​​​​​​​​​​Sightlines: Filmmaking in the Academy 2019

 

Sightlines was a three-day event that focussed on the developing field of filmmaking as a form of academic research.

 

This edition of Sightlines sought to provide a space for productive conversations between those working in academia and the screen industry. We asked what the academy can learn from industry, and in turn, how academics can contribute criticality and research frameworks to imagine new possibilities for the screen production sector. The Opening Night event asked how we might develop a more diverse and inclusive screen industry, and featured filmmakers Thomas Banks, Tony Briggs, Chloé Brugalé, Santilla Chingaipe, Phoebe Hart, Shannon Owen, and Robert Connolly.

 

The program offered a wide range of creative works, creative practice papers, and presentations that explored the variety within our discipline. There were reflections on the many approaches to content, style and technology; crafts, concepts and communities that exist within our field. We were pleased to welcome a significant portion of international delegates at this edition of Sightlines.

 

Topics included:

• How is film and filmmaking in the academy evolving?

• What new forms of screen production are emerging and in what ways is creative practice research engaging with them?

• How can practitioners focusing on the use of sound and music in creative screen works operate in and around the field of screen production research?

• How can screen production methodologies be developed as academic research disciplines?

• On what basis should the peer review of creative practice works be conducted? 

• How can creative practice research in screen production be funded or otherwise supported?

• How can the relationship between creative practice in the academy and the broader media industries be understood and further strengthened?

 

Keynote Speaker

 

Susan Kerrigan

 

Engagement and Impact – a TV series: the backstory, the audiences and ROI for screen production researchers

 

As we sought to address the challenges faced by our discipline from the Engagement and Impact framework of assessment, we were pleased to welcome Associate Professor Susan Kerrigan (University of Newcastle) who pointed to the strengths of filmmaking in connecting with audiences or ‘end users’. 

 

A/Prof Susan Kerrigan is a Creative Industries researcher and Screen Production Scholar. She has worked on international and nationally funded research projects on Creative Industries and Filmmaking. Her research approaches are qualitative and practice based in filmmaking, which is informed by her professional career as a television Producer, Director and Writer at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

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