WHAT ARE FLEX STUDIOS?

Flex Studios are Media Studios that run in November/December, in an intensive, 6-week mode. This year, Flex Studios will run from Monday 31 October to Friday 9 December, with final assessments due Friday 16 December.

SHOULD I ENROL IN FLEX?

Check with your academic advisor.

FLEX STUDIOS 2022

PEOPLE + PLACES (ON-CAMPUS ONLY)

Character and location in non-fiction media making

Timetable (you must attend all sessions):

WEDNESDAY 10:30-12:30 + 13:30-16:30

FRIDAY 10:30-12:30 + 13:30-16:30

Studio question:

What are some of the technical and ethical considerations when we turn the camera towards characters and locations and describe our work as documentary?

Studio description:

In People + Places, students will engage in a variety of studio activities (including screenings, discussion, practical exercises, reflective tasks and media production) to explore the various ways in which non fiction materials can be arranged for different outcomes and audiences. The first half of the semester finds students researching and reflecting on various approaches to capturing the real world. In class, students will respond to the work of practitioners such as filmmakers Frederick Wiseman and Molly Dineen and photographers Eve Arnold and Martin Parr in a series of in class exercises. Along the way, students will evaluate and improve their media production skills. The second half of the semester finds students working in small groups to devise, pitch and produce a major work. This major work is usually a short documentary of 5 minutes duration but there is also scope to create a print or transmedia artefact.

Studio leader:

Rohan Spong is a writer / director / cinematographer whose feature length films ALL THE WAY THROUGH EVENING (2012) and WINTER AT WESTBETH (2016) have been released in cinemas (Australia, New Zealand & US), been broadcast on television (ABC, SBS, FOXTEL, 7PLUS and on PBS/WORLD) and selected by numerous film festivals (including MIFF, Sydney Film Festival, DOC NYC). His work has also been programmed at cultural institutions including ACMI, MONA, Boston Museum of Art, Lincoln Center (NYC) and the US Library of Congress.

You can read more about his work at www.rohanspong.com.

DELIBERATE FILM (ONLINE ONLY)

The learning of filmmaking inspired by prompts and guided with constraints. 

Timetable (you must attend all sessions):

MONDAY 12:30-15:30 AEST

TUESDAY 12:30-14:30 AEST

THURSDAY 12:30-15:30 + 16:30-18:30 AEST

‘[Y]ou know you are encountering art when you are engaging with an intentional process or product that causes surprising transformations in matter or in a moment.’

Gibson, Ross. 2009. “The Known World.” Text, no. 2007: 1–11. Brien, Burr & Webb (eds) 5 TEXT Special issue, Symposium: Creative and practice-led research—current status, future plans, Oct. 2010

Studio question:

Could a different approach to the learning of filmmaking – working through a series of projects inspired by prompts and guided by constraints that investigate different facets of film production – elicit better outcomes?

Studio description:

In order to evolve our filmmaking skills we need to steady up, take a breath and slow things down — become more deliberate. Through an iterative cycle of learning, making and reflection you will develop your competency in production techniques and your analytical skills will become more refined.

You will be viewing and analysing other’s work in parallel with planning, shooting and editing small projects in and out of class time. Each project will be inspired by a prompt and/or a constraint.

You will develop the technical competencies required to work through each of these projects. This will deepen your knowledge of each of the facets of film production and how they work together. The methods of collaboration and production will be designed as we progress through the semester. There will be time for discussion and feedback back from staff and your peers. Outside of class time you will be researching, reflecting and writing on the issues each of the projects gives rise to.

The second half of the semester you will initiate your own series of film projects that will be small and contained. This is the reverse of the usual film school model of loading all of your eggs into the last week mega project and smashing them all together into a dissipated mess.

Studio leader:

Paul Ritchard lectures in film production and is a member of the nonfiction lab and the Screen and Sound Cultures group at RMIT University. His PhD is titled THE RIVER PROJECT Towards an Eco-Aesthetic practice where he is producing a series of films on rivers.

He has made 13 short films; two of which have been festival finalists. He worked on Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions. After graduating from RMIT Media in 1994, he worked as a freelance editor and camera operator while running his own production company ‘No Name Films’ which produced over 120 films, music clips, corporate videos and promos.