Screenwriting Commons^™

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 …

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 …

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.

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

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

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

Undergraduate Research 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 …

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, …

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, …

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.

Televangelism And Religion In Star Trek V And Licence To Kill, Robert Revington

Journal of Religion & Film

In June 1989, both Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and the James Bond film Licence to Kill were released in theatres within days of each other. This study analyzes how story elements in both films were directly inspired by recent televangelist scandals in the United States. The Star Trek film was also intended to have a deeper examination of the nature of God and the Devil. Nonetheless, both films were also intended to appeal to a mass audience. To that end, these films' explorations of religious issues were watered down to avoid offending Christian denominations or churches (though not …

From Theory To Screen: Strain In The Gallagher Experience, Caroline H. Peabody

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

This paper applies Agnew’s General Strain Theory to the hit television series Shameless (US), primarily focusing on three of the show’s central characters. The paper argues that the characters’ criminal and deviant actions can be attributed to strain, as defined by Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory (GST). The paper provides a basic overview of GST as well as a synopsis of the show before implementing the theory into an analysis of the show. In addition, this paper explores how criminality highlights the themes of Shameless and acts as an implicit call to action to address strain variables in underprivileged communities. …

Pathos, Fall 2024, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

Pathos

Editor: Adriana Stanzione

Ani175.3 Cinematography Animatics And Previsualisation Example 2, Sae University College

Exemplars

Student exemplar for ANI175.3

Do Androids Dream Of Bad Tv?: Un/Originality In Neil Burger’S Voyagers, Tom Ue, Callum M. Mcnutt

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Critics did not take kindly to Neil Burger’s Voyager (2021). On Rotten Tomatoes, the film scored a dismal 25%, and the consensus is that it’s a trip best not taken: “It has a game cast and a premise ripe with potential, but Voyagers drifts in familiar orbit rather than fully exploring its intriguing themes.” This article seeks neither to reclaim the film as an unjustly neglected cinematic masterpiece nor to assert its importance in the canon of dystopian works. Rather, it treats Voyagers as a test case for exploring our own critical investment in the genre. Our aims are …

Flm178.2 Screenwriting Script, Mood Reel, Pitch And Documented Feedback Example 2, Sae University College

Exemplars

She Isn't Alone in the Dark – Final Draft Screenplay

Completion of FLM178.2 Screenwriting.

Poco Film Festival Talks: The Impact Of Ai: A Humanist Perspective, James Thompson

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

As regards the onset of AI technology use and influence in the film and screen industries, we need to be able to take account of the agency and the engagement of our creative minds and whether or not they are being invited in to realistic, tangible jobs and careers, or alternatively what the impacts of changing technological paradigms might have on their futures. In what ways does AI impact the screen industry?

This generation of young people, film and screen production students, want to have an in-person, socialised peer experience - they want to be together. They want to have …