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BEYOND THE MYTH: Screenwriting Approaches to Biographical Films / NICHOLAS DAVIES

Swansea University Author: NICHOLAS DAVIES

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DOI (Published version): 10.23889/SUthesis.62586

Abstract

This PhD submission comprises an original screenplay on the relationship between African American activist Paul Robeson and the mining community of south Wales titled Robeson: They Can’t Stop Us Singing, and the accompanying exegesis. The aim is to explore, by academic study (gnosis) and creative pr...

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Published: Swansea 2023
Institution: Swansea University
Degree level: Doctoral
Degree name: Ph.D
Supervisor: Britton, David J.
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62586
first_indexed 2023-02-06T13:59:34Z
last_indexed 2023-02-07T04:17:27Z
id cronfa62586
recordtype RisThesis
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The aim is to explore, by academic study (gnosis) and creative practice (praxis), the previously overlooked field of writing biographical films, or biopics, and to acknowledge the role of the screenwriter in telling a person&#x2019;s life story on film. The script is the experiment; the exegesis is the analysis and methodology. The role of the screenwriter is underrepresented across cinema studies, but no more so than in the discussion of biopics. My exegesis begins by exploring what academic and popular writing already exists on English-language biopics, highlighting that amidst auteurist approaches prevalent in cinema studies, little credit has been afforded to screenwriters. I seek to address this by examining how screenwriters have responded to historiographical and socio-political contexts while balancing the needs of the audience with factual integrity (or sometimes not), before using the case studies of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Lindbergh to explore how American hero figures have been represented on screen. How does a script written on Lincoln in 1939, for example, differ in terms of tone and political philosophy to one delivered in the 21st century? Using historical approaches, the exegesis then examines the life of Paul Robeson and the Welsh miners he knew, to observe the meticulous choices required by the screenwriter researching and writing a biopic script. Using primary sources (interviews with living dramatic writers, including the BAFTA-nominated screenwriter of the biopic, Good Vibrations) and secondary sources (screenplays, films, audio, interviews, other academic writing), I question where and when to begin and end a biographical story, which parts of a person&#x2019;s life to include or jettison, how to make a historical figure&#x2019;s events pertinent to a contemporary audience, and how to utilise fictionalised elements in a drama while adhering to a central truth. My own screenplay on Robeson and Wales is the embodiment of this research. The script demonstrates the myriad artistic decisions that need to be made to present the qualities and flaws of the historical figure. It shows why fictionalised moments and composite characters contribute to an understanding of a real person&#x2019;s motives and feelings in a way documentary and historical writing cannot. 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spelling 2023-02-06T14:13:51.0140273 v2 62586 2023-02-06 BEYOND THE MYTH: Screenwriting Approaches to Biographical Films 7966ff4d68784c4807fdfd422b712217 NICHOLAS DAVIES NICHOLAS DAVIES true false 2023-02-06 This PhD submission comprises an original screenplay on the relationship between African American activist Paul Robeson and the mining community of south Wales titled Robeson: They Can’t Stop Us Singing, and the accompanying exegesis. The aim is to explore, by academic study (gnosis) and creative practice (praxis), the previously overlooked field of writing biographical films, or biopics, and to acknowledge the role of the screenwriter in telling a person’s life story on film. The script is the experiment; the exegesis is the analysis and methodology. The role of the screenwriter is underrepresented across cinema studies, but no more so than in the discussion of biopics. My exegesis begins by exploring what academic and popular writing already exists on English-language biopics, highlighting that amidst auteurist approaches prevalent in cinema studies, little credit has been afforded to screenwriters. I seek to address this by examining how screenwriters have responded to historiographical and socio-political contexts while balancing the needs of the audience with factual integrity (or sometimes not), before using the case studies of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Lindbergh to explore how American hero figures have been represented on screen. How does a script written on Lincoln in 1939, for example, differ in terms of tone and political philosophy to one delivered in the 21st century? Using historical approaches, the exegesis then examines the life of Paul Robeson and the Welsh miners he knew, to observe the meticulous choices required by the screenwriter researching and writing a biopic script. Using primary sources (interviews with living dramatic writers, including the BAFTA-nominated screenwriter of the biopic, Good Vibrations) and secondary sources (screenplays, films, audio, interviews, other academic writing), I question where and when to begin and end a biographical story, which parts of a person’s life to include or jettison, how to make a historical figure’s events pertinent to a contemporary audience, and how to utilise