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ABSTRACT
Screenwriting within the Academy creates opportunities for female writers to question and challenge traditional and industrial approaches to script development. The two writer-researchers use critical conversation as a form of collaborative reflection to examine how personal experiences inform their script development processes. Situating the creative practice within the context of research reveals how the reflexive approach to script development can unearth broader concerns regarding agency and representations of female characters on screen. Sue Cake identifies how writing narrative comedy became an act of disruption against the neoliberal corporatisation of education. A kind of self-disruption occurred as the insights gained from parodying powerful emotional experiences led to a transformative shift in her perspective of those experiences. For Louise Sawtell, reflecting on key memories and experiences prompted her to develop female-driven narratives that expand the scope of representation for under-represented female protagonists. She weaves memory and imagination together to innovate the form and structure of an anthology film. This article argues that the Academy is a critical site for female screenwriting researchers to explore and disrupt dominant script development practices.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Susan Cake
Dr Susan Cake lectures in screenwriting at Queensland University of Technology. In 2018 she was awarded Outstanding Doctoral Thesis for her creative practice-led research examining how writing narrative comedy performed creative resistance in her proposed television series, Fighting Fit. She recently completed a market analysis report for Screen Queensland on the feasibility of studio expansion on the Gold Coast and her current research explores technological disruptions to script development and writing for expanded notions of ‘the screen’.
Louise Sawtell
Dr Louise Sawtell is a teacher, researcher and filmmaker. She teaches video production courses in the digital media degree at UniSA Online and completed a practice-led PhD at RMIT in 2019. As a creative practitioner and researcher, she is interested in telling female stories through a multidisciplinary practice that challenges traditional and industrial models. Current projects include an anthology feature, a coming-of-age musical and a collection of poetic documentaries. Her publications about script development and creative writing methodologies feature in The Journal of Screenwriting, New Writing and The Journal of Writing in Creative Practice.