Towards the haptic encounter: investigating and theorising a strategy for writing a web-series screenplay, prioritising the sensory

This practice-led research PhD is situated in the field of screenwriting practice studies and explores the development of a web series screenplay interweaving the haptic, to propose the concept of the ‘haptic encounter’. It is suggested that the haptic encounter may take place between the viewer and the screen, and be seeded into the script itself, whereby the screenwriter directs attention to a character’s sensorial perception, the body, and the materiality of the world of the story. The haptic is understood in film theory to be shaped by sensory qualities of cinematic viewing engagement, informed by filmmaking choices, framing corporeality and materiality in the film’s image (Marks 1999).

I developed what I am calling the haptic encounter through the writing of a web series Efunsetan’s Story, Adire Girl and Bodunrin. This consists of nine screenplays, a series of test shots and filmed sequences. I focus on developing the haptic encounter as a means of devising storytelling and script development strategies that challenge the voyeurism associated with the web series’ dominant, ‘demotic’ visual presentation (Dovey 2011).

In this writing process, the web series screenwriter can produce images in the writing which are sensory in nature, where the characters' corporeality and materiality of the storied world are brought into focus, creating a story where the haptic encounter fully exploits the tactility of personalised screen on which the web series are viewed.

Secondly, the practice-led research considers the impact and the potential of foregrounding the haptic encounter in the process of writing a web series specifically for the historical genre. This research intends to re-frame and reposition characters and stories overlooked by dominant storytelling viewpoints. It considers how the haptic encounter in developing the web series screenplays may offer a more intimate encounter with multiple subjective experiences often eschewed by the hegemonic concerns of the historical drama.

This research project situates the web series screenplay as a generative, creative artefact, as a creative object which can both assist other web series screenwriting practitioners in developing and exploring their practice and add to debates surrounding the web series screenplay.