Diversity & Inclusion in the Screen Production Classroom
Peter George
JMC Academy, South Melbourne
pgeorge@jmc.edu.au
Presented at the Online Symposium, 6th December 2023
ENCOURAGEMENT OF DIVERSE LGBTIQ+ AND NEURODIVERSE APPLICANTS FOR SPECIFIC INTERNSHIP PROGRAMS
NUTS & BOLTS
We have a very flexible internship / work integrated learning program with both production companies and aligned with a host of low-budget independent feature films / TV pilots. Wherever possible as the Film Head of Department I advocate for and negotiate placement of students from diverse backgrounds and to emphasise this in the internship listing.
We know our students and have intermittent career meetings with them to ascertain their skillset focus, areas and crew roles they would like to develop their skills in while factoring in any other unique factors linked to diversity.
Case study: One of my alumni, Gabe Carrubba, 4 years since graduating, planned to write and direct his own feature film ‘Sunflower’. He identified as gay, and the film was a coming-of-age drama. We linked this opportunity to our curriculum-based internship unit and encouraged students to apply as per a professional opportunity with a cover letter & CV. In my correspondence to students, we asked them to, where applicable, address their specific disability, diverse cultural background and their LGBTQIA+ or non-binary backgrounds.
Gabe, his Producer Zane from Pancake Originals (production company) and myself conducted the interviews. Students who were accepted onto the film and then enrolled into this unit were paired with a Head of Department mentor in their aligned department – Cinematography, Production, Sound Editing. They were assessed via three assessment criteria – a Professional Plan outlining their expectations and goals, a Critical Reflection at the end of the shoot and a Host Evaluation. These assessments evaluated the student performance, but also allowed me to reflect on the experience as a whole and the student perceptions of this engagement.
‘Sunflower’ has gone on to play the Australian film circuit and each of the student placements has equated to a legitimate crew role and IMDB credit.
OUTCOMES & REFLECTIONS
The experience was certainly one that students appreciate and usually stand-out as one of the most significant. It is always great to bring in industry professionals to guest lecture / conduct workshops with our students, even better when the students can be mentored directly by the industry professional in a real-world on set experience.
For us these internships seem best suited to students in the higher stages / final trimesters of their study. The challenges, as usual, equate to time / study balance and the capacity for the student to take on the opportunity. ‘Sunflower’ worked for most of our students because the shoot ended up taking place in January 2022 during the trimester summer break.
Another factor is buy-in. Great if you have some meaningful mentors from the above-the-line crew embracing the opportunity, but for the student to get the most out of the experience all the mentors must adhere to the spirit of the exercise. On a low-budget independent production there are many challenges, let alone ensuring that the student is genuinely mentored as opposed to being used as free labour. For the most part though these productions are small enough for each key crew member to support each other and observe the camaraderie and community amongst all crew members.
Next time – we are still engaged with this. I would say lobbying Vicscreen to legitimately value these opportunities. While the paid internship scheme is one of great value and opportunity, many productions also benefit from this lower tier of unpaid interns – who genuinely appreciate the opportunity to work on these sets. We have our own insurance, and other mechanisms to ensure student experience is maximised, but it would be great to get the buy-in of our state agency rather than feeling like we are operating in the shadows of the margins.
Maybe one way to approach this is to lobby for specific diversity quotients coming from the HE sectors.
RESOURCES & LINKS
Bridgstock, R. (2011). Skills for creative industries graduate success. Education + Training 53(1), 9–26. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400911111102333
Bridgstock, R., & Cunningham, S. (2016). Creative labour and graduate outcomes: Implications for higher education and cultural policy. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 22(1), 10–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2015.1101086
BFI. (2022, June 29). BFI Skills Review 2022: Workforce development in the scripted film and high-end television production sector. Retrieved from https://www.bfi.org.uk/industry-data-insights/reports/bfi-skills-review-2022
Coles, A., Ferrer, J., & Zemaityte, V. (2022). A Wider Lens: Australian Camera Workforce Development and Diversity.
https://cinematographer.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/A-Wider-Lens-report-final.pdf
IWDA. (2018, May 11). ‘What Does Intersectional Feminism Actually Mean’. Retrieved from What does intersectional feminism actually mean? (2022, May 16). IWDA. https://iwda.org.au/what-does-intersectional-feminism-actually-mean/
Loureiro, B. J. R., & Lovett, M. (2022). The effect of networking on the career decision self-efficacy of young film and television professionals. Creative Industries Journal, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/17510694.2022.2077591
Olsberg.SPI. (2022). Production Infrastructure and Capacity Audit (PICA). Retrieved from https://www.o-spi.com/projects/blog-post-four-bfcf7-bxj6r
Patty, A. (2021, August 9). ‘Free courses to target national skills shortage in film industry’. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/free-courses-to-target-national-skills-shortage-in-film-industry-20210806-p58gfo.html
Raising Films Australia. (2018, November). Honey I Hid the Kids! Experiences of Parents and Carers in the Australian Screen Industry. Retrieved from https://www.raisingfilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/HoneyIHidtheKids_FullSurveyReportFinal.pdf
Rossiter, C., & Alcaraz, C. (2015, November). Emerging Visions: Career Pathways in the Australian Screen Production Industry. Australia. Metro Screen. Retrieved from https://manualzz.com/doc/10680580/emerging-visions-career-pathways-in-the-australian-screen
Screen Diversity Inclusion Network. (2022, October 25). Everyone Counts: Preliminary data on diversity in the Australian screen industry from The Everyone Project 2022. https://www.sdin.com.au/reports/
The Fifth Cut: Diamond at 5 – Creative Diversity Network. (2022). Retrieved November 5, 2022, from https://creativediversitynetwork.com/diamond/diamond-reports/the-fifth-cut-diamond-at-5/