Let’s Talk Screenwriting: #2 Data-driven Screenwriting
(25 November 2019)

Online content providers such as streaming video on demand-platforms collect a wealth of data on users and their viewing behaviour. What do those data mean for the development of new content?  How do screenwriters in the Netherlands experience the proclaimed shift towards ‘data-driven’ screenwriting? How might current forms of gathering, analyzing and utilizing viewing data such as datafied industry audience research affect the work of screenwriters, now and in the future? What are the potentials of artificially intelligent script analysis?

Martin van Steijn (freelance screenwriter), Judith Keilbach (Utrecht University) and Hanna Surma (Utrecht University) discussed how novel forms of data deployment and audience research affect the work of creative practitioners in the Dutch media industries, how screenwriters reflect on and negotiate these current changes, and what potential consequences data-driven screenwriting practices might have for educational programmes and the training of screenwriters.
Moderator: Willemien Sanders

Interview with Hanna Surma and Judith Keilbach by Nina Köll