Calls for Nominations: Members of the Executive Council and ERC

The Screenwriting Research Network has released two Calls for Nominations:

The first is to the SRN Executive Council, as three (3) members will be elected at the next AGM to fill the expected vacancies and serve for two academic years (2021-22 and 2022-23). More information about this call can be found here.

The second is to serve as Early Career Researchers representative (ECR) on the SRN Executive Council for the academic year 2021-22. This is an appointment made by the Executive Council (i.e. no election), as with any co-opted member as per SRN Constitution. More information about the ECR role and the call can be found here.

SRN welcomes all nominations from the Membership!

SRN Constitution amended

The SRN Constitution, adopted in 16th September 2012, at the Sydney AGM, received a second amendment in 21st June 2021.

The updated version can be found here.

SRN Executive Minutes – May 2021

MINUTES of SRN EC Meeting

Monday 17.5.2021 at 10 pm BST/GMT/UTC+1 (via Zoom)

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

Agenda

1. Apologies for absence

RL

2. Minutes of previous EC Meeting for approval

Approved as accurate. PR to send final version to RL for upload to website, as usual.

All pending Action Points have been either discharged or itemized below in the agenda.

3. Proposed amendments to SRN Constitution (PR, All)

PR circulated a memo (see attached) with the proposed amendments to the SRN Constitution: specifically, these would apply to articles 7.1 and 5.9 so as to formally allow holding AGMs and EC Elections by virtual means in cases of force majeure. External advice was also sought from other members of the SRN in good standing – i.e. Ian W. Macdonald, Eva Novrup Redvall and Claus Tieber – all of whom gave positive feedback. 

CSB suggests seeking advice from a few more members as well: e.g. Kirsi Rinne and Ronald Geerts. 

ACTION: PR to consult a few more members before finalising the draft with the proposed amendments.

It was noted that the proposed amendments are in line with the SRN Constitution anyway, especially with the existing provision of article 7.6 which allows the use of “technology” to consult the Membership on relevant issues. A key aspect to take into due account is to make sure that whatever the chosen technology it will give easy access to the Membership worldwide.

CSB asks whether there will still be a “confirmation vote” on the amendments (assuming the motion is carried) at the next AGM held in presentia. PR confirms this is the plan.

Regarding the clause requiring two thirds of the currently active Membership to pass the motion for the proposed amendments, CSB and MM raise concerns about the likelihood that as many members will reply via email or respond to the Call at all. PR clarifies that the Call to Membership will make it very clear that those who don’t cast their vote will be treated as giving “silent consent”. This is also the case at any AGM held in presentia, which is usually ever attended by a fraction of the membership. 

PR stresses the importance of giving enough notice and time to the Membership to cast their vote: this could be 30 days (or 4 weeks) from the CTM, with a view to collect all votes and ratify the result by the June EC meeting.

The EC approves the draft of the proposed amendments as is, as well as the suggested action protocol to issue the Call to Membership and appoint an external scrutineer. 

ACTION: PR, RW, RF and RL as per attached memo.

4. Update on SRN2021 Seminar Series Online (PR, All)

On the back of having attended about 20 online conferences/seminars in the past few months, PR will suggest that all paper presentations be pre-recorded to avoid technical issues. This will also allow for better use of the chosen video-conferencing tool. Once a schedule/format is finalized in the next few weeks, PR will send out guidelines to the delegates. Following the pre-recorded presentations, there will be live sessions for related discussion fora, for a maximum of 5-6 hours per day. 

PR will redesign the SRN2021 website over the Summer to make it work as the main content navigation hub for the Seminar Series.

After surveying all shortlisted delegates intention to participate, at the moment PR reports expecting 93 papers. Live sessions will have to be planned by geographic areas due to the 20 different time zones involved. Within each geographic area, panels can then be formed according to themes/topics. PR suggests one-hour slots per panels of 3-4 speakers each who will each give 5-minute summaries of their paper, followed by up to 30 minutes questions/discussion. Questions can also be collected via asynchronous means in the hope to allow many points of access for fullest sharing of ideas.

