About Us

The Network was established in 2006 by Ian Macdonald as the ‘Re-thinking the Screenplay group’ when it became clear that there was interest across the world towards research on screenwriting, but individual scholars tended to be isolated. At that time screenplays were not the focus of sustained analysis.

Screenwriting, the generation of ideas and the process of development of the screen idea before production are complex collaborative creative activities. They raise questions about existing and future industrial practice, structures, and power, about cultural variation and influence and about individual taste, judgement and habitus.

The screenplay is both process and product, surrounded by industrial convention and rarely questioned as an appropriate industrial tool. Its defining conditions and values are often assumed to be ‘natural’ rather than critically understood. The research undertaken aims to demonstrate where the screenplay form is limited, to offer reasons why this is the case, and to suggest other possibilities for expressing, or understanding the expression of, the screen idea.

The value of research activity on screenwriting is important both for practitioners and for theorists, if indeed these are separate. It lies in the comprehensive critical analysis of the screenplay form and of screen idea development practice from different informed viewpoints, in mapping conventional practice and in the possible development of potential forms of expression and documentation of the screen idea outside the current conventions.


The updated SRN constitution can be found here.

The SRN Executive Council Chair’s Report on Activities and intended Actions will soon be able to be accessed here.


In September 2023 at the 15th SRN Annual Conference in Columbia, Missouri USA, the Annual General Meeting elected the new Executive Council for the 2023-24 academic year. Information about the current members of the Executive Council and their activities can be accessed on the Executive Council Minutes tab.


 

This site is hosted by the University of Leeds.

The web pages were developed by Dr Jamie Sherry, lecturer in Screenwriting, Bangor University, UK.
j.sherry@bangor.ac.uk

Our warmest thanks for Jamie for the valuable work!