Recording: Screen Arts and Production Postgrad Info Evening

Welcome, everyone. Thanks for coming tonight. I'm assuming you can all hear me

because I can hear a lot of sound bouncing back. It's always a bit disconcerting

hearing the sound of your own voice. But welcome.

I will, ah, it works.

So I'd firstly like to start by acknowledging the Gatigal people of the Eora Nation,

upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respects

to the elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians

of knowledge for these lands.

This is our running order, I'll try not to ruin my neck, but basically I'll briefly

introduce people here.

Professor Rachel Landers will discuss the courses that we're offering.

We will have a brief presentation from Marcus Hoy and then we'll be opening the,

we'll have a few questions. I've prepared from some questions and you'll be free to

ask any questions that you have afterwards. So

This is our esteemed panel, just starting here on my left with Professor Rachel

Landers. Rachel is a distinguished documentary filmmaker, writer and historian with a

PhD in history. Since 2018, she's led the media arts and production and animation

production programs at UTS, blending her rich experience in the film industry with

her academic expertise.

Marcus Hoy, next to Rachel, is an animation lecturer, filmmaker and PhD candidate

studying graphic writing and pre -visualization in filmmaking. He attained his

bachelor's degree at AFTRS in Sydney, where he began to blend his love for all

kinds of filmmaking processes, both animated and live action. His work has premiered

on Adult Swim in the USA, Mooby, CineQuest, California, Sydney Fringe Festival,

Soft Centre, Melbourne, International Animation Festival, St Kilda, amongst others.

Associate Professor Alex Munt has over 10 years' experience in the creative industries

both in Australia and the UK. Alex has worked across design,

architecture, 3D, digital media and animation. He's also made a name as a filmmaker

directing and writing for feature films, LBF, Poor Little Rich Girls,

Collectors and Isaac's Dreams, all of which have received an award nominations and

been screened globally. In addition to this, Alex is an academic whose research

focuses on micro -budget screen development and production both here in Australia and

internationally. His work bridges the gap between hands -on creative practice and

scholarly research, shaping the future of screen arts and production. And lastly,

I am Dr. Liam Branigan. I have over 30 years of professional experience in media

production. I've worked as a producer on award -winning short films, which have

screened at Berlin, Sydney, and other major film festivals and I've produced

documentaries which have both won awards and been broadcast on television. I've spent

a lot of time on film sets as an assistant director and location manager in

Australia and the UK working in television films, commercials, documentaries. I've been

teaching media production for over 15 years and have a doctorate of creative arts

from UTS where I also did my undergraduate so I've been here for many years okay

so I'd like to now hand over to professor Rachel Landers who run through that oh

the outline of my course I've got to keep my hands to most nice extravagant

gestures so just before we do we'll just play the trailer before we get this this

shot play

Storytelling is such a powerful way of waking people up.

I chose UTS because it has always...

I chose UTS because it has always struck me as a place that is full of innovation.

When I was a kid and had that feeling of being transported and changed and if we

get to make things that give other people that experience, that's everything.

All right, you just tell me when you want to make a fly. Okay, welcome everyone.

So you can, what's really lovely about this is a nested degree. So you can start

off doing the graduate certificate and you can choose to major in drama or

documentary. So this is 24 credit points. If you did it full time, it would be a

whole semester. So pretty full time would be that is about 30 hours a week.

You know, people can work part -time but it is quite intense the reason we offer it

so we you know it can very much a graduate certificate very much suit someone who's

interested in upscaling their careers so they've got a documentary they're quite

intent on developing or a drama project what's lovely about this is you do 12

credit points in drama or documentary you then got the option to do two electives

that can complement that skill. And I'll get on to the electives in the second, but

you'll see there from directing to cinematography to post -production.

What's nice about this if you decide to do it and you think I love this and I

can keep going, you can then go on and do the Masters, which is 72 credit points,

it's 1 .5 years full -time or three years by part -time. So the graduate certificate

is one core subject, drama or documentary, and two electives. The Masters is four

core subjects, 12 credit points each, and four electives of six credit points each.

