Month: February 2020

SRN Executive Minutes – January

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Minutes of SRN EC Meeting

Monday 27.1.2020 at 9 pm GMT/UTC (via Skype)

Circulation list: Carmen Sofia Brenes (CSB), Rose Ferrell (RF), Alexandra Ksenofontova (AK),
Rafael Leal (RL), Margaret McVeigh (MM), Paolo Russo (PR), Rosanne Welch (RW)

Agenda

1. Apologies for absence

RW and MM.

2. Minutes of previous EC Meeting for approval

  • Minutes Approved. PR to send final draft to RL for upload to website.
  • Note: the date of the January meeting was postponed to today (27th) from the date scheduled originally (20th) due to availability of most EC members.

3. Membership: quarterly update

  • RF reports healthy numbers and steady increase in the number of new members since last September with only a few members having signed off the network. Currently, membership
    stands at around 590.
  • RF suggests to establish stronger contacts with other networks in underrepresented regions – e.g. India (where she has a good contact) or Singapore, both English-speaking countries and therefore potentially good places to start with. The EC agrees this is a good idea.
  • ACTION – RF to proceed.
  • RF also points out that the procedure/protocol to join the SRN seems to be confusing for some people, due to the double-step process (i.e. joining the JISCMail mailing list and filling in the
    registration form separately). RF suggests to simplify instructions on the website as follows: 1) Keep only the link to JISCMail on the website; 2) As soon as a new member joins, RF receives a
    notification anyway; 3) At that point, RF follows up by welcoming the new members and invites them to fill in the form via email, which also makes the process more “personal”. The EC agrees this is a good idea.
  • ACTION – PR and RL to update the relevant section on the website.

4. News/update re:

a. SRN2020 Oxford Conference (PR)

  • PR reports that the shortlisting process should be completed by the end of this week (31 January) at which point he will notify all delegates via email. Although numbers are not final yet, SRN2020 has received 124 submissions, 112 papers have been shortlisted, with 120+ delegates from 36 countries from all continents (including some new countries: e.g. Paraguay, Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Georgia, Greece, Estonia, Mexico, South Africa). PR also reports that the keynotes should hopefully be secured and confirmed soon.
  • ACTION: PR to send JISCMAIL update to all members re: shortlisted papers before individual notifications are sent out + another update on keynotes as soon as available.
  • ACTION: AK to post updates of the above (i.e. shortlisting and keynotes) on FB as soon as available.

b. Newsletter

  • This item was postponed to the February meeting.

c. Website

  • RL confirms that a plugin has been added to the website which automatizes Newsletter alerts. This is now ready to be tested with the next issue.
  • Google Analytics has also been installed and RL has emailed some interesting data about the users of the website in the past few months. He will keep checking every few months, so we can
    have an overview by the end of the academic year.
  • ACTION: The SARP section should be nested under Resources, to make room for the upcoming SRN Awards section.
  • ACTION: Also under Resources, RL will add a section for “Local Initiatives” as per discussion in the December meeting. In order to start populating it: 1) AK will send one short para re: the German network plus link to website, which can then be used as a (flexible) template; 2) RL will then contact John Finnegan asking him to write a similar paragraph re: his initiatives.

d. Social media

  • Facebook page: PR has sent past membership statistics those to AK who posted them.
  • AK also shared her posting schedule for the upcoming weeks. The EC commends AK for her excellent work on the SRN Facebook page which shows some really good stats, with interactions
    growing from previous months.
  • ACTION (linked to 4a): PR to send AK some stats about SRN2020 once the shortlisting is complete.
  • ACTION (for future months’ meetings): when the EC posts the Call for nominations for the next election round, it would be good to include a description of the role of the ECR so as to attract
    interest for next year’s nominees to replace AK. AK can also suggest names of potential ECRs.
  • The Twitter account has been revived. The EC acknowledges that it will become more useful when SRN2020 will be approaching and that for now, it can be used to retweet basic info about
    FB postings and similar.

