M. McVeigh, Aurora Scheelings, J. Tindale, Joseph Grogan
{"title":"Introduction to the ASPERA Journal Special Issue: creativity matters, part two (2023)","authors":"M. McVeigh, Aurora Scheelings, J. Tindale, Joseph Grogan","doi":"10.1080/17503175.2023.2228607","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2023.2228607","url":null,"abstract":". The conference explored matters regarding creativity across all areas of research and teaching in Australian higher education institutions today and into the future. It acknowledged the fact that the screen industry is changing rapidly. New generations of storytellers are entering the scene resulting in competition for career opportunities and funding. In this environment, universities play a pivotal role in educating students to work creatively and collaboratively in local and global scenarios. The articles here constitute part two of our special issue (following on from the previous issue of Studies in Australasian Cinema last year), include two case studies: one focusing on creative collab-orations and one on older women in Stateless (2020). Where the fi rst speaks to production and pedagogy, the second foregrounds poetics and policy. The themes of Production and Pedagogy are investigated by Sergi, Fitchett, and Fisher in University Film Schools at the Heart of Creative Collaborations with Industry: A Case Study . The paper outlines the successful collaboration between Bond University and external production companies to develop, shoot and post-produce the feature fi lm The Fear of Darkness (Chris Fitchett, 2015). The low-budget, high concept fi lm is a super-natural thriller about a young psychiatrist who investigates the disappearance of a university student. Their paper argues that the feature fi lm production model provides mutually bene fi cial opportunities for students, alumni and sta ff to gain on-the-ground industry experience, professional networks and screen credits. At the same time production companies bene fi t from access to equipment, a production o ffi ce and shooting locations at the University. The authors discuss the organisational challenges, learnings and opportunities this academic-industry collaboration presents. The themes","PeriodicalId":51952,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Australasian Cinema","volume":"17 1","pages":"2 - 3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45025289","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Innovation in true crime: generic transformation in documentary series","authors":"Sean Maher, Susan Cake","doi":"10.1080/17503175.2023.2224617","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2023.2224617","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This discussion explores innovation in true crime programming on streaming platforms and on-demand catch up broadcast television services. Altered consumption habits from long form programming and binge viewing on streaming services has prompted innovations in factual content through docuseries. Commencing with Reality Television police procedurals such as the long running US series Cops ([1989–2023]. Cops. TV Series. Fox. 1989–2013, 2023. Paramount Network 2013–2020. Fox Nation 2021–2023), the true crime genre has expanded into long-form docuseries. This expansion coincides with streaming platforms that service contemporary consumption habits based on unscheduled, on-demand spectatorship practices. Underbelly ([2008–2022]. Underbelly. TV Series. Screentime; Nine Network) is an Australian true crime franchise and early innovator of true crime serialisation. Spanning both broadcast and streaming eras, Underbelly serves as a counterpoint in this discussion of innovations in long-form documentary serialisation in the Netflix programs, Making a Murderer ([2015–2018]. Making a Murderer. TV Series. Synthesis Films; Netflix) and The Staircase ([2004–2018]. The Staircase. TV Series. Canal+, Episodes 1–10. Netflix, Episodes 11–13). Discussion of each series reveals how narrative innovation functions as generic transformation in response to new television on-demand platforms and delivery modes.","PeriodicalId":51952,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Australasian Cinema","volume":"17 1","pages":"95 - 109"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48502206","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"University film schools at the heart of creative collaborations with industry: a case study","authors":"Michael Sergi, Chris Fitchett, Darren P. Fisher","doi":"10.1080/17503175.2023.2228610","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2023.2228610","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper is a detailed case study of how the Bond University Film and Television School collaborated with external production companies to actively participate in, and support, the production of the $1.5 million feature film The Fear of Darkness as a means of providing a unique student learning and industry networking experience. Students were able to take genuine on-set production roles for the duration of the production, rather than conventional short-term internships and work experience, which, upon their graduation, has contributed towards meeting the industry’s current skills gap. Furthermore, this case study also shows how the production provided a significant opportunity for academic staff to have senior production roles to further their professional development. Additionally, this collaboration supports the notion that academic staff with significant prior industry experience can function as a useful conduit between film schools and industry.","PeriodicalId":51952,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Australasian Cinema","volume":"17 1","pages":"21 - 36"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47477851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A dream, a visual diary: disruptive narrative modes in When the Camera Stopped Rolling (Jane Castle, 2021)","authors":"Felicity Collins","doi":"10.1080/17503175.2023.2224615","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2023.2224615","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Dubbed ‘a forgotten trailblazer’ of Australian filmmaking, Lilias Fraser was also the mother of cinematographer, Jane Castle, who spent more than a decade piecing together When the Camera Stopped Rolling (2021), a multifaceted documentary that draws on a rich archive of photographs, home movies and film footage shot by three generations of the Fraser-Castle family. Describing her love-hate relationship with the film, Castle says, ‘The final form was found through the making, rather than having a plan and applying a plan. I didn't know what it was about until it was finished.’ In its final form, When the Camera Stopped Rolling disrupts audience expectations of a hagiographic or elegiac narrative celebrating the lifetime achievements of Lilias Fraser. Ultimately, When the Camera Stopped Rolling is Jane Castle's story: an exquisite work of autofiction and self-extraction from the Fraser-Castle family and its audio-visual archives.","PeriodicalId":51952,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Australasian Cinema","volume":"17 1","pages":"39 - 49"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45106582","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Manifesto as method for a queer screen production practice","authors":"Stayci Taylor, Angie Black, P. Kelly, K. Munro","doi":"10.1080/17503175.2023.2224618","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2023.2224618","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The authors reflect on creating a collaborative creative work that was developed both with, and as, a manifesto. Using queer theory as a framework, the authors track the process of developing and deploying a 14-step manifesto and outline their aims for queering screen production through creative practice. The project applies Baker’s (2011) call for a queer-ing of practice-led research, enacting a performative bricolage with a focus on queer screen production that is concerned with more than representation. The resulting 14-minute assemblage film outlines its thesis within an experimental, non-linear structure, comprising clips from the individual authors’ previously produced screen works, interplayed with new content, personal archive and textual elements. It combines the authors’ separate practices in filmmaking, screenwriting, mobile media and documentary in ways that deviate from mainstream categorisations, production hierarchies and workflows. Firstly, the manifesto is situated among others that outline strategies of disruption and resistance. Then, framed by the manifesto steps, the authors reflect on the film’s disruption of dominant narrative models in the context of queer theory’s critiques of heteronormative temporality. They then draw some conclusions around the possibilities of ‘manifesto as method’, and the implications for narrative disruption, queer screen production, and creative practice more broadly.","PeriodicalId":51952,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Australasian Cinema","volume":"17 1","pages":"50 - 67"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43235034","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From creativity to disruption: introduction to the double issue","authors":"A. Lambert","doi":"10.1080/17503175.2023.2228609","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2023.2228609","url":null,"abstract":"Welcome to another timely and robust collection of research on Australasian screen texts, industries, and cultures. This double issue of Studies in Australasian Cinema is a combination of the second part of the special issue ‘Creativity Matters’, guest edited by Margaret McVeigh, Aurora Scheelings, Joanne Tindale, and Joseph Grogan, and a special issue entitled ‘Disruptive Narrative Practices’, guest edited by Glenda Hambly and Anna Dzenis. Issue I: ‘Creativity Matters’ includes Joanne Tisdale’s analysis of older women in the Australian mini-series Stateless through the prism of policy programs and reports, as well as a case study by Michael Sergi, Chris Fitchett, and Darren Paul Fisher which canvasses ‘University Film Schools at the Heart of Creative Collaborations with Industry’. As with part one of ‘Creativity Matters’, the papers are extensions of work presented at the 2022 conference of Australian Screen Production Education and Research Association (ASPERA). Issue II: ‘Disruptive Narrative Practices’ represents cutting-edge analysis and explorations on a topic surprisingly unexplored in the journal thus far – ‘disruption’ from multiple perspectives across practices and approaches of all kinds. The issue comprises an introductory framing from editors Glenda Hambly & Anna Dzenis, ‘A Dream, A Visual Diary: Disruptive Narrative Modes in When the Camera Stopped Rolling’ from Felicity Collins, Susan Cake, and Louise Sawtell’s ‘Disrupting the Self: Script Development within the Academy’, ‘Manifesto as Method for a Queer Screen Production Practice’ by Stayci Taylor, Angie Black, Patrick Kelly, and Kim Munro, ‘Disruptive Docs: Teaching Hybrid Documentary Filmmaking in Australia’ Phoebe Hart, and finally Susan Cake and Sean Maher’s ‘Innovation in True Crime: generic transformation in documentary series’. As always, please enjoy these (extra) special issues of Studies in Australasian Cinema.","PeriodicalId":51952,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Australasian Cinema","volume":"17 1","pages":"1 - 1"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49105279","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Larger than life people and stories: issue 2–3, 2022","authors":"A. Lambert","doi":"10.1080/17503175.2022.2148412","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2022.2148412","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51952,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Australasian Cinema","volume":"16 1","pages":"52 - 53"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47219319","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. McVeigh, Aurora Scheelings, J. Tindale, Joseph Grogan
