Recorded conversation between: Freya Billington (University of Western England) & Neil Fox (Falmouth University)
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).
The following recording is a discussion between Neil Fox (Falmouth University) & Freya Billington (University of Western England). Through a exploration of film education, Neil and Freya explore the overlaps between technology, culture, and education in the wake of COVID-19.
This conversation features music by Sro titled ‘Sunken Streets’. This track is used, and edited, with permission under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License. The track and further information can be found here.
Freya Billington is a Filmmaker and Lecturer. Currently at UWE, she is a Fulbright Scