Script development: Writing beyond Hollywood

Leading scholar, Ian Macdonald believes students must learn the orthodox rules of screenwriting first, or risk being called incompetent. This article looks at the consequences of learning the orthodox rules first in script development training. It critiques the nexus between industrial Hollywood and universities and argues that training students to write scripts according to the classic Hollywood narrative model intended for production in the industrial mainstream represents a narrow and inadequate pedagogy. The article takes a writer-centric view of script development drawn from a case study of the feature film Fell (2014) written by Natasha Pincus. Pincus’s industry-free development methodology is used as the context for examining current script development theory and teaching practice, the heavily disparaged concept of the individual writer’s authorship and the unequal balance between imagination and creativity/craft and rules that occurs in teaching students how to apply the classic Hollywood narrative rubric. The article argues for greater diversity in teaching script development and screenwriting, including a recalibration of the position of screenwriters so that their contribution is valued and respected.