You can do a master's extension that tends to be for international students who

require an extension for their visa. So if you've got any questions about that, I

can explain that. That's a six -month extension, but it's specifically designed for

people who need visas of two years duration okay so the emission requirements we can

go back to these at the end as well for the graduate certificate you need a

bachelor's degree in a related field and if your degree is not in a related field

you need two years of screen experience industry experience that's shown in your CV

and a personal statement. And if you don't have a degree, this is what I think is

really exciting. And you've got four years of industry experience, you can also apply

it. Actually, I think some of our most successful students, thinking about Danny, was

one of those people. So he actually came in and was getting distinctions and high

distinctions and has recently graduated, right? Just about, yeah. So I think That's a

really interesting option. If you don't have a degree, we very much welcome you if

you have experience and I think you'll fit in. Again with the Masters,

you need, it's very similar,

but if you didn't have a degree, we would start you in the Graduate Certificate and

then you would extend to the Masters. Does that make sense? Yeah? This is like I'm

sort of, I'll be testing you afterwards. Okay, let's get to what the subjects are,

right? So the 12 credit point courses. So that's about 60 hours face -to -face,

or 50 to 60 hours face -to -face. They're very practical. We use very high -end gear.

You'll be making things from day one, pretty much from week two. I think you've

been required to make practical work with gear.

You're trained in workshops, in camera, in sound, in lighting, you get your wings,

and then you can check gear out. There's some group work, but it's primarily

individual, I think, in the first year. It's never more than 30 % of your mark,

so that's good, because group work can be challenging, but it's very good because

you learn how to work in the crew. So if you came in full -time, you would do,

first semester you would do scripted, which is the fiction drama focus, and then you

would do unscripted, which is a documentary non -fiction focus. As I say, they're

very intense. All throughout, you're doing that, you're also doing practical film

workshops. So you come out at the end of that with a whole series, I think you

come out with unscripted with three finished films. Potentially,

yes. Yes, there's, well, there's the archive one,

the interview, and also the group work. So it's very practical, and I think you get

up to speed very quickly. It's all taught by film professionals. So then second

semester, the core is court screen experiences, which is a focus a little bit more

on experimental, augmented reality, VR, all kinds of things, installations, we try and

get a bit crazy and throw you around a bit.

this course and then going out and sitting the test and becoming an avid accredited

editor, which is amazing. We've also partnered with R .E. cameras who are based in

Germany. This is the best cinematography cameras in the world. So the people who

will teach you are accredited RE teachers. They've done the course and we teach

their globally accredited course of that. We've also recently parted with the

Australian Directors Guild. This is the first time this has been done in Australia,

so they are working with us and they developed our curriculum. Alex teaches this. He

worked with the whole team there. It brings in visiting directors from all over,

Australian directors who have worked all over the world and it's just a wonderful, I

think, in the approach to independent cinema and our distinctive brand, Australian

brand of directing. We also do creative producing, which is what it sounds like.

This is very much we ask you to pitch a project, you develop a pitch deck, all

the materials we would need for a development application to screen Australia or

screen New South Wales or film Victoria or wherever you wanted to go, and then a

full production application. So that's why if you were interested,

for example, in just doing the grad cert, you thought, I'll do drama, I'll do that

60 hours of drama core, but then I'll do creative producing because I'll produce all

my pitch materials for an application, and then maybe I'll do post -production or

directing or the cinematography course as well.

We also have screen creation, I think this is a really important elective we have,

have, particularly because the biggest growing area in interesting creative audio

-visual production is in the glam sector, and I think this gives you a foot in that

door of being able to produce high -quality creative works for galleries and libraries

and museums. And the last one we have is internship, and we partner,

we basically, it is what it says, we encourage people if you want to find your own

internship, you can get credit for doing that work. And I think it's 80 to 100

hours with an organization. We could also help broker an internship as best we can,

but we encourage you to go out and find partners for that.

So that's the second one. You do a course, great experiences. In the final semester,

the third semester, you're doing your major project,

and you would do another two electives in that. Okay, so that sort of makes sense,

is this week? So you do, of those six electives, you would choose four over the

course of the degree.

Okay, so this is sort of saying what I just said, again, it's worth running through

again. So the graduate certificate in drama, as you do scripted, 12 credit points,

and then two electives. So that's what I was saying. So what a great combination

would be, you do drama and you maybe do creative producing and I think maybe post

-production, cut a trailer that that would give you the skills to do that. Same with

documentary if you wanted to take that through creative producing or maybe you want

to do the Australian direct skilled directing course with that. Okay, and then if

you do the Masters, you do everything with four electives out of the six. And the

extension, I'm not going to go into that because again, if you've got any questions

about this specifically,

do let me know at the end.

