[Commlist] Call for Chapters: Screenwriting for Virtual Reality Media

Call for Chapters: Edited Collection**

*Screenwriting for Virtual Reality Media*

**

Co-editors:

Dr Kath Dooley (Curtin University)

Dr Alex Munt (University of Technology, Sydney)

**

//

Calling for chapters for an edited collection for proposal to the 
*Palgrave Series on Screenwriting* 
<https://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14590>**devoted to the concepts, 
practices, challenges and opportunities associated with narrative 
screenwriting for virtual reality media.

**

*Abstract Deadline: Monday 21^st December 2020*

In recent years, a new wave of virtual reality technologies has 
transformed the notion of immersive narrative-based storytelling, 
creating powerful opportunities for the creation of embodied works that 
foreground the experience of the viewer/user. Drawing upon the visual 
language and tropes inherited from film and television, video games, 
theatre, video art, historical and contemporary art/architecture, VR 
technologies allow writers and creators to reimagine relationships 
between narrative agents and audience and to explore new forms of 
screen-based interactivity. Such writing calls for new considerations of 
‘story world,’ point of view and viewer agency.

Writing on screenwriting in the digital age in 2014, Kathryn Millard 
observes that “screenwriting is a living art, constantly in transition” 
uncovering innovative forms of development, collaborative ecologies, and 
digital writing tools. Emerging scholarship published in the /Journal of 
Screenwriting/ expands this notion for the VR context (see Dooley 2018; 
Larsen 2018; Ross and Munt 2018) and now calls for the undertaking of 
further research to illuminate this exciting and dynamic area of 
screenwriting for virtual reality.

This edited collection will explore how VR technologies such as 
360-degree production, game engines, and development software continue 
to evolve the notion of writing for the screen, defined by innovative 
and creative approaches and/or divergences from screenwriting/screenplay 
practices associated with prior media. What can emerging screenwriting 
practices in this new domain tell us about the future of screenwriting – 
and the screenplay redesign for immersive contexts?

We seek reflections on creative approaches, analysis of narrative 
strategies and case-studies in screenwriting, scripting and the 
screenplay for virtual reality media. Chapters may include (but are not 
limited to) the following topics:

  * Auteur VR case studies of ‘trailblazers’

  * Artists’ Moving image VR ‘writing’ for the gallery and installation
    spaces

  * Cinematic virtual reality ‘CVR’ approaches

  * Writing interactive elements

  * VR screenwriting ethics- what experience are you offering?

  * Accessibility and appropriation in VR storytelling

  * Character positioning and point of view- writing in the first-person

  * The spatialised screenplay- formats and templates

  * VR script development practices

  * Directing attention within a 360-world- creating agency for the
    viewer/user

  * Conceptualising immersive storytelling models

  * VR spinoffs from traditional film/television projects

  * The embodied VR screenplay

  * Writing the real- VR documentary

  * The influence of film and/or theatre grammars on VR writing

*Submission Guidelines:*

Please send an abstract of 350 words, along with a brief bibliography 
(3-5 sources) demonstrating the proposed chapter’s theoretical 
foundations, and a short biography (100 words) by *Monday 21^st December 
2020*to *Dr Kath Dooley* ((kath.dooley /at/ curtin.edu.au)) and *Dr Alex Munt* 
((alex.munt /at/ uts.edu.au)).

Please include “*Screenwriting for Virtual Reality Media*” in the 
subject header, and copy both editors on initial submissions and any 
further correspondence.

*Chapter Guidelines:*

Once abstracts are collected, they will be proposed to series editors 
and the publisher, Palgrave Macmillan, for a collection to be included 
in their ‘Studies in Screenwriting 
<https://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14590>’series.  No payment from 
authors is required.

After abstract acceptance from the publisher, selected authors will be 
asked to write chapters of 7,000 to 8,000 words including references by 
an agreed-upon date to be determined (depending on publisher’s 
timetable) aligned with the Palgrave house style for the series.

*References*

Dooley, K. (2018). Scripting the virtual: Formats and development paths 
for recent Australian narrative 360-degree virtual reality projects. 
/Journal of Screenwriting/, /9/(2), 175-189.

Larsen, M. (2018). Virtual sidekick: Second-person POV in narrative VR. 
/Journal of screenwriting/, /9/(1), 73-83.

Millard, K. (2014). /Screenwriting in a digital era/. Springer.

Ross, M., & Munt, A. (2018). Cinematic virtual reality: Towards the 
spatialized screenplay. /Journal of Screenwriting/, /9/(2), 191-209.





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