“Plenary” sessions will still include two keynote speakers (Murray Smith and Elizabeth Kilgarriff have confirmed availability but PR will follow up with them anyway in the next few weeks); the AGM, including the EC elections (this session will be run twice so as to allow as many members as possible from different time zones to attend); and the SRN Awards, including the winners’ lectures.

Moreover, round tables and networking meetings with the Working Group are possible. PR is also planning to invite a few professionals from the industry as special guests (pending availability). 

All live sessions will be recorded and will remain online via the SRN2021 website (until subscription expires). 

MM congratulates PR on the planning work and observes it can be challenging to stay attentive to papers for longer than 20 minutes. RF agrees with MM on ‘short and sharp’ presentations. 

MM suggests taking advantage of the switch to the online format and invite shorter presentations to allow for a more interactive conference, with abstracts on the website to contextualize the presentation. It also means that the overall time and, hopefully the organizational efforts, will be reduced, thus making for a leaner event in terms of scheduling.

PR welcomes the suggestions and will make sure that there is a degree of flexibility in the format of the presentations. The overall event format is still work in progress and any suggestions are welcome. For instance, PR suggests that the comments section of the video-presentations on YouTube could be enabled to allow speakers and members to comment asynchronously, regardless of when any live session is scheduled.

MM asks whether there will be a registration fee. PR confirms that, as things stand, the plan is for the whole event to be free: the School of Arts at Oxford Brookes University has agreed to fund the few expenses to cover keynote speakers’ fee and the prize money for the SRN Awards. However, delegates will still be asked to register in order to receive the Zoom links/passwords etc.

MM asks whether there might be any copyright issues to consider regarding speakers’ papers being posted online. PR underlines that rights to whatever materials/content will be posted will be retained by the delegates in accordance with the laws of their respective countries. PR and RL will figure out a way to make sure that only registered delegates have access to those materials. 

PR also confirms that, based on current laws (e.g. the Copyright License Agreement), it is possible to make fair use of clips or other copyrighted materials within the paper presentation as it is for education/research purposes, as long as sources are quoted.

PR outlines alternative scheduling options: e.g. two days weekly with no parallel sessions or one day weekly with two parallel sessions, for a total of four weeks; also possible, every other week or two consecutive weeks, a one-week break, then two more weeks.

RW would prefer a programme with parallel sessions so as to stick with one particular day a week, also in light of the fact the many colleagues will have started teaching at their respective universities; whereas, too many days might cause more timetabling clashes. RF also agrees that parallel sessions will keep the members more interested and focused.

The EC agrees tentatively on the following format: one day weekly with parallel live sessions whenever necessary/viable, beginning the week commencing on Monday 30 August 2021 for two weeks, then two more weeks after a one-week break.

ACTION: PR to work out format based on the above.

AI is also planning an ECR Symposium (see minutes from previous meetings). Assuming the SRN2021 Seminar Series Online will follow the format suggested above, this means that it will be over by the end of September. The ECR Symposium can therefore follow up in November as a separate, distinct but, at the same time, related event.

PR notes that at least one fourth of the shortlisted delegates for SRN2021 are ECRs anyway and therefore having the Symposium later in November will allow them to take part in both should they wish so.

MM hopes that PR will have people to help on this planning. PR confirms that a couple of colleagues from his department will be helping out as well as several other SRN members from other geographic areas who have offered to assist once the format is settled.

5. Other updates:

  • Newsletter

MM reports about the latest issue published in April, which attracted less submissions than usual. The next issue should come out in June/July and could be a special issue focused around the SRN2021 Seminar Series. PR will pass on relevant information as the organization progresses in the forthcoming weeks.

  • Social media

AI notes that posting has slowed down slightly in the last few weeks, perhaps due to everyone’s awaiting info on the conference.

ACTION: AI to post info on CTM re: the amendments to the SRN Constitution as soon as ready; then to focus on the Seminar Series and, finally, on the ECR Symposium (including a CfP) in the forthcoming weeks.

  • Items for June meeting agenda to include: Results of CTM (see above), EC Elections Call for Nominations, Membership update, planning of EC Annual report and Activities Plan for 2021-22

The EC approves the suggested agenda for the June meeting.

