled relationship between language, memory, and technology through the lens of immigrant experience. Moving from programming to visual storytelling, I investigate how dyslexia, bilingualism, and cultural displacement have shaped my ways of reading, writing, and coding.

Beginning with personal reflections on switching from computer science to art, I trace how code offered a form of clarity and expression where written language had once failed me. Yet as I ventured into real-time simulation and XR storytelling, I encountered new forms of mistranslation—where narratives dissolved, mutated, or resisted coherence altogether.

Through a series of experiments in code-driven art, …

The Ras, Briana Kaisen

Screenwriting and Film Studies Theses (MA/MFA)

Eve’s goal is simple: to discover a college major that will earn her the most money without completely draining her soul. When her housing plans implode and tuition bills pile up, Eve reluctantly takes on the role of RA—a glorified babysitter for drunken freshmen—in exchange for a roof over her head. Quitting isn’t an option, but surviving this circus of unhinged students and incompetent coworkers might just cost her what’s left of her sanity.

Alongside her eclectic team of fellow RAs, Eve battles to keep students alive while chasing down banned pets, unraveling the mystery of the dorm elevator couch, …

The Romanticization Of Human-Vampire Relationships: How 'Twilight' And 'The Vampire Diaries' May Prime Young Women To Accept Dating Violence, Natalie M. Bowen

UROP Posters

The first literary vampire can be traced back to 18th century Germany, with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s poem “Die Braut von Korinth,” but the stereotypical features of a vampire are traditionally accredited to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Modern vampires, such as Edward Cullen and Stefan Salvatore of the Twilight and The Vampire Diaries series respectively, have managed to win the hearts of teenage girls all across America with their sex appeal and charismatic nature. According to Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory, individuals learn new behaviors by modeling and imitating the actions of those around them. This comprehensive literature review investigates the connection …

A Mandate For Healing: A World War Ii Vet Meets A Vietnam Vet In The Screenplay, Chinook With An Essay On War Screenplay Research, Buz Ecker

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Chinook is an original screenplay about a Vietnam vet with PTSD who meets a World War II vet in a VA Home, and the screenplay takes one afternoon to unfold. This dissertation explains how Chinook came to be, with all of the processes undertaken. It begins with an introduction about the characters in the screenplay and who these characters are based on. There are several books, movies, and articles contained in this section to make the characters, events, and flashbacks of what actually happened in World War II and Vietnam. The best resources were conversations with actual veterans from either …

History And The Teaching Of Dialect And Slang In Screenwriting, Mitch Olson, Chris C. Palmer

Faculty Articles

This article explores academic and industry perspectives on the use of dialect, slang, and historical language in screenwriting. It offers a chronological overview of major screenwriting manuals’ treatment of dialect and slang (or lack thereof) 1946-2020. It then presents survey data of 53 currently-practicing screenwriters’ views on working with dialect and historical language in scripts, as well as their sense of possible changes in the industry regarding attitudes towards diverse voice representation on the page. It concludes with examples from a teaching sequence that illustrates strategies for writing with dialect, researching it, and ethically considering its usage in scripts. Situating …

Extra-Terrestrial: A Television Pilot Script, Landon Adams

Symposium of Student Scholars

How do you make a home out of a place you don’t feel welcomed? This is the plight of Beatrix Ivy, a passionate fashionista, humanoid-martian who dreams of opening her own fashion business. The only issue: fashion does not exist on Mars. She impulsively decides to ditch her hypercritical mother in pursuit of Planet Earth. Destination? Paris, France. However, a GPS malfunction lands her in the unknown town of Paris, Georgia. Mistaken for a drag queen, Beatrix is met with hostility from the bigoted locals, including local darling SunRay, an equally talented fashion designer. Beatrix eventually finds companionship in a …

Birthday Girl, Makayla Tappin

Master's Projects

The lives of four friends plummet into chaos after a dead friend from college seemingly resurfaces – alive.