‘An account and analysis of the culture and practices of screenplay development in the UK’

This thesis looks at screenplay development as an industrial process, worthy of critically rigorous industry-level study. It analyses in particular how screenwriters, producers and development executives in the UK industry make knowledge claims, how they talk about gaining this knowledge and how they talk about the aims and practices of screenplay development – all through the prism of in-depth interviews. In doing so it contributes to Production Studies debates around film, specifically by arguing for and illustrating the importance of the development process. This analysis further leads to a new model of film screenplay development as a separate field of cultural production, one whose norms, conventions and constitution have a great bearing on the industry as a whole. This thesis also adds to the current debates around screenwriting and the screenplay. In particular, in addition to explicating how those practitioners engaged in the work see the process, this study proposes a new way of looking at the purpose of the screenplay that has hitherto been underplayed.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of East Anglia

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Lyle, Ben

Language dc:language

en