On the Edge Practice Reflections on filmmaking pedagogy in the age of the Creative Industries 1 (original) (raw)
Related papers
From Practice to Praxis: reflections on filmmaking pedagogy in the age of Creative Industries
Cinema Journal - Teaching Dossier, 2018
This paper seeks to reflect on teaching film production in UK universities and students’ political agency; especially in relation to issues of social-class and cultural difference – issues that are not only still pertinent in the UK, but seem to be gathering greater urgency in face of contemporary social and political challenges. The paper scrutinises the curriculum design of film production courses, which in the past two decades was driven by the Creative Industries agenda that was ushered around 2000 by the New Labour government. Informed by neo-liberal market-orientated approach, such agenda prioritised skills development and links with the industry, over pedagogical goals such as facilitating political debate, the development of critical thinking and the fostering of students social, political and creative agency. Proposing an alternative approach to filmmaking pedagogy, which draws on Paulo Freire’s concept of transformative learning and on models of experiential learning, we discuss an example of a module set out to devise an appropriate practical experience that would encourage students to engage with those issues in a reflective and meaningful way.
MEDIA PRACTICE AND EDUCATION, 2018
Research from both academic and industry sources has repeatedly identified a mismatch between theory and practice in film and TV professionals’ education. A recent report for the British Film Institute has concluded that the skills provision for the industry is not fit for purpose. This investigation aims to reconcile the educational expectations of students, educators and employers and is based on 12 semi-structured interviews with British film- makers attending the Cannes Film Festival. The interviews trace their process of updating skills and know-how to meet the requirements of highly dynamic workflows and so provide a deeper understanding of the mental models underlying the film- making process. Preliminary findings lay the foundation for a grounded theory approach to a study of conceptual knowledge in film-making. Interview analysis establishes the core concept ‘learning by doing’ that gains meaning by deep integration with highly personal and diverse skills development strategies. The film-makers demonstrate how ‘doing’ is affected by previously watched films, by collaborator focused forms of ‘critical thinking’, based on constant communication with collaborators. These combined factors enable the production team’s increasingly shared vision of a film in preproduction. The findings are discussed in the context of established reflective practice concepts to enhance student employability.
Media Practice and Education, 2022
This article discusses the writing of an impact case study for REF2021 that revolves around independent film production, film industry and pedagogy. The culture of professional film production at Falmouth University's School of Film & Television resulted in involvement in the BAFTA winning Mark Jenkin film Bait (2019) and the widespread impact of that film provided the impetus for an impact case study that saw the consolidation in the form of the Sound/Image Cinema Lab (The Lab) project. Bait is one of several commercial short and feature film productions that have received interventions that have resulted in the production and/or completion of work that would not have been possible, or not possible to the same level of quality, without it. This article tracks how those interventions impacted beneficiaries and stakeholders culturally, socially and economically and resulted in national and regional economic and production benefits for film production and graduate career development. It discusses how these interventions and productions were configured as research to ensure that the impact of Bait and other films were measured and captured.
2017
LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website.
The first two years: lessons for educators from UK entry-level workers in film and TV
Journal of Education and Work, 2023
This article shares the findings from a two-year longitudinal study of the employment experiences of entry-level workers in the UK film and TV industries, with particular reference to the value they attributed to their prior education-or their perception of gaps in that education. Educational institutions were better at delivering practice-based training than career skills; many graduates lacked confidence, and soft skills proved more valuable than industry-specific craft skills, in a Bourdieusian 'hysteresis' where cultural capital from the academic field does not align with the need for social capital in the professional environment. The study identifies and explores a high prevalence of unpaid work and barriers to progression in the media sector, including exploitation, precarity, geographic location, the need for prior experience, and challenges to wellbeing. Recommendations are offered for educators in preparing students to navigate these early years and beyond.
Media Practice and Education, 2018
Research from both academic and industry sources has repeatedly identified a mismatch between theory and practice in film and TV professionals' education. A recent report for the British Film Institute has concluded that the skills provision for the industry is not fit for purpose. This investigation aims to reconcile the educational expectations of students, educators and employers and is based on 12 semi-structured interviews with British filmmakers attending the Cannes Film Festival. The interviews trace their process of updating skills and know-how to meet the requirements of highly dynamic workflows and so provide a deeper understanding of the mental models underlying the filmmaking process. Preliminary findings lay the foundation for a grounded theory approach to a study of conceptual knowledge in film-making. Interview analysis establishes the core concept 'learning by doing' that gains meaning by deep integration with highly personal and diverse skills development strategies. The film-makers demonstrate how 'doing' is affected by previously watched films, by collaborator focused forms of 'critical thinking', based on constant communication with collaborators. These combined factors enable the production team's increasingly shared vision of a film in preproduction. The findings are discussed in the context of established reflective practice concepts to enhance student employability.
Media Practice and Education, 2018
This article outlines the rationale for and delivery of the pilot Filmmaker in Residence initiative at Falmouth University. The initiative led to the production of an award winning independent feature film made by a professional and student crew from both within and external to the university. By supporting students to learn through an industry based opportunity that took place within their educational setting rather than alongside it, the initiative sought to challenge a perceived practice/theory dichotomy by encouraging the students to engage with practitioners as educators and educators as practitioners. The initiative also sought to expose students to a different model of filmmaking than the high-end studio productions most familiar to them. The article explores the challenges and perceived successes of the initiative and draws on interviews with the students involved to explore their experiences. The article also outlines the key lessons learned, in particular the value of offering industry opportunities to students early on in their film education that can inform and support their own assessment, the culture of the learning environment and their employability post-graduation.
Screen production research: creative practice as a mode of enquiry
Media Practice and Education, 2018
alism too much. Some of the suggestions, like the one mentioned above, suggest that it is incumbent upon the scholar to engage in additional labor, and labor with which s/he may not have experience, in order to brand the research (as well as the researcher) in a more accessible way. Are these steps toward the marketization of academia – particularly in relation to the neoliberal capitalist market? While the text seems to grapple with this question, it would benefit from additional problematizations of its own implications. In addition to its complex relation to neoliberalism, this book also presents a tension between the general and the specific. While Freeman sets out to provide a UK-centric consideration of media industry research methods, there is, in some chapters scant mention of the specificities of the UK media industries. For example, Freeman’s chapter text will sometimes refer to Hollywood, and at other times to the UK industries, but most of the nuts-and-bolts discussions ...
Teaching ‘cinema’: for how much longer?
New Review of Film and Television Studies, 2014
This paper focuses on the changes in the titles of university programs about cinema to argue that the approach adopted by the film teaching community is quite different from the one that prevailed until quite recently. The terms cinema and movies often disappear in favour of an 'extended' definition: 'Moving image' becomes the new creed of universities. Other institutions such as cinémathèques or scholarly associations are too in the midst of a cinematic identity crisis. The paper then analyzes the context of this transformation, the advent of digital, and examines the turmoil it causes.