Screenwriting Research Network

This article reflects on the notion of good and bad characters in a fictional world. The study is done from a humanistic perspective and considers the poetic proposals of Juan José García-Noblejas (1982) and Paul Ricoeur (1987). The paper suggests that a character is good as long as it serves the world of fiction in which it is, whereas the world of fiction is good—in the sense of complete—insofar as it is able to "do justice" to the aspect of human life it represents.

This paper uses P. Ricoeur’s studies on the Poetics, and his notion of "refiguration" as developed in the work of Juan José García-Noblejas, under the scope of the Aristotelian doctrine. It suggests that the “first writing” of a screenplay focuses on the structure of the plot and the characters, dialogue and actions. The “re-writing” deals with these same elements; but above all, discovers the deep poetic structure that holds together the story. From that point on, the writer is able to return to the plot and refine it. This back and forth movement ends up in coherence and unity of the story, and so illuminates the writer’s personal exploration on the meaning of life.

Between 2007 and 2012 more than 100 new books on screenwriting have been accessioned to the United States Library of Congress. The present work reviews 68 of these books and another 27 manuals on screenwriting published since 1979, the year of publication of The Foundations of Screenwriting, Syd Field’s seminal work on this discipline. This article seeks to explore the range of Aristotle’s influence on these manuals and to suggest that there should be a second reading of Poetics, that considers not only its didactic and technical dimension, but also that pertaining to philosophy and wisdom, and thus the professional interest for writers and viewers.

In this study we develop an empirical model to explain failure rates of new television series. Specifically, we test the ability of three factors to predict the success of new dramatic series appearing on 31 cable networks over the last 10 years. Those factors are the originality of the story, the track record of its creator(s), and the cognitive complexity of its pilot episode script—all of which are known well in advance of a network’s decision to greenlight a new series. As predicted, we find that all three variables—both individually and in combination—strongly predict the success rate of new dramatic series in their first two seasons.

Network Text Analysis (NTA) involves the creation of networks of words and/or concepts from linguistic data. Its key insight is that the position of words and concepts in a text network  provides vital clues to the central and underlying themes of the text as a whole. Recent research has used an inductive approach to the question of theme extraction. In this paper we take a deductive approach in that we first establish prior expectations as to the key themes to be found in the text. We then compare and contrast the results of our network analysis with the results of  literary and cultural analyses of the film Fight Club as reported in over four dozen other peer-reviewed publications. While our results are remarkably consistent with and complementary to results in those studies, our analysis permits something the others do not—an analytical framework for relating those underlying and central themes to one another.

This thesis investigates how the interiority of emotion and overarching premise in literature is visualised in the novel to film adaptation process. It specifically looks at the varied collaborative stages of filmmaking - from development, screenwriting, pre production and principal photography, as a way of acknowledging the process and contribution of the film crew as novel is turned into film. By investigating the interpretive choices and decisions of three specific roles - the screenwriter, cinematographer and director - I break down the contributions and collaborations of these key creative practitioners at distinctive moments of the production process, to gain a greater understanding of how the translation of emotion and premise interiority from novel to screen occurs.

This article [working paper] presents a list of 24 key `open’ problems in the domain of movie screenwriting for discussion, further research, and ideally, potential solutions by academic researchers in the field of movie screenwriting, and especially PhD researchers. Also examined is the standard definition of creativity, the scientific study of creativity as applied to movies and screenwriting (Simonton 2011), consilience (Wilson 1998), and, creativity as problem-solving (Weisberg 2006).