5. SRN Awards (PR, All)

  • PR reports he has contacted and liaised with the new Jury members with the suggestion of adding Book chapters from edited volumes as a new award category and to set up a subcommittee who
    could screen submissions to avoid excessive workload for the jurors. All three Jurors welcomed the idea but agreed to include the book chapters in the same category as journal articles. The EC agrees.
  • Also, the Jurors don’t think a subcommittee is necessary as they envisage that the book chapters should not add too much work; moreover, they’d prefer to assess the submissions as they are sent in to them, whereas with a subcommittee in place they should wait until the deadline and until the initial screening process is completed. The EC welcomes the suggestion and decides to keep the idea of the subcommitte only as a backup in case the submissions do eventually end up being too many in number, and following consultation with the Jury anyway.
  • The Jurors also confirmed that they did not use a specific template or rubric to guide last year’s proceedings. Instead, they designed a spreadsheet used by each jury member to vote the quality of each publication (1-5), then tallied up the votes to determine the winners. They confirm they are happy to do the same this year too.
  • The Jurors also agreed that the website should contain clear information and a Call for submissions.
  • All Jurors gave expressed permission to provide their contact details for submissions.
  • Finally, the Jurors agreed to revise the yearly time frame (and related deadline) for acceptable publications to 1 June/31 May to better accommodate their other commitments.
  • ACTION – PR to draft text with info about SRN Awards, categories, submission protocol, jurors’ email and mail addresses, and revised deadline. This will be run by the Jury first, and then sent to RL for upload on the website. Once this is done, AK will publicize the Call on the FB page. This should be done within a couple of weeks.

6. Suggested items for February EC meeting

  • a. Diversity and awareness
    b. Address membership in underrepresented regions
    c. Initiatives in specific regions (visibility, liaising, etc.)
    d. Elections: Call for nominations
  • Approved.

7. Any other business

  • There was no other business.

Date of next meeting: Monday 17 February, 9 pm UTC/GMT
Confirmed.
The meeting ended at 9:48 pm

SRN Awards 2020-2021 – Call for Nominations

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The SRN AWARDS will celebrate their 2nd edition at the 2021 Conference at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK next September.

We invite all members and colleagues to submit Nominations for the best publications of 2019/2021 by the deadline of 31 May 2021. Both nominations and self-nominations are welcome.

The Awards this year will be again in two categories: 

 

Best Monograph (£300) – for single-authored or co-authored volumes (any format)

Best Journal Article/Book Chapter (£100) – this category now also includes chapters from edited books, thus welcoming the suggestion of SRN Members. Both articles and chapters normally range around 6-8,000 words but the format may vary.

 

While no ratings of journals/publishers will be a factor in the evaluation of submissions, all publications should be scholarly, fully peer-reviewed work underpinned by substantial research specifically in the area of Screenwriting Studies.

Submitted titles must have been published between 1 June 2019 and 31 May 2021.

All submissions will be evaluated independently by our Jury of distinguished academics: Professor Emerita Janet Staiger, Professor Emeritus Tom Stempel and Associate Professor Eva Novrup Redvall.

Winners will be announced at the 2021 SRN Conference in Oxford.

The prize money this year is kindly funded by the School of Arts of Oxford Brookes University.

 

Guidelines for the submission of nominations

All submissions in both categories should be made directly to all three members of the Jury (see contact details below) by 31 May 2020. However, early submissions are most welcome and encouraged.

MONOGRAPHS – Nominees and self-nominees should send hard copies of their monographs directly to each Juror via regular mail/courier. Publishers are usually happy to supply complimentary evaluation/inspection copies: only where this is really not possible (including, for instance, volumes due out very close to the deadline), authors can send a PDF copy of the approved preprint manuscript (in this case via email) as a last resort/backup option.

ARTICLES/CHAPTERS – Individual journal articles (i.e. not the whole journal) or chapters (i.e. not the whole book) should be sent as PDF (as per preprint approved draft) directly to the Jurors via email.

