Screenwriting Poetics and the Screen Idea

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Ian W. Macdonald

   Pages 1-11

3. Theoretical Approaches

   • Ian W. Macdonald

   Pages 12-35

4. The Orthodox Poetics of Screenwriting

   • Ian W. Macdonald

   Pages 36-61

5. The Real World, and Screenwriting as Work

   • Ian W. Macdonald

   Pages 62-80

6. The Screen Idea Work Group: Emmerdale

   • Ian W. Macdonald

   Pages 81-110

7. The Individual, Their Creativity and the Poetics

   • Ian W. Macdonald

   Pages 111-131

8. Hitchcock’s Forgotten Screenwriter: Eliot Stannard

   • Ian W. Macdonald

   Pages 132-160

9. God Is in the Details: The Text Object

   • Ian W. Macdonald

   Pages 161-189

10. The Poetics of the Screen Idea: Nostromo

    • Ian W. Macdonald

    Pages 190-215

11. Screenwriting Studies

    • Ian W. Macdonald

    Pages 216-226

12. Back Matter

    Pages 227-271

    PDF

A new, original investigation into how screenwriting works; the practices, creative 'poetics' and texts that serve the screen idea. Using a range of film, media and creative theories, it includes new case studies on the successful ITV soap Emmerdale, Hitchcock's first major screenwriter and David Lean's unfinished film, Nostromo. 

• film
• media
• poetics
• screenwriting

'The Emmerdale chapter is lively, informative and illuminating.' - John Whiston, Creative Director, Serial Dramas, ITV Studios

'I much enjoyed reading your searching analysis of the evolution of the Nostromo screenplay.' - A. A. Reeves, Director, David Lean Films

'Fascinating exemplary scholarship on Eliot Stannard.' - Emeritus Prof. Charles Barr, author of The English Hitchcock

'A rigorously methodical, carefully structured and closely argued explication of a wide-ranging yet particular approach to the field.' - Steven Price, Journal of Screenwriting 6.1

'For those of us involved with the teaching of screenwriting or script appreciation, Ian W. Macdonald's Screenwriting Poetics and the Screen Idea should be required reading for ourselves and our students. Apart from many other excellent qualities, it contains a tremendously useful chapter on the screenwriting manuals, in which he synthesises, with admirable clarity, their various approaches to the prevailing orthodoxy of the three act structure in only 25 pages. Hours of classroom time can now be instantly replaced with one reading from MacDonald!' - Jonathan Powell. Professor, Media Arts, Royal Holloway. Previously Head of Drama, BBC TV.

• Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds, UK

  Ian W. Macdonald

Dr Ian W. Macdonald worked for the BBC, IBA, London Weekend Television, and the British Film Institute before becoming Head of the Northern Film School at Leeds Met in 1992, joining the University of Leeds in 2006. He is the co-editor of the Journal of Screenwriting and co-founder of the Screenwriting Research Network (www.screenwritingresearch.com). 

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