Jan Trnka

Multimedia theatre Laterna magika as an alternative text form and writing process

Národní filmový archiv, Czech Republic

This presentation will be focused on the phenomenon called Laterna magika (one of the first multimedia theatre in the world, with its roots dating back to the 1950s). More precisely on its screenplays and process of their writing seen as an alternative to mainstream film screenwriting and traditional playwriting and as culturally and historically specific dialog between distinct media forms and practices. Based on influential concepts such as game changing screen idea or scripting and on detailed analysis of the form of scripts and the nature of their development, I argue that there were two basic, highly innovative models of text and writing – convergent and iterative – and suggest that the process of screenplay development should be understood as the development of complex software which was characterized by a combination of linear-sequential and dispersive-prototypical approach, in which creative re/conceptualization of the future multimedia work fluidly continued during its execution.

Jan Trnka (1984) works as film historian and curator of the screenplay collection at Národní filmový archiv Prague. I addition to practical tasks related to the development and care of the collection, he actively deals with broad issues related to history, theory and practice of Czech screenwriting, the history of memory institutions and a research of local film culture. He published several articles and the monography The Czech Film Archive 1943-1993. Institutional Development and Problems of Practice (2018).