Screen Production Research Research Articles

Visualising mixed reality simulation for multiple users

Blended reality seeks to encourage co-presence in the classroom, blending student experience across virtual and physical worlds. In a similar way, Mixed Reality, a continuum between virtual and real environments, is now allowing learners to work in both the physical and the digital world simultaneously, especially when combined with an immersive headset experience. This experience provides innovative new experiences for learning, but faces the challenge that most of these experiences are single user, leaving others outside the new environment. The question therefore becomes, how can a mixed reality simulation be experienced by multiple users, and how can we present that simulation effectively to users to create a true blended reality environment? This paper proposes a study that uses existing screen production research into the user and spectator to produce a mixed reality simulation suitable for multiple users. A research method using Design Based Research is also presented to assess the usability of the approach.

Approaches to gender diversity behind the camera in Australian student screen productions

This article asks how educators at tertiary level might attempt to address gender diversity behind the camera in student productions. The 2020 Australian Screen Production Education and Research Association (ASPERA) report Diversity On and Off Screen in Australian Film Schools outlines the results of a national survey measuring levels of gender diversity behind the camera in Australian university capstone (major project-based) screen production units. The survey results reveal that, while close to even numbers of male and female students are completing capstone projects in screen production departments and film schools in Australia, crew roles are highly gendered. A gendered skew is most pronounced in the roles of cinematographer and sound designer (male dominated), and producer and production designer (female dominated). We argue that an investigation of this subject calls for an examination of the specificity of the tertiary screen production environment. The crewing of student projects can be fraught, involving competition for popular roles such as that of director, and choices are made based on student likes and dispositions. In this article, we further drill into quantitative and qualitative data from the ASPERA survey to examine educator attitudes and approaches towards the gendered nature of some student production roles.

A green room scuffle in screen production research: Glass Shards as an ‘electromentary’

ABSTRACT Screen Production Research (SPR) is a developing field within the academy. SPR blends theoretical and practical methodologies to produce creative outputs, such as films, scripts, multimedia projects, etc. as research. This article will review my short documentary work with an emphasis on the most recent project, Glass Shards (2020). All of these creative projects will be contextualised within SPR frameworks to highlight the successes and challenges of lo/no-budget ‘Do-It-Yourself’ (DIY) filmmaking. Discussion of my previous films, Portrait of an Artist: Alice France (Co-Director Kim Ayres, 2014) and Artefact 93 (2019), will serve as critical reflections on specific practices that fed into the creation of Glass Shards. This latest project began as a traditional music documentary exploring local experimental musician Oliver Stewart and his songwriting talents. However, as filming progressed, new themes and complexities emerged that reshaped the final result. By examining the various filmmaking processes (pre-production, principal photography, and post-production), this article will review notions of identity, mental health, and performativity that developed throughout filming which, arguably, pushed the boundaries of music documentary. Effectively, through post-textual analysis, it will be contented that spontaneity and collaboration foster a creative environment that enhances the final outcome.

Screen production research: (Queer) short filmmaking as a mode of enquiry

Developed through a practice-as-research methodology, and informed by queer film theory, this article, which is written by a doctoral supervisor and her Ph.D. filmmaking candidate, examines strategies for filmmakers, especially LGBTQ+, to disrupt traditional academic outputs by creating research that takes place in, with and through short filmmaking. In the context of screen production research, the short film serves as a result of the research; therefore, it must perform the research findings. The article will centre on one of the author’s doctoral work, which the co-author is currently supervising, a new and critically acclaimed queer short film entitled Expulsion. Through an examination of Gaffney’s short film, which centres on a fictional queer state, the authors will reveal a selection of short filmmaking techniques, such as the use of historical retellings, environmental thematic connections, as well as other textual methods, which can be used to challenge the current popular formula for LGBTQ+ characters and narratives, which unfortunately tend towards the neo-liberal and homonormative.

Screen production research: creative practice as a mode of enquiry, edited by Craig Batty and Susan Kerrigan

Screen production research: creative practice as a mode of enquiry, edited by Craig Batty and Susan Kerrigan

‘Technologies of the self’ – bridging academic theory and practice-based research through Creative Documentary enquiry