The author's PhD thesis (2016) is online at:
https://storyality.wordpress.com/my-phd-dissertation-free-online/

Much work remains to be done to develop a historical-critical integrated knowledge of the show business of the twentieth century capable of considering cinema and stage as the two main fields of a single area of artistic creation. The Hollywood’s Golden Age is a very important moment in the history of the relationship between the forms of the stage and the ones of cinema. To enter into a critical analysis of this relationship in that historical period, it is very useful adopt the point of view of the screenwriting manuals. At the beginning of this paper, we will ask how the techniques of theatre playwriting have remained in the production practices of classical Hollywood cinema and if its professionals had awareness about it. I will show some common traits of playwriting and screenwriting, with a focus on an issue constantly debated in the circle of screenwriters: the usefulness and the validity of the three-act structure. Jumped again to the headlines in the Seventies, this structure was already known by the early writers of the silent film era because of a legacy of centuries of playwriting and literature.

“We are not HBO, We are Television”: An Ethnographic Analysis of the Group Writing of the Series The First Republic

This article focuses on the efforts of the Czech public service television (Česká Televize, hereafter ČT) to compete with private companies for the primetime soap opera audience. The melodramatic historical crime drama The First Republic has been something of a turning point in post-Socialist ČT. It exemplifies a recent Czech tendency to coproduce programmes with independent partners, thus blurring the distinction between private and public interests. The series exemplifies a shift away from the longstanding Czech tradition of having one or two writers pen either six- or thirteen-part screenplays as one whole in favor of having a writing team collaborate on dozens of screenplays. The First Republic also illustrates the standardization of family entertainment as a ČT programming slot, as well as a greater effort to follow trends in American and, to some extent, European quality television. Through an ethnographic study of day-to-day production processes, this article sheds light on the social logic that drove this collaborative effort. More specifically, it focuses on the differing expectations and authorial subjectivities of the agents and institutions involved in the production of The First Republic. The initial conception of the series posited a complex, gritty historical drama, but this idea gave way to what many critics saw as a high-end soap. Shift s in power between ČT, its independent production partners (together with the series’ director), and head writer were symptoms of the changing position of public service television on the Czech market and ČT’s relationships with private producers. As the most successful programme of its kind, the series stands as a striking emblem of a post-socialist production culture in transition. Research for this article is based on Eva Pjajčíková’s experience as a writer intern on The First Republic, her nine-month participant observation of the writing team, and interviews both authors conducted with participants in the series.

The Hollywood Golden Age was a revolutionary moment in the history of cinema and is pivotal to understanding the historical passage of a peculiar new art form-screenwriting. This early film period, from the Tens to the Sixties, was determined by key interactions between the respective forms of cinema and stage. Together, these interactions form a wider screenwriting "discourse." There are reoccurring disputes in film scholarship over the paternity of the conventions and techniques of screenwriting. One solution is that techniques of theatre playwriting persisted extensively in the production practices of classical Hollywood cinema. Whether or not its professionals were aware of this is at the heart of this dispute. It is possible to identify the contribution of screenwriting manuals from Hollywood's Golden Age toward the standardization of screenwriting techniques. The article aims to examine in the screenwriting manuals of this period some statements by practitioners who document the normalization and codification of the narrative structures used in screenwriting over time-in particular, the three-act structure. The validity and origin of the three-act structure are constantly debated among screenwriters. While this formula was known to the early writers of the Silent Era due to its legacy throughout centuries of playwriting and literature, it reappeared in the Seventies in the guise of a new theory. This article attempts to fill in certain gaps in the history of the theorization of screenwriting practices by juxtaposing statements found in screenwriting manuals and the statements of scholars and educators of this field. Ultimately, narrative conventions belonging to the tradition of theatre, as well as technological exigencies were integral in shaping the cinema techniques in use today.

