The chapter explores script development as a multi-layered form of dealing with a material and working in this material, where storytelling elements as place, body and objects are seen as vital in the creative process. The material consists of the first draft of and the film Snakereins (2017), written by Marianne Strand and directed by Charlotta Lennartsdotter. A key concept is potential spaces shared in both art and play as they exist in a field of tension between the outer material world and the inner subjective world – a tension generating new artistic ideas given form by artists. The research questions and analysis concern how the child actors influence the story by their way of playing and interacting with the film team. Further how this deepened the film work on different levels.

The collaborative method developed by the scriptwriter and director fused a poetic/fictional approach with profound documentary experience, creating a flexible way of working with the settings and the children´s energy. The story was continually modified out of a movement between potential spaces in playing and in the shooting situations. Play as an artistic method intersecting with child actors real play came to inspire and affect the script development and outcome of the film. Considering play as a dramaturgic entrance to children´s film, a method where place, presence and play are equal aspects of a perceptive, interactive way of making a story, might open for new perspectives on dramaturgy.