STORYTELLING UNIT RESEARCH - SCREENWRITERS AND HISTORY OF SCREENWRITING

HISTORY OF SCREENWRITING:
The use of a screenplay has constantly evolved since the beginning of film. Screenplay can be defined as 'the written form of a movie that also includes instructions on how it is to be acted and filmed; the script of a movie. Originally in its earliest years, the writing for a film was known as a scenario, after further development 'continuity scripts' came along, before what we know today; 'screenplay'.

The most widely considered first modern script was a 1902 George Melies' A Trip to the Moon, the silent film, was important for its transformative use of story, using descriptors that provided simple information about each scene.

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Screenwriter One: Danny Brocklehurst – is a screenwriter for over 15 television programmes, winner of many awards including BAFTAs and has also written extensively for radio. Danny Brocklehurst has written many different TV shows, primarily for the BBC. The two shows that I personally have seen and loved that he has written is Channel 4’s Shameless and BBC Ones Ordinary Lies. These are two very different shows in terms of their setting, characters and dialogue, however they both touch on everyday domestic issues, that comes across as very emotional to the audience.

Whilst I haven’t taken direct inspiration for my story from the work of Danny Brocklehurst, his writings are some of the programmes I enjoy most and the way in which his programmes take on everyday issues, similar to what I hope to do with my story, interests me a lot.

For example, within Ordinary Lies, the character of Pete has a child out of wedlock with a women he had a one night stand with, and she starts to use the child as a tool to get money from Pete. This is an extremely relatable story that could and is happening at any time anywhere.  After creating the basis of my story, I have found many news articles that relate to the issue I am presenting in my own work (father who doesn’t know he has a daughter) and the work of writers such as Danny Brocklehurst is what inspired to do a story like this. Another Example comes from Shameless Series 2, written by Danny Brocklehurst and a fellow writer Paul Abbott, in which the character of Ian goes searching for the father who also doesn’t know he exists, after finding out that Frank Gallagher, the father to all of his siblings older and younger, is not his father.

 

Screenwriter two: Tony Jordan who is a British television writer, he is very famous for his works and has been listed many times as number 1 televisions screen writer in the UK for many different magazines, such as Broadcast magazine in 2008. His most notable works and also most inspiring to me was as a lead writer and series consultant for BBC Ones EastEnders, in which as of 2006 he has written over 250 episodes. Other credits of Jordan include Boon and Minder

Jordan’s most inspiring work for me is an episode of EastEnders that he wrote, dated 1 October 2001, in which the character of Zoe finds out that her ‘sister’ Kat is in fact actually her mother. This obviously is a very inspiring story to me as it closely connects to my own. The most poignant part of the episode that is a very famous piece of dialogue to this day, was this simplicity of Zoe shouting “you ain’t my mother” and Kat simply screeching back “Yes I am”. This example of Jordan’s work connects to my own story very well and partly inspired me to flip this on its head, whereas in EastEnders the child was unaware that a certain person was there parent, whereas in mine the parent is the one unaware that a certain person is there child.