Creative Filmmaking Processes, Procedures and Practices: Embodied and Internalized Filmmaking Agency

Abstract

Filmmaking is a creative practice. However, what do we mean when we use the term ‘creative practice’? This chapter explores the terms ‘creative’ and ‘practice’ by examining what has been called the creative system in action (McIntyre et al., The Creative System in Action – Understanding Cultural Production and Practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). Drawing on the research literature from psychology and sociology, a link to ‘filmmaking’ will be made through media and cultural production scholarship (McIntyre, Creativity and Cultural Production: Issues for Media Practice. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.). Using examples from independent documentary filmmaking (Kerrigan, Using Fort Scratchley (DVD), Fort Scratchley. Australia: PhD Productions, 2008; Journal of Media Practice, 14(2), 111–127, 2013) and fictional television serial production, this discussion will illustrate how creative filmmaking practices are aligned with confluence models of creativity (Csikszentmihalyi, Implications of a Systems Perspective for the Study of Creativity. In R. Stenberg (Ed.), Handbook of Creativity, Cambridge (pp. 313–335). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), group creativity models and staged creative process theories (Bastick, Intuition, How We Think and Act. Chichester/New York: Wiley, 1982; Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: HarperCollins, 1996). Examining the complexity of the daily choices made by the conditioned agent, in this case a filmmaker, the discussion will focus on the decision-making process of factual and fiction filmmaking and how it connects to creative practice (Kerrigan in McIntyre et al., The Creative System in Action – Understanding Cultural Production and Practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). This will necessarily involve the methods and processes used by the filmmaker, as they develop an intuitive approach to their practice which becomes embodied knowledge that enables them to work within a collaborative, social and cultural system. This scholarly approach to the term ‘creative practice’ will provide an understanding of how a filmmaker can apply work from other disciplines to bring new insights to ways of regarding filmmaking as a creative practice.