In the wake of a recent essay on the theory of screenwriting (S. Maras, Screenwriting. History, Theory and Practice. London-New York: Wallflower Press, 2009), questions concerning the debate on the nature, the regulations and the goals of “Screenwriting” and the dialogue between narratology and other fields of Film Studies are encouraged thanks to the import of Frame Analysis approach from social sciences. Steven Maras’ proposal, which we have adopted here, is to define the debate set in motion by the discourse on the screenplay as peculiar to the screenplay itself, and therefore, to identify a frame where to include all theoretical contribu- tions participating to this debate, although of a different nature and origin. Adopting this approach and defi- ning the discourse frame does not solve the problem on the nature of the screenplay but it allows to take up the subject from a new perspective reflecting and including what analyses from what other approaches decreed on the subject. Moreover it allows a great freedom in combining different subjects to analyze and define objects such as the screenplay of an audio-visual product, which nature is elusive and problematic, dignifying, for instance, an often underestimated branch of narratology applied to arts such as manuals (a discipline of great historical interest and a full-blown container of cinema theories). The usefulness of this theoretical frame can be verified in the investigations that do not just analyze texts but try to focus on the blurred landscapes existing between them, and it’s ideal to host debates on “authorship” and on the concept of “creative process”. For instance it becomes relevant in adaptation theories and every time there is an ongoing negotiation between cinema and other media.

The topic of the article is the development of so-called technical screenplays in Czechoslovakia between 1945 and 1954. Using statistical analyses of technical screenplays, we have been able to investigate the development of this type of document. USSR production norms were imported to Czechoslovakia after 1946. This fact affected, amongst other things, the practice of technical screenplays. Technical screenplays in this era became more closed off to dramaturgical modifications and also the form of technical screenplays changed. Although technical screenplays in Czechoslovakia were under the influence of USSR norms, they nevertheless preserved elements derived from the tradition of Czechoslovak screenwriting.

The role of a screenwriter in an adaptation is not just to condense and capture the essence of the novel; s/he writes for many readers. The role of the cinematographer is not just to frame the image and get the exposure right; s/he visualises the internal. The role of a director is not just to captain the ship and guide the crew to create her/his vision; s/he collaborates and listens. Each plays a similar role in the making of a film, to translate and interpret the words of one medium, the novel and/or screenplay, into the cinematic language of another, screenwriting and/or the moving image. Each step along the adaptation of novel to screen informs and influences the next stage. Lawrence Venuti, in his paper, Adaptation, Translation, Critique, proposes that the 'interpretant' is a 'third term' in what he sees as the 'competing discourses of fidelity and intertextuality' in adaptation theory (Venuti 2007, 31). Using his critical framework, this paper dives into the film production process to find evidence of the influence of each stage of production on the next. The paper analyses the process of a screenwriter/director and her/his cinematographer as they adapt a novel to the screen, acknowledging how each is an 'interpretant' contributing, collaborating, and influencing the next phase of production.

In this study we develop an empirical model to explain failure rates of new television series. Specifically, we test the ability of three factors to predict the success of new dramatic series appearing on 31 cable networks over the last 10 years. Those factors are the originality of the story, the track record of its creator(s), and the cognitive complexity of its pilot episode script—all of which are known well in advance of a network's decision to greenlight a new series. As predicted, we find that all three variables—both individually and in combination—strongly predict the success rate of new dramatic series in their first two seasons.

Tématem disertační práce je technický scénář v Československu po druhé světové válce. Autor práce zkoumá proměny technických scénářů ve vztahu ke změnám organizace produkce a dramaturgie filmu. V současné době má autor zmapovány všechny realizované technické scénáře z let 1945 – 1960 pomocí statistické analýzy. Další část výzkumu se orientuje na proměny diskurzu scenáristiky, především na české překlady sovětských produkčních a dramaturgických příruček (norem) ze stejného období. Právě sovětské normy budou tématem konferenčního příspěvku. Po roce 1945 došlo k institucionalizaci technického scénáře v Československu. Jeho podoba a funkce se  proměňovaly v návaznosti na reorganizaci dramaturgických jednotek, změny v kompetencích režiséra a producenta a v souvislosti s přebíráním sovětských vzorů. Právě sovětské normy představují po roce 1947 hlavní inspirační zdroj pro filmové praktiky, což mimo jiné dokazuje proměna podoby technických scénářů v první polovině 50. let. Tato proměna preferencí souvisela s obratem v kulturní politice. V rámci konferenčního příspěvku autor představí sovětské produkční a dramaturgické normy a vymezí jejich hlavní témata vzhledem k sovětizaci československé scenáristiky. Autor bude vycházet z metody Stevena Marase, který rozlišuje praxi a diskurz scenáristiky. Takto rozdělený objekt výzkumu umožňuje zkoumat vzájemné vlivy a konkrétní dopady diskurzu na praxi a naopak.

