The biopic screenplay as a research output: Towards a working definition of narrative fiction filmmaking methodology

Can the writing of a screenplay or the making of a narrative fiction film be considered a form of academic research? This will be a familiar question for those professional filmmakers entering the academy. To answer this question, scholars of screenwriting and screen production face the difficulty of articulating their creative practice as research within the broader institutional research cultures of the academy. This article seeks to overcome this difficulty by reflecting on the methods employed in the process of screenwriting a biopic about British boxer Randolph Turpin. To demonstrate how screenwriting and screen production practice generates and disseminates new knowledge, I offer a working definition of narrative fiction filmmaking as methodology, where mise en scène is shown to operate as a core reflective strategy.