Derided as simple, dismissed as inferior to film, famously characterized as a vast wasteland, television nonetheless exerts an undeniable, apparently inescapable power in our culture. The secret of television's success may well lie in the remarkable narrative complexities underlying its seeming simplicity, complexities Kristin Thompson unmasks in this engaging analysis of the narrative workings of television and film. After first looking at the narrative techniques the two media share, Thompson focuses on the specific challenges that series television presents and the tactics writers have devised to meet them--tactics that sustain interest and maintain sense across multiple plots and subplots and in spite of frequent interruptions as well as weeklong and seasonal breaks. Beyond adapting the techniques of film, Thompson argues, television has wrought its own changes in traditional narrative form. Drawing on classics of film and television, as well as recent and current series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Sopranos, and The Simpsons, she shows how adaptations, sequels, series, and sagas have altered long-standing notions of closure and single authorship. And in a comparison of David Lynch's Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, she asks whether there can be an "art television" comparable to the more familiar "art cinema."

Packed with colour film stills, exclusive pre-production artwork and behind-the-scenes production images, this landmark book celebrates the production designer's contribution to visual storytelling on screen. It illuminates the visual concepts behind familiar screen spaces and unpicks how and why they are so effective in conveying character and story. Seven case studies, developed from exclusive interviews with world-renowned designers, reveal the concepts behind some of the most engaging imagery on screen and establish a dialogue around the shared language of visual storytelling. Jane Barnwell offers a new methodology for evaluating the designer's work on screen through five categories of analysis: space, interiors and exteriors, light, colour and set decorating. All of which combine to create the visual concept evident in the final screen image and together provide a model for the analysis of production design. Practical exercises and examples of real world projects walk you through the design process from breaking down the script and developing initial ideas to identifying a coherent conceptual vision. If you are a filmmaker, Production Design for Screen will inspire and guide you in your own work.

"The recipe book of great television from one of the best TV makers in the world" Jamie Oliver Story structure is a huge weakness for many factual or reality filmmakers and TV producers, who often concentrate on subject areas and issues rather than dramatic and memorable narrative. Consequently programmes fail to attract the audience or win any awards. In this book Robert Thirkell, the international consultant known as 'The TV Troubleshooter' and renowned television producer, sets out a professional toolkit for developing a compelling storyline in factual and reality programmes and films. Based on his popular international C.O.N.F.L.I.C.T seminars, it lifts the lids on the making of leading series such as Kitchen Nightmares, Wife Swap, The Apprentice, Coastguards, Firefighters, Oprah's Big Give Fat March, Jamie's School Dinners and When Big Chef Met Little Chef as well as offering insight and advice from leading filmmakers and TV producers worldwide. The tips and tools go right the way through the filmmaking process from finding stories and characters, to structuring scripts and filming, editing, through to delivery, titles and getting people to watch.

Breaking down the traditional structures of screenplays in an innovative and progressive way, while also investigating the ways in which screenplays have been traditionally told, this book interrogates how screenplays can be written to reflect the diverse life experiences of real people. Author Jess King explores how existing paradigms of screenplays often exclude the very people watching films and TV today. Taking aspects such as characterization, screenplay structure, and world-building, King offers ways to ensure your screenplays are inclusive and allow for every person’s story to be heard. In addition to examples ranging from Sorry to Bother You to Portrait of a Lady on Fire, four case studies on Killing Eve, Sense8, I May Destroy You, and Vida ground the theoretical work in practical application. The book highlights the ways in which screenplays can authentically represent and uplift the lived experiences of those so often left out of the narrative, such as the LGBTQIA+ community, women, and people of color. The book addresses a current demand for more inclusive and progressive representation in film and TV and equips screenwriters with the tools to ensure their screenplays tell authentic stories, offering innovative ways to reimagine current screenwriting practice towards radical equity and inclusion. This is a timely and necessary book that brings the critical lenses of gender studies, queer theory, and critical race studies to bear on the practice of screenwriting, ideal for students of screenwriting, aspiring screenwriters, and industry professionals alike.

For over two decades, Television has served as the foremost guide to television studies, offering readers an in-depth understanding of how television programs and commercials are made and how they function as producers of meaning. Author Jeremy G. Butler shows the ways in which camera style, lighting, set design, editing, and sound combine to produce meanings that viewers take away from their television experience. Highlights of the fifth edition include: An entirely new chapter by Amanda D. Lotz on television in the contemporary digital media environment. Discussions integrated throughout on the latest developments in screen culture during the on-demand era--including the impact of binge-watching and the proliferation of screens (smartphones, tablets, computer monitors, etc.). Updates on the effects of new digital technologies on TV style.

The Cambridge Companion to Narrative provides a unique and valuable overview of current approaches to narrative study. An international team of experts explores ideas of storytelling and methods of narrative analysis as they have emerged across diverse traditions of inquiry and in connection with a variety of media, from film and television, to storytelling in the 'real-life' contexts of face-to-face interaction, to literary fiction. Each chapter presents a survey of scholarly approaches to topics such as character, dialogue, genre or language, shows how those approaches can be brought to bear on a relatively well-known illustrative example, and indicates directions for further research. Featuring a chapter reviewing definitions of narrative, a glossary of key terms and a comprehensive index, this is an essential resource for both students and scholars in many fields, including language and literature, composition and rhetoric, creative writing, jurisprudence, communication and media studies, and the social sciences.

Since the beginning of human history, stories have helped people make sense of their lives and their world. Today, an understanding of storytelling is invaluable as we seek to orient ourselves within a flood of raw information and an unprecedented variety of supposedly true accounts. In Stories Make the World, award-winning screenwriter Stephen Most offers a captivating, refreshingly heartfelt exploration of how documentary filmmakers and other storytellers come to understand their subjects and cast light on the world through their art. Drawing on the author’s decades of experience behind the scenes of television and film documentaries, this is an indispensable account of the principles and paradoxes that attend the quest to represent reality truthfully.