Introduction – Creativity matters: poetics, pedagogy, production, policy

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. In this Journal of Media Practice and Education ASPERA Special Issue, we are pleased to present research arising from the papers presented at the conference.

The conference explored matters regarding creativity across all areas of research and teaching in Australian higher education institutions today and into the future. Using the framework of the four P’s – Poetics, Pedagogy, Production and Policy – it investigated key themes impacting the contemporary screen production landscape. It presented issues, ideas and case studies centred on the pedagogy of innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship in our higher education institutions. It explored operational and technological changes in the screen industry and the way that institutions and individuals are pivoting to address these changes. It considered how screen-based stories are being shaped by these developments and the challenges and opportunities that are opening for the next generation of storytellers.

The conference highlighted how research and teaching can be integrated to creatively address hybrid and inter-disciplinary teaching models, to work collaboratively across platforms, to embrace, innovate and lead change in education and industry.

The themes of Pedagogy and Production are explored in Couzens and Cattoni’s paper, ‘Redesigning screen production pedagogy for hybrid learning models’ in a regional university. They use a case study approach to interrogate the hybrid delivery of undergraduate degree units delivered across multiple campus. The paper details the rationale and processes behind their redesigned hybrid coursework, conceived to make screen production education equitable, engaging and industry relevant for on-campus and online students. Their approach ensures teaching is technology agnostic, with a focus on students gaining knowledge and skills that are transferable to screen industry practices. The study itself offers transferable knowledge in ways-of-doing in hybrid learning models that could be applied to other disciplines facing similar situations. The authors highlight the democratizing of opportunity this teaching design offers to regional and remote communities in particular – facilitating the emergence of new content creators and screen practitioners from non-metropolitan areas and a diversity of voices on and behind the screen.

The themes of Pedagogy and Production are explored in Wright-Brough, Hart, Maher and Cake’s paper, ‘Co-creative practice reconciling theory and practice in tertiary student documentary production’. The authors reflect upon the teaching design that underpins four documentary film and production units across the Bachelor of Fine Arts major in Film, Screen and New Media. The ‘spiral curriculum’ they describe is intended to build deep knowledge and understanding of the documentary form and its practices. The aim is that students demonstrate a solid theoretical, historical, ethical and technical grounding in their final year capstone documentary projects. With a focus on striving for high-level outcomes following industry processes, the authors describe their ‘community of practice’ studio model of teaching, whereby student productions are Executive Produced by academic staff. The authors provide three student exemplars. These are used to offer insights on the cumulative influences of their curriculum design evident in the students’ work.

The themes of Pedagogy and Production are explored through Murdoch and Fisher’s Shared visions of animation: empowering creativity and innovation within tertiary education. This research applies business leadership theory and introduces ‘do/be/feel’ goal modelling strategies to enhance animation film development in a growing market. Do/be/feel goals can also be adapted into creative development through analysis of a significant story beat in a commercially produced animated film. Do goals identify what actions or events were needed to fulfil the beat, be goals identify the beat’s high-level creative direction and feel goals identify how the audience should feel during the beat. This research examines tertiary capstone production collaboration spanning two twelve-week semesters. The study discusses student intra-team communication, leadership approaches and shared project goals. It shows how adapting ‘Dual-focused’ transformative leadership theory and do/be/feel modelling creates greater opportunities to nurture creativity, innovation, communication, leadership and adaptability in graduates.

The themes of Pedagogy, Production and Policy are explored in Rossiter’s ‘Emerging Visions: the (hero’s) journey to a career in Australian film and television production’. The research re-interrogates the findings of the Metro Screen Report Emerging Visions: Career Pathways in Australian Screen Production (2015) which questioned the value of higher education as a source of training and development for, and pathway into, the industry. It draws from historical interviews with Australian screen creatives to adapt Joseph Campbell’s ‘hero’s journey’ to ponder the narrative of filmmakers’ trajectories as they establish careers in the industry. It also identifies recurring patterns within that narrative structure to explore concepts and construct theory relating to the pathways to a successful screen career. The findings reveal general themes of cognitive (i.e. self-efficacy), emotional (i.e. resilience) and social (i.e. periphery to core) transformation in the career journey, shaped by social structures, human agency and luck. The implications for screen education and screen policy are also considered.

