Annual Conference Refereed Proceedings 2015
What’s This Space? Screen Practice, Audiences and Education for the Future Decade.
Wednesday 15 July - Friday 17 July 2015
Flinders University – Adelaide, Australia
978-0-9943365-2-1
Editorial Introduction
Associate Professor Craig Batty, RMIT University
Welcome to the refereed proceedings of the 12th annual ASPERA conference, What’s This Space? Screen Practice, Audiences and Education for the Future Decade. Held at Flinders University in Adelaide, between 15 and 17 July 2015, the conference attracted a range of papers from staff and research degree candidates from across Australia, who discussed and debated the physical, metaphorical and intellectual space of screen production, both in and out of the academy. The conference drew many new faces to the ASPERA community, some of whom are represented in these refereed proceedings. It was inspiring to see a number of Master’s and PhD candidates present on their projects, and it was also pleasing to welcome back colleagues from WA and AFTRS.
Increasingly, ASPERA is keen and able to offer mentoring to higher degree by research candidates and early career researchers. Opportunities such as publishing in refereed proceedings is one way this is being achieved, and the establishing of the inaugural research sub-committee is another way we hope to make a difference to those pursuing screen production research. Clearly, it is important to build individual and collective research track records for the future of the discipline, and so it is the intention of the research sub-committee to assist in this over the next few years. More on the sub-committee and its activities can be seen on the main research page of this website.
This year’s refereed proceedings represent a wide range of topics and voices, and collectively cover the core business of ASPERA – education and research. Each paper has been authored either by a research degree candidate or an early career researcher, which I think provides a really useful sense of the emerging research agenda of the discipline, and those who will hopefully contribute to its growth.
The topics explored in this year’s papers include screen production and smartphones; collaborative student learning; screen production and knowledges of the body; distribution models for academic films; animation and character development; television streaming services and local drama production; web series and script development; the relationship between screenwriter and cinematographer; and materiality and moving image technologies. As you will find out, the discussions presented and data from which the authors draw are both rich and exciting, and I think offer great potential for further research and dissemination within and beyond the ASPERA community. I hope you enjoy reading the papers, and that you find something in them to help you in your own research, teaching and supervision.
Finally, I am very grateful to the following peer reviewers for their assistance with this year’s refereed proceedings:
Associate Professor Pia Aquilia, University of Newcastle; Dr Leo Berkeley, RMIT University; Dr Marsha Berry, RMIT University; Dr Peri Bradley, Bournemouth University; Dr Kath Dooley, Curtin University; Dr Steinar Ellingsen, La Trobe University; Dr Bettina Frankham, University of Technology, Sydney; Dr Stephen Gaunson, RMIT University; Dr Smiljana Glisovic, RMIT University; Dr Jonathon Hutchinson, University of Sydney; Dr Susan Kerrigan, University of Newcastle; Dr Adrian Miles, RMIT University; Georgina Moore, RMIT University; Steven Murdoch, Swinburne University of Technology; Dr Michael Sergi, Bond University; Associate Professor Jane Stadler, University of Queensland; Stayci Taylor, RMIT University; Dr Tim Thomas, University of Canberra; Dr James Verdon, Swinburne University of Technology.
Fostering Students’ Collaboration Skills in University-based Screen Production Courses

Kath Dooley
Curtin University
Film and video production is globally experiencing rapid and fundamental change, thanks to the development of new technologies and platforms across production, distribution and exhibition.
Australian Streaming Services and the Relationship Between Viewing Data and Local Television Drama Production

Alexa Scarlata
University of Melbourne
The recent introduction of video streaming services into the Australian television industry has already had a significant impact on the local broadcast and subscription ecology.
Exploring Primary and Emotional Goals within an Agent-Oriented, Animation Production Process

Steven Murdoch
Swinburne University of Technology
The creation of 3D character animation is underpinned by the expertise in animation software, movement and creative screen techniques. With these varied foundations, the intricacies of the production process are challenging for an animator to communicate beyond the animation department.
Diving into film production process – in search of the ‘interpretant’ in screen adaptation

Susan Thwaites
University of Canberra
The role of a screenwriter in an adaptation is not just to condense and capture the essence of the novel; s/he writes for many readers. The role of the cinematographer is not just to frame the image and get the exposure right; s/he visualises the internal.
Let’s see what we can see: combining knowledge and perception centred understandings of moving image materiality

James Verdon
Swinburne University of Technology
The changing materiality of moving images and picture sources is a crucial aspect of the space in which screen stories are told. Technologies that capture and present moving images are responsible for our understanding of what we see as audiences; and as makers, how we create reality on screen.
Experimenting with Distribution Models for the PhD Documentary

Patrick Kelly
RMIT University
This paper examines the experimental process for a filmmaker who takes a traditional feature-length PhD documentary film and explores new distribution options for it, including Video On Demand (VOD), video capabilities on Social Networking Sites, and various models of Interactive Documentary. In other words, how does a filmmaker release a documentary, made for academic purposes, via contemporary networked platforms?
Screen Production and Knowledges of the Body

Smiljana Glisovic
RMIT University
Screen production can be much more than a representational mode; it can be a powerful tool to investigate subjects that are difficult to represent or pin down. It has been theorised that an important feature of the intercultural film is to move beyond the seeable and sayable towards a more haptic experience of the moving image.
“It’s the Wild West out there”: Can web series destabilise traditional notions of script development?

Stayci Taylor
RMIT University
This paper proposes that the concept of ‘script development’—already an ambiguous and arguably unexamined term—is further complicated by the rise of the ‘webisode’, drawing from existing discourse and scholarship on web series, much of which focuses upon (and/or problematises) an assumed amateur/professional binary that would cast online media as ‘other’.
From Barbie Video Girl to Smartphones: How portable media devices are shaping new screen production practices.

Dean Keep
Swinburne University of Technology
From Barbie dolls capable of recording video through to tablet computers and smartphones with cameras, portable digital media devices are arguably changing our relationship with technology and providing new and innovative means to produce a wide range of video content.