Screenwriting and the higher degree by research: writing a screenplay for a creative practice PhD

By approaching different aspects of screenwriting and its place in the growing field of creative practice research, this paper reflects on our experiences of undertaking PhDs by creative project. We acknowledge the challenges that come with any creative practice research degree, such as generating new knowledge in ways not always easily measured by more traditional rubrics, and are especially interested in the added complexities that arise with screenwriting, a practice with fewer PhD completions to draw from and with an uncertain footing in the fields of both (or neither) creative writing and screen production. In order to come to a better understanding of what it means to write a screenplay in the academy, and more specifically, how a researcher responds to the challenges of framing a screenplay as a research artefact, we posed a series of questions to ignite discussion and debate. Covering topics that range from research design to screenwriting-as-creative-writing, the themes below represent a summary of these questions, collated in a way that we hope will invite further conversations in the field of screenwriting-as-research.