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The Australian Literature Resource
RESEARCH COMMUNITIES >  SCREENLIT: THE AUSTRALIAN FILM AND TELEVISION RESOURCE
 
SCREENLIT: THE AUSTRALIAN FILM AND TELEVISION RESOURCE


Project leaders: Professor Tom O'Regan, Associate Professors Frances Bonner and Jason Jacobs

Welcome to ScreenLit: The Australian Film and Television Resource.

ScreenLit is the outcome of the Australian Film and Television Resource (AFTR) project, which was established with a view to incorporating scripts and screenplays into the record of the working life of Australian writers.

The impact of this project has been to more overtly and accurately reflect within AustLit the significant role that writers of Australian films and television programs play in helping to express ideas about Australian people, identities, and behaviour. Additionally, this subset provides evidence that suggests the economic necessity for Australian writers to be proficient in a diverse range of writing forms.

ScreenLit provides biographical information on screenwriters and presents critical and historical insights into their works. Details relating to any productions emanating from these scripts are similarly documented in the new ‘Film notes’ section initiated by this project. These details are lodged at the bottom of the record behind the ‘Show film details’ button. Another result of the AFTR project is the access made available to other online resources. The AustLit records for the screenplays covered by this project are now resource gateways, providing access to video and audio files, full-text resources, academic publications, and both private and institutional websites devoted to Australian film and television.

Searches:

ScreenLit will continue to evolve over time and is continually being updated. AustLit welcomes contributions from scholars and specialists in the area in order to build an authoritative and detailed resource for research and general interest. Email info-austlit@austlit.edu.au for details of how to participate or to share some knowledge with AustLit users.

Scope

ScreenLit provides data-rich records about Australian cinema productions (including short and feature films, documentaries, and animated films) and television programs (including made-for-television movies, series, mini-series, and documentaries). ScreenLit represents a comprehensive scholarly approach to concentrating the detail about screenwriters, screenplays, published and unpublished manuscripts, original works, and adaptations of literary works (1917-1997) in one resource. Biographical information on the writers, directors, producers, and production companies is also provided where known.

Each film and television entry in the subset may comprise information about the screenplay, including an abstract or synopsis, publication details, and historical notes, and, where relevant, links to other websites, such as the Australia Screen archive (with online access to clips from selected works).

Chronologically, the resource begins with the emergence of Australian film production in the first decades of the twentieth century.

Details regarding the finished film or television program also accompany most entries, with information typically including the director, producer(s), production company(ies), finance organisations, composer(s), director of photography, film editor, production designer, film locations, awards, and release dates.

History

The AFTR project began in 2009 with the expansion of the existing 1100 AustLit work records designated film/television. These records have been restructured to align with the changing needs of the research community. The establishment of the ScreenLit Research Community was funded by The University of Queensland’s Major Equipment and Infrastructure grant and Faculty of Arts support. The ARC has also supported the project in 2010 through the Linkage Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities scheme.

The University of Queensland takes responsibility for the development and enhancement of ScreenLit: The Australian Film and Television Resource. Under the direction of Professor Tom O'Regan, and Associate Professors Frances Bonner and Jason Jacobs, ScreenLit illuminates the interactions between the Australian literary and film and television industries.

Contributors

Initial entries were provided by members of the AustLit indexing team. In 2009, Dr Clay Djubal began work on the AFTR project to complement the research he had been conducting into Australian Popular Theatre. The initial focus of his work was to increase the amount of information about Australia's early film industry – essentially, the period between 1900 to 1930. The subset has since been expanded to provide information on both film and television production up to the present time.

Sources

ScreenLit: The Australian Film and Television Resource is compiled from the full range of AustLit information sources, including:

Acknowledgements

We particularly thank the staff of the following libraries and archives:

Publication Details

ScreenLit: The Australian Film and Television Resource is a separately published work within AustLit.
AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource 2004-

This work is published under Creative Commons License: Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 Australia:

You are free to copy, distribute, adapt, and transmit this work on the condition that you must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). You may not use this work for commercial purposes without permission from the copyright holder. For further information, see: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/au/

Cataloguing-in-Publication Details

ScreenLit: The Australian Film and Television Resource
Bibliography.
Includes index.
ISBN - 978-0-9806322-1-7
1. Australian film – Bibliography; filmography.
2. Australian television - History and criticism - Bibliography.
I. Djubal, Clay; O’Regan, Tom; Bonner, Frances; Jacobs, Jason.