Okay, so jobs and careers.

Obviously directing is one of scripted and non -scripted, producing is another career

option, a creative or development producing it, so working for an industry

organisation like Bunya Productions or something, there's a lot of development jobs, a

lot of creative producing jobs that are going out. You could be a content creator,

developing your own material online. I've just been looking at, what is that

animation company that is glitch? Unbelievable. go home Google Glitch It is the

biggest animation production Company in Australia now I would say Maybe one in the

world All of this stuff is only online It's only on YouTube and it's all free So

it's a really interesting model And I'm just astonished I think the last project

that they had Had I think it was something like 30 million views for the first

watch I mean this is just astonishing so that's that's something we you know we're

very much interested in encouraging people look at those kinds of careers obviously

in doing being able to do the avid post -production editing is a is a profession

curation also in the glam sector or beyond or film festivals and a production

manager

okay so As you can see, this is quite a flexible course.

You can do it, you can do one 24 credit points graduate certificate.

You can do that part -time, so if you are working full -time, it's very, very

accessible.

You don't need to show us a portfolio when you come in. It's very much an even

playing field and we encourage people to kind of collaborate and develop their ideas

from the ground up. We're not, you know, you'll be developing ideas in a portfolio

all the way through. It's really exciting that our subjects are co -branded or ready

with industry. So you know that if you go out and you work anywhere in the world,

that an area camera is the best camera you can get your hold of. Avid is a global

brand. And the Australian Director's Guild while it's very Australian, is recognized

and very well respected. We're in a wonderful place here in the middle of Sydney.

It's a creative precinct. I don't know whether you're aware, but there is a kind of

whole initiative to turn this whole sort of section of Sydney from the powerhouse to

up to Atlassian into a kind of creative tech hub, creative industry precinct. So

that's, I think there's always something going on. It's very exciting. We have

excellent reputation for micro budgets. I might get Alex to talk a little bit about

that. Do you want a sneak peek? Yeah, sure. Am I on there? Yes, I am.

Yeah, I think micro budget cinema has sort of been something which is links,

I guess, to technology as well. And being at UTS, we are sort of engaged in that

technological space in a lot of ways. At UTS, one of my colleagues,

Greg Ferris, and I used to host what we called Microwave, and we had filmmakers

from the States, the Mumblecore filmmakers like Joe Swamberg and Andrew Bojarski come

over, and also from England, Ben Wheatley and so on. So we're looking at feature

films really produced on a micro -budget scale in industrial terms.

three hundred and fifty thousand dollars in australia a micro budget film at that

time was about below a hundred k so we're trying to just say we're trying to think

about micro budget production and practices is a way to reconsider the way that

things are done in an industrial setting and really thinking about the cinematic form

and thinking about the way which the different practices of cinema are reshaped

whether that's through directing a performance and whether that's to cinematography or

coverage whether that's through

the short short film production into that into that sort of larger scale of

production and our film festivals which Rachel talked about the subject curation. Our

film festivals are a really cogent space still where our micro -budget filmmakers, our

indie filmmakers have a chance to show independent work and gather an audience.

Not to mention the sort of the micro -cinemas around those sort of more underground

sort of cinema spaces which operate in Sydney and also become an area for micro

budget kind of production yeah and I mean the other important thing to know this

degree is entirely by doing there's almost no written work at all and it's pretty

much all by creative research practice production so you're constantly making things

so you come out with a real suite of finished products which is exciting and as I

say we have wonderful we have the best media store in Australia lots of wonderful

gear and you get your hands on it in the first couple of weeks when you start I

was going to add to that so and the other thing is our alumni have been very

successful in micro budget productions as well James Vaughan Alina Lodkina and so on

so and so certainly that ethos of making and sort of reflecting on the way films

are made

I'm just going to introduce Marcus Hoy, who's going to give us a brief presentation.

Hello.

