Talking Shop 2023
Dear NAHEMI Member
You are invited to NAHEMI Talking Shop 2023.
This is your chance to network with other HE Film, Media and Animation lecturers from across the UK, to share good practice, and immerse yourself in conversation about teaching Higher Education in Moving Image.
We have a fantastic programme of speakers being programmed, and would love you to join us!
Friday 7 July 2023 at LCC, University of the Arts London
Lunch at 12.15
Programme starts at 1.30pm
Our Annual Talking Shop brings together Higher Education, Film and Media specialists from across the UK in an open and friendly forum. With a rich programme of presentations and discussion, and as an opportunity for networking and sharing good practice, this annual event has become a valuable date in the academic calendar.
Members who would also like to attend the AGM are welcome to come along.
Programme For the Day
10:00 - 12:00 | AGM
12:15 - 13:15 | Lunch and Networking in Cafe
13:30 - 17:00 | Talking Shop Programme
17:00 - 18:00 | Drinks and Networking
Talking Shop Programme
1.15 - 1.30 Welcome from the Chair of NAHEMI
1.30 - 2.00 BECTU Presentation, followed by Q&A
NAHEMI Presentations (all talks will be followed by Q&A)
2.00-2.30 Film Practice as Research: Innovations in Research Project Module Design
Dr Matthew Hawkins, London South Bank University.
2.30 - 3.00
Work-Based Learning for Film School Students: enhancing employability and creating change-makers
Alice Guilty and Elizabeth Miller, Met Film School.
3.00 - 3.20 Tea Break
3.20 - 3.50
The Pedagogy of Sustainability
Christopher Hall, Sheffield Hallam University.
3.50 - 4.20
Experimental and Experiential Space: A Sonic Arts Approach to Sound Design Pedagogy
Liam Wells, Norwich University of the Arts.
4.20 - 5.00
ViewfindR : using gaming technology to teach creative decision-making
Dr Savyasaachi Jain, Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Culture (JOMEC).
Proposals
Film Practice as Research: Innovations in Research Project Module Design.
This presentation will focus on proposed innovations in the design of a research project module on the Film and Television Practice BA at LSBU. The presentation will draw upon my experience as a practice-based researcher, filmmaker, and journal editor. The new design proposes that the current 6000-word dissertation format will be replaced with an alternative model, inspired by the work of practice-based journals such as Screenworks, The Journal for Artistic Research, Open Screens and InTransition. The aim of the module is to encourage all students, including those with different learning styles, to engage with new forms of knowledge production, specifically through film practice as research. In the words of the Filmmaking Research network, “new knowledge about filmmaking will be acquired for filmmaking through filmmaking”.
The module currently gives students an option to choose between a traditional 6,000-word dissertation, or a practice-based portfolio with a 3,000-word exegesis. Even though most students are less confident with academic writing, the majority still choose the 6,000-word option. To address this issue, the redesigned module will place an increased emphasis on film practice as research and experimental writing methods. This approach to learning is particularly beneficial for students with different learning styles, and will facilitate more diverse forms of research output, whilst maintaining a high level of academic rigour.
The presentation will outline the rationale behind the proposed changes, and how the new module will be structured, as well as some of the content covered. We will also discuss potential benefits of the new model, including the development of new research skills and the ability to engage with a wider range of audiences.
Dr. Matthew Hawkins is a filmmaker and film theorist, specializing in the areas of film-philosophy, affect, and narrative cinema. He is a Senior Lecturer in Film Practice at London South Bank University where he is also Chair of the Screen Research group. He holds a BA (First Class Hons) and an MA (Distinction) in Film from the University of East London. His practice-based PhD in film-philosophy, affect and narrative cinema was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. His artistic research in film span documentary forms, artist film and video, and fiction filmmaking. His films screen internationally at conferences, festivals, galleries and in the communities in which they are made. He is an associate editor for the journal Screenworks.
___________________________________________________________________________
Work-based learning for film school students: enhancing employability and creating change-makers
This presentation focuses on a work-based learning (WBL) project that requires collaboration with industry and other students as a chance for students to gain skills crucial to their careers, in this case, filmmaking and screen careers. WBL is a key method in developing skills for the workforce and addressing the skills gap in the creative industries, which both government and industry identify as problematic. While there is substantial research into benefits of WBL and compelling evidence of the competitive nature of the screen industries, there is little research focused on how WBL can enhance the skills and employability of students studying film, television, and online media degrees.
