Film Studies
The Art and Science of Screenwriting
Second Edition
This second edition contains:
• the different layouts for film television documentary and corporate screenplays
• a detailed analysis of what is required from a premise an outline a step outline a treatment and a first draft
• a simple stage by stage guide to the inevitable re-write
• tips on finding an agent.
This new approach to writing for film and television covers everything from finding an idea to writing a finished screenplay. The author's framework 'A Creative Matrix' brings together all the elements of screenplay writing - from story character theme and dramatic structure to plot genre tone and style in an understandable way that is easy to follow. His analysis includes illustrating what comprises a good thriller identifying the different types of sit-com and showing the qualities of a screen romance that both works and convinces.
The author uses examples from across European American and World Cinema as well as television and this revised edition now contains a comprehensive index.
Traumatic Encounters in Italian Film
Locating the Cinematic Unconscious
New Brutality Film
Race and Affect in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema
European Identity in Cinema
British TV and Film Culture in the 1950s
Coming to a TV Near You
Street Scenes
Brecht, Benjamin and Berlin
Always the focal point in modern times for momentous political social and cultural upheaval Berlin has continued since the fall of the Wall in 1989 to be a city in transition. As the new capital of a reunified Germany it has embarked on a journey of rapid reconfiguration involving issues of memory nationhood and ownership. Bertolt Brecht meanwhile stands as one of the principal thinkers about art and politics in the 20th century. The 'Street Scene' model which was the foundation for his theory of an epic theatre relied precisely on establishing a connection between art's functioning and everyday life. His preoccupation with the ceaselessness of change an impulse implying rupture and movement as the key characteristics informing the development of a democratic cultural identity correlates resonantly with the notion of an ever-evolving city. Premised on an understanding of performance as the articulation of movement in space Street Scenes interrogates what kind of 'life' is permitted to 'flow' in the 'new Berlin'. Central to this method is the flaneur figure a walker of streets who provides detached observations on the revealing 'detritus of modern urban existence'. Walter Benjamin himself a native of Berlin as well as friend and seminal critic of Brecht exercised the practice in exemplary form in his portrait of the city One-Way Street.
Sensing the City through Television
Urban identities in fictional drama
An investigation of the fictional representations of the city in contemporary British and American television drama assessing their political sociological and cultural implications. The book draws on the following five key case studies for specific and detailed analysis:
* Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City
* Homicide & Life on the Street
* Queer as Folk
* The Cops
* Holding On
Each is discussed in terms of structure content characterisation and narrative and each is placed within its specific ideological context. The case studies are intended to represent an interesting range of British and American cities and city sub-cultures. The author extends his analysis to investigate the intrinsic issues related to the implications of popular and high drama and culture.
This study includes exclusive interviews with the writers and directors of some of the series discussed. This new material provides new insights into the intended presentations of "city" identities for the television. As one of the first substantial investigations of the city in television drama this book reflects and contributes to a growing general interest in the politics of representation. It is also designed for accommodation into the very popular academic courses on drama and in film and media studies: as a textbook and for supplementary reading.
The Face on the Screen
Death, Recognition & Spectatorship
Danish Directors
Dialogues on a Contemporary National Cinema
Each interview is preceded by a photograph of the director biographical information and a filmography. Frame enlargements are used throughout to help clarify particular points of discussion and the book as a whole is contextualised by an informative general introduction. A valuable addition to the growing library of books on Scandinavian film national cinema and minority cinema.
Politics of Contemporary European Cinema
Frames and Fictions on Television
The Politics of Identity within Drama
Television drama both reflects and contributes to the production of cultural identity. At a time of deep cultural uncertainty how has this been represented within the programmes that help individuals make sense of their own lives and identities?
This book addresses the question head on: the contributors examine a range of issues of identity in relation to the shifting historical context while considering social class ethnicity race gender sexuality and national/diaspora identity. These are debated in relation to current aesthetic and social concerns and particular attention is paid to the changing identity of British television drama over the last 35 years:
- the fragmentation of the home audience
- the transnationalisation of media culture
- the increasingly hybrid nature of programme formats and
- the growth in popularity of US series within a British viewing context.
Danish Directors
Dialogues on a Contemporary National Cinema
Each interview is preceded by a photograph of the director biographical information and a filmography. Frame enlargements are used throughout to help clarify particular points of discussion and the book as a whole is contextualised by an informative general introduction. A valuable addition to the growing library of books on Scandinavian film national cinema and minority cinema.
Sensing the City through Television
Urban identities in fictional drama
An investigation of the fictional representations of the city in contemporary British and American television drama assessing their political sociological and cultural implications. The book draws on the following five key case studies for specific and detailed analysis:
* Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City
* Homicide & Life on the Street
* Queer as Folk
* The Cops
* Holding On
Each is discussed in terms of structure content characterisation and narrative and each is placed within its specific ideological context. The case studies are intended to represent an interesting range of British and American cities and city sub-cultures. The author extends his analysis to investigate the intrinsic issues related to the implications of popular and high drama and culture.
This study includes exclusive interviews with the writers and directors of some of the series discussed. This new material provides new insights into the intended presentations of "city" identities for the television. As one of the first substantial investigations of the city in television drama this book reflects and contributes to a growing general interest in the politics of representation. It is also designed for accommodation into the very popular academic courses on drama and in film and media studies: as a textbook and for supplementary reading.
Spaces in European Cinema
Journal of Screenwriting
New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film
Film, Fashion & Consumption
Northern Lights: Film & Media Studies Yearbook
Studies in Hispanic Cinemas (new title: Studies in Spanish & Latin American Cinemas)
Our target readership includes students teachers and scholars. The journal is written in English to maximize the opportunities for contact between academic disciplines such as Media Film Studies Latin American and Post-colonial Studies as well as Hispanic Studies thereby encouraging an inter- cultural and inter- disciplinary focus.
View the issues of Studies in Spanish & Latin American Cinemas available online