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This article considers how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted tertiary-level screen production education in Australia. Six university educators across four Australian states present a series of critical thematic reflections, interrogating their lived experiences of teaching screen production courses during periods impacted by COVID-19 lockdowns and social distancing requirements. The analysis reveals the pandemic amplified areas like concept development and fundamental production skills using mobile devices, while more advanced technical skills and student collaboration suffered due to remote learning conditions. Managing health risks through COVID-safe protocols became a major priority. Student storytelling shifted towards shorter individual projects exploring themes of isolation, though some collectives producing anthology series also emerged. While some pandemic-driven changes like online meetings have persisted, the authors identify an ongoing need to foster students’ interpersonal skills and technical proficiency developed through collaborative, hands-on learning experiences. The diverse reflections highlight common challenges but also differences across states based on varying COVID-19 conditions and restrictions. Overall, the authors argue for balanced, responsive approaches going forward to equip graduates with frameworks to navigate screen industry shifts alongside changing student expectations around delivery modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the increased take up of game engines in the context of emerging and traditional screen media production has fostered innovation across formats. Game engines present an opportunity to author immersive projects that draw upon the expertise of experience designers, game developers, screenwriters and other creative practitioners; however, questions arise as to the ways that individuals from different backgrounds might work together effectively on these projects given the varying 'poetics' of their fields. This term, used by Ian MacDonald in the context of screenwriting practice, refers to 'the rationalisation of a mode, or a paradigm, of practice; a collection of perceived norms that make sense together, for those involved in developing a screen idea, in that time and place' (2013, 3). This article explores the development of two screen works created using Unreal Engine, so as to outline the challenges for multidisciplinary teamwork in this area. This article will argue that the successful realisation of these projects called for the development of common ground around this new mode of practice, one fostered through a sharing of boundary objects (Star and Griesemer 1989), expertise and through listening to participant concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article interrogates the localized experiences of present-day workers who identify as women in Australian postproduction sectors, including editing, visual effects (VFX), and animation, exploring sexism and perceptions of change in the age of #MeToo. Considering the significant numbers of women working in these sectors, and the scant research into their experiences undertaken in an Australian context, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with ten women in various roles and in various geographical locations in Australia. This qualitative approach to data collection aims to explore inequalities that may not be captured in industry surveys, providing fine-grain details of the ways that individuals in postproduction experience sexism. The resulting data suggests that while there is continuity between the gendered experiences of these workers and that of women in industry sectors that have already been documented, there are, however, new observations about changes in workplace behavior in the sector, brought about by growing public awareness of industry discrimination and harassment and of shifts in Australian industry policy. The authors isolated recurring themes within women's gendered experiences in relation to how they perceived the impact of the gender-equity initiatives on the attitudes of their co-workers, their workplace opportunities, and their experiences as workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first 20 years of the twenty-first century have seen a flourishing of research about women film and media creatives, their industrial positioning, and media output in industries around the globe, but overwhelmingly this research has focussed on the woman director. Women below-the-line workers, their workplace experiences, and their impression of their own creative contributions, particularly in areas of editing, sound design, and visual effects, have been glaringly absent. This paper aims to spotlight the under-examined working conditions and creative contributions of women working in Australian postproduction and visual effects (VFX) areas, what their experiences and perceptions tell us about the sector more broadly at a time of decreasing job security and increasing demand for screen content since the time of COVID-19, and their perceptions about their own creative contributions. These findings are based on our analysis of semi-structured interviews that we carried out with 11 women workers in a range of geographical locations, of varying ethnicities, sexualities, and ages, and at different career points. The insights generated by these interviews speak to the challenges faced by these workers and their perceptions of their work and fill a gap in the feminist production studies literature, about women, postproduction, and VFX. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a new wave of virtual reality (VR) and immersive media forms have gained popularity with both viewers and creators around the globe. This article presents the argument that the emerging nature of this current wave of practices makes this a site of particular importance for research by both academics and students. We explore the nature of the teaching-research nexus around immersivemedia practices by reporting on six case studies from three Australian Universities. Academic experience is varied and complex, with avariety of Inquiry-based learning approaches in place at undergraduate and postgraduate level, spanning the areas of writing, production,post-production and spectatorship. A study of these aspects allows students to seek knowledge and new understandings of media forms, an experience that we believe is vital for the development of higher-order skills. By exploring this area, we pose the question: How canimmersive media researchers use Inquiry-based learning to conceptually engage students with emerging formats through course workdesign? Furthermore, we seek to examine how Inquiry-based learning in the context of immersive media connects to the more widely used Problem-Based Learning models that have traditionally been employed in media practice courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since around 2015, the 360-degree cinematic virtual reality (CVR) form has grown in popularity. Unlike traditional screen media, the narrative experience offered in the CVR format is not confined within a rectangular screen. As such there are no 'close ups' or 'long shots' in the sense of traditional filmmaking, and established notions of screen grammar are challenged. This article proposes that the study of Proxemics, as undertaken by Hall [1963. "A System for Notation of Proxemic Behavior." American Anthropologist 65: 1003–1026; 1966. The Hidden Dimension. Vol. 609. Garden City, NY: Doubleday; 1973. Handbook for Proxemic Research. Washington, DC: Society for the Q2 Anthropology of Visual Communication], stands as one tool to reconsider screen grammar in this new context. By exploring Hall's notions of intimate, personal, social and public distance, the author argues that the theory of Proxemics productively sheds light on viewer/character and character/character interactions within CVR environments. Moreover, Hall's theory provides a system