This paper examines the two questions of: (a) Can computers be creative? and (b) Can algorithmic-computational-creativity teach screenwriting students about human creativity? The standard definition of creativity is adopted here (Runco & Jaeger, 2012). This paper is in two parts. Part One, `A Brief Tour of The Robo-Raconteur’ is an illustrated walk-through of a new interactive artificial-writer computer program, `The Robo-Raconteur’ (Velikovsky 2017), an Excel workbook containing six functional sub-modules, namely: 1) A Top 20 RoI Movie Pitch-Combiner; 2) A Bottom 20 RoI Movie Pitch-Element Combiner; 3) A Random Movie Pitcher; 4) A Movie Pitch-Selector which takes the computer-created one-page movie story-pitches, and then judges, scores, and ranks them in `evolutionary survival tournaments’; 5) An Ironic Character Generator; and finally, 6) A Random Transmedia `Story Universe’ Pitch Generator.
In what amounts to an `Interactive Intermission’, any and all readers of this article are then invited to download and play-test a beta version of The Robo-Raconteur; then to complete a short (5-minute) online survey about their experience; and in the process decide for themselves if the program is an effective creativity-teaching-aid for screenwriting students.
Part Two of the paper, `Creativity as Evolutionary Computation’ explains the (evolutionary) theory of creativity that underpins the program, namely what the program aims to both demonstrate and illuminate for students of creativity within the domain of movie-story creation.
In summary, `The Robo-Raconteur’ appears to demonstrate that computers indeed can be creative, as examined in detail in The Creative Mind (Boden, 2004, pp. 88-232), Explaining Creativity (2nd ed.) (Sawyer, 2012, pp. 147-148) and Homo Deus (Yuval Noah Harari, 2017, pp. 328-329). Ideally screenwriting students will find `The Robo-Raconteur’ program (and this article) a new and useful teaching aid in creativity. Potential implications include that creativity emerges from evolutionary computation (Mayfield, 2013).

The aim of the present study was to investigate how the impermanence of contract work affects working lives, self-perceptions and the career strategies of Swedish screenwriters of finding and keeping work. Furthermore, it also explored how screenwriters experience their abilities to exercise authorial leverage over media content.

Introducing the concept of “career authoring” to cover different aspects of the professional lives of screenwriters such as managing a career, establishing authorship and contractual negotiations, the study was able to embrace various mind-sets and strategies for career success. Combining ethnographical studies and textual analyses the study was able to ascertain that the contingency of the Swedish film and television industries necessitates strategies to cultivate reputations, industrial visibility, consciously receive writing credits and conform to a traditional division of labour. Moreover, the study illuminated the importance of contractual negotiations for career success in terms of both retaining and wavering rights to their work. Strategies for exercise increased authorial leverage were not only confined to the script, but extended beyond the page, where the latter  accentuated processes of reconfiguring traditional conceptions of screenwriters’ abilities to influence media content.

The Writers is the only comprehensive qualitative analysis of the history of writers and writing in the film, television, and streaming media industries in America.

Featuring in-depth interviews with over fifty writers—including Mel Brooks, Norman Lear, Carl Reiner, and Frank Pierson—The Writers delivers a compelling, behind-the-scenes look at the role and rights of writers in Hollywood and New York over the past century. Granted unprecedented access to the archives of the Writers Guild Foundation, Miranda J. Banks also mines over 100 never-before-published oral histories with legends such as Nora Ephron and Ring Lardner Jr., whose insight and humor provide a window onto the enduring priorities, policies, and practices of the Writers Guild.

