Film production and the intersection of technology, education and culture in a post-COVID-19 climate // A Conversation between Dr Neil Fox (Falmouth University) and Freya Billington (UWE)

Fox, Neil ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2959-2877 (2020) Film production and the intersection of technology, education and culture in a post-COVID-19 climate // A Conversation between Dr Neil Fox (Falmouth University) and Freya Billington (UWE). Digital Culture & Education, NA. ISSN 1836-8301

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Abstract / Summary

The reality of what universities can offer students in terms of resource and production culture is closer to that experienced in independent cinema than at the upper echelons of industry. Yet, students desire for the latter, something financially and organisationally beyond the reach of film schools and university film production courses. As the limitations on social contact are unveiled and become part of life at all levels of film production there is the potential for a flattening of both process and product that will see upper echelon content resembling more than ever the independent cinema taught and nurtured on film courses. Potential cultural shifts in film aesthetics and viewing practices that may emerge from a post COVID-19 film industry may have lasting, positive impact in film production classrooms.

While it is undeniable that there are elements of digital education provision that can have a positive impact on film production education, filmmaking for the most part is a social activity requiring collaboration in close quarters from a number of participants on both sides of the camera. There are limitations to what an online film production course can provide, especially if its aims are to introduce students to a variety of formal approaches including narrative, documentary and experimental film. What happens to film production education if all films made are created in isolation by individuals?

Digital education more generally also brings to light inequalities of access that are part of both the challenges of online provision within universities (students having access to laptops, cameras, software and broadband resources to enable parity of participation) and the film and television industry in the UK more broadly (graduates having the financial and familial resources to sustain the demanding internship and apprenticeship conveyor belt post-university).

Item Type:	Article
ISSN:	1836-8301
Subjects:	Film & TV > Film > British Film Education Film & TV
Courses by Department:	The School of Film & Television > Film
Depositing User:	Neil Fox
Date Deposited:	15 Sep 2020 13:16
Last Modified:	11 Nov 2022 16:22
URI:	https://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/id/eprint/4028

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