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

Spotlight on Community Filmmaking: A report on Community Filmmaking and Cultural Diversity research

The ‘Community filmmaking and cultural diversity' project explores how cultural diversity intersects with community filmmaking. It considers the results of this intersection in terms of representations and identities as well as practices and innovation.The project is supported by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of the Connected Communities Programme

A Conversation with Filmmaker Mike Formanski `12

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

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

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

Exile, return, record : exploring historical narratives and community resistance through participatory filmmaking in 'post-conflict’ Guatemala

Following previous experiences of violence and forced displacement, ‘the returnees’ from the Guatemalan campesino community ‘Copal AA la Esperanza’ are now defending their territory against the construction of a hydroelectric dam. The returnees unexpectedly mobilized me as a Belgian historian to ‘make’ their ‘shared history’ and produce a documentary about their past and present struggle. The aim of this article is to reflect on how and why I developed a participatory, filmmaking-based methodology to tackle this challenge. I focus on filmmaking, participation and knowledge production to demonstrate the epistemological and ethical benefits of a dialogue between disciplines and methodologies as much as between academic and community practices and concepts. As such, I exemplify my visual participatory approach through its engagement with post-colonial histories and the co-creation of shared knowledge at the intersection of community and research interests. Moreover, I demonstrate how filmmaking can be developed as a grounded, visual, and narrative approach connecting media activism with ‘performative ethnography’. Combining insights from participatory action research (PAR) with Johannes Fabian’s notion of ‘performance’, I argue for ‘nonextractivist methodologies’; ‘knowing with’ instead of ‘knowing-about’. From being a side project and a matter of research ethics, participatory filmmaking turned for me into an investigative tool to explore the collective production and mobilization of historical narratives. I argue that participatory research should not be limited to communities participating in research projects; researchers can equally participate in community projects without this obstructing scientific research. In sum, participatory visual methods challenge us to reconsider the role of academics in (post-conflict) settings

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

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

Learning from the Professionals: Film Tourists' "Authentic" Experiences on a Film Studio Tour

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.The purpose of this paper is to explore how consumers perceive, experience and engage with the art of filmmaking and the industrial film production process that the film studios present to them during their guided film studio tours. Drawing on the author’s own film tourist experiences, observations and participatory interactions with fellow visitors at a major Hollywood film studio, this paper takes an autoethnographic “I’m-the-camera”-perspective and a hermeneutic data analysis approach. The findings reveal that visitors experience the ‘authentic’ representation of the working studio’s industrial film production process as an opportunity and ‘invitation to join’ a broader filmmaker community and to share their own amateur filmmaking experiences with fellow visitors and professionals – just to discover eventually that the perceived community is actually the real ‘simulacrum’. Although using an autoethnographic approach means that the breadth of collected data is limited, the gain in depth of insights allows for a deeper understanding of the actual visitor experience. The findings encourage film studio executives, managers and talent agents to reconsider current practices and motivations in delivering film studio tours and to explore avenues for harnessing their strategic potential. Contrary to previous studies that have conceptualised film studio tours as simulacra that deny consumers a genuine access to the backstage, the findings of this study suggest that the real simulacrum is actually the film tourists’ ‘experienced feeling’ of having joined and being part of a filmmaker community, which raises questions regarding the study of virtual communities

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