So I am doing a PhD, and so it's a little bit different to perspective,

but at the end, I'm going to also try and bring in the conversation about micro

budgets in this context. Some background about me is,

well, doing a PhD is a little mysterious, and often you have to do a lot of work

to kind of understand how it works. So I thought I'd run down how I kind of got

to this spot. So long before I did a PhD, I was working as an editor and

animator, creative practice, and at the same time I was kind of still doing a

creative practice of making short films and music videos, different art projects. And

then during COVID, I started to question how a lot of my work,

especially my commercial work, kind of aligned with my values. And the new working

conditions post -COVID were a lot more isolating. I was working by myself a lot

more. And around this time, a friend of mine mentioned a Masters by Research,

which you said you could pick a topic, research it, and not add to your Hextet. So

that just kind of lurked in the back of my mind for about a year. And then I was

watching a YouTube video about pre -visualization, and it just kind of led me into

this personal research into the relationship between live -action cinema and animation.

And that kind of percolated for a while, and I thought, maybe I should do a

master's by research about this. So I went to all the universities, and I went

through their supervisor lists, and there was only really one person,

not a few, but mainly one who seemed like a good fit. And that was Deborah

Shapiro, my current supervisor. I reached out to her, gave her a short pitch of the

idea, and she was like, yep, I'm interested. We then had a few conversations.

Shortly later, Rachel became my co -supervisor, and I'd started a must by research.

Then I did my first stage assessment and that's one of three and at that point

they said maybe you should convert this into a PhD that's what I did and that was

kind of open up a lot more doors so when you do a PhD you also you can start

potentially getting a stipend you can go to you have more capacity to go to

conferences around the world and yeah visit archives and potentially have the

university help fund your research in a more complete way, which is really exciting.

And I think that's when it kind of shifted from something I enjoy doing to

something I really loved doing. So throughout this whole process, I continued my own

creative practice. I still make films. But what happened really was that my PhD

started actually informing the way I made films. So I used to struggle a lot with,

I'd come up with ideas, wouldn't really know how to iterate on them. I really

struggled to know how to commit and see a project through. I would see it through,

but I think for me it felt like a grind, and I was like pushing a lot, and it

just didn't feel, especially in that early stage, particularly natural. And what I

started to do differently is because I'd looked so much at pre -visualization and

graphic writing processes, I started just re -approaching everything quite differently.

I used to have, and I think I was taught in film school, this particular order

pipeline, where you write a script, then the script, you find some visual references,

you make a mood board, you turn that into a pitch deck, use the pitch deck to

find collaborators, then you work on a storyboard, a shot list with a

cinematographer, you're ready for production.

And now I approach it quite differently. I take the graphic writing and the pre

-visualization and the drawing, and I kind of integrate that back and forth with the

writing process. And I just base it on what the project is. So it's a much more

bespoke process. I kind of actually wonder, like, what is this project need? And I

kind of make up a process depending on it. And I find the ideas just move a lot

quicker and more natural, for me at least, because you're using different parts of

your brain, you're touching things. I sometimes do modeling, sometimes I'm drawing,

and sometimes I'm writing, and it just feels much more creatively inducing.

So that is kind of how it informed my process. In terms of bringing this into

whether a PhD in the future might be right for you, I think some questions you'd

ask yourself is whether the supervisor, do you know a supervisor or can you find

one that you respect whose work you really like and you get along with? Do you

have an area of research you're truly interested in? I don't think you need to know

this right now or before you start, but I do think it's worth thinking about. Are

you a curious person who enjoys researching, and what is your relationship with

reading and writing, and what would you like it to be in the future? It's not to

say you need to be an amazing reader like in a bookworm or an amazing writer,

but you do, I think, need to have a passion for it and be interested in growing

it because it is a massive part of the research element so keep in mind there's

obviously that resource of universities that have the list of different supervisors

and those lists just like UTS has all their bios and their background and a bit

about themselves and also the GRS a graduate research school is a really great

resource to have a conversation They're always keen to talk and answer any of your

questions. So the benefits of doing a postgraduate studies is that you can deepen

your own creative practice. You may have opportunities where overseas travel, meet

other people who are researching a similar topic or research areas, explore different

archives and resources. You're well positioned to teach at the university if that's

something you're interested in. you

so it's important to take advantage of the resources the university provides for

community. That same flexibility can also be challenging because you need to self

-impose structure and routine. I'm sure everyone's had this experience of having to

self -manage. This has made a lot easier if you're genuinely interested in your

research area. And there's a notable amount of paperwork and administrative.

