This studio is a screenwriting/screen production collaboration with students of the media program.

Studio leader: Dr Stayci Taylor.

What distinguishes a web series from, for example, a television series?  Is it only the means of its delivery; the platform from which it is accessed? How does the relative brevity of its constituent parts (the webisode), the device on which it may be viewed, and the possible circumstances of that viewing, influence or determine its overall form and content?

In this studio we will recreate the real-world conditions of the ‘writers’ room’, where you will gain valuable insight into the practices of developing serial drama through such practices as forward planning, storylining, script writing and story editing. We will also examine screenplays and screenworks specific to serial dramas, and ultimately explore the idiosyncratic and potentially unique possibilities offered by the web series.

We will collaborate with students from the Bachelor of Communication (Media) to investigate some of these possibilities, develop technical skills toward producing one web series. In the collaboration, the Media students will focus primarily on production and distribution. The Creative Writers will be primarily concerned with the conceptual development of narrative elements, likely pitching ideas (individually, and then in small groups) according to a production brief. The italics are there for a reason: there will also be plenty of opportunity and/or necessity for tasks and groups to combine.

Forming multidisciplinary teams, you will prototype different ways of working with scripts and screen production practices. As Creative Writers, you will continue developing your practice in screenwriting, before collaborating on the webisodes that will bring your pages to life.

All that you do will be investigated theoretically, practically and with reflection, resulting in a  portfolio of written and film work.

You may be interested to check out the script-to-screen studios that ran in 2015 and 2016: Filming for Writing, Writing for Film (Paul Ritchard and Stayci Taylor) and Good Form: Writing the Comedy Web Series (Jeremy Bowtell and Stayci Taylor).

5 hours x 12 weeks (+ independent group work)

Tuesdays 3.30-5.20 9.2.10A/10B (Bowen Street Press)

Fridays 2.30-5.20 56.7.91

NB: The media students’ studio times are the same, but the rooms are different: Tuesday 10.2.62 and Friday 12.2.104. Take note of these rooms, as sometimes we will work across both, either in groups or as a whole combined class.