In order to ensure timely notification and subsequent travel planning, please note the deadline:
Abstracts for original paper presentations and panels may be submitted until November 22, 2016.
The 10th Screenwriting Research Network (SRN) International Conference will be hosted by the
University of Otago’s Department of Media, Film and Communication, in partnership with the New
Zealand Writers Guild. It will take place in Dunedin, Aotearoa/New Zealand, on Monday 28th through
Thursday 31st August 2017.

The conference theme is Screenwriting: Fact and Fiction, Truth and the Real. SRN2017 will examine
how we approach/frame our storytelling, in and from different contexts. This then brings in
conventions, orthodoxies, claims about the real and the truth (which might be different from the ‘real’),
as well as the cultural and industrial contexts of storytelling practice(s). In other words, how we justify
telling our stories in a particular way and how these shifts impact our work as practitioners and
scholars: for example, in Aotearoa New Zealand, why it is important to understand different cultural
perspectives which include the very nature of storytelling, if we are to get (or get to) a particular truth.
We want to discuss the role and function of conventions regarding fact and fiction, as well as
interrogating the practices of certain genres and media.

We invite discussion about screenwriting as an art located somewhere between fact, fiction, truth, and
the real. We are particularly interested in abstracts for presentations on the following topics:
• In relation to truth claims and narrative, can we separate the teller from the tale?
• Writing the Real: adapting events into stories
• How does collaborative screenwriting negotiate fact, fiction, truth, and the ‘real’?
• How do we frame the local, the national, and the indigenous?
• How can we narrate from a transnational position?
• How do specific orthodox screenwriting frameworks affect the tales we tell?
• Teaching fact, fiction, truth, and the ‘real’ in screenwriting
• Reflections on narrative theory and conventions
• Screenwriting and Literature: the adaptation of source narratives into scripts
• Censorship, ratings, and screenwriting

We would also like to invite abstracts for presentations beyond the theme of the conference. We are
looking forward to abstracts that cover the wide field of screenwriting studies, including, but not
limited to, the following topics:
• Practice-based research in the field of screenwriting
• Writing for series television
• Different screenwriting practices and formats
• Case studies on individual writers or texts
• Historical perspectives on screenwriting and screenplays
• Screenwriting, the screenplay and different production structures
• Screenwriting and narrative theory in writing for short films
• Screenwriting for games and animation
• Screenwriting for new media forms, online, transmedia, etc. Are stories fully transferrable
from one medium to another?
• How does the digital age change screenwriting?
Proposals for individual presentations and pre-constituted panels:
Time allotted to each paper is 20 minutes plus discussion. Abstracts for original paper presentations
and panels may be submitted until November 22, 2016. Earlier submissions are welcome. Please note:

Original, in-person paper presentations only (no repetitions from other conferences or former SRN
conferences. Video presentations are not possible).

Proposals for pre-constituted panels should include no more than three presenters (20 mins for each
paper), the overall issue of the panel, abstracts for all of the presentations and, if possible, the name and
a short biography of the chair of the panel. The chair should not be one of the presenters. If a proposal
for a panel does not include a chair, the conference committee will appoint one.

Please send abstracts (250-300 words) as a Word document, with the email subject heading “SRN2017
Proposal” to: srn-2017proposals@otago.ac.nz

Remember to state your name, affiliation and contact information. Also include a brief biographical
statement (100 words) detailing your publications and/or screenwriting practice.
We are currently in conversation with publishers about an edited anthology. If you are interested in
your abstract being considered for such a publication, please indicate this in your submission.
The organising committee plans to notify of acceptances/rejections by mid-December 2016. Please see
our SRN2017 website at www.otago.ac.nz/srn-2017 for information regarding Dunedin, New Zealand,
and travel planning options.