It comes in waves depending on the year, but things like ethics,

So while that's a challenge, if it's something that you can find a burning desire

or passion in, it's incredibly rewarding as well. How am I doing for time? I feel

like, I can keep going on. Well, so one of the other areas I was asked to talk

about was industry trends. And I think I have a bit of a disclaimer here, which is

that I don't think I'm in a position to really discuss the ins and out of the

trends in the screen industry. people working in screen business would be

Now the two main areas that often are spoken about among my screen colleagues is AI

and the Clang. So in terms of animation,

one of the things people are really looking out and should be considering is

industrial action happening in VFX companies and animation studios. And this is an

area and industry within the screen industry that is far less unionized than other

parts, like the live -action components. And this is starting to change, but they're

facing unique challenges of a particularly globalized industry where people can shop

around to different countries. Also, a lot of interest in AI replacing as many of

those workers as possible, because VFX is really expensive and they work on very

tight margins but it's not just that it applies to the entire animation sector

society and this was a big topic in at the Society of Animation Studies annual

conference in 2025 this year in London so I'll try and also distill some of those

discussions quickly with the time I've left but I think keeping in mind that AI is

also incredibly, each new version is expensive, it's incredibly energy exhaustive,

and so I guess the question is, where does it fit into a climate future? So we're

on track to pass, surpass a lot of thresholds, and we're at high risk of self

-sustained global warming. So this is the crisis we're facing, I think most people

recognize that, and I think there's going to be some hard conversations about the

future in the screen industry coming. And I believe we should be thinking of the

industry's future in this context. What does a sustainable, community -driven,

potentially deep platform screen industry look like?

These are unknown futures, but I think they're important to think about and imagine.

So this could involve, for example, local films at community -run cinemas. In fact,

one of the most thriving community -run cinema spaces are the ones that are run by

squatting communities in London and Amsterdam.

Is it pirate cinema, decentralized co -ops? Is it citizen -run screen entertainment?

And like that, are we looking at a kind of throwback to the Nickelodeons where we

do a series of locally made short and long -form entertainment. Let's look beyond

five years from now, look beyond aesthetic concerns about AI, and start placing the

technology into a material world with meaningful limitations. Where does this fit into

a postgraduate education at UTS? Well, I think the future is uncertain, and more

than ever, we need people to think critically and unpack our assumptions, look under

the tech hype, and ask more meaningful questions, doing further education and

research, I think is one potential pathway to do that. Thank you.

I'll pick your slides.

No, no, you keep your slides. I'm

going to continue. I'm going to throw a few tricky questions leading on from that.

It's obviously an interesting discussion about

won't impact screen industries, nearly so much as, say, business,

for example, especially entry -level jobs in businesses, etc.

But I'd like to ask our panel, what areas of industry offer opportunities? Where do

we see growth or opportunities for employment in future? I know we've alluded to it,

but there are clearly growth areas in screen arts production and et cetera.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's exactly about de -platforming and finding ways to reach

audiences in different means, whether that's being on YouTube or whatever or being an

indie filmmaker, and finding ways to monetize that, which is very important, because

interestingly, the traditional

industry I mean your Netflix and your streamers are paying less and less and less

to creators they're actually really struggling to even kind of have enough money to

develop the next production they're squeezing budgets in every way forms and it's

it's you're starting to see people sort of moving away from that and saying well

actually I can make my own material I can find my own audience and build up that

way. So I think actually we're starting to see an expansion in that sort of

corporate control is breaking down.

You know, AI is really interesting. You can look at it as a democratizing tool in

some ways. Some people can.

And it still is, I mean, I remember when the first iPhones came out and everyone's

like, everyone's going to make phones, you know, like feature films on iPhones and

then they were going to be 3D and and you know and like so one person made a

feature film on an iPhone and it's interesting you know anora last year okay so

that guy made a famous film feature film tangerine on an iPhone and his last film

was made on 35 millimeter old -fashioned film so that's the one he won't full circle

yeah so it's kind of it's interesting when you see there's a lot of reaction,

panic and kind of carry on. But honestly, I think all of us can share this in the

room. You want to watch something good that captivates you that drives your narrative

hunger. We all want that. And there's so much crap around,

you're looking for the great idea. And that's where creatos will always be going.