The proportion of the Australian film and television workforce with tertiary qualifications has increased over the last thirty years from seventeen to sixty-two per cent in 2016 (ABS 2016). The value of higher education as a source of training and development for, and a pathway into, the industry remains unclear, with many producers believing emerging filmmakers are ‘over-qualified and under-skilled’ (Metro Screen 2015). Education and screen policy could do better preparing emerging filmmakers for their career but there are few studies that consider the pathways and the journey from emerging to established screen practitioner to support improvement. Drawing from historical interviews with Australian screen creatives, this article adapts the monomyth framework of Joseph Campbell’s ‘hero’s journey’ to smooth the narrative of filmmakers’ trajectories as they establish careers in the industry. It then identifies recurring patterns within that narrative structure to explore concepts and construct theory relating to the pathways to a successful screen career. The findings reveal general themes of cognitive (i.e. self-efficacy), emotional (i.e. resilience) and social (i.e. periphery to core) transformation in the career journey, shaped by social structures, human agency and luck. The implications for screen education and screen policy are also considered.

The conference themes of Production and Poetics are explored in Schleser’s article ‘Can Web 3.0 shape Cinema 3.0?’. The research examines how the emergence of Web 3.0 architecture and blockchain technologies creates new opportunities for conceptualising and financing independent films, towards an innovative Cinema 3.0 landscape. Through new decentralised platforms based on Web 3.0 architecture (DLT – distributed ledger technology and DAO – Decentralised Autonomous Organisation), communities can interact, engage, vote, and thus contribute to the decision-making process concerning future film productions and poetics. Through cryptocurrency, tokens or NFTs (non-fungible tokens), the user, viewer or community can support the financing and decision making of film productions and be rewarded or share ownership. This analysis demonstrates through a case-study approach that integrating Web 3.0 and Cinema 3.0 prospects can empower independent filmmakers, who operate outside an industry dominated discourse or conventional funding paradigms. As the film industry adapts to the proliferation of subscription streaming services, film students, academics and practitioners can benefit from understanding and embracing the decentralised economic and creative possibilities of integrating Web 3.0 and Cinema 3.0 opportunities.

The conference themes of Production and Policy are explored through Dooley and Emery’s article that discusses the development of two screen works created in Unreal Engine, a VR project and a short film. The paper identifies and discusses the challenges arising from a multidisciplinary approach involving creators from different disciplines, including screenwriters, game designers and developers. The first project discussed, The Future of Houses (2022), is a single player VR experience that Dooley co-wrote, directed, and produced. The second project discussed, Wally Wallace and the Magic Case (2022), is a short film made by undergraduate screen production and game design students who were co-supervised by Dooley and Emery at the University of South Australia. Wally Wallace and the Magic Case was created as part of the 2022 Unreal Engine Short Film Challenge. Dooley and Emery utilise a self-reflective methodology to underpin their argument that these projects identified and developed common ground across multi-discipline screen production collaboration.

Matters impacting research and teaching around the Poetics, Pedagogy, Production and Policy impacting media practice in higher education are vital discussions to have. We thank our blind peer reviewers, without your dedication, expertise and generous advice this special issue could not be what it is. You are the unsung heroes of all academic publications. We hope you will enjoy reading a sample of the research from the ASPERA Creativity Matters 2022 Conference. This special issue demonstrates the creative and collaborative work that is at the heart of teaching and research in our times. We trust you can implement some of the ideas presented in this Journal Special Issue in your teaching and research, for these are the ideas that impact our rapidly changing world of screen-based storytelling.