From individual stories to collective screenplays: a collaborative visual storytelling activity for screenwriting

Screenwriting education has traditionally emphasized individual script development, despite the collaborative realities of contemporary screen production. Although scholarship increasingly recognizes collaborative learning and writers' rooms, limited attention has been given to structured, theory-informed pedagogical models for higher education. Addressing this gap, this study introduces the Consensus-Based Visual Storytelling Activity (CVSA), a theoretically integrated framework for collaborative screenwriting and storytelling. It draws on Piaget's cognitive development, Kress and van Leeuwen's visual grammar, Bruner's narrative cognition, Bordwell and Thompson's narrative theory, Vygotsky's social constructivism, Dewey's collaborative inquiry, Kolb's experiential learning, and screenwriting scholarship to guide learners from individual visual interpretation to collective narrative development. The activity was piloted with undergraduate students enrolled in a Filmmaking course within the BA Journalism and Mass Communication programme. Preliminary classroom observations and student reflections provide illustrative evidence of its pedagogical feasibility and perceived relevance. By conceptualizing screenwriting as collective meaning-making rather than solely individual authorship, CVSA extends discussions of collaborative pedagogy into a structured, theoretically grounded, and replicable instructional model. The framework bridges educational theory and professional screenwriting practice, offering an adaptable approach to screenwriting instruction across media, communication, and creative arts programmes.