And I think you're right. You're seeing a lot of kind of really interesting,

independent kind of community -driven, audience -driven,

ways of connecting and making money that are very different, that are moving away

from the streamers, which are kind of, I think, are beginning to collapse under

their own weight. I mean, I don't know about you guys. how many streamers are you

subscribing to? I mean, it's sort of like whack -a -mole, isn't it? It's like, oh,

do I want to watch that? Should I subscribe to stand for a month? Turn that off?

What's on the God? What, you know? I mean, it is incredible. There's so much

content. There's not a lot we want to see. But people are starting to go back in

the cinemas. Anyway, I think it's a really exciting time, actually, and it's an

exciting time to be finding your colleagues. That's That's the other thing I was

going to say about UTS. This is a very big family, right? So we have a big

undergraduate degree. We have music and sound design. We have animation and media

arts and production that's in the undergraduate. We've got the media screen screen

arts and production, which is our postgraduate by coursework. We have Marcus here

who's doing a, was doing a MA by research and is doing a PhD so it's we're all

part of a big complicated family that get on pretty well and produce a lot of

extraordinary content but the greatest thing is the contacts you make the

relationships you make the people you will go on and make films work we see this

again and again um we're probably representing some of the best younger elements of

the film is tv industry i mean our great um our great you know person we like to

throw her name around is sam jenkins i think you all know her as she's the

producer of causeway films and she may talk to me and bring her babadook yeah so

she's basically producing these incredibly successful indie films which are not wildly

expensive talk to me i million dollars it made so far about a hundred and twenty

million dollars and was a global hit so I mean I think that's what we like to see

as a scrappy beer budgets champagne results yep so yeah so I you know I think

there's a lot of excitement happening good I feel optimistic yeah um did you have

any other comments or I could I agree does that even Yeah,

that works. Yeah, I think... Just saying that because this is my PhD student. I

have to. No, no, I agree. I'm probably a little...

Yeah, I'm unsure about the future, future, but that's because I've become a prepper.

But I think otherwise, I think this is really accurate.

That, like, the...

there's always I mean I can remember it and I'm fairly young the different periods

of hype that don't quite come through and that's not to say that they don't change

things about the industry each bit but and they do I think in ways that aren't

always obvious but I do think that what's great about into I mean it's a slightly

different point But what it's great about micro -budget independent filmmaking is that

it exists because of that,

because regardless of whether there's an industry for it, there's such a deep passion

and desire by the people who make it. So it's kind of always, it's like part of

the cultural fabric of your

but it has it in some sense so it just it seems to thrive no matter what i think

it's very resilient i guess this is what i'm looking for space yeah um yeah i i

think you know that's that's they're all all good answers um it was francis four

coppler i think that thought that every the films we made on made on iPhones or

very cheap digital technology and he's just um finished megopolis so that didn't

necessarily come true for Francis. But yeah, we're sort of, at UTS, we do sort of

talk about technology a lot, and it is important. We're talking about, you know, our

array cameras or our avid post -production systems, our equipment, and our studios and

our facilities. But really, I think what Rachel was saying, it's really the screen

ideas which are really important. Actually, the screen ideas which people connect with

and audiences connect with. Yes, those screen ideas can be at the service,

are kind of voting with their feet around that. So what all, you know,

post -grade coursework students, which we're talking about here, have the capacity is

to have that passion to tell that screen idea or that drive to tell that screen

story in that particular medium and connect with others. You know,

stories are sort of fundamental to our cultures screen stories are a particular mode

of telling a story but really the AI the tech all of that is kind of at the

service of of this screen story telling okay one final question or discussion point

wondering how the screen arts and production courses will prepare students for

opportunities we've talked about and what kind of quality, skills and knowledge will

practitioners of the future need. We've talked a little about that, but it would be

interesting your thoughts about what we'll do or what you'll get out of being a

part of one of these courses. Well, I mean, it's pretty straightforward. You learn

how to tell screen the stories well. I mean, that seems simple.

get used to getting feedback and you get used to, I think, digging really deeply

into your craft because, you know, making things, it's bringing together,

and we all know about Bezos and saying it's bringing together like a lot of

different elements and getting it right's not easy and also finding the right people

to work with is not easy. It's a, it's a, it's a simple but very nuanced and

complex art. And I think What's lovely about this is I think you push really hard.

I think there's very high expectations of the students. But you get lots of time to

just not fail, but sort of just try it out and develop it and do it again.