With an ear for the language of storytellers, Banks deftly analyzes watershed moments in the industry: the advent of sound, World War II, the blacklist, ascension of television, the American New Wave, the rise and fall of VHS and DVD, and the boom of streaming media. The Writers spans historical and contemporary moments, and draws upon American cultural history, film and television scholarship and the passionate politics of labor and management. Published on the sixtieth anniversary of the formation of the Writers Guild of America, this book tells the story of the triumphs and struggles of these vociferous and contentious hero-makers.

I detta arbete undersöker jag hur samtida manusförfattares arbetsförutsättningar ser ut i Sverige, vad gäller deras arbetsförhållanden, utbildning, men framförallt hur de uppfattar sin roll som manusförfattare (enskilt och i relation till andra). Genom att inkludera yrkets historiska förutsättningar, så betonas negligeringen av manusförfattares anseende (i Sverige) som en viktig aktör inom filmskapande och att arbetsförutsättningarna har gått i vågor efter branschens behov. Analysen utgår från Bridget Conors tes om att manusförfattares arbetsförutsättningar kan utrönas genom en blandning av en  kritisk sociologisk analys av kreativ produktion och en Foucauldiansk förståelse av "technologies of the self" – skapandet och reglerande av självet i relation till det egna arbetet.       

Resultatet visade att manusförfattare i Sverige länge varit en bortglömd aktör inom filmskapande, vilket bland annat uttryckts i att en formell yrkesutbildning först blev aktuell på 1990-talet. Betydelsen av den formella manusutbildningen vid Stockholms dramatiska högskola visade sig inte vara centralt för yrkets identitetsskapande, utan det är något som kan utvecklas i yrkeslivet och utbildningen riktar helst sig till dem som anses behöva den. Däremot så kan utbildningen ge möjlighet att lära sig yrket i en mer skyddad miljö. Yrkesverksamheten präglas av en ständig osäkerhet, vilket tar sig uttryck både ekonomiskt och praktiskt. Därmed så måste manusförfattare göra sig själva tillgängliga för arbete och skaffa sig ett brett kontaktnät, vilket ställer krav på en social kompetens. Det är vitalt för manusförfattare i Sverige att vara verksamma inom andra områden än film som behöver deras tjänster, exempelvis TV, radio och teater. Yrkesrollen kräver ett pragmatiskt tänkande och att välkomna det kreativa samarbetet med regissörer och producenter. Uppfattningen att yrkesrollen idag skulle vara marginaliserad visade sig vara ambivalent. Respondenterna betraktade sin underställda roll inom filmskapande som naturlig, men däremot att deras insatser ofta försummades i relation till regissörer och producenter.

The topic of this paper relates to author's dissertation research. Early 1950s film production in Czechoslovakia changed because of transformation of dramaturgy mode and instalation of film production standards from USSR. These standards prescribed every aspect of film production including screenwriting practice. Technical screenplay become the central document of dramaturgy and predetermined production of film. Author of this paper would like to demonstrate how technical screenplays have changed from 1945 to 1960 and use it in case study of Otakar Vávra's screenplays. The influence of technical screenplays on film dramaturgy is often neglected. Technical screenplay truly was just technical version of literary screenplay, but situation changed in early 1950s. Until 1951 there had been a tradition in screenwriting practice but no strictly written standards. After 1951, according to new standards (translation of USSR standards), technical screenplay become the central document of film dramaturgy and there was no chance to start shooting without aproved technical screenplay. It also wasn't possible to make changes in technical screenplay without approval of supreme film dramaturgy institution in Czechoslovakia. That's why the transformation of technical screenplay is closely attached to film dramaturgy. Research concerning transformation of technical screenplay attached to film dramaturgy can answer many questions: How has technical screenplay changed? How were these changes influenced by USSR production standards? What was the standard of screenwriting and were there some exceptions? How was unification of screenwriting practice influenced by the theory and vice versa? These are some question which should be answered in the paper.