{"title":"Introduction to the ASPERA Journal Special Issue: creativity matters, part one (2022)","authors":"M. McVeigh, Aurora Scheelings, J. Tindale, Joseph Grogan","doi":"10.1080/17503175.2022.2148411","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2022.2148411","url":null,"abstract":"The Australian Screen Production Education and Research Association (ASPERA) 2022 Conference Creativity Matters: Poetics. Pedagogy. Production. Policy. was held at Griffith Film School, Griffith University, Brisbane from Monday 11 July to Wednesday 13 July 2022. The conference explored matters regarding creativity across all areas of research and teaching in Australian higher education institutions today and into the future. It acknowledged the fact that the screen industry is changing rapidly. New generations of storytellers are entering the scene resulting in competition for career opportunities and funding. In this environment, universities play a pivotal role in educating students to work creatively and collaboratively in local and global scenarios. In this Studies in Australasian Cinema ASPERA Special Issue, we are pleased to present research arising from the papers presented at the conference. It includes matters regarding teaching and researching the poetics of screen-based storytelling in higher education, particularly around matters of Indigenous and diverse voices, the collaborative input of key creatives, ideas that impact and the finding of the global in the local in screen-based storytelling. It investigates the pedagogy of how we may educate undergraduate and post graduate students to be more innovative, creative and entrepreneurial during and beyond their film school experience. It highlights how we may integrate our research and teaching to creatively address industry production imperatives to work collaboratively in co-productions, to embrace new technologies in screen-based productions, as well as how higher education institutions can lead change and innovation in the industry. The conference theme of Poetics in Australian Indigenous storytelling and collaborations are explored in an international cross-cultural film school co-production in Burgess, Mace and Moyes’ Special Research Report Animating Country. Their research discusses the Australian outback experience of students and staff from Falmouth University, England and Griffith Film School, Australia and two Australian Indigenous Elders who collaborated on an animation, inspired by local Dreamtime narratives. The project’s objectives centred on student experiences and outcomes, underscored by the central question of ‘how do we encourage and enable students to tell meaningful stories in a cross-cultural context?’ This initiative provided an opportunity for students to develop a sensitivity to the cultural context/s of their practice via animation storytelling. A five-minute stop motion animation, Butterfly Dreaming (2019), was co-created over two weeks with the Guwa-Koa Traditional Owners as part of the Vision Splendid Outback Film Festival. This paper explores the challenges of aiming for ‘authentic stories’ on Indigenous land across Western and traditional cultures. The limitations of using primarily stop-motion animation, of working ‘in the field’, and of animating with o","PeriodicalId":51952,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Australasian Cinema","volume":"16 1","pages":"80 - 81"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45497588","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Animating Country","authors":"Ashley Burgess, Michael Mace, P. Moyes","doi":"10.1080/17503175.2022.2148410","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2022.2148410","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Eleven Animation students from Australia and the UK spent two weeks in the Australian Outback with the Guwa-Koa Traditional Owners and co-created a five-minute stop motion animation as part of the Vision Splendid Outback Film Festival. Over the two-week intensive ‘Bootcamp’, the students researched, planned, created and screened the film as a creative interpretation of a Dreamtime story shared by Elder Minnie Mace. The course was designed to facilitate students’ cultural inquiry and critical awareness of Australia’s colonial history through open dialogue, discussion and co-production, while gaining first-hand insights into the ethics of cross-cultural co-production. It is a fundamental tenant of the course that all stories and artefacts created through the collaboration remain the property of the Guwa-Koa Traditional Owners. The students and schools maintain permission to screen the works. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT","PeriodicalId":51952,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Australasian Cinema","volume":"16 1","pages":"82 - 92"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47877911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Wildlife Watcher Kylie: co-designing a virtual ambassador for the Koala Watch programme","authors":"M. Zelenskaya, S. Rundle-Thiele","doi":"10.1080/17503175.2022.2148413","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17503175.2022.2148413","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper describes a creative collaboration between Griffith University and Redland City Council that was piloted in 2020–2021. The project developed and tested an interactive virtual ambassador within an ongoing koala conservation campaign. Redlands Coast Koala Watch is a community programme that aims to enlist the help of Redland City residents in efforts to monitor local koala populations. A virtual character, ‘Wildlife Watcher Kylie’, was conceived as a mechanism for attracting young people to the programme as part of a social media communication campaign. The paper introduces the concept of virtual ambassadors and describes the step-by-step process of designing and implementing a virtual ambassador within a community-based programme. The design process is analysed in relation to current industry practices, and a practical design strategy is formulated that incorporates co-design methods. The authors note critical design considerations that may affect engagement with a virtual ambassador on social media, including ethical concerns, interactivity requirements, and the risk of Uncanny Valley effects. The project was successful at gaining attention from a broader audience and provided new insights into the marketing potential of virtual ambassadors within the wildlife conservation area.","PeriodicalId":51952,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Australasian Cinema","volume":"16 1","pages":"93 - 108"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42095126","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}