This presentation offers a case study of an Industry Project undertaken by MA students at a small, private provider in London. The Industry Project at MetFilm School involves students across five MA disciplines working together to make branded content videos for external clients. Over a nine-week period, 150 students plan, shoot, and edit over 50 videos. The module exemplifies interesting gaps between students’ expressed wishes for collaboration and independence, and their struggles with teamwork and independent learning on the ground. We suggest these may be impacted by the covid-19 pandemic and that the value of these industry projects for students is crucial in preparing students to both successfully enter, and act as change makers in, the world of work.
Alice Guilluy is Programme Leader of Postgraduate Programmes at MetFilm School. She holds a PhD in Film Studies and German from King’s College London, which was published as a monograph entitled, Guilty Pleasures? European Audiences and Contemporary Hollywood Romantic Comedy (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021).
Elizabeth Miller is Deputy Dean at MetFilm School. With a PhD from the University of Sydney and an MSc in Higher Education from the University of Oxford, her research explores the intersection between higher education and work with a focus on work-integrated/based learning, authentic assessment, and academic identity and labour.
The Pedagogy of Sustainability,
Aligning with the 2025 Paris Climate agreement and the widely used tenet of ‘stubborn optimism’, the BAFTA Albert curriculum of the Albert Graduate Certification, inspires us to imagine that the 1.5C agreement is within our reach. At the time of writing there are no data-based scientifically derived predictions that support this.
Should we be teaching our students how to live, work and survive in our warmer, difficult, and diminished world. To prepare them and the industry, honestly and clear headedly for current and future challenges? I would like to pose a few questions to provoke debate and discussion around this central concern.
Christopher Hall is a Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University.
Experimental and Experiential Space: A Sonic Arts Approach to Sound Design Pedagogy.
Film students often appreciate the importance of “good sound” to the successes of their productions, but rarely develop an understanding beyond the technical basis of sound, of the sonic potential to create onscreen space and tell the inner stories presented onscreen.
Often the misunderstanding of sound as a purely technical craft leads students to move away from sound as a creative space for storytelling, leading to functional (or not) sound design work which misses out opportunities to craft deep and meaningful connections between sound, picture and performance.
Taking as a basis a hybrid curriculum of sound design for screen and a ‘sonic arts pedagogy’ - an experimental and theoretical approach to creating sonic spaces onscreen, this talk explores a range of novel and unique workshops for Year 3 film students which encourage an active understanding of sonic arts thinking and how it may be appropriated to create creatively challenging real and psychological/ emotive sonic space onscreen.
The workshops propose that a deep understanding of how sound is heard or listened to in real spaces, and an understanding of the potential of experimental music/ sound arts techniques/ process can radically challenge a student’s understanding of the potential to augment performance and picture with sound.
Liam Wells is the Course Leader (BA Hons) Film and Moving Image Production at Norwich University of the Arts. His creative practice and research ranges from experimental, interactive film and virtual production to drama producing, but more often is focused in experimental music, sound arts and sound design for film. Liam has been an HEA National Teaching Fellow and is currently a member of the NAHEMI Executive and on the Board of the Royal Television Society EAST.
ViewfindR: using gaming technology to teach creative decision-making
This presentation introduces ViewfindR, a camerawork simulator for teaching creative decision-making skills to students of documentary and visual journalism. It uses gaming technology to allow students to develop their director’s eye and think through camera and lighting-related decisions to prepare for filming or create a storyboard. It features videogame-like 3-D indoor and outdoor virtual environments accessed through ordinary web browsers. The environments include static and moving characters that players can film virtually. They can position characters against different backgrounds, set up and adjust lights to achieve a desired look, choose a camera position and angle, compose their shots and film sequences.
Virtual reality tools are now used in teaching the sciences and engineering, but not yet in media and journalism. This virtual learning environment decouples visual training from bulky professional equipment and over-the-shoulder practical instruction. ViewfindR facilitates interactive experiential learning in a safe space, and overcomes multiple barriers of time, logistics and distance. It allows students to experience a far wider range of scenarios than would be possible in real life, and to do so while circumventing the logistical encumbrances of professional equipment.
The presentation includes a short demonstration video of the ViewfindR Mark 3 prototype. The development of ViewfindR has been undertaken as an interdisciplinary project supported by several small grants from Cardiff University, the Research Wales Innovation Fund, AHRC and ESRC.
Dr Savyasaachi Jain is a Reader in Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Culture (JOMEC), where he teaches documentary and journalism. In this role, he draws upon a career spanning print and television journalism, documentary filmmaking and providing training to media practitioners internationally. He has taught journalists and filmmakers in about two dozen countries and is or has been a consultant to several UN organisations (UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF and UNDRR) as well as intergovernmental and international organisations such as the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development, Caribbean Broadcasting Union, Commonwealth Broadcasting Association and The Thomson Foundation.
NB – All of the above is subject to change.