Pedagogy 2025
Abstract
Film schools and universities struggle to adapt their screen production curriculum for online and remote delivery because filmmaking is practical, collaborative, and uses expensive infrastructure and resources. Participation in screen education is therefore limited for students who live outside the metropolitan areas where production infrastructure is concentrated. This paper evaluates an intervention conducted in an undergraduate digital media programme at a regional Australian university. The regional context poses challenges for traditional instruction in screen production because of its dispersed cohort characterized by a high number of indicators for disadvantage, necessitating simultaneous delivery online and across multiple campuses. The intervention applies a pedagogy drawn from a set of production philosophies referred to collectively as “The Total Filmmaker”. The Total Filmmaker pedagogy privileges a strengths-based model where practitioner–students structure their productions around their individual contexts and resources. It supports the teaching of novel community- and place-responsive production practices that aim to equip students with essential skills to continue to live and practice in the regions. This research supports the decentralization of the film school, widening access across diverse contexts and large geographic distances. It equips these students with the skills to depict their experiences and communities authentically, addressing the historically high barrier to entry for participation in the screen production industry. In doing so, it models a production approach that also inherently advocates on-screen diversity and one that the screen industry could adopt more widely.
Andrew Couzens’ research interrogates intersections between place, industry, and culture on the screen. He seeks to empower filmmakers, especially from regional Australia, to represent themselves and their communities authentically. He has published on teaching screen production, creative practice research, and Australian cinema history.
Jan Cattoni’s professional career spans a number of disciplines including filmmaker, academic and paediatric intensive care nurse. Jan has woven these disciplines into a kind of hybrid career in ethical filmmaking, often working with vulnerable individuals and marginalised communities. Jan has worked in many remote Indigenous communities producing content for ICTV and NITV and mentoring emerging Indigenous directors. This work has come about by invitation from stakeholders in a number of key communities. In this environment, Jan has been able to explore participative filmmaking, community scripting and improvisation, and creative responses to complex issues.
1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Thursday 20th November, 2025