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 only those materials found in the landscape, were deliberate choices designed to promote creativity, ingenuity and a close and tactile engagement with the environment. The course was designed to facilitate students’ cultural inquiry and critical awareness of Australia’s colonial history through open dialogue, discussion and co-production, whilst gaining first-hand insights into the ethics of cross-cultural co-production.
The themes of Poetics and Production are explored through ‘Wildlife Watcher Kylie: Co-designing a virtual ambassador for the Koala Watch program’. Zelenskaya and Rundle-Thiele analyse the creative collaboration between Griffith University and Redland City Council (RCC) to develop and test an interactive virtual ambassador as part of a koala conservation campaign. Their paper proposes best practice in the design and implementation of a virtual wildlife ambassador to create awareness of the need for koala preservation amid increasing urbanisation. The social media platform ‘Wildlife Watcher AU’ was established on Facebook and Instagram, providing an innovative approach to empowering wildlife conservation and a new conservation demographic, 25 years of age and under. A virtual ambassador, Kylie, was created allowing interactive audience engagement across a range of educational and entertaining media content that supported the channel’s wildlife conservation agenda. This paper analyses the step-by-step co-design and implementation process within this community-based programme. Critical design considerations are examined 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 succeeded in optimising attention from a broader audience, providing new insights into the marketing potential of virtual ambassadors within the wildlife conservation area.
Further ASPERA articles to be included in part two of our special themes (in the next issue of Studies in Australasian Cinema), include two case studies: one focusing on creative collaborations and one on older women in Stateless (2020). Where the first speaks to production and pedagogy, the second foregrounds poetics and policy.
Matters around Poetics, Pedagogy, Production and Policy in university film schools are vital discussions to have. This special issue has been a collaborative effort. We thank our blind peer reviewers, the unsung heroes of all academic publications, without your dedication, expertise and generous advice the compilation could not be what it is. We trust you enjoy reading the research published out of the ASPERA Creativity Matters 2022 Conference. We hope you can implement some of the ideas presented in this Journal Special Issue pertaining to these themes impacting our rapidly changing world of screen-based storytelling in your teaching and research.