And also, and work with increasingly good gear. So, I mean, working with, you start

off, you're working with FX -6s, the Sony cameras, they're beautiful cameras, the

industry standard, people make feature films on them and then you work up to this

gorgeous thing which you know is just amazing you're not allowed to touch it to get

your wings until you do ari cinematography course but i mean what's really nice now

is you're going to have the opportunity once you get to that final third semester

and you're doing a major project to work with someone who's done the cinema area

course who's done the avid post -production course and maybe you're a producer and

you're working with a really good director or you're the director or you just build

up your heft and your skills. What's also good is that you can have lots of

opportunities to try different things, I think, as you go. We've got so many

productions going on. It's like eyewater, how many now? I'd be 60,

maybe. You know, like we have constant productions. so we have this big insta page

so people are looking for art directors or producers or blah blah blah blah so

you've always got an opportunity if you have the capacity obviously to work on lots

of productions and you can just build up your chops build up your portfolio and

that's what people want to see they want to see your range you want to see your

storytelling they want to see that you're distinctive adapt you know and and that

you can really I think be quite nimble in in be really good at some things but

nimble in in many things as well yeah and I mean I think it does depend on your

own journey as well because I think that the modularity of the structure does cater

for people coming to the degree from different different pathways whether that's a

cognate kind of film style undergraduate degree whether that's something more like a

design or a creative discipline or whether that's from an more industry experience

perspective. I think that the shape of the degree and the choices and the

flexibility within it enable you to sort of pick what you think that progression is

best for you and it might be different from the person sitting next to you. Some

people are really burning to be a writer -director. It's a less forward path,

for example, perhaps if you see your life in post -production, which is probably from

a market perspective, has a bit more of continuity there, but it doesn't necessarily

mean you change your mind towards that. You kind of have a sense of already, as

you're here tonight, what you're interested in and where you see yourself and the

program can refine that goal and that ambition.

Well, that's right. So, like, here's an example. You could work, there's always a

lot of post -production work. So if you did that avid elective, you might graduate

and you might get some really nice gigs as an assistant editor or editing, like,

budget things. But it means that you can be pursuing your dream of being a

director. I mean, it means that you can earn money or being a camera assist or

working in a camera department. It gives you enough skills to kind of earn money in

the industry while you're launching your great, your next talk to me or,

you know, so I think that's important too. It's not like you, it's not like you're

just, we're not just brushing each other's hair and saying that's a lovely idea.

There are hardcore skills you will graduate with if you take those particular

elective pathways, which are critical. I mean, people will like the idea that you're

using very high -end cinematography, you know, cinema lenses and stuff like that.

And I'll just note that we do integrate the, I suppose, an examination of

creativity, aesthetics, a little theory behind all these things as well as,

for example, workshops, as Rachel mentioned earlier we do camera sound editing audio

design all of those in our first semester whichever you do unscripted or scripted so

that they form the building blocks and then you for the Aryan avid etc and also

there's a lot of I suppose in subjects like creative producing emphasis on research

and originality coming up with ideas for projects and where you take them,

how you'd find money in them. So they're sort of all sort of building blocks to,

you know, their career skills that you need to know how much will this cost to

make or where would I make it, where could I get finance from and all those ideas

to actually get your ideas onto screens. Sorry, Alex,

did you have a... No, no, I'm poised. I'm agreeing with... I thought you were about

to harmonise. So, does anyone have a question? There must be a question.

Yes.

Do you want to... Thanks, Alex. Thank you. Oh, geez. Thank you for hosting this

tonight. I'm about to finish my Bachelor of Media Arts production at UTS in like a

couple weeks time. And I'm really like gunning to get into the industry,

which I understand in Australia is like a difficult thing. I suppose my question

really is, obviously I'm asking a little bit of a bias panel. But I suppose what

is from just purely trying to get into industry not really an interest in academia,

what would the benefit of doing the masters be versus just getting my elect boots

on the ground and just working?

I mean, the industry right now is in the doldrums. I mean, one of the biggest

challenges facing the industry, we're all quite involved in this, is trying to get

these quotas through Parliament. I don't know whether people are aware,

because there used to be quite rigid quotas for broadcasts, they dropped that because

the streamers didn't have them, and it's dropped by something like 86 or 87 % in

the last three years, which has been very disturbing.

