Hollywood has been using artificial intelligence for 20 years. But the current actors’ and writers’ strikes are specifically concerned about generative AI.
As this picket sign says: lights, cameras, no action.
Katie McTiernan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Some of the ways that streaming has transformed the industry are jeopardizing actors’ livelihoods.
Eaton, also the first woman to head a Hollywood script department, tried to create sympathetic racialized characters and to depict interracial relationships, but these efforts were often rejected.
(Mary Chapman)
An academic has developed a system to measure how much the golden ratio aligns with the plot elements of our all-time favourite Christmas films.
Spend money on morale, and focus on story, by far the most important element to filmmaking. Canadian comedy icon Kevin McDonald stars in Michael Stasko’s ‘Boys vs. Girls.’
(Jesse Hebert)
Renting locations, hotel rooms, offices and cast trailers can eat the lion’s share of a budget. We rented an off-season summer camp and won best feature film at the Chicago Comedy Film Festival 2020.
This Netflix TV series following an ensemble of young hopefuls in the 1950s is sophisticated, juicy and eye-opening entertainment.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Fleabag: until now it has been rare for a female TV character to ‘break the fourth wall’ and address the viewer directly.
Two Brothers Pictures
Key to the success of the much-lauded Fleabag is its creator’s repurposing of two cliched narrative devices: flashback and breaking the fourth wall.
Susie Porter as Marie and Kate Jenkinson as Allie in Wentworth. The show’s drama revolves around a women’s prison.
Fremantle Media Australia/Xinger Xanger Photograph
In the popular Australian TV series Wentworth, the setting of a women’s prison is a pressure-cooker for drama. The setting also allows for greater representation of diverse female characters.
Roz Hammond as Claudia in The Heights.
Bohdan Warchomij/ABC
Writing episodic TV, scriptwriters traditionally work from a principle of having three stories woven together through an episode. These are known as the A story, the B story and the C story.
Damian Callinan, Josh McConville, Nick Cody, Sahil Saluja, and Ben Knight in The Merger (2018).
IMDB
The social structures that once enabled male artists to exploit and abuse women must be cast into the past. But castigating their work to the scrapheap is an act of cultural suicide.
Sue Lyon and James Mason in Stanley Kubrick’s 1962 adaptation of Lolita.
Warner Bros
Vladimir Nabokov merged writing and cinema, bringing the art forms together like no one before or since.
Claire Danes as CIA agent Carrie Mathison in Homeland: in one episode, she stops taking her medication in order to solve the puzzle of who is attempting to kill her.
Teakwood Lane Productions, Cherry Pie Productions, Keshet Broadcasting
A spate of recent TV shows feature protagonists whose mental health condition gives them special skills. But these are often accessed by rejecting medication.
Scriptwriters claim they are not being treated fairly.
Livia Cristina L.C.
The Australian Writers Guild has launched a legal case against Screenrights, the body charged with collecting royalties on its behalf. What is Screenrights and what does it do?
The cast of the film ‘Spotlight’ reacts after they won the Oscar for Best Picture at the 88th Academy Awards.
Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
Why don’t we Australians love our Neighbours? Perhaps the long-running soap is a local victim of tall poppy syndrome – but the sunny vision of Australian suburban life remains wildly popular internationally.
The hero’s journey in three stages - separation, initiation, return - offers a narrative framework for understanding character progression.
Pineapples101
When you tell someone a story, do you plan it out beforehand so that it’ll sound good? Do you carefully plot what you’ll say, in a specific order? Or does the story find a way of telling itself, the plot…
Downton Abbey returns to Australian screens shortly. Expect writer/director Julian Fellowes to keep messing with the conventions of screenwriting.
Channel Seven
When Downton Abbey finally returns to our tellies for a fourth season (we hope it will be “soon” but Channel Seven is keeping its powder dry) it’ll be sans its scheming troublemaker. Australian fans are…