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  5. Volume 12, Issue 3, 2021

Journal of Screenwriting - Screenwriting for children and young audiences, Sept 2021

Screenwriting for children and young audiences

Screenwriting for children and young audiences, Sept 2021

Language: English
  • Articles

      • Just dancing with ideology? The role of dramaturgs within the socialist mode of children’s film development

        https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2102/10.1386/josc_00067_1

        The dramaturgs of the Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft (DEFA), the GDR’s state-owned film production company, played a particular role in socialist children’s film culture. Within the production process, they acted as important mediators as well as developed themes and defended them before the state film censors. In this article, I argue that screenwriting for children and the changing role of the dramaturg were remarkable inasmuch as the creative collaboration between authors, dramaturgs and directors became a collective process of navigating between politics, education, film and the young audience that can reasonably be described as ‘collective authorship’. First, I will show how DEFA children’s film production was an example of the ‘state-socialist mode of children’s film production’ and examine Szczepanik’s model in the light of the current question. Following this, I will examine the structural and practical development of children’s film production in view of both official images of the child and the images of children anticipated by the filmmakers. At the same time, I will discuss the role of dramaturgs as participants in a collective authorship process.

    • Children’s fiction and : The case of

      https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2102/10.1386/josc_00068_1

      This article considers the case of (1985), a Japanese animated series based on the novel , within the context of the World Masterpiece Theater, a television staple that popularized the practice of adapting classic children’s books into long-running anime. The analysis identifies the changes occurring in the adaptation, casting a light on the creative and productive choices undertaken by the Japanese staff. In doing so, the original novel and its reception in Japan are taken into account, with regard to the role of translated literature for local children’s and girls’ fiction. The study thus demonstrates that the alterations found in the series are both genre-related and explicable in terms of cultural-filtered interpretations, as can be seen in the negotiation of the protagonist as a Christian damsel-in-distress, combining melodramatic tropes, a signifier of westernization and a domesticating rationale of her alleged passivity.

    • The deliberated decision in children’s mainstream cinema: On socialization in the discourse of freedom

      https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2102/10.1386/josc_00069_1

      The purpose of this article is to highlight a trend in the narrative use of decisions that reinforces a widely accepted discourse of freedom. Through a discursive analysis focusing on contemporary mainstream screenwriting, it explores the relationship between the protagonist’s decision and the climax of the story. This relationship is shaped by the need for a change between the darkest moment and the climax, and causality between the events and the conflict that triggers them. The decision is a standardized possibility compatible with these principles, reproducing a discourse of freedom upheld by numerous social institutions despite the problems and dysfunctions pointed out by its critics. This freedom is underpinned by the notion of individual authenticity, which promises that anything can be achieved as long as nothing hinders the individual or his/her power to make decisions. Specifically, the article highlights a channel through which this discourse influences the sector of the public that is most sensitive to socialization processes: children and youth. With the normalized practice of screenwriting and without necessarily being aware of the fact, screenwriters can reproduce this discourse of freedom and thereby take part in reinforcing its social legitimacy.

    • Writing inclusive and diverse children’s television: Transgender representation in ABC Australia’s

      https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2102/10.1386/josc_00070_1

      This article presents a case study of the Australian children’s television programme, (ABC Australia 2020–present), which depicts a young transgender girl’s experiences beginning high school. The article explores the screenwriting process involved in creating inclusive and diverse children’s television, drawing on an original interview with Julie Kalceff, the show’s screenwriter and director. Kalceff discusses her screenwriting process writing for and about children who occupy liminal and marginal spaces and the research, writing and consultation processes undertaken to create her pioneering work with trans characters as lead protagonists. The resulting series explores the universal experience of starting the high school journey, while allowing for a normalizing of gender diversity on-screen – hopefully the first of many of its type in the future. By foregrounding historically marginalized characters, screenwriters can explore universal social, psychological and physical trials, and in the process, break down stigmas surrounding LGBTQ people.

  • Industry Perspectives

      • Fear and wonderment in a limitless world: Learning to write from a child’s point of view

        https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2102/10.1386/josc_00071_1

        During my 25 years working as a screenwriter in Los Angeles, I developed a reputation as a writer who could craft vivid and believable scripts about young people. Initially, this was based on my teleplay for the first episode of Steven Spielberg’s series, and later for the semi-autobiographical released by Columbia Pictures. I also wrote uncredited revisions of DreamWorks’s and Castle Rock’s , both involving prominent child characters. I have to confess that my reputation for writing content for children and adolescents realistically did not stem from any natural ability. It came from mining my personal childhood memories, and from studying movies and literature I felt authentically captured what it is like to be new in the world. This text explores my journey writing from a child’s perspective.

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