There’s something about stalking: a screenplay and exegesis

This is a practice-based project in screenwriting. It looks to intervene in popular film representations of stalking and is informed by a feminist agenda. The feminist agenda underpinning creative practice is an effort to intervene in popular culture and directly address the MeToo# zeitgeist. The exegesis recognises the inaccuracy of many existing popular representations of stalking and draws upon victimology and criminology of stalking to inform accuracy around behaviour. This research surveys contemporary representations of stalking to inform character and narrative development for the purposes of screenwriting. The screenplay went through multiple iterations, with the initial being a docudrama translating/dramatizing a specific British stalking case. This true crime stalking case informed the initial stages of the research. The key genre pivot to satire, after the first year of research was informed as a revision of iconic There’s Something About Mary. This film is representative of a naturalising of a range of stalking behaviour in popular cinema, revealed through a detailed, selective survey in popular film representations. The project affirms aspects of scriptwriting practice such as real-world specific research, genre and character analysis, drafting and re-drafting. The project’s contribution to knowledge is the reimagining of an iconic stalking film, There’s Something About Mary and demonstrating the findings of the exegesis within the representation, dialogue and plot of the screenplay. By “reimagining” the formative text, the contribution to knowledge is a screenplay which is highly commercial and demonstrative of the post MeToo# zeitgeist.