School of Film and TV - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 10 of 12
-
ItemCaptured(University of Melbourne, 2009)CAPTURED is a psychological drama about celebrated photographer, Mikey Hayes, whose son disappears under mysterious circumstances whilst in his care. In a desperate bid to find him, Mikey runs onto a road where he gets hit by a car. When he recovers in hospital, he has no memory of the accident, the disappearance or his own identity. As memory slowly returns to Mikey, a news story about a drowned boy reminds him that his son is missing and he notifies the police. The police locate Mikey's estranged wife, Vita, and from her learn of a conflicting scenario relating to Jake's disappearance. As new information comes to light, it becomes apparent that neither parent knows the full details of their son's predicament. Vita and Mikey are forced to acknowledge the pivotal role they played in his disappearance in order to discover what really happened to him.
-
ItemWhat makes a filmmaker make films? A theoretical model & analytical method for the interrogation of filmmaking practice( 2014)Scholarly research on filmmaking practice from a filmmaker’s point of view is rare, with existing studies mostly focusing on the making of feature films. The research presented in this thesis demonstrates that it is both possible and useful to systematically describe, structure, and assess the significance of some of the more notable factors that affect and shape a much broader range of filmmaking practices, the impulses that motivate them, and the films they generate. Part I of this thesis addresses the theoretically-based Research Question 1: "What is a theoretical model for the analysis of filmmaking practice that is: 1) from a filmmaker’s point of view; 2) comprehensive; and 3) structured and systematic?" After establishing that there are no existing models of filmmaking or any other creative practice that meet these three criteria, a new theoretical model called the Practice-Space Model of Filmmaking is proposed and described. This model is sited within a cross-disciplinary theoretical framework that draws on elements of existential phenomenology psychology, Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of the “sociology of power”, Storper and Salais’ economic theory of “worlds of production”, and the Hindu notion of purushartha or “goals of life”, as modernised by Mohandas Gandhi. Part II of this thesis addresses the empirically-based Research Question 2: "Can the Practice-Space Model of Filmmaking: 1) be operationalised; and 2) be useful in the analysis of Chris Warner’s filmmaking practice between January 1978 and December 1991?" Utilising an analytic autoethnographic case study method and cross-modal data collection, the operationalisation of the analytical method associated with the Practice-Space Model introduced in Part I is demonstrated by applying it to a 14-year period in the author’s own filmmaking practice in Australia, during which he was the sole or joint filmmaker of nine completed films and two uncompleted film projects. The results of this analysis of a limited section of Australian filmmaking practice demonstrate that the Practice-Space Model of Filmmaking is both practicable and useful, and suggest the basis for more broadly-applicable further iterations of the Model.
-
ItemOn the same page: an exploration of the co-screenwriting experience( 2014)Most commercial screen product created in the last century has been the result of collaboration between two or more writers. However, while there exists a significant body of research into the areas of both ‘collaboration’ and ‘screenwriting’, very little exists which interrogates their nexus. This practice-led thesis begins to address that gap by firstly investigating the process of co-screenwriting through my writing collaboration with John Studley on the feature-length screenplay, The Last Resort. Throughout the writing of the screenplay I maintained observational diaries, transcribed audio recordings of writing sessions and reflected on communication and collaboration patterns. Secondly, this thesis also attempts to contextualise this collaboration between two screenwriters constructing a feature-length screenplay by examining various co-authoring models used. In spite of the fact that the majority of film scripts are credited to one writer, I suggest that collaborative screenwriting within the film industry is highly prevalent, particularly in Hollywood, where it takes many guises, both overt and covert, willing and unwilling. I further suggest that historically, the rigid modern screenplay format used by many contemporary screenwriters developed as a by-product of studio-enforced collaborations during the silent-movie era of Hollywood and, therefore, this particular form of the screenplay may be ideally suited to co-writing. Through the examination of my own collaborative screenwriting practices, I conclude that a prolonged and well-considered prewriting phase may be highly desirable to the quality of the final screenplay and the health of the collaborative process. I propose that conversational collaboration (writing every word together) can be an effective technique between two screenwriters; and that conversational collaboration significantly enhances the vocabulary required to successfully co-write and strengthens what is, possibly, the most important ingredient of all successful collaborations: trust.
