Screenwriting Melbourne/s: Representing and recreating a city within a screenplay's flipped reality narrative

This article argues that establishing the screen city begins with the script, and the author makes a case study of her own screenplay, set in an alternative Melbourne where gender hierarchies are reversed. Drawing on scholarship, focusing "attention upon worlds as they are created in films" (Walters, p. 215) this article considers cities as they are created in screenplays. Writing into a gap in screenwriting scholarship, where screen cities are rarely explored, this article seeks to position the work of the screenwriter in creating cities for cinema. Acknowledging screen cities are an illusion, even when shot on location, the discussion suggests they nonetheless begin on the page, skewed by narrative and cast design, as explored through the practice of screenwriting Melbourne