*CFP* "WORKING THE FILM SCRIPT: HIDDEN PRODUCTION HISTORIES", SYMPOSIUM UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

Working the Film Script: Hidden Production Histories

A Symposium at the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, University of Exeter

Saturday 23rd March 2019

Keynote Speaker: Dr Melanie Williams (UEA)

A symposium to illuminate the otherwise hidden labour of individuals who work on/with film scripts, including screenwriters, continuity/script supervisors, script editors, text advisors/researchers, (sub)titlers, translators, authors of source texts (and their representatives), legislators, censors and other production roles. The symposium also invites prospective delegates to explore research on the production of screenplays, treatments, shooting scripts, subtitles, fan fiction, promotional synopses and other written ‘versions’ which may serve diverse cultural ends.

Film studies has increasingly relied upon collaborative models of authorship, but not necessarily at the expense of downplaying individual contributions. Recent production studies and feminist film historiographies strategically distinguish the work of academically marginalised agents from within their respective networks. Speakers are invited to debate case studies which demonstrate how the script (broadly understood) has been worked by underappreciated individuals, and their efforts to share or silo time, energy and expertise within hierarchical or communal production scenarios.

Overall, the symposium aims to evidence the act of scripting film narrative and style in historical production contexts, using wide-ranging examples of specialist labour: plotting shots, managing continuity, adapting films from/to literature, the iterative process of screenwriting, and so on. A second aim will be to provide pragmatic production histories that showcase novel methodological and/or archival resources, in keeping with the choice of venue: The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum. Among the Museum’s 75,000+ itemsare published and unpublished screenplays, novelisations of popular films (including the ‘Reader’s Library’ series), source texts, various filmmaking manuals, programmes and press books containing plot summaries, and relevant individual collections including those of Gavrik Losey (film producer), Pamela Davies (continuity supervisor), and the filmmaker Bill Douglas. A sample of items which thematically complement the symposium will be available for delegates to browse on the day.

If you would like to present a paper, please email a 250 word abstract and 100 word bio toscriptwork@exeter.ac.uk by 23rd January 2019. Preference will be given to papers which respond to one or more of the following provocations:

1. What academically marginalised production roles are illuminated by researching script work in film, broadly understood? 
2. How does scripting intersect with gender, class, racial and political identity? 
3. How is script work influenced by transnational workflows, from subtitling dialogue for international audiences to exporting literary ‘properties’? 
4. What methodological, archival and technological resources are available to researchers of script work in film?

Enquiries addressed toscriptwork@exeter.ac.uk will be checked by Steven Roberts (PhD Student and Museum Intern). The symposium is being coordinated by Steven during a six-month placement at the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum (where he is cataloguing the Pamela Davies collection), with organizational assistance from University of Exeter colleagues.