Innovation in the Arts

Abstract

The filmmaking creative process is staged and task specific, and the success of a film is dependent on filmmaker’s working collaboratively and creatively, in small and large teams, to complete discrete tasks that are frequently iterative and recursive. These tasks are enabled and constrained by situational variables including financial, logistical, technological, aesthetic, and editorial, and the successful completion of the filmmaking tasks is dependent on a filmmaker’s creativity. This practice-led research presents an innovative methodological case study that captures the creative and collaborative activities of a documentary filmmaker and illustrates how filmmakers collaborate with other filmmakers and the community to create a film. Four collaborative principles are identified that describe how filmmakers achieve their goals; the principles reflect group approaches to creative filmmaking practices and, more broadly, the collective nature of arts practice.