An Annotated Bibliography on Screenwriting Manuals between 2000-2020 that aid in Character Development

Abstract

The New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) is the government organisation that finances films. The NZFC agrees with many screenwriting authors that the most common problems with scripts relate to character development (Batty, 2011, p. 45; Frayne, 2019; Nelmes, 2010, p. 202; NZFC Scriptwriting, 2020). Therefore, a screenwriter needs resources to overcome character development problems in their scripts. However, there are too many screenwriting manuals in publication. Also, an inexperienced amateur screenwriter may not know which manuals would solve their particular character development problems. In this annotated bibliography, the screenwriter is the author responsible for developing the script. Furthermore, the script serves as a guideline to producing media content: feature film, short film, videogames, radio-play, television (Field, 2005, p. 19; Gallo, 2012a, Chapter 2; Nannicelli, 2013, pp. 11–18). On account of this, this annotated bibliography will focus mainly on screenwriting manuals dealing with feature film scripts. Feature film scripts are 90 minutes or longer in duration (Field, 2005, p. 22). Additionally, since a script encompasses story and character elements, this annotated bibliography will focus only on character development.