We are delighted to be hosting a symposium on all aspects of script work in film production; 'Working the Script'. The symposium will take place from 9am to 5pm on Saturday 23 March here in the Old Library building and you can register to attend free of charge at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/working-the-film-script-hidden-production-histories-tickets-55754737922?utm-medium=discovery&utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&aff=escb&utm-source=cp&utm-term=listing . The sympoisum will begin with a keynote from Dr Melanie Williams from the University of East Anglia, one of the leading scholars on British Cinema.
The programme for the day is below. The symposium has been organised by AHRC South West Doctoral training student Steven Roberts and is part inspired by the holdings on screenplays and script work in the Bil Douglas Cinema Museum, in particular the recent acquisition of the Pamela Davies Collection, a collection of on-set photographs belonging to leading continuity supervisor Pamela Davies. The image above shows Pamela on set with Michael Powell, probably filming The Elusive Pimpernel (1950).
Schedule
9:15AM - Sign-in
9:30AM - Welcome talk
10AM - Keynote: Dr. Melanie Williams, 'Script girls, script work: exploring the gendered labour of script supervision'
11AM - Short Break
11:30AM - Women Behind the Script: Agency and Expertise
- Steven Roberts, 'Pamela Davies’ Stills, Continuity Supervision and the Spectacular Film circa 1950-70'
- Dr. Carol O’Sullivan, 'Ladies of Title: UK Subtitlers in the 1930s and 1940s'
- Prof. Helen Hanson, 'Sounding the Script: Women’s Work in Sound from Page to Screen'
1PM - Lunch
2PM - Understanding Scripts: Commerce and Collaboration
- Kieran Foster, 'Phantom Film Scripts: Hammer Films, Bryan Forbes and the Unmade Screenplay for Nessie: The Loch Ness Monster'
- Dr. Barry Nevin, 'Adapting Gorki under the Front populaire: Charles Spaak, Jean Renoir and Les Bas-fonds (1936)'
- Prof. John Wyver, 'Another kind of script: camera scripting Shakespeare for live cinema'
3:30PM - Short Break
4PM - Boundary-Pushing Practice: Writing and Editing Scripts
- Sean Robert Daniels, 'Ruffling Feathers - A Personal Case Study of the Challenges faced by an English Speaking South African Screenwriter Adapting an Afrikaans Short Story into an Afrikaans Feature Film'
- Abigail Davies, 'Developing new Deaf screenwriting talent'
5PM - Farewell