A film treatment in ‘Layers’: a new approach to creative historical writing through screenwriting innovation

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper contains a case study of original creative historical screenwriting and its theoretical underpinnings. The creative writing component visualises the ‘true’ story of the Coolgardie Water Supply Scheme under construction in 1902 in Western Australia. It functions as an additional ‘layer’ to my previously published paper, ‘A Process of Screenwriting: A Film Treatment for “The Engineer-in-Chief”’, (Meneghello, Rethinking History, 2021). The theoretical component explores my own creative process of writing an artwork history as a filmic and poetic interpretation of history containing emotional subtextual meanings. I ask the question: How can archival richness and complexity be communicated in screenwriting beyond the restrictive form of the ‘script’? The aim of the essay is to describe how pursuing creative historical research has led me into screenwriting innovation. I do this by synthesising screenwriting theory and practice to consider how the film treatment is an underestimated tool of script development. I draw on the field of artwork history, incorporating the metaphor and imagery of the ‘archaeological gaze’ and cardiovascular biomechanics to bridge the gap between creative historical writing and screenwriting innovation. Drawing on Indigenous Studies, I show how my innovation honours both the collaborative dimensions of filmmaking as well as the importance of including absent and diverse voices from the historical record. This interdisciplinary framework supports the argument I make for conceptualising the film treatment in the form of ‘layers’. This new approach to screenwriting is particularly useful for researchers to test and experiment how facts can be translated using visual imagery and literary techniques into a cinematic rendering of a ‘true story’. My creative research thus has implications for the fields of both artwork history and screenwriting by enhancing the traditional screenplay format, and also contributes to historiography through the generation of new insights into how form shapes content and meaning.