Writing and Producing for Children and Young Audiences

This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the writing and production strategies used in live-action fiction film and television produced for children and young audiences, in a period marked by remarkable change in screen consumption. Building on ideas and research from the fields of screenwriting, production, and media industry studies, the book uses case studies of Danish film and television productions targeting children from toddlers to teenagers to explore general challenges for reaching young audiences in the multiplatform mediascape, as well as to identify specific screenwriting practices and production frameworks. The study investigates industry notions of children and adolescents as a particular audience, exploring new methods of grounding productions for them through more inquiry-driven and co-creative writing and production practices, combined with new forms of knowledge-sharing and talent-training initiatives.

Winner of the 2025 Screenwriting Research Network Best Book Award First comprehensive study of film and TV screenwriting and production for children and young audiences Includes both a historical account from a small nation context and an in-depth discussion of challenges in the 2020s Offers general accounts as well as case studies of new strategies for working with audience research and co-creation

Autorentext

Eva Novrup Redvall is Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, where she is Head of the Section for Film Studies and Creative Media Industries. Her research focuses on screenwriting and production, and she has published widely on this since her monograph Writing and Producing Television Drama in Denmark: From The Kingdom to The Killing. This book builds on findings from the research project Reaching Young Audiences, funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark and headed by Redvall from 2019-2024.

Inhalt

Part I: Entering the Caste.- Chapter 1: Introduction.-Chapter 2: Representations and Discursive Formations of Caste: A Theoretical Framework.- Chapter 3: Contesting Voices of Gandhi and Ambedkar in Dalit Representations: Mulk Raj Anand's Untouchable and Amitabh's"Harijan Mastar".- Chapter 4: Discourse of Sympathy, Violence, and Victimhood - I: Rohinton Discourse of Sympathy, Violence, and Victimhood - I: Rohinton.- Chapter 5: Discourse of Sympathy, Violence, and Victimhood - I: Rohinton Roy's The God of Small Things and Laxman Mane's Upara.- Part III: * Accentuating Caste Prejudices: Pejorative Discourse.- Chapter 6: Discourse of Difference and Merit: Manu Joseph's Serious Men and Discourse of Difference and Merit: Amitabh's "Janmakhoon!".- Chapter 7: Re-writing Violence and Victimhood: Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger and Meena Kandasamy's The Gypsy Goddess.-* Part IV: Comparing Representational Paradigms Chapter 8: Conclusion.