through which to map character position and to consider the viewer's emotional response. To illustrate the usefulness of the theory, the author analyses the recent CVR work Dinner Party (dir. Angel Manuel Soto 2017), noting the impact of spatial relationships on viewer engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Writer/director Catherine Breillat's most recent film, Abus de faiblesse (2013), explores an important moment of bodily transition: the change from able to disabled body. This semi-autobiographic film follows the story of film director Maud (Breillat's alter ego), who forms a destructive relationship with a conman, Vilko, after she suffers a disabling stroke. This film shows consistency with Breillat's previous work in its exploration of the constructed nature of the female body onscreen. In the past the filmmaker has portrayed moments of trauma and transition (such as childbirth, loss of virginity or rape) to subvert processes of objectification. The article argues that Abus de faiblesse challenges and subverts representation of the post-menopausal and disabled body onscreen. The film interrogates binary oppositions such as able/disabled and independence/dependency to challenge representations of the disabled body as 'other'. With reference to scholarly work on disability and the ageing female body, the article suggests that Maud's sadomasochistic relationship with Vilko is driven by a quest to retain her subjectivity after her stroke. The article demonstrates that the film dissects the feared and the unknown territory of the ageing female body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With reference to three recently produced Australian case studies, this article explores approaches to the conceptualization and writing of short narratives for the emerging medium of cinematic 360-degree virtual reality. Storytelling for this format involves a user-focused engagement with time and place. Whereas the viewer of classical narrative media, such as film or television, is for the most part passive, the VR viewer is ‘present’ as an active agent who engages with the unfolding narrative as either witness or participant. These factors present a number of challenges and opportunities for the creator of narrative VR, when considering viewer immersion and/or interaction in the 360-degree environment. The article presents a review of literature that interrogates the specifics of writing for VR, with a specific focus on 360-degree, immersive projects. By interrogating the form of three recently produced works, the author highlights emerging approaches to narrative structure, audience acclimation and the directing of viewer attention. While some commonalities can be observed across these case studies, the article concludes that to date, there is no one approach and no fully established screen grammar associated with a 360-degree VR narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 2004 French writer/director Claire Denis remarked that her films are sometimes unbalanced, a comment made with reference to her eighth feature film,L'intrus(2004), which like the earlierTrouble Every Day(2001), and her most recent filmLes Salauds(2013), features protagonists involved in graphic acts of murder and/or torture. Denis offers little psychological depth to her protagonists in these films, preferring to keep the focus on the surface of their bodies. As characters move through rituals of killing (Trouble Every Day), heart transplant surgery (L'intrus), or episodes of sexual transgression (Les salauds), stylized cinematography and mise-en-scène breaks down the line between object and subject, keeping the spectator close to the graphic and gory action unfolding on screen. This article explores the frequently irrational, out of control and mutating bodies featured within these confronting works. Considering Vivian Sobchack's writings on ‘self-touching’ and Laura Marks' theory of ‘haptic visuality’, I investigate how these films engage the audience using a sense of touch, as well as sight and sound. I argue that Denis has subverted traditional patterns of film viewing by employing stylistic approaches that attempt to destabilize her protagonists' bodies, and by extension, that of the embodied film spectator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

52 Tuesdays(2013) is an ambitious and distinctively structured feature film that explores family relationships and one teenager's coming of age in contemporary suburban Australia. The story centers on 16-year-old Billie (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) who is surprised to discover that her beloved mother Jane (later known as James) wishes to transition from female to male. James needs some time out to adjust; however, mother and daughter vow to meet every Tuesday after school and spend the evening together, thus setting the ground rules for the structure around which52 Tuesdaysrevolves. The film draws upon documentary elements in that it was in fact filmed over 52 consecutive Tuesdays and was therefore affected by significant change both on and off screen over the course of the year. Funded by the South Australian Film Corporation's now-defunct FilmLab program,52 Tuesdayswent into production based on a short treatment. This working document, which outlined characters and story arcs, changed during the yearlong production period as co-writers Matt Cormack and Sophie Hyde continued to develop the story on a weekly basis. In effect, this meant that the film's conception and development was closely linked with its execution, with the process of screenwriting not only driving production, but also being driven by production. In this article I examine the film's structure, the innovative practices of what I term ‘staggered’ screenwriting and production that bought the project to fruition, and consider the consequences of these working methods on the finished product. The article is informed by interviews with screenwriter Matt Cormack and director Sophie Hyde, as well as a formal textual analysis of the film. I argue that52 Tuesdays' ‘one day a week’ style of filmmaking, with its open-endedness and incorporation of documentary elements, is one that fosters notions of authenticity for both its creators and audience. Furthermore, this timely, innovative and low-budget project has much intelligence to offer both practitioners and researchers investigating experimental approaches to feature film writing and development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

French director Catherine Breillat has gained notoriety for her distinctly personal portrayal of gender relations and intimacy. With the inclusion of sexually explicit scenes, such as those featuring loss of virginity and/or rape, her films explore subjects of emotional, as well as visual, taboo. In this article the author examines Breillat’s preproduction and on-set practices, particularly focusing on her control of actors’ bodies. Breillat’s risk-taking seems to involve a lack of contact with actors in the preproduction stage of each film, meaning that the camera is rolling when scenes play out for the first time. The director counters this risk with long periods of casting and her technique of control on-set: the precise choreography of each shot. Rather than allow actors to move and act on the emotional responses they draw from the script, Breillat physically puts them into position, choreographs their movement in advance and models the performance she wishes to capture. The author suggests that, by taking risks as director, notably by pushing cast and crew into fearful and uncomfortable situations, Breillat is able to capture moments of onscreen intimacy in a subversive manner. The author draws upon her own interview with Breillat (undertaken during a period of screen testing for her latest film, Abus de faiblesse [2013]), as well as a range of other primary and secondary sources, to provide a new reading of key scenes in films such as Romance (1999) and À ma sœur (2001). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]