6. Any other business

There was no other business to discuss.

 

Date of next meeting: Monday 21 June 2021, 10 pm BST/GMT/UTC+1 (consider DST; refer to shared DOC for each country’s time zone)

SRN2021 Research Seminar Series Online

Dear SRN2021 Delegates and SRN Members,

Finally!

I am now able to announce the proposed format and dates for the SRN2021 Research Seminar Series Online (replacing the SRN2021 Annual Conference originally due to be hosted in Oxford). You will find all the facts and info here below: be prepared, it’s a long list with lots of bullet points (if more convenient you can find all the details in the enclosed PDF as well). It goes without saying, this is the initial plan with lots of TBCs and TBDs yet to be sorted out, and therefore things may still change.

 

FORMAT

–       [BEFORE] Papers: pre-recorded 15-minute presentations (to be made available in advance via the event website; so far we expecting as many as 90). Delegates are asked to watch as many as possible so as to enable lively discussions during the relevant live sessions.

–       [DURING] Live sessions (via Zoom, see dates below):

o   24x chaired Q&A panels (3-4 papers each): each speaker will be asked to give a 3-minute abstract of their respective pre-recorded paper presentations, followed by 30-35’ interactive discussion (chairs will be able to collect questions from all attendees – in person or via the chat boxes – during as well as before their live sessions).

o   2x Keynote speakers.

o   2x AGMs (includes EC elections): the same session run twice, to cover all time zones.

o   SRN Awards: prize winners announced by Jury + 2x winners’ 30-minute lectures.

o   2x Working Groups (TBC)

o   1 or 2 Round Tables (TBD)

o   1x Projects and Collaborations (TBD)

o   “Happy hours”: at the end of many live sessions attendees will be able to stay online for one more hour of networking, informal chatting, etc.

–       [AFTER] Bonus content (via Zoom, TBC):

o   Special guests (TBD)

o   1 or 2 “SRN in Conversation with…” (TBD)

o   SRN Early Career Researchers 2021 Symposium (November, TBC)

 

DATES

[BEFORE] Pre-recorded presentations

All shortlisted speakers will be asked to submit a pre-recorded 15-minute presentation of their paper in advance so as to give all delegates enough time to watch as many as possible before the scheduled live sessions. Please plan to record and submit your presentations according to the following rules of thumb:

–       Ideal world deadline for submission: ASAP in June/July. In other words, start now and submit as soon as you can.

–       Formal deadline: 31 July 2021, however…

–       “If-you-still-can’t-make-it” deadline: any time after that, in the awareness that the later you submit, the less time other delegates will have to watch it.

 

Guidelines for recording and submitting presentations:

–       File type for submission: MP4

–       Is there a maximum file size: no, but on average a 15-minute mp4 file tends to be 3-600 MB.

–       How do I submit my MP4 file? Hopefully, I will be able to set up a dedicated submission dropbox to share with everyone ASAP. Until then, a few options are:

o   Upload it to your GoogleDrive/OneDrive or similar, than share it with me, or

o   Upload it to DropBox and share it with me, or

o   Send it to me via WeTransfer

Pick anyone that you can use for free.

–       Maximum duration: 15 minutes. In my experience, slightly shorter pre-recorded presentation are much more effective than longer ones and consider the subsequent live session/Q&A an integral (if delayed) part of your presentation as well. As a rule of thumb, begin the recording by introducing your core research question briefly, avoid excessive contextualizing/framing, then argue your 3-4 main points concisely and leave the audience wanting for more during the live session (when you can have all your other notes at hand to complement your presentation).

–       What device should you use to record your presentation? Any – PC, Mac, tablet, phone, camera, webcam, Zoom recording (or similar), etc.

