Screenwriting Commons^™

Uno Sguardo Oltre I Bordi Della Fotografia Coloniale, Simone Brioni Dr.

Department of English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Excuse Me, Everybody, Noah G. Battaglia

CMC Senior Theses

For my senior thesis I planned to write, produce, and direct a short-form, narrative film, entitled Excuse Me, Everybody. The original plot of the film is about a 19-year-old college student named Jacob who feels that his life is turned upside down after taking lewd photos of a fellow female student. While meeting with his psychotherapist, he refuses to reveal to him the true nature of his distress. He ultimately comes to terms with his crime by experiencing a hallucination where an imaginary being named Ego appears to him and forces Jacob to recollect the past events and explain …

Timber Island: A Screenplay, Lucas Cunningham

Pomona Senior Theses

A screenplay about the legacy of land use in the Pacific Northwest:

A family from old timber money looking to sell their expansive Pacific Northwest island estate. Two Parks Service surveyors, a Native American scientist, and a developer competing for the bid. A forest with its own agenda.

Against a backdrop of cedar trees and saltwater, tensions boil, ideologies clash, and buried secrets bubble to the surface.

Who will walk away with the deed to Timber Island? And what will it cost?

The Man In The Fiber Optic Cable: A Short Film, Lucas Cunningham

Pomona Senior Theses

A man runs through a fiber optic cable.

Constance After Dark, Connor Vanmaele

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Constance After Dark is an episodic screenplay, outlining the beginning, middle and end of a television comedy pilot. Set in Ohio, the story follows Brooks Riegler in his first semester at the fictional “Constance College” as he navigates the ups and downs of university life at the lowest ranked school in the state. Due to a class taught by the eccentric and nefarious Dr. Mars, Brooks learns to open up to hyperactive athletes, obsessive overachievers, and even strange, mysterious men urinating on the side of the road. Brooks, Cassidy, Jenny and Guy form a tight-knit and unlikely bond in a …

You're Gonna Lose That Girl, Wilmont True

Screenwriting and Film Studies Theses (MA/MFA)

In the feature screenplay, You're Gonna Lose That Girl, by Bill True, fifty-something Jason Kite blames his failed life on getting dumped twenty-five years ago during a slow-dance cover of the iconic Beatles song. Then Paul McCartney, who is actually a wizard of space and time, shows up and sends Jason back in time to the fateful weekend to play wingman to his younger self in order to stop the breakup from happening and, in the process, fix Jason’s life.

Slaughterville, Kristjan Kay

Screenwriting and Film Studies Theses (MA/MFA)

Jim Reaper has it made. He's one of the best employees at Afterlife Incorporated and has gotten his work down pat. But when he's given a new employee to mentor he finds his secret is at risk: Jim pretends to be mortal in the small town of Slaughterville, Oklahoma, and has a mortal wife!

Pathos, Winter 2023, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

Pathos

Editor: Bret Steggell

With The Screenwriter's Pen: An Analysis Of The Representation Of Gifted Children In The Family Film, Sarah Williams

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Family films are something that have been enjoyed for many decades. They often create a fantastic world that will enchant audiences and eventually become beloved stories. A big aspect often seen in these films is a protagonist that possesses some kind of gift. Where does this gift come from? How does it grow? Most importantly, how do the screenwriters who are responsible for bringing these gifted heroes to life go about it?

Using the screenplays of Kubo and the Two Strings, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Encanto, and Coraline, I take a deep dive into the portrayal of …

Women Writers Of Film & Television, Haley Hunt

Symposium of Student Scholars

After spending the summer immersed in archival, literary, and online research, I am proud to report my findings on the history of women in screenwriting. With the help of Anna Weinstein, I have compiled original statistics, overviews, and biographies that will be published with the launch of our website, Women Writers of Film & Television (WWFTV). At its core, this site aims to empower young girls with the knowledge and resources they need to get started in the screenwriting field. However, the site is intentionally layered by reading level; it is accessible to all ages on the surface, while also …

