Teaching screenwriting through script development: Looking beyond the screenplay

In this chapter, we focus on screenwriting pedagogy through the lens of script development, asking what we might glean from industry that helps our students to learn about aspects of writing for the screen beyond the screenplay itself. In other words, is script development a more viable pedagogy for teaching and learning the craft of screenwriting, one that exposes students to the wider world of industry and career'success' than merely focusing on the writing of a script? This is a sentiment shared by Noel Maloney (2018) in his study of screenwriting curricula in Australia, the UK and Europe. For example, he reported on those pedagogies that focus on holistic script development, such as the National Film School of Denmark (with an integrated writers' room approach to teaching), which, as we go on o outline here, are perhaps more useful for the contemporary writer trying to navigate the expanding yet precarious screen industry.