–       What format should your presentation be? Again, any, as long as it suits the presentation. Examples include but are not limited to:

o   You simply reading your paper to camera

o   A PowerPoint/Keynote presentation + you reading your paper as Voice Over

o   A PowerPoint/Keynote presentation + you reading your paper to camera in PiP in one corner of the screen

  • Note: if you use slides (in any app) summarize the main points of your arguments as opposed to cram them with long paragraphs pasted verbatim from your paper.

o   A video-essay (either formal, creative, performative)

o   A podcast-like presentation (audio only, no video)

o   A mix of the above

–       Can you embed clips/include citations in your presentations? Yes, you can, within “fair use” limits as you would normally do in an in-person paper presentation, as long as you cite sources correctly.

o   Try to limit the use of embedded clips anyway as they will eat away time from your 15-minute allocation. If available, it is best to provide links/references to freely available online resources that can be consulted by delegates when watching your presentations. Remember that delegates will watch presentations in asynchronous before the live sessions and therefore they are not bound to the 15-minute limit of the presentation itself.

 

[DURING] Live sessions

 

Five (5) dates for your calendar!

 

  • Monday 30 August
  • Friday 3 September
  • Wednesday 8 September
  • Monday 13 September
  • Friday 17 September

 

In the past year I have attended about 20 online conferences/festivals/events/seminar series trying to figure out what works best and what not. I can say, without a doubt, that:

–       Those who tried to simply transfer their original in-person conference schedule/format online failed regularly. It simply won’t work like that online.

–       Attending any online event for more than 3-4 hours straight is most counterproductive, let alone full-day sessions (I managed to attend one that started at 8.30 am and ended at 10 pm for three days – I will abstain from adding any comments).

–       Events that schedule several days in a row tend to see their audience wane exponentially the longer they went on.

–       On the other hand, events that scheduled sessions are regular intervals every few days over a few weeks (essentially turning into a “series” of dates) generally worked rather well.

 

So, on the five days listed above we will have:

–       All our papers Q&A sessions: these will all be one-hour slots – 50 mins. discussion + 10’ break (see above for some more details)

–       Keynotes, AGMs, Round Tables, SRN Awards: these will likely be 75-90 mins.

 

TIME ZONES

After much thinking, calculating, trialling and errors, I can confirm that we will follow two main criteria for scheduling our live sessions: 1) by time zone/geographic area, and 2) thematic grouping (based on papers’ keywords/content).

However, I have realized that the best way to proceed is to split our planet/time zones into 2 big regions rather than 3. This takes into account the fact that, although we do have speakers whose geolocation spans 20 time zones, the vast majority are still from Europe. Therefore, the following schedule will divide each Live Session Day into two slots of roughly 4 hours each:

 

US West US

East

South America Western Europe Central Europe & Africa Eastern Europe Middle East India Western Australia Japan & Central Australia Eastern Australia New Zealand
Slot 1 24-4 3-7 4-8 8-12 9-13 10-14 11-15 12.30-16.30 15-19 16-20 (+30’) 17-21 20-24
Slot 2 9-13 12-16 13-17 17-21 18-22 19-23 20-24 21.30-1.30 24-4 1-5 (+30’) 2-6 5-9

 

While it’s basically impossible to have colleagues from the Americas and from Asia-Pacific attending live simultaneously (unless they decide to burn the past-midnight oil), the above will allow for the largest and broadest possible audience: Slot 1 will be on in the morning (for Western and Central Europe), early afternoon (for Eastern Europe, Africa, Middle East and India), and in the late afternoon/evening (for Asia-Pacific countries); a 5-hour break will then be followed by Slot 2, which will allow attendance at decent hours for colleagues in the US (morning and early afternoon), in South America (late afternoon), in Europe and Africa (late afternoon/evening), as well as in the Middle and India (albeit in the late evening).

The AGM will be run in both slots so as to give everyone the same chance to attend and participate in the discussion and in the EC Elections.

By the way, as you know, you have time until Sunday 20 June 2021, 3 pm (UK time) to vote the motion to amend two articles of the SRN Constitution (see email sent out on 20th May) to enable hosting AGMs and EC elections virtually. You will receive plenty of details soon enough once the results are in, so I won’t add any here.

 

ZOOM AND RECORDINGS

In all likelihood, we’ll be using Zoom for our live sessions. As I will be setting up all sessions, I will be able to use my University’s license which grants unlimited use and allows for up to 1,000 participants in Meeting mode (the one with interactive audience, as opposed to the boring Webinar mode, where only hosts and speakers can be seen and heard).