The Yellow Qipao, Feibi Wang

Honors Projects

This is a creative project centered around the pre-production of a short film about queer Asian American Christianity and the research that went into it. The synopsis of the script written for the short film is a life in the day of Aspen. Aspen prepares for church and is indecisive of the clothes they want to wear, because they are gender non-conforming. They come out to their mom and there is conflict. My research going into this project consists of researching media representation of queerness, Asian American identity, and Christianity, and how the three identities intersect in Aspen’s life and …

I Hear Spring Is Beautiful, Malachi Van Nice, James Westervelt

Emerson Authors, Researchers, & Creators

An original musical about a dance student who comes to terms with their gender identity as the USA succumbs to the horrors of fascism.

Pathos, Fall 2022, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

Pathos

Editor: Bret Steggell

Cinema Studies, Burak Turten

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

PREFACE

Cinema Studies is a comprehensive book that, is hoped, will provide students and researchers with film studies and other persons interested in cinema with a useful reference book on film analysis and, where relevant, the different discussions surrounding that. The contributors analyze some films using ideas and concerns from modernism, cinematographic narrative, ideology, propaganda, migration, nomadism, and the sense of revenge. The book provides new insights into films and turns the discussion towards recent research questions and analyses, representing and constituting in each contribution new work in the discipline of film text analysis.

Therefore, each chapter of this book, …

"Untitled Screenplay", Mailyn Salazar Jiménez

University Honors Theses

A young woman moves to Mexico in an attempt to change her mundane and monotonous life.

Dark Moon, Kate Mathews

Theses and Dissertations

Dark Moon is a short narrative film that follows Billie as she comes home for the weekend to look after her father, Jack, who has recently been diagnosed with early onset Dementia. The appearance of a mysterious woman shines a light on their changing power dynamic, threatening to throw their world out of orbit. Dark Moon is a rumination on an ailing man’s need for agency and a daughter’s misguided attempts to keep her father safe. Inspired by my own relationship with my father, the film explores loss and the ways we try, however foolishly, to fight against it.

A More Equitable Film Pedagogy: Including Media Literacy In Higher Education Film Classrooms To Result In Better Media Practitioners, Alexis Romero Walker

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This article explains the importance of including critical media literacy practices in skills-based classrooms in film education. Students continue to use methods of filmmaking that are inherently biased because they continue to be taught an age-old set of skills that do not engage in critical analysis. With the convergence of contemporary film theory in the classroom, educators can help students learn new methods of filmmaking that are representative for all communities and people. Through textual analysis of three films, this article shows why educators in higher education film programs must include critical media literacy in the skills course curriculum and …

Glass House S1:E1 “Sweet Temptations”, Taylor Middleton

Honors Theses

Sweet Temptations tells the story of the Price family navigating their new lives in Cape Huron. Enticed by the opportunity of a new job with great benefits, the Price family moves to Cape Huron, Maine, a small town with mysterious goings-on. While father, Paul, starts work at the factory in town, twins Seth and Samantha start their senior year of high school. Everything in the town is perfect at surface level, the houses are all the same cookie-cutter design with the exception of the different color palettes and furniture styles. The perfect All-American façade comes crashing down when Seth and …

Telling My Own Story In My Own World, Haley Dawn Parker

Honors Theses

This thesis is a project based on creativity resulting in a feature-length screenplay titled Meet Me Halfway. The script is preceded by a process paper discussing the challenges I faced and how this process has affected me as a writer.

Slacking, Dazed And Rocking: A Study Of Richard Linklater, Parker D. Otto

Honors Capstones

The purpose of this capstone is to examine a filmmaker’s work to better understand the artist as well as look at an underappreciated filmmaker. Richard Linklater is that filmmaker. Several of his films are popular, others less so. By exploring his filmography, it can be determined whether he’s a true artist deserving of more attention from the filmmaking community as well as general audiences. After examining Linklater’s films, not only were there recurring thematic elements that cemented his artistic dominance, but there’s a feeling of evolution as he ages. The research of this project was conducted through watching Linklater’s films …