-
ItemDocumentary access: an examination of access in the production of the observational and participatory documentary in the commissioned environment (based on "Community Cop"[Gaynor 2009])( 2012)Documentary Access is a practice-based analysis of the issue of access in the observational and participatory documentary filmmaking modes (as proposed by documentary theorist Bill Nichols in Representing Reality [Nichols 1991]) and the meeting of stakeholder expectations. Nichols’ modes identify particular traits and conventions of different documentary styles. Access is central to the observational and participatory modes because content and narrative form is derived from the filmmaker’s direct and unscripted access to people, events and places. The analyses of what this access signifies in a formalised filmic sense, provides a key to understanding what the recorded content delivers in terms of the filmic narrative, stakeholder expectations and possible conflicts between these two elements. The study is based on methodologies developed and data gathered during the creation of a fifty-two minute broadcast documentary Community Cop (Gaynor 2009). The creative work follows the Community Liaison Officer at the Flemington Police station and members of the local African Australian community as they strive to resolve long term conflicts. The field study and dissertation reveal and analyse issues in the evaluation of access from both a filmic and stakeholder perspective that can have serious implications for filmmakers working in the observational and participatory modes. This dissertation proposes a set of references for analysing types and implications of access and proposes a set of responses to the often-inevitable clash between proposition and actuality in these modes.
-
ItemTime sense: cultural difference and the creation, construction and reception of animated film( 2012)This dissertation explores cultural differences in animated film production, investigating the influence of the filmmaker and viewer in the creation, the construction and the sensibility of film. A notion of inter-subjective time is applied to the discussion of microscopic and macroscopic perception of animation movement via 20th century philosophers, such as Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), Henri Bergson (1859-1941), J.M.E. McTaggart (1866-1925), Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961) and Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995). This is an exploration of scientific perspectives of time as well as an investigation of cultural differences in the intentionality and the direction of time to the discussion of international animation phenomena. Understanding animation as an intersection of human perception, cultural and social movement, the author introduces his theoretical notion, time-sense, which is a combination of subjective and inter-subjective time, giving rise to archetype and our awareness of the quality of slowness and fastness of movement and its tracked shape, this dissertation reconsiders the influence of complex phenomenon of hybridized time-sense, and its close relationship to the microscopic movement of Japanese animation film. Focusing on the temporal space or ma used in anime series Puella Magi Madoka Magica (2011), the animated film Spirited Away (2001) and The Sky Crawlers (2008) as well as the movement of Hatsune Miku and Japanese video sharing website Nico Nico Dôga, this thesis identifies a cross-cultural/ intercultural time theory in search of more specific understanding of differences and similarities between cultures particularly as it relates to animation.
-
Item“Kill Bigfoot”: constructing a cinematic relationship between character, the city and nature( 2012)The purpose of my research is to explore the relationship between representations of cinematic space and character in dramatic fiction film. Specifically, my focus is on representations of city dystopias and natural landscapes in dramas that investigate human nature. This dissertation is an examination of the issues encountered in drawing from this research during the writing of Kill Bigfoot, a scenario whose narrative takes place across these two worlds: the urban dystopia of a future New York, and the natural word of the Australian wilderness. It includes the motivation, influences, interests and methodology that guided my writing process, and a discussion of the core ideas that underpin my work. The qualitative, practice-led research undertaken during my masters consisted of analysing films that have used representations of the natural world and cities to explore the human condition, as well as the study of texts on film, philosophy, religion and myth. Picnic at Hanging Rock, Blade Runner, Brazil, Children of Men and Taxi Driver were focal points for my research, as were the films of Terrence Malick and Werner Herzog. My research regarding representations of dystopias on screen inevitably included work on cities and urbanity on screen, from both internal (the experience of the inhabitants of these spaces) and external (the design of these spaces) perspectives. Thomas Hobbes on human nature, and then George Simmel, Henri Lefebvre and Marc Augé on cities, urbanity, modernity and post-modernity, were critical to my research and to the development of Part One of Kill Bigfoot. Turning to the natural world of Part Two, the ideas of Martin Lefebvre were most influential. Friedrich Nietzsche and the various Vienna Schools of psychoanalysis shaped my understanding of my protagonist Bill’s driving need, which was the substantive link between the two parts of Kill Bigfoot, his inner world that is at the heart of the drama, and our own world. My study ultimately considers the interrelationship between the dramatisation of character, cinematic space and ideas of human nature in film dystopias. The research indicates that not all filmmakers explore this relationship in the development of their scripts or the use of settings in their films. However, for those filmmakers who do so through the use of dystopic cities, it often expresses a point of view on the competing forces within us that shape the world, and how the same world shapes us. Understanding our urban point of view (or “gaze”) required Bill to enter the counterpoint of his dystopic city – the natural landscape of Australia. My study therefore also involves observations about the representation of the natural world in cinema and its relationship to our inner nature.
-
ItemLesbian film directors and their pursuit to successful film careers in a mainstream world( 2012)Over the past twenty years there has been an explosion of queer cinema and TV. Queer film festivals have multiplied, DVD distribution and online social networks have expanded, making queer films more accessible. However, lesbian filmmakers struggle to generate enough support to complete films that include lesbian content. This research investigates the social and historical barriers facing lesbian film directors and addresses the opportunities available through queer film festivals, queer audiences and online distribution pathways. It consists of two parts: a short animation film entitled The Confession of Father John Thomas (2011), and a written thesis. The Confession of Father John Thomas is a five-minute overtly queer animation film. The content and history of its trajectory through film festivals and the distribution process is directly linked to my key investigation. The written thesis investigates a perceived lack of social and economic support and recognition for lesbian directors who make films with discernible lesbian-themed content and asks what does it take for them to become successful in the mainstream film industry? To find answers to this central question, several local and international lesbian film directors were evaluated and interviewed. Their responses, writings and film work provide much useful anecdotal, personal and hard factual evidence of the perceived lack of social and economic support and recognition for lesbian directors. However this study affirms that in fact creating films authentic to the directors own beliefs and perspective are most likely to successfully break through these difficulties. Queer Film Festivals were found to have an essential and vital role in the support of filmmakers not only within this niche but also with mainstream markets. The thesis finds many useful ways in which digital production and distribution processes can assist lesbian film directors. These new avenues are explored, and address issues of audience access, recognition and new means of funding film productions.
-
ItemInspired by a true story: an assessment of how the dramatic elements of pity and fear can be applied by a producer seeking to transform historical events into narrative drama for television: based on a case study of the production of the telemovie, Sisters of War (2010)( 2011)This thesis argues that, as one of a team of authorial agents, the producer of a television historical drama should understand the challenges, limits and benefits of shaping the dramatic elements of pity and fear in order to sustain historical veracity within the work whilst meeting the narrative requirements of mass-broadcast media. Accordingly, this research assesses how Aristotelian descriptions of particular emotive indicators in drama, specifically pity and fear and pitiable and fearful incidents, may be considered and applied by a television producer seeking to adapt oral histories to the specific needs of a telemovie inspired by historical events. Using Aristotle’s treatise, the Poetics (and to a lesser extent, The Art of Rhetoric) as a framework, an assessment is made of the dramatic properties of pity and fear with a focus on the cognitive base of these emotional indicators and their role in linking the rational and the figurative. The research then examines key creative and financial decisions in the development and production phases for the Australian telemovie, Sisters of War (2010). Through this process the research assesses the producer’s authorial role and manipulation of emotional elements as he attempts to reconcile the application of dramatic and emotive effect – the imaginative and figurative requirements of story – with the empirical matters and eyewitness accounts associated with the historical referent that inspired the story. The two women who provided the oral histories that inspired the telemovie are Sister Berenice Twohill and Mrs Lorna Johnston (nee Whyte). Sections of transcript from their primary research interview (March 27th and 28th, 2008) are mapped as they are developed in the written documents and subsequently filmed and edited. The dramatic elements of pity and fear in the completed telemovie are then identified and tested for their ability to implement the producer’s stated objectives. This thesis asserts that, with critical qualifications, far from being antithetical to the goals of conventional historical practice, television drama can utilise the key emotive elements of pity and fear to create an intense and meaningful correspondence between our understanding of past events and our desire and need for an imaginative representation of those events.
-
ItemHope: towards an ethical framework of collaborative practice in documentary filmmaking( 2010)There appears to be a renewed interest in the ethics of documentary filmmaking among academics and writers in Australia and elsewhere. It is also clear from my own and other documentary makers’ experience that not only are ethical decisions in our daily work of great importance and concern but that the contemporary filmmaking environment, greatly influenced as it is by the needs and demands of the television broadcasters, can militate against ethical behaviour by filmmakers, not least in their relationships with the participants in their films. The increasing ‘production line’ nature of the industry and inherent contradictions between formal release forms and the need for filmmakers to establish trust are just two of the factors at play here. This thesis begins with an examination of these and other developments in the Australian industry that are tending to undermine the work of so-called ‘independent’ filmmakers. I reflect on my experience in making commissioned documentaries and, in light of a lack of ethical guidelines available to documentary filmmakers other than the editorial codes applicable to current affairs and journalism and protocols for working with indigenous communities, I compare this with the importance attached in the field of narrative therapy, for example, to ethical protocols dealing with transparency, reflexivity and the power relationship between ‘researcher and researched’. It has been pointed out by Brian Winston and others that the key to ethical documentary making lies in the relationship between filmmaker and participant, and that generally filmmakers are left to work out for themselves what this means (Winston 1995, p. 240; 2008, p. 252). My own response has been to develop a model of collaborative filmmaking that seeks to equalise the power imbalance between filmmaker and participant and encourage the active participation and self-advocacy of the latter. In this thesis I examine this model and its characteristics using my recent documentary Hope as a case study. This film was made largely outside of the film industry ‘system’ and therefore without the constraints often imposed by broadcasters or industry bodies. Having posited the principles behind an ethical, collaborative approach I examine how its adoption worked out in practice during the making of Hope, which, although ostensibly a simple documentary about one person’s life, threw up difficult ethical dilemmas, as all documentaries tend to do. I explore how some of these dilemmas were resolved in a collaborative context and how such an approach provides space to the participant to contribute in shaping the resulting film. The influence of this approach on aesthetics is also explored. In conclusion I draw attention to the wider implications of a collaborative approach for the relationships between filmmakers and the industry they serve and note that irrespective of how we approach the filmmaking endeavour, in the end we are faced with the ongoing re-examination of our own ethical values as well as those of the industry bodies we deal with. It is to be hoped that this empirical exploration of ethics through a collaborative approach to documentary practice will stimulate further debate, not just among academics and writers but throughout the documentary community at large.
-
ItemMourning becomes electric: Vida Goldstein takes on politics and When Vida met the President: a documentary film script( 2010)This Master’s thesis comprises a 55-minute drama documentary film script entitled When Vida Met the President and a 15,000- word dissertation. The two parts explore the life and times of Vida Goldstein (1869-1949) and rely on extensive archival material. Goldstein was the first Australian woman to elect to stand for parliament. In her several campaigns over 14 years she employed the latest visual technology to communicate a revolutionary political message that advocated equality for women. The thesis investigates the use of the emerging technologies of film, television, (first demonstrated in 1923) 3D technologies and the magic lantern. These technologies reproduce the messages and images of the political mass movement for woman’s equality and suffrage between 1903 and 1917. By interweaving this history with Vida Goldstein’s personal story and connections with her mother and grandmother, I identify the interface between women’s personal narratives and the political.