Diversity & Inclusion in the Screen Production Classroom

Kerreen Ely-Harper

Curtin University
kerreen.ely-harper@curtin.edu.au

Presented at the Online Symposium, 6th December 2023

MEMORY TALES - A SOCIAL MEMORY ONLINE DOCUMENTARY FILM PROJECT

The Memory-Tales project aims to increase diverse and inclusive screen representations by providing student filmmakers opportunities to develop skills in co-designing and producing a screen work with volunteer participants from their community and social networks on the theme of ‘best’ memories for an online audience.

NUTS & BOLTS

Key words: co-design practice, peer to peer learning, community engagement, social memory, documentary filmmaking as a cultural practice.

Memory Tales is a series of short online documentaries drawing on social memory narratives developed and produced by students enrolled in the Creative Documentary and Actualities unit. The unit is an elective in the Screen Arts stream, School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry. The mixed cohort combines first, second, third and Masters levels from a wide range of disciplines across the Humanities. Sixty-eight students were enrolled in the unit in 2023.

The project is divided into two assessment components: (1) Written treatment (1,000 words) and short in class presentation; (2) idoc film production. The project carries over the full Second Semester (Weeks 1 - 13).

Students produce an individual 3-minute idoc to be included in a collective memory repository of films to be presented on a Wordpress website linked to Instagram.

All students are assigned student peer support to assist on their respective projects. The peer support provides feedback on concept ideas and edit drafts and/or technical assistance in the filming and/or editing process. Some students may not need additional crew pending on the scale and scope of their films. Whilst students work independently in the making of their films, tutors guide the process to ensure they are adequately resourced and the project is achievable within the given time-frame.

Students conduct an audio only interview with their participant asking them to describe their 'best ever memory' as part of the interview. Students then recreate the memory visually as described by the participant in consultation with their participant. The visual approach can take any form and include live action, staged sequences, re-enactments, animation, VR, mixed media, photos, drawings, archival footage etc. Selected content from the audio recording of the participant must be incorporated into the film.

OUTCOMES & REFLECTIONS

Evaluation: This assessment is a new project. The project evaluation is through grades (degree to which students met ULOs), retention rates, numbers of students who chose to upload to a website (optional), numbers of views on Instagram (activity statements, follower comments).

Key Outcomes:
- High levels of student engagement with their participants and personal investment in re-telling their story for an online audience (67 out of 68 uploaded to Instagram)
- Diverse range of cultural and linguistic representations, stylistic and aesthetic approaches
- Higher grades across the cohort & 100% completion retention rate

Recommendations Future:
- revise assessment rubric to include additional criteria
- increase percentage weight in concept development and narrative exploration
- formalise two rounds of feedback (rough cut, fine cut) to ensure all students access and engage with tutor and peer feedback
- disallow/restrict use of stock footage
- penalties for not having full clearances, use of copyrighted material and going over/under time limit

SELECTED STUDENT FEEDBACK ON KEY LEARNINGS & CHALLENGES

“Even though there was already an established relationship for collaboration with my grandad as the participant, I learnt more about how valuable memories are to him and how a ‘best memory’ of a seemingly ‘isolated’ event can connect to and build up from other important memories.”

“The biggest challenge while making this film was that my participant lives in India. I had to think creatively to convey my participant’s mental state and it helped me think out of the box and come up with techniques which I wouldn’t have used otherwise.”

“I learnt from my sister a story that I didn’t know about her – it was intriguing as I know her well.”

“I wasn’t initially planning on using solely archival footage. This decision drove me to learn how to digitise VHS tapes, which is a skill I will certainly carry forward.”

“I learnt a lot about his childhood, and discovered some similarities with my own that I didn’t think were there. It also made me relate to my father more.”

“In the interview there were many tangents, about art, mental illness, her mother, childhood. I was unsure of direction but eventually had to remind myself to follow the brief, pare down, and stick to her original memory.”

RESOURCES & LINKS