ABSTRACTIn this article, I argue that Foucault's ‘Technologies of the Self’ (1988) provides not only a theoretical framing of how human beings are made subjects, but also how identity and belonging are shaped by structures of power/knowledge and governmentality that impact upon migrant experiences in Glasgow. Citing examples from my documentary film ‘Atlas of Belonging’ (2018), exploring self-inscription and place-making within the Roma communities in Govanhill, I consider how ‘technologies of the self’ illuminates the ways that the ‘performances of everyday life’ [De Certeau, M. 1988. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley and London: University of California Press.] are understood through the interrelated concepts of structure and agency. Intrinsic to this is how hierarchies of power/knowledge as well as governmental controls [Foucault, M. 1988. Technologies of the Self. A Seminar with Michel Foucault. Edited by L. Martin, H. Gutman, and P. Hutton. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.]; [Gordon, C. 1991. “Governmental Rationality: An Iintroduction.” In The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, edited by G. Burchell, C. Gordon, and P. Miller. Chicago: Chicago University Press.] operate in respect of my own positioning (subjectivity) as a practice-based filmmaker [McIntyre, P. 2012. Creativity and Cultural Production: Issues for Media Practice. London: Palgrave Macmillan.]; [Batty, C., and S. Kerrigan, eds. 2018. Screen Production Research. Creative Practice as a Mode of Enquiry. Palgrave Macmillan. e-book.]; [Candy, L., and E. Edmonds. 2018. “Practice-Based Research in the Creative Arts. Foundations and Futures Ffrom the Front Line.” LEONARDO 5 (1): 63–69.]. Dividing the paper into three sections, using case histories from my Creative Documentary film, I explore how ‘technologies of the self’ illuminates the interconnected themes of; (1) selfhood and identity; (2) the practices of everyday life; (3) strategies and tactics deployed as acts of resistance by the Roma communities in Govanhill. ‘Technologies of the self’ can, therefore, be seen to bridge academic theory and creative enquiry by providing a critical lens to ‘think through’ the challenges of documentary representation and help ‘make sense’ of the polyphony of conflicting voices arising from this ‘contested’ space.

Creative practice research in filmmaking and screen production

This issue interrogates understandings of creative practice in screen production research within the framework of a broad range of activities that includes production and distribution of feature fi...

Deconstructing the detour: a meld of theory and filmic practice to generate new knowledge

ABSTRACTDetour Off the Superhighway is a feature-length documentary film produced as the creative practice element of a PhD which examined media, aura, and filmic practice. The project sought to answer the key research question, ‘What are the implications of a modern filmmaker utilising traditional media technologies ahead of contemporary equipment?’. The film uses evocative autoethnographic methods to depict an experiment in which the researcher surrendered the use of modern media and communication technology for 80 days, instead opting for legacy image-making technologies from several different eras throughout history. In doing so, the film explores theories of auratic experience, slow media, and the consequences of ‘going offline’ in the modern world. The screen production research project utilised a hybrid methodology of autoethnography and practice-led research to address the research question. The analysis of theory raised questions about the way we experience media works, and informed the design of the 80-day experiment, which explored the implications of my foregoing various advances in filmmaking technology and which was documented and depicted in the documentary. This article demonstrates how a careful blending of theory and practice was used in this project to explore the ‘range of communities in which the work can stimulate dialogue’.

Creative destruction: Screen production research, theory and affect

Abstract The documentary film 600 Mills was explicitly funded and produced as an academic research project, designed to investigate, through cinematic means, the decline of the textile industry in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick. Drawing on the work of Thrift, Deleuze and Guattari, Massumi and others, it is argued that the film production process uses ‘affect’ as a form of sensory knowing that can engage with relevant theory and be used to conceive of film-making as a valid form of academic research. This article discusses the approach taken by three film-maker researchers in making a film that, instead of using the medium to convey information or communicate research findings gathered through other means, seeks to use the creative possibilities of film production to convey knowledge about a complex human, social and historical process.

Show, don't tell: contemporary screen production research

Show, don't tell: contemporary screen production research

Still a burning issue: measuring screen production research

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?

The problem of peer review in screen production: exploring issues and proposing solutions

ABSTRACTWith traditional academic work, the process of peer review is seemingly clear – work is refereed as a way of gatekeeping ideas and research contributions, to ensure it is not publicly available until it has passed a test of rigour, originality, clarity and significance to the field. Those with assumed knowledge of the discipline are the said gatekeepers, tasked with assessing the work on the basis of disciplinary knowledge and general research expertise. This often rests on the notion that the research and knowledge are made explicit in the writing. This is problematic for non-traditional academic work, such as screen production and media art, because a key value in this kind of work is the ability to communicate implicitly and differently from what can be articulated within the parameters of written, academic language. This tension between implicit and explicit knowledge claims has been one source of difficulty for evaluating and therefore rewarding creative practice research. In this paper, we draw on a recent gathering of screen production academics, the two-day Sightlines: Filmmaking in the academy festival and conference, to help us discuss the complexities of peer reviewing screen production works for the academy, and to help us point towards possible solutions. We focus specifically on where and in what form the articulation of research might happen to assist the peer reviewing process, where the common approach is to write a research statement that makes explicit the methodologies undertaken and the new knowledge being claimed. This has incited some protest from within the screen production community: for example, how do we account with language for the very thing that is in excess of language, the contribution that finds its unique place outside of language and within the moving image? We therefore also discuss the dialogic relationship between art and writing, and the kinds of relationality that might be created to help make room for the ‘in-articulable’. In short, how research and new knowledge in a screen work might be illuminated, and how an academic peer might therefore evaluate it. We conclude by discussing an approach we are currently taking to develop an online, refereed publication for screen production works, the Sightlines Journal, in response to both the current literature on the topic and the gathering of discipline academics. Given the various contexts in which these questions arise in relation to screen production research (during the writing of a PhD, in the examination process, and in professional environments), we address them accordingly as individual yet interwoven discussions driven by the shared need to find workable solutions to recurring problems.

