Still a burning issue: measuring screen production research

Abstract

ABSTRACTValuing the production of screen works as research in the academy has become an urgent matter of research and scholarly equity facing the Australian screen production sector. Made up of filmmaker-academics this sector is collectively speaking out about a number of burning issues as evidenced in this article which deeply affect the kinds of scholarship and research enabled in the tertiary space. Representing the collective voices of a significant sample of Australian filmmaker-academics, this article offers some shared perspectives on the assessment of screen works by tertiary institutions created through creative practice research. Understanding what is occurring in the sector includes a deeper examination of three issues. The first issue arises from the Australian federal government metrics, used to classify research products such as films and screen works, called Excellence in Research for Australia and the Higher Education Research Data Collection. These two productivity metrics are disconnected when assessing films and screen works. The second issue is the development of criteria for valuing film and screen works as research, and the third issue relates to filmmaker-academic workload, as assessed by Australian institutions. When combined these issues present screen production academics with an overarching question – how are the production of screen works assessed and measured in and by tertiary institutions?