fictionalised elements in a drama while adhering to a central truth. My own screenplay on Robeson and Wales is the embodiment of this research. The script demonstrates the myriad artistic decisions that need to be made to present the qualities and flaws of the historical figure. It shows why fictionalised moments and composite characters contribute to an understanding of a real person’s motives and feelings in a way documentary and historical writing cannot. And it stands as a record of the screenwriter’s previously overlooked contribution to creating biographical films. E-Thesis Swansea Screenwriting, Script, Cinema, Film, Biopic, Creative Writing, Creative-Critical, Robeson, History of Wales 27 1 2023 2023-01-27 10.23889/SUthesis.62586 Screenplay entitled ‘ROBESON: THEY CAN’T STOP US SINGING’ accompanying the thesis. Due to Embargo and/or Third Party Copyright restrictions, the screenplay is not available via this service.ORCiD identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4678-0949 COLLEGE NANME COLLEGE CODE Swansea University Britton, David J. Doctoral Ph.D 2023-02-06T14:13:51.0140273 2023-02-06T13:54:26.6178978 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Culture and Communication - English Literature, Creative Writing NICHOLAS DAVIES 1 62586__26485__bc0cae01c69844a28a55af5a2e7def07.pdf Davies_Nicholas_PhD_Thesis_Final_Cronfa.pdf 2023-02-06T14:05:21.1179698 Output 503958 application/pdf E-Thesis – open access true Copyright: The author, Nicholas Davies, 2023. Released under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-Only (CC-BY) License. Third party content is excluded for use under the license terms. true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title BEYOND THE MYTH: Screenwriting Approaches to Biographical Films
spellingShingle BEYOND THE MYTH: Screenwriting Approaches to Biographical Films
NICHOLAS DAVIES
title_short BEYOND THE MYTH: Screenwriting Approaches to Biographical Films
title_full BEYOND THE MYTH: Screenwriting Approaches to Biographical Films
title_fullStr BEYOND THE MYTH: Screenwriting Approaches to Biographical Films
title_full_unstemmed BEYOND THE MYTH: Screenwriting Approaches to Biographical Films
title_sort BEYOND THE MYTH: Screenwriting Approaches to Biographical Films
author_id_str_mv 7966ff4d68784c4807fdfd422b712217
author_id_fullname_str_mv 7966ff4d68784c4807fdfd422b712217_***_NICHOLAS DAVIES
author NICHOLAS DAVIES
author2 NICHOLAS DAVIES
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institution Swansea University
doi_str_mv 10.23889/SUthesis.62586
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Culture and Communication - English Literature, Creative Writing{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Culture and Communication - English Literature, Creative Writing
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description This PhD submission comprises an original screenplay on the relationship between African American activist Paul Robeson and the mining community of south Wales titled Robeson: They Can’t Stop Us Singing, and the accompanying exegesis. The aim is to explore, by academic study (gnosis) and creative practice (praxis), the previously overlooked field of writing biographical films, or biopics, and to acknowledge the role of the screenwriter in telling a person’s life story on film. The script is the experiment; the exegesis is the analysis and methodology. The role of the screenwriter is underrepresented across cinema studies, but no more so than in the discussion of biopics. My exegesis begins by exploring what academic and popular writing already exists on English-language biopics, highlighting that amidst auteurist approaches prevalent in cinema studies, little credit has been afforded to screenwriters. I seek to address this by examining how screenwriters have responded to historiographical and socio-political contexts while balancing the needs of the audience with factual integrity (or sometimes not), before using the case studies of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Lindbergh to explore how American hero figures have been represented on screen. How does a script written on Lincoln in 1939, for example, differ in terms of tone and political philosophy to one delivered in the 21st century? Using historical approaches, the exegesis then examines the life of Paul Robeson and the Welsh miners he knew, to observe the meticulous choices required by the screenwriter researching and writing a biopic script. Using primary sources (interviews with living dramatic writers, including the BAFTA-nominated screenwriter of the biopic, Good Vibrations) and secondary sources (screenplays, films, audio, interviews, other academic writing), I question where and when to begin and end a biographical story, which parts of a person’s life to include or jettison, how to make a historical figure’s events pertinent to a contemporary audience, and how to utilise fictionalised elements in a drama while adhering to a central truth. My own screenplay on Robeson and Wales is the embodiment of this research. The script demonstrates the myriad artistic decisions that need to be made to present the qualities and flaws of the historical figure. It shows why fictionalised moments and composite characters contribute to an understanding of a real person’s motives and feelings in a way documentary and historical writing cannot. And it stands as a record of the screenwriter’s previously overlooked contribution to creating biographical films.
published_date 2023-01-27T08:14:04Z
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score 11.047306

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