Collaboration, critique and a community of peers: the benefits of peer learning groups for screen production research degrees

ABSTRACTIn response to both my own desire for professional development and candidates' desires for more support, in 2012 I began to coordinate a peer-to-peer learning group for creative writing research degree students at RMIT University. Still going strong over three years later, the group brings together creative practice higher degree by research (HDR) candidates working in areas such as prose fiction and nonfiction, screenwriting, poetry and digital narratives. In the context of existing literature on peer-to-peer learning in the HDR space, the group is somewhat unique in that a range of academics from across the host School of Media and Communication supervise the group's members, rather than them all being my own candidates. My role in the group is that of a facilitator, guiding an activity that complements rather than replaces the more traditional supervisor-candidate model of supervision. In this way, the group seeks to re-distribute and enhance the experience of HDR candidates, adding value to their experience of research training through opportunities to collaborate and critique, and through high levels of encouragement from their peers, to present and publish their work, and to work towards a more timely completion. This article draws on the author's experiences of facilitating such a group to discuss the benefits of peer-to-peer learning for creative practice research degrees broadly, and for screen production research degrees specifically. Exploring areas such as collaboration, critique and the building of a community of peers, the article outlines a range of strengths and weaknesses in leading a peer-to-peer learning group at this level. By drawing on the group's activities and reflections from some of its members, the article also seeks to provide guidance to supervisors and candidates working on screen production research degrees who are looking for ways to enhance how they offer and experience research training.

A screenwriter's journey into theme, and how creative writing research might help us to define screen production research

Although critical works relevant to screen production research exist, they are often fragmented (screen production placed alongside general media production) and, I want to suggest, not brave enough to embrace the term screen production research. With ‘dirty’ connotations to an industry some see far removed from the academy, screen production research has not yet been able to justify its existence, unlike, for example, the discipline of creative writing, which has achieved a lot in regard to its research agenda and footprint. This article thus proposes definitions and examples from which we might build the foundations for a better understanding of screen production research and its future potential in the academy. This will be achieved by offering a critical and reflective discussion of how theme can be used as a creative and collaborative tool for use in the development of a screenplay. By doing this, the article seeks not to theorise practice per se, but rather to intellectualise it for the benefit of practitioner-academics with interests in screen production research specifically, and creative practice research more broadly. As an important aspect of screen production, screenwriting is a useful lens through which to consider this type of research, partly because of how it is often positioned between creative writing and screen production. For example, the practice of screenwriting might be understood as creative writing, and the development of a screenplay might be understood as screen production. Similarly, the processes undertaken by the screenwriter might be understood in relation to other types of creative writer, and the role played by the screenwriter might be understood in relation to the role played by the producer or director. Furthermore, because the discipline of creative writing has a highly developed understanding of creative practice research, discussing the ‘sub-discipline’ of screenwriting allows us to draw from its rich literature, which as a result helps to define some of the parameters by which we might understand screen production research.

Looking back in order to look forward: re-scripting and re-framing screen production research

Filmmakers who are also academics want to make creative works as research. This has proven to be a challenging and time-consuming objective for practitioner-academics, despite governmental policy (...

Australian universities approaches to Occupational Risk Management for screen production

Australian screen production programs, offering both undergraduate and post-graduate degrees, continue to face challenges in upholding professional levels of Occupational Risk Management (ORM) within a student environment. These programs must address the confines of rigid ORM criteria within their university, which are largely designed for science-based academic research, and also adhere to standards of industrial health and safety codes set by state and federal governments. To date, academic literature in the area has been minimal, and many screen production programs have looked to industry and professional bodies for student guidelines. However, Oughton (2010) argues that even the existing ORM model for the creative arts requires revision. In an attempt to understand the current profile of ORM education and practices within screen production programs, the Australian Screen Production Education and Research Association (ASPERA) conducted a study amongst its 20 member institutions. A survey was administered and a case study was sought from one of the leading academic institutions in screen production in Australia. The goal of the study is a preliminary recommendation, which suggests a plan for a ORM Best Practice Model that will address the management of ORM issues across a range of screen production education programs on offer within Australia.

The ASPERA digital online archive/repository: key issues facing the contemporary moving image archive

I have been conducting research into the feasibility of (and developing the schema for) the establishment of an online digital archive/repository designed to house the screen production and research outputs of the staff and students of Australian Screen Production Education and Research Association (ASPERA) member institutions. In conducting this research a number of significant issues facing the archive sector as a whole, and moving image archives in particular, have been identified. As all information agencies begin to grapple with the logistical issues emerging from the impending ‘digital deluge’ the very nature of the role that the moving image archive plays within the contemporary audio-visual landscape is under increasing scrutiny. The sheer volume of data produced with each ‘born digital’ audio-visual title means the issues of collection policy and curatorship, search-ability and accessibility together with preservation strategy become even more imperative. This paper articulates the rationale behind the project and identifies a number of the historical, theoretical, philosophical perspectives (and challenges) underpinning the notion of the contemporary moving image archive with particular reference as to how these bear influence on the establishment of the ASPERA online digital archive/repository.