With reference to traditional film theory and frameworks drawn from fields such as screenwriting studies and anthropology, this book explores the challenges and opportunities for both practitioners and viewers offered by the 360-degree storytelling form. It focuses on cinematic virtual reality (CVR), a format that involves immersive, high quality, live action or computer-generated imagery (CGI) that can be viewed through head mounted display (HMD) goggles or via online platforms such as YouTube. This format has surged in popularity in recent years due to the release of affordable high quality omnidirectional (360-degree) cameras and consumer grade HMDs. The book interrogates four key concepts for this emerging medium: immersion, presence, embodiment and proximity through an analysis of innovative case studies and with reference to practitioner interviews. In doing so, it highlights the specificity of the format and provides a critical account of practitioner approaches to the concept development, writing and realisation of short narrative CVR works. The book concludes with an account of the author’s practice-led research into the form, providing a valuable example of creative practice in the field of immersive media.

Despite the growing research interest in the transnational nature of the Arab World’s television industry, screenwriting in the Arab World has received little academic attention. Moreover, while the media plays a major role in shaping the ‘narratives of identity’, the reality of television drama production is as much about cultural, economic and political influences as it is about aesthetics. Set within a unique interpretation of the theoretical context of the ‘Hierarchy of Influences Model’, this article aims to explore to what extent the routine practices in screenwriting govern the artistic decisions taken at the level of the screenplay development of transnational pan-Arab dramas (Arabic: al-drāma al ‘arabiya al-mushtaraka). Taking ‘04’ (Zero Four) as a case study, a pan-Arab drama produced by the Saudi-owned UAE-based MBC television that tells the story of four young expatriates from four different Arab nationalities living in modern-day Dubai, and through in-depth interviews with the show creators, the article attempts to present an example of novel screenwriting practices in the Arab World between single authors and writers’ room.

With reference to traditional film theory and frameworks drawn from fields such as screenwriting studies and anthropology, this book explores the challenges and opportunities for both practitioners and viewers offered by the 360-degree storytelling form. It focuses on cinematic virtual reality (CVR), a format that involves immersive, high quality, live action or computer-generated imagery (CGI) that can be viewed through head mounted display (HMD) goggles or via online platforms such as YouTube. This format has surged in popularity in recent years due to the release of affordable high quality omnidirectional (360-degree) cameras and consumer grade HMDs. The book interrogates four key concepts for this emerging medium: immersion, presence, embodiment and proximity through an analysis of innovative case studies and with reference to practitioner interviews. In doing so, it highlights the specificity of the format and provides a critical account of practitioner approaches to the concept development, writing and realisation of short narrative CVR works. The book concludes with an account of the author’s practice-led research into the form, providing a valuable example of creative practice in the field of immersive media.

Příspěvek je shrnutím dílčí kapitoly disertační práce, ve které se věnuji technickým scénářům dlouhých hraných filmů v Československu v letech 1945–1962. Ve své disertační práci popisuji okolnosti institucionalizace technických scénářů po roce 1945, vývoj formální podoby technických scénářů a funkci technických scénářů v procesu výroby filmu. Cenzurní kontrola spadá do poslední oblasti a může nám pomoci nahlédnout do procesu kontroly vznikajících filmů v decentralizované filmové dramaturgii a produkci druhé poloviny 50. let. V dokumentech ustanovujících proces vývoje filmového projektu (např. Směrnice, organizační řády a jiná ustanovení v archivu společnosti Barrandov) se zmínky o cenzurních kontrolách neobjevují. Z literatury však vyplývá, že cenzura scénářů byla součástí tohoto procesu. Milan Bárta se ve svém textu Cenzura československého filmu a televize v letech 1953 – 1968 (Securitas imperii 10, 2003) věnuje kontrole scénářů Hlavní správou tiskového dohledu v průběhu 50. let přehledově a v obecných rysech. Mým cílem je prohloubit poznání cenzurní kontroly v oblasti technických scénářů, tedy posledních verzí scénářů před natáčením. Technický scénář hraného filmu byl jedním ze stupňů kontroly, spolu s literárním scénářem, servisní kopií a hotovou kopií. V příspěvku se budu věnovat tomu, jak probíhala kontrola technických scénářů, co jim bylo vytýkáno a s jakým odůvodněním (státní tajemství, obecný zájem, umělecká hodnota).

