AFTRS

This course will take you on a journey through the diverse skillsets needed to become a successful screen producer. You will learn the fundamentals of developing ideas, projects and narrative storytelling skills to communicate your vision. You will learn how to identify audiences; speak to financiers, distributors and broadcasters; acquire intellectual properties; manage creative people and work collaboratively. You will evaluate your own strengths and weakness as a creative leader, and will have the chance to form productive relationships with fellow students through shared screen exercises. Critically, there is an emphasis on the market, being aware of your audience from the outset, and rapid developments in new media and distribution. With the assistance of guest lecturers, the course aims to help you find your own identity as a creator of content, and empower you to drive your projects forward into market readiness. 

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

1. Exercise well developed judgement in applying theories of creative leadership, management and collaboration in screen production practice.

2. Analyse the dramatic principles of moving image storytelling and demonstrate how they apply to character, story and structure.

3. Research and critically analyse traditional and emerging strategies to identify and reach audiences.

4. Critically evaluate how constantly changing economic and cultural forces impact on content creation and the media industry.

5. Understand commercial imperatives driving investors and develop realistic finance plans

6. Identify and compare the major trends in cinema history and the challenges for the digital age. 

1. Story 1: Classical Storytelling

This subject is an exploration of the universal paradigm of story. Students will investigate the enduring principles of storytelling first articulated by Aristotle and common to fairy stories and myths right through to contemporary film and television and evaluate what makes a story resonate across generations and cultures. Students will examine protagonist, goal, stakes, suspense, reversals, premise and catharsis, through a series of practical exercises.

In teaching the cohort in a single group, the subject facilitates the development of student relationships across the disciplines and gives them a shared language to create, appraise and discuss story together.

2. Creative Producing

This subject provides an overview of the diverse roles and responsibilities of the creative producer in taking productions from development to delivery. It places collaborative relationships at its core - the necessity to create and manage vital and aligned creative teams. Students develop tools and the personal attributes they need to maintain optimum creative momentum on their projects in development. In production, students learn about making decisions under pressures of time and budget and how to understand the politics of a set. Practical classes develop skills and techniques for evaluation, planning, and budgeting of narrative short form.

3. Workshops: Re-enactment & Alternative Storytelling

This subject involves producing students in two cross-disciplinary production exercises, the Re-enactment Documentary with documentary directing students and the Alternative Storytelling with drama directing students. Both workshops are informed by the teaching of relevant theory and screenings ahead of the practical component.

In Re-enactment, students engage in a cross-disciplinary re-enactment exercise with professional actors focused explicitly on finding innovative cinematic solutions to the challenges of re-enactments in documentary. The film sequence will be self-contained but also act as a proof of concept for a landmark documentary television project being developed by documentary directors over the year.

In Alternative Storytelling, students apply the principles of Alternative Storytelling: heightened premise, non-linear structures, anti-catharsis plots, slice-of-life film worlds and multi-protagonist casts; to the director’s individual screen story.

4. Story 4: Script Analysis

This subject tests and critically evaluates how enduring dramatic principles and visual storytelling techniques inform enduring works of cinema and television. Each session is structured around the viewing and reading of a produced work or reading of an unproduced screenplay and class discussion to assess the effectiveness of screen storytelling, and identify and generate solutions to script problems.

The subject runs concurrently with Story 1.

5. Business of Screen Producing

This subject involves producing students in two cross-disciplinary production exercises, the Re-enactment Documentary with documentary directing students and the Alternative Storytelling with drama directing students. Both workshops are informed by the teaching of relevant theory and screenings ahead of the practical component.

In Re-enactment, students engage in a cross-disciplinary re-enactment exercise with professional actors focused explicitly on finding innovative cinematic solutions to the challenges of re-enactments in documentary. The film sequence will be self-contained but also act as a proof of concept for a landmark documentary television project being developed by documentary directors over the year.

