Rita Benis

Dialoguing with our masters: developing a script following what calls us (the proximity of an example).

University of Lisbon, Portugal

Following what call us in film writing and discovering our own screenwriting style, can mean learning with the proximity of a screenwriting example. Most screenplays reveal some sort of a “voice” by which we can find “the authorial presence of the screenwriter(s) whose consciousness has shaped every aspect of the text” (Ferrell
2017). We speak of an enunciation style, focused on rhythm, on organizing the geometry of the text by affinities, patterns, speed, tensions, creating a singular screenplay’s pace/ mood. When one is developing their singular screenwriting style, finding their screenwriter’s voice, looking for ways to approach the right inner rhythm
of a particular idea or story, it is always fruitful to enter in dialogue with the works/examples of those whose screenwriting creative process had impressed us, the works which had an impact and spoke to our heart. The singular writing experiences, the way each screenwriter composes and decomposes seeks, and builds (when trying to make a cinematic idea visible) their own screenwriting style, potentially offers a role model, a source of inspiration, unveiling that unique creative clue precious to a future screenwriter. Ultimately, screenwriting is not only about telling stories, but also about voices telling stories. It is about individuals (or group of individuals) who bring their unique, original, singular voice to give life to a visual story. In other words, the style of a screenplay is as much, if not more, a matter of individual vision than one of construction techniques. Discovering our own
screenwriting affiliation is a fundamental step towards the encounter with one’s own personal style as a writer of moving images, as a visual storyteller. The present communication aims to explore and analyse cases of dialogue, affiliations, collaborations in screenwriting that reveal the importance of these encounters had on the work of the screenwriters.

Rita Benis is a researcher at Center for Comparative Studies (Faculty of Letters, University of Lisbon).
With a grant from FCT, she’s currently finishing her doctorate on Manoel de Oliveira’s screenwriting. Master in Comparative Literature, taught Screenwriting, Film Adaptation and History of Cinema. Member of the research project Film, Audiovisual and Contemporary Imaginaries, and has translated and published books, chapters, and articles on the relationship between image and writing. She co-edited the electronic magazine Falso Movimento – escrita e cinema [False Movement – on writing and cinema] and the book Escrita e Imagem [Writing and Image], Documenta/Sistema Solar (2020). Award-winning screenwriter works in cinema since 2000: collaborated with Teresa Villaverde, Margarida Gil, Jorge Cramez, Inês Oliveira, António Cunha Telles, Vincent Gallo and Catherine Breillat, among others. She is on the board of direction of the association MUTIM – Mulheres Trabalhadoras das Imagens em Movimento [The Moving Image Women Workers Association].