Writing Bodies: Developing and Scripting an Embodied Feature Film Screenplay

Abstract

A number of researchers (Marks, The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses. Durham/London: Duke University Press, 2000; Shaviro, The Cinematic Body. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993; Sobchack, Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004; Williams, Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the “Frenzy of the Visible”. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999) have considered cinema’s ability to affect the viewer on a bodily level. This chapter explores the question of whether the seeds of an affective cinema experience can be sown in the film screenplay. I will explore approaches to writing the body with reference to the initial developmental stages of my unproduced feature film, tentatively titled Fireflies, as case study. Fireflies presents the fictional story of two teenage girls who use a social media application to meet with unknown male partners. In writing the script, I hoped to produce a narrative that takes the characters’ bodily experiences as its main concern. Moreover, in writing Fireflies I seek to explore the way in which the screenplay itself may give rise to an affective experience. My creative research in this area is concerned with the way that screenplay language may be used to explore and express corporeal themes, and consequently create a visceral experience for the reader. The early development of Fireflies (2015–2016) involved actor/director workshops and the production of short audio-visual works as a means to generate ideas and to explore character and theme. Using reflective practice, I will discuss my attempts to translate the material generated through these experiences into words on a page. In doing so, I focus on an expression of corporeal themes through the inclusion of affective elements related to colour, light, sound, movement and texture.