In Alternative Storytelling, students apply the principles of Alternative Storytelling: heightened premise, non-linear structures, anti-catharsis plots, slice-of-life film worlds and multi-protagonist casts; to the director’s individual screen story.

6. Drama Workshop: Adaptation

Drama Workshop: Adaptation involves producing students in an Adaptation workshop with drama directing students, to be informed by the teaching of relevant theory and screenings ahead of the practical component.

This subject explores how original works of literature, theatre and fact can be turned into successful screen adaptations. It provides a theoretical framework for the practice of adapting and dramatising existing works for the screen and an appreciation why some works are easier to adapt than others. How have these writers/ directors/ producers altered the facts and form but stayed true to the story?

In conjunction with theory – the Adaptation Workshop will provide the opportunity for students to realise their developed screenplays and be involved in a cross-disciplinary production exercise that will introduce them to the challenges and excitement of collaboration.

Through the critical evaluation of case studies and by applying their new knowledge in a practical project, students acquire the skills and confidence to identify works that would work well on the screen and have a loyal audience that can translate into strong box office returns.

7. Reaching Audiences

This subject investigates the marketing theories employed in engaging audiences. Covering cinema, television and new media, this subject explores the elements of marketing plans, advertising, audience measurement, and the preparation required to sell and distribute a project in international marketplaces. This subject will include seminars focusing on interactive media.

8. Screen Studies

Screen Studies at AFTRS aim to inspire and facilitate informed creative use of ideas, intuitions and influences in Australian screen production. By engaging with cutting edge productions, innovations and concepts about form and context, students have the opportunity to develop shared vocabularies across disciplines and enhance their capacities for creative collaboration, their articulation skills, and their knowledge and understanding of screen arts and industries.

 

• Applicants will need a relevant undergraduate or post-graduate degree, and/or appropriate industry experience.

• Students who have completed subjects from the Graduate Certificates in Screen Business, Business Administration (Creative Industries) or Producing will be eligible for Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). People with specialist expertise may also be eligible for RPL.

• Students will be able to demonstrate skills, knowledge and understandings deemed to equate to AQF Level 7. 

Five copies of the following, ensuring your application fits into an A4 envelope:

1. Curriculum Vitae

Supply a full CV, attaching 300 words on the strengths and weaknesses of your creative process and how that is reflected in your work.

2. Referee Questionnaire

The referee questionnaire form is to be completed by someone who can attest to your interest in screen culture. The referee must not be a relative or family friend.

3. Portfolio

Your portfolio should demonstrate your talent and potential and illustrate your interest in this course. Be selective; we just want your best work. We are more interested in ideas and execution than production values. Submit examples of completed work and/ or work in development where you have taken a producing role. Clearly outline your role on the work submitted in your portfolio.

If submitting DVDs please ensure that: (i) the DVD is separated into chapters that relate to specific projects (ii) in total there is no more than 30 minutes of material (iii) the DVD includes only complete sequences of your work, not cut montages, (iv) it is not region specific, (v) the format is playable from both a laptop and DVD player. If you have questions please contact Student Services for further clarification.

4. Application Tasks

You must submit all of the following:

4.1 Write no more than 500 words explaining the challenges faced in the producing, financing and marketing of an Australian film or TV series first released or screened in the last 12 months.

4.2 Write no more than 1,000 words that describe an idea for a screen project that is inspired by an Australian newspaper article published between 1st August 2012 and 31st September 2012. Your description should clearly articulate your passion for the idea and creative agenda, what makes it a good story, how you might achieve it and where it might find an audience. Please attach the original article.

5. Proof of Residency

Submit a certified copy of your birth certificate or passport as detailed on the How to Apply page on the AFTRS website. 

• Applicant Declaration  (pdf)
• Application Checklist  (pdf)
• Referee Questionnaire  (pdf)

 

+ Demonstrated creative potential as evident in support material.

+ Evidence of ability to complete complex tasks.

+ Evidence of original creative thinking.