Screenwriting Archives and Resources Project (SARP)

A worldwide statement of screenwriting resources.

April 2018

The Screenwriting Archives and Resources Project (SARP) is an initiative of the Executive Council of the Screenwriting Research Network (SRN). The SRN is a group of scholars worldwide whose research focuses on the genesis, generation and development of screen ideas, i.e. those intended to become moving image productions, whether fiction, fact or entertainment, in any medium (e.g. film, TV, interactive etc.).

Scholars of screenwriting have, until the 2000s, tended to work in isolation from like-minded others, often in academic environments where screenwriting is seen as a specialism in the industrial sense, of some interest within the broad study of Film, or Creative Industries and other sub-fields of Media, Media Practice, Communication and Cultural Studies. Screenwriting scholars have now come together to focus on the practices, processes, discourse, industry and cultural meanings of developing screen ideas; and in following these interests, we have discovered that the collection and preservation of textual material (including scripts, screenplays etc.) has been badly neglected by both academics and archivists, with a few honourable exceptions. This database is intended to draw together information on the collections that do exist, providing us with a greater awareness of what’s available, and therefore also – sadly – what is not.

The latest report can be found here

SARP Data~Sep 2018

We invite you to send us a completed questionnaire on new collections, or where corrections are necessary to our current information. Organised A-Z by country, information herein is freely available to all, though we would like to be credited in any publication which uses it. Many thanks to all our contributors!

Please send questionnaire returns, or any queries, to Ian W. Macdonald (i.w.macdonald@leeds.ac.uk).