I will then make all chairs and speakers co-hosts.

It doesn’t matter whether you or your university have a Zoom license: once you register for a session, you will receive a link to attend freely. You will be able to log in to Zoom either within your browser or you can download the Zoom app for free on any device.

We are also exploring the possibility of streaming the live sessions via YouTube and/or Facebook: this option won’t require prior registration and logging it to Zoom, but you may not be able to interact with the speakers and the other delegates (yes, I know, we can use the chat boxes on YouTube and Facebook as well, but that will depend on how many people will be on hand to help out in any given session – so let’s say we will follow up on this with more precise details in due course).

We will record all live sessions so as to make them available via the SRN2021 website to all those delegates and members who cannot attend live. However, we will likely require registration to access all recorded content.

 

[AFTER] Bonus content

 I am trying to organize a few extra events that will hopefully make SRN 2021 an even more lively and engaging event. I have contacted a few guests from the industry (writers, producers, a few policymakers) and am awaiting their responses regarding their availability to join us for some informal conversations and Q&A. If available, I will leave them the option to choose from either a live session or a pre-recorded one to be then shared with you. In any case, as a rule these extra sessions will be at later dates in September/October (unless their availability is limited to one of the dates above, in which case we might want to shuffle things around a bit).

The same goes for another possible type of extra session. As you will remember, a couple of months ago the Executive Committee launched the first of a series of recorded sessions titled “SRN in Conversation with…” past conference organizers with the aim of building a memory archive or our main events and activities of the past 15 years. We have more in the pipeline, and it might well be that one or two could be planned for the Autumn. In which case, again, we have a choice of pre-recording it, just like the first one, or going live and give access to all of you for more interactivity.

Finally, we also have one more event in store for you – likely to be in November 2021. The Early Career Researcher Symposium will be announced later in June (via a regular CfP) and will be organized by our ECR rep on the EC, Ann Igelström. Although the ECR Symposium will be a stand-alone event in its own right and with its own format, we can consider it as a great closing event to what is going to be a very exciting Autumn season despite having to postpone meeting in person for another year. All ECR will be eligible to submit a proposal for the Symposium, including those who will participate in the Seminar Series in September should they wish so. Stay tuned for more soon!

So… Is that all? Pretty much but not necessarily. If you have any further suggestions, just throw them our way and we can discuss whether they can make a good addition to this programme of online activities.

 

Help needed!

Many of you have already come forward to help out with the Seminar Series. Thank you ever so much to all of you and I will be contacting each one of you in the next few weeks: perhaps we can arrange a Zoom briefing session so we all get together and get an idea of what I might need from you apart from the usual chairing. Although, in principle, some help in coordinating by geographic area might be the main priority.

 

Website and registration

Most pages on what used to be the SRN2020 website are now disabled as I am redesigning it and repurposing it for the SRN2021 Seminar Series Online. The idea is to make the website the go-to navigation platform for the event, with lots of useful features, a repository for the pre-recorded presentations, links to everything (recordings and live sessions), guidelines, as well as a thematic map of the content shared by everyone. After all, our Annual conferences (and their current virtual replacement) are all about exchanging our research findings, networking, finding shared interests, etc. I will do my best to make sure that the website enables all this in the best possible way. I have also obtained some funds to purchase a Business WordPress domain which means all the event content will be available to registered delegates/members for the next two years at last, so the exchanges are not limited to the live interaction next September.

As soon as the website is ready, it will include instructions to register to attend the SRN2021 Research Seminar Series Online. Registration will be FREE but required as it will give us the chance to monitor and optimize access to all content and sessions, and avoid any uninvited guests (e.g. Zoom bombing and similar).

* * *

 

Quite a lot to digest already, but more (and more precise) information yet to come in the forthcoming weeks.

Any clarification needed, just give me a shout.

 

Take very good care of yourselves

Best

Paolo Russo BA PhD

Screenwriting Research Network Chairperson

 

A PDF version of this text can be accessed here.