 

Contact details for all submissions:

Janet Staiger, 4000 Emory Peak Pass, Austin, TX 78731, USA – Email: jstaiger@utexas.edu

Tom Stempel, 2711 Coolidge Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90064, USA – Email: kestrs@ca.rr.com

Eva Novrup Redvall, Dept. of Communication, University of Copenhagen, Southern Campus, Karen Blixens Vej 8, 2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark – Email: eva@hum.ku.dk

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If you have any enquiries, please contact Paolo Russo at paolo.russo@brookes.ac.uk

First ever SRN Awards at SRN Conference 2019

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The 12 th SRN Conference held in Porto in September 2019 saw the launch of the first ever SRN AWARDS. The idea of the Awards was approved by SRN members at the 2018 AGM to acknowledge the importance of screenwriting research and publications within this field.

The Awards were in two categories (Best Monograph $500; and Best Journal Article $100).

A Call for Nominations was circulated during the course of the last academic year; by the deadline of 15 June 2019 we had received several nominations in both categories and copies of each were sent to the Jury members consisting of esteemed colleagues Jill Nelmes, Janet Staiger and Tom Stempel.

They Jury was unanimous in their evaluation. Here are the winners and the jury’s comments:

BEST MONOGRAPH – J.J. Murphy, Rewriting Indie Movies: Improvisation, Psychodrama, and the Screenplay, Columbia University Press, 2019

“A wide ranging, very perceptive analysis of how improvisation and psychodrama are used in contemporary American independent films. Murphy is observant about how those techniques are combined with scriptwriting to enrich important but lesser known US films. His work here expands on his previous book, Me and You and Memento and Fargo: How Independent Screenplays Work.”

You can find further details on JJ’s book here.

BEST ARTICLE – “Writing from the Margins of Media: Screenwriting Practice and Discourse During the First Indian Talkies”, BioScope: South Asian Screen Studies, 9:2, 2018

“An excellent overview that goes beyond what little research has been done in the area: thetransition to sound films in India. Sengupta is particularly good at showing the connections between Indian theatre and the early talkies, and he provides detailed accounts of scripting protocols of the period.”

You can find Rakesh’s article here.

 

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Congratulations to JJ Murphy and Rakesh Sengupta!

The SRN Awards will come back at the 2020 SRN Conference in Oxford for publicationswith a release date comprised between 1 June 2019 and 31 May 2020.

A Call for Nominations and submission guidelines will be posted on the website.

Call for Scripts for The Script Department Podcast

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The Script Department is a scripted podcast – as well as John Finnegan’s post-doc research project – that has been showcasing lots of great screenplays from writers over the last 12 months and we’d love to hear from practice-led researchers who have academic screenplays they’d like to share with the world.
The objective of this podcast is to showcase the work of screenwriters in a way that is removed from the filmmaking process so that writers can tell the stories they want to tell without concern for industry trends, marketplace demands or production logistics. To show the creative skills of screenwriters in a way that doesn’t depend on the all the outside influences which can determine whether or not a script gets adapted to the screen.
We have a small but consistent listenership right now and we are hoping to build on this in our second year and to do this, we need your help!
We are currently looking for short screenplays of any genre. We will be opening it up to features later in the year but for now we want to concentrate on shorts.
If you’d like to see what we have produced so far, you can visit our website, www.thescriptdepartment.net or search for ‘The Script Department’ where-ever you get your podcasts.
If you like what you hear, you can send a premise or synopsis to contact@thescriptdepartment.net and we will get back to you in due course.

German-speaking Screenwriting Research Network

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To promote academic screenwriting research in German-speaking countries, four members of the SRN—Jan Henschen, Florian Krauß, Alexandra Ksenofontova, and Claus Tieber—started the Netzwerk Drehbuchforschung in 2018.

The network aims to enable exchange between scholars who focus on screenwriting texts and processes in the German-language context; it further seeks to develop screenwriting research with view to the specifics of the German-speaking academia.

The first one-day conference of the Netzwerk Drehbuchforschung took place in November 2019 in Berlin and brought together over two dozen screenwriting researchers. Information about further events, members of the network, and its goals can be found under https://drehbuchforschung.wordpress.com/