That movement, and if you want to get involved in it, I very much encourage you if

you see a petition around about trying to get these quotas in Australia. So

countries like France, Spain, Portugal,

Italy, better, Lola, everyone around the world have the streamers have quotas.

What tends to be happening with the streamers now is they'll tend to fund a very

large budget thing. There's not a lot of them. Or they'll be shot in the Gold

Coast and it's American projects being shot here. So that's your answer here.

It's hard for people who've worked for 30 years to get work.

I mean, I know people who've been cinematographers or really high -end crews on

feature films, and they are really

Yeah,

in any particular area across the development or production or posts or,

yeah, yeah, well, yeah, I mean, that's one good answer is it's not a reality that

one goes from an undergraduate degree to being a director of a feature film in any

sort of reality. So that's one good reason that You've kind of got an inkling that

you're interested in it and progressing that and having stuff to show and having

your work find an audience. That's a really good reason to do it.

It's not going to happen after an undergraduate degree. You're not going to enter

the industry with that job description. So you can do other kinds of things as

you're building your goal and we all do them we all have but I think that doing

the flexible study options on the side for example the scripted and the ADG

directing subject for example would a hundred percent further your your goal as I

see it yeah and I think the thing is if you quite strategic about this if you

came in with a project or a couple of projects and you're developing them throughout

using the the subjects to actually very specifically develop those ideas and get the

skills and learn how to do a proper budget. You've got your crew. Yeah, and, you

know, so that's what I think. I think if you're very strategic about it, like I'm

not saying it's not good to go and get work experience and all that kind of stuff.

I just don't know there's a lot of work around. I think I know things will

improve, but the other thing, you'll also learn different ways to reach different

audiences which i think is also really important um all i was going to say is

based off looking at my cohort and the people who wanted to become directors and

those who succeeded and those who didn't i don't it's not a nice way to put it

but i guess those who continued to pursue directing and have found a career and

those who then decided it wasn't right for them and went a different way often uh

Often, there was no one pathway. So some of them, I can think of some who ended

up doing more education and then went on to direct films for Stan and whatnot,

and it's done really well. And I can think of another who made a short series on

TikTok, and that went viral, and that kind of became a pathway.

So there are multiple pathways. I know another who did a master's, their project

there, got into Khan, and then that pretty much helped them a lot. And I know

people who make incredible films all the time, and they still struggle to get by.

And no big, like, they continue to just be underground. I don't know why exactly. I

can't explain it fully, but, like, it can also depend what kind of filmmaker you

want to be.

festival won't program their film. It's just strange, but it's kind of how it works

for them. And then the others who are more willing to work within the industry and

kind of have that gumption to work within that compromises,

then there's a lot of pathways for them as well. But I guess there's no one way.

And I think one, I mean, there is no one way, but one way is doing a master's

with a project in mind and then having certain festivals of mind for that project.

And like I think the thing about education, you do it because you think you've got

more to learn. There's no reason to do it unless you really have that hunger. You

want to learn, you want to grow more and you want to invest that. And I, you

know, lots of people, I didn't go to film school, you know, and I have, you know,

a very long career as a filmmaker. Um, it's, it's, there's lots of ways in

but I think what's happening now is those ways are narrowing and what's lovely about

this

family is they support each other and they build other ways in and they build a

kind of community of practitioners that do really interesting things I mean it's like

Alex has made four feature films in 10 years, you know, so here, that go all over

the world. And he's not making Oppenheimer, but he doesn't want to,

right? Because he can explore his art, yet, sorry, sorry, yes, watch out next year.

Opi 2. Yeah, Opi 2. So, but that's it. You've got to want to do more.

But I do thinking, you know, having ideas that you want to pursue and things you

want to flesh out can be a really good way to be quite specific about how you

want those outcomes to be. I mean much more than in an undergraduate degree. I mean

you can be much more precise about what you bring into this. I mean we would have

no, there would be no problem in using it as a pathway. Then some further

information up here now in separate slides if you want to get scan the QR code for

feedback but also if you want to have a one -on -one consultation I ran a few of

those earlier this year for people who wanted to chat more specifically about their

circumstances and about enrollment and so I had a couple of Zoom sessions earlier

this year around May June. But yeah, there's some dates in terms of enrollment.

So please take a note or a photo, as some people are. Thank you very much again for coming.