How does one do a Practice-Based PhD in Filmmaking?

This paper seeks to explore the issues raised by the process of engaging in a practice-based PhD in Filmmaking. As a sole practitioner the screenwriting doctoral student is able to explore her practice through the development of a screenplay, but what of the potential doctoral students who may wish to explore their specialist and professional filmmaking practices but who are unable to operate as sole practitioners, because of the collaborative requirements of the professional filmmaking model. Using the experience of the screenwriting doctoral investigation, and particularly the exploration of the relationship between methodology, exegesis and the creative artefact, we explore a potential model that would enable all filmmaking specialists to engage in doctoral research. Art students engaging in practice-based doctoral research do so in an environment formed by Government requirements that demand cultural, environmental and economic impacts as well as a methodology that to a large extent is formed by social science measures of value. Using this framework as a starting point we attempted to identify a suitable model that would enable filmmakers to undertake practice-based doctoral research

Livia K. Stone. Atenco Lives! Filmmaking and Popular Struggle in Mexico. Vanderbilt UP, 2019. 202 pp.

Livia K. Stone. Atenco Lives! Filmmaking and Popular Struggle in Mexico. Vanderbilt U P , 2019. 202 pp

A Conversation with Filmmaker Mike Formanski `12

This February, Mike Formanski `12 returned to the place where he first discovered the magic of filmmaking

From Nollywood to New Nollywood: the story of Nigeria’s runaway success

From stories about cult and witchcraft to heartbreak and sorrow, Nigeria's Nollywood has developed into Africa's giant in filmmaking

How do we teach Filmmaking – given the rapid changes in digital technology?

“Gutenberg's concept of movable type transcended the medium used for the printing itself. Digital, perhaps, may prove to be paper to celluloid’s parchment.” [Murch, 1999] With the recent cessation of production of 35mm cinema cameras [Kaufman, 2011] and the advent of affordable digital ones capable of creating images of acceptable cinematic quality - we are seeing the beginnings of sea-change which may, like the printing press did with the written word, potentially lead to the democratization of filmmaking. With the tools of film now changing so rapidly to ones that are digital and affordable; the art, technique and language of film are clearly changing. As a result I question whether these changes should finally begin to affect our teaching the art and technology of “film”making in film schools that still strive to teach in a professional industry model. This standpoint is anathema in most film schools in the world today. Especially in the west, the backbones of educational and professional qualifications in the area strictly insist on an older model of what it means to have professional skills in an “industry”. Many in education argue that the industry model is the only responsible venue in which to educate our students. This is while the industry itself speaks of its own demise due to the financial pressures of its industry model. When I examined the history of art against the current temperature of the industry even with these digital changes in place, it is clear that both methods must be accommodated. Unfortunately, even incorporating the newer approach is a relatively unheard of practice in current film education. However it is one that must be explored and supported as it the only viable path for many graduating students. Ironically, it is also the path that many of their instructors are taking too

Narrating the Natural History Unit: institutional orderings and spatial strategies

This paper develops a conceptualisation of institutional geographies through participation observation and interviews in the BBC's Natural History Unit (NHU), and the approach of actor network theory. The methodological and theoretical tenets of actor network theory are examined for the insights they offer for understanding the achievements of this pre-eminent centre for the production of natural history films. The scope, scale and longevity of the NHU are analysed through the means by which localised institutional modes of ordering extend through space and over time. Drawing on empirical material, the paper outlines three different modes of ordering, which organise relations between actors in the film-making processes in different ways: prioritising different kinds of institutional arrangements, material resources and spatial strategies in the production of natural history films. Through these three modes of ordering, and through the topological insights of actor network theory, a series of overlapping and interlinked institutional geographies are revealed, through which the identity of the Unit as a centre of excellence for wildlife filmmaking is performed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

A Case Study of the Development of a Career Academy: Good Intentions Not Enough?

The purpose of this study was to explore how a career academy featuring an information technology (IT) theme approached the adoption of the model and the particular curricular focus. We used a case study design to explore the experiences of school personnel and community partners associated with the implementation of the career academy. We found that growing enrollment in the local district was a major driver to pursue small school designs as an alternative to the traditional high school comprehensive model. The small school size associated with small learning communities was valued by stakeholders and used to adopt and implement a career academy around a technology curricular theme. Another factor in the adoption decision was the availability of existing building infrastructure in the community. While the premises of the career academy model appeared to be a good fit in the district and community, we also found that good intentions are not enough to guarantee consistent fidelity throughout the career academy implementation. When new crises arise, input from all stakeholders may be shortchanged and decisions can turn into a top-down approach

Yi, Observational Documentary Aesthetics, and the Identity Politics of Transcultural Migrancy

There is a moment in Edward Yang’s acclaimed film Yi Yi (2000) in which a young boy in a conversation with his father observes that he cannot see what his father sees and that his father cannot see what he sees, prompting two questions: “How can I know what you see?” and “Can we only know half of the truth?” Unable to provide adequate answers, his father instead offers his son a camera. Later in the film, the same boy presents his uncle with a picture he took of the back of his head. When asked why, the boy responds by saying, “You cannot see it yourself, so I’m helping you.” These two scenes in Yang’s film illustrate the spirit of the questions that guide the aesthetic approach I have taken in my own documentary project. My thesis is composed of two parts: a video project and a research paper, the former of which is a documentary entitled Yi. Named after its primary subject, the film explores the intersections of transnational migrancy and cultural identity through a series of interviews that are intercut with scenes of everyday life that are shot in an observational style. The research paper that follows will situate the project within a specific historical, conceptual, and aesthetic context, before delineating how the cinematic composition of my documentary engages with this framework

«The Karma of Chicken Curry». Tibetan Masala films and youth narratives of exile

This essay offers a preliminary study of the cultural translation practices by young Tibetan exilic filmmakers in India, whose films, rather than rejecting the masala formula offered by Bollywood, have tentatively adapted it to the expectations of a Tibetan diasporic audience looking for a cinema capable of attending to the escapist needs of their minds while simultaneously catering to the intimate dreams of their hearts. I contend that Tashi Wangchuk and Tsultrim Dorjee’s first long feature Phun Anu Thanu (Two Exiled Brothers, 2006) is as an original film that presents a new offer on the menu of Tibetan diasporic films, a kind of spicy curry that has been advocated as a timely necessity and a yet-to-be-fulfilled desire