Screenwriting Commons^™

The Art Of Animation: How Animation Is Creating A Better Film Industry, Judah Cooper

Senior Honors Theses

With the progression of streaming services in recent years, the art form of animation has gained traction, continuing to develop into exceedingly creative forms through the work of talented artists. Animation has developed alongside the film industry, achieving great success in the process. This thesis will define animation and its place within visual effects, critically analyze categories of character design, theme, and story while demonstrating their relationship with animation, and contrast animation with live action films to understand its strengths and differentiations. The research concludes that animation has great benefits to offer the film industry and should be continued to …

The Female Heroine Of Action Films: A History And Exploration Of The Genre And Application To The Short Film Lois, Daniel Brunner

Senior Honors Theses

The action genre is one of the oldest forms of filmmaking, beginning with some of the earliest short films with simple chases and heists. From then it has progressed into the genre we know today but still retains certain crucial aspects. One of sub-genres within these films can be seen in post-apocalyptic and dystopian films. All of these tend to follow the hero’s journey as described by Joseph Campbell. The representation of powerful female heroines within the action genre has increased since 1980s from its traditional male centric viewpoint. The screenplay for the short film Lois shows the convergence of …

A Vermont Romance Turns One Hundred: Vermont's Earliest Surviving Photoplay, Martin L. Johnson, Frederick Pond

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

In 2016, a hundred-year-old film spent the year touring the northern half of Vermont, drawing audiences to refurbished opera houses and picture palaces. But the picture being celebrated for its centenary year was not D. W. Griffith's Intolerance or Lois Weber's Shoes, two of the best-known films made in 1916. Instead, Vermonters were watching what they believed to be the first feature film made in their state, the fetchingly titled photoplay A Vermont Romance.

But A Vermont Romance is not a conventional feature picture. None of the people who appeared in the film had previous movie acting experience, …

The Portrayal Of Roman Gladiators And Slavery In Film, Megan Gingerich

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis project will endeavor to examine how prominent historical films set in the Roman Empire deal with slavery and gladiators, said research to inform a corresponding creative project. In studying and analyzing Ben-Hur (1959), Spartacus (1960) and Gladiator (2000), the three most prominent films that deal with the topics of slavery and gladiators in ancient Rome, I hope to uncover how films treat the topic, how the films are influenced by more modern values, and how accurate the films are. I will also identify commonalities between all three films, and supplement my discoveries with observations from two less successful …

Here To Win, Not Here To Settle, Sarah Kaino

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Ethnic representation goes beyond color blind casting, the diversity of actors, or non-stereotypical casting choices. It is not just a matter of minorities being included in mainstream storylines, but minorities being able to tell their own stories as well. The relevance and relatability of storytelling in film and theatre transcends culture, which is in part the beauty of these mediums. But the impact of Asian Americans seeing stories from their own culture cannot be exchanged for anything less because there is no substitute for visibility. Movies are the source of inspiration for many. Movies can also reinforce a transparent ceiling …

Schizophrenia In Film: The Missing Narrative, Art Thomas

Media and Communication Studies Summer Fellows

Film characters with schizophrenia are most often depicted as (1) violent and threatening or (2) extraordinary and talented. As a result of these cinematic representations, audiences have false assumptions about the reality of schizophrenia. Films give the impression that people with schizophrenia should be separated from society in some way by being placed in a mental institution or on a pedestal to show that even a sick brain can be marvelous.

I studied films that portray schizophrenic characters in order to identify a story that is not being told by Hollywood. By looking at the romantic, platonic, and familial relationships …

Dinesh Sabu Interview, Mitch Buangsuwon

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Dinesh Sabu made his first feature documentary Unbroken Glass with Kartemquin Film. It played at numerous film festivals and was broadcast on America ReFramed’s 5th Season in May 2017. Dinesh was awarded “Best Director” at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival in 2017 for his debut feature. Before Unbroken Glass, Dinesh shot parts of American Arab and The Homestretch with Kartemquin filmmakers. He also shot and is co-producing the forthcoming How to Build a School in Haiti with director Jack C. Newell. He is currently attending Stanford University’s Documentary Film and Video MFA program.

The Effect Of Post-Production On Storytelling In Narrative And Documentary Filmmaking, Natalie Pace

Senior Honors Theses

Documentaries and narrative films both tell stories in different ways. A common saying states that narrative filmmakers write one movie, shoot another, and edit a third. In postproduction, timelines are rearranged, montages are created, new dialog and voiceovers are written, and the score can alter the mood and meaning entirely. Documentaries can change even more over the course of their creation. Usually, the script of the documentary is not written until the edit, after most of the interviews and B roll have been shot. This paper examines whether documentary post-production makes more or less use of storytelling techniques than does …

A Reason To Daydream, Corinne Schipull

Honors Theses

Sexism in American culture comes as no surprise. In 2017, the film industry saw an increasing number of powerful men within its ranks exposed and exiled for allegations of sexually predatory behavior. Many see this purging as a sign of changing times, but this view is optimistic: the tides of change ebb in and out, and this problem far exceeds the movie industry. Well before the onslaught of articles on the likes of Harvey Weinstein, my classmates and I resolved to craft our senior thesis film with a crew made up entirely of women: we simply saw the pool of …

Woman Standing, Allison Adams

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This is a feature-length screenplay following Farren Cane, a young woman living in a rural Appalachian town, as she struggles with the intersections of gender, class, and the tension between her own ambition and her familial obligation.

Mdocs Poster-2015-11-11, Sixty Years Young, Michael Zhou

MDOCS Publications

In support of the 60th anniversary of the Adult and Senior Center of Saratoga, Skidmore students prepared a video and exhibition, Sixty Years Young, drawing on the Center's archives and interviews, documenting its past, present and hopes for the future.

Malibu Jackson 3: Boldest Move Yet - A Study Of Screenwriting, Parody, And Mullet-Clad Action Heroes, Caleb D. Nelson

Senior Honors Theses

This project is a parody short film script, targeting blockbuster action films of the 1980s. It is written in accordance with the traditional three-act structure of screenplays, which plays an important role in the writing arena of the film industry. It is a comedy, the theory of which is discussed in this paper, and more specifically parody. Like most short films and their scripts, it does not seek to be profitable, but rather serves the purpose of demonstrating skill and achievement on behalf of the screenwriter and filmmaker. This paper also includes a brief synopsis of the project.

“Shining” With The Marginalized: Self-Reflection And Empathy In Stanley Kubrick’S The Shining, Bethany Miller

English Seminar Capstone Research Papers

This paper examines Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror masterpiece The Shining and how it references the history of violence against the marginalized in America.