This chapter explores ‘essence’ and ‘originality’ in screenwriting adaptation practice. It investigates the ‘translation’ of a source text into a new form, and argues for creativity and risk-taking in order to produce original work.
Case studies examine decisions made by screenwriters to move away from a source text and make the story their own. Greta Gerwig’s reframing of Little Women (2019) meant changing the structure and the ending. Kelly Reichard adapted three unconnected short stories into Certain Women (2016). Rainer Werner Fassbinder radically transformed Douglas Sirk’s Hollywood melodrama All That Heaven Allows (1955) into Fear Eats the Soul (1974) and Tod Haynes was inspired by both films to create Far from Heaven (Haynes 2002), which referenced both films and paid homage to Sirk and Fassbinder.

` Abstract`Multimedia applications are gaining popularity over smart devices. + haring and using multimedia contents among multiple devices is a hot issue in +-screen environment. In this paper, we are going to investigate how the same stream can be shared by distinct bit rates devices and how several streams can be managed to different devices. We propose control architecture of group communication using + roup Information Control + erver (+ IC+) and + roup + gent (+ +) that assure the delivery of contents to the different bit rates devices on addition or deletion in +-screen environment. In our architecture, the + + is responsible to chec+ the receiving capabilities of a new device with already stream receiving devices whether to group this device with the stream receiving devices or delete some device from the group and group with the new device and start a separate stream. We present results that show our proposed architecture improves networ+ throughput and reduces streaming server load. Keywords` Keywords`+-+ creen (Multi + creen), + mart device, + roup Information Control + erver, + roup + gent,

The Redakteur, the commissioning editor in TV fiction, has frequently been criticized in current public and industry-internal discourse on ‘quality’ series and the supposed lack of them in Germany. This article takes a closer look at this hardly examined but very important actor in German television. Based on expert interviews, it discusses how this profession is negotiated within the industry and how its role is changing in light of the broader transformation and transnationalization of the TV industry in Germany. Shifts in fictional content and its distribution have led to fundamental changes in the work of editors and their involvement in collaborative project networks. For example, the demand for ‘quality’ serials, ideally distributed in different countries, is accompanied by the adoption of writers’ room and showrunner models. Hence, the relationship between editor and screenwriter is transforming, too. The previous cooperation between editor and producer is also ripe for discussion, as signs point to a move away from 100 per cent financing by broadcasters, which was the rule in German television fiction for a long time. New financing models are negotiated in conjunction with online distribution, which fundamentally restructures the editor’s role. However, so far, linear broadcasting slots still form a central basis of editors’ work.

We extract textual and content data from the pilot episode scripts of 181 new, dramatic television series and use it to predict the 18-49 demo ratings for the first five episodes of the series' first seasons. As expected, we find that the originality of a series' premise, the track record of success of the its creator(s), and the cognitive complexity of its pilot episode script each explain a statistically significant proportion of the variance in ratings between the 181 series but none of the variance within series.

Em setembro de 2018, a 11.ª edição da Screenwriting Research Network Conference teve lugar na Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore de Milão. Entres as diversas atividades de pré-conferência e conferência, salientam-se  tendências como o estudo das séries TV, a investigação practice-based, análise fílmica quantitativa ou processos de escrita e criação.