IN-PERSON: Learning. Life. Work

Abstract

Today one of the major questions that film educators face is whether we are teaching students who make films; or are we teaching them how to become the people who make films? (Hardin 2009) The technology as well as the film media production processes will change; yet what remains immutable is the understanding that films and television productions can be accomplished only by a group of people working together and that everyone in the team brings essential and diverse character strengths and weaknesses (Sabal 2009). Yet, despite ‘film group project’ being one of the most common approaches to teach filmmaking, there is a considerable lack of educational material to support this ‘educative adventure’ (Friere 1998). Hence this paper will be investigating the role of ‘film group project’ as a teaching method in Film Education and will focus on various ‘hybrid’ elements involved (e.g flexible time, space, diverse skills, cultural perspectives, etc). The anonymous UG and PG student’ survey results on ‘films group projects’ at the University of York, UK will be discussed to observe the various group dynamics as well as to identify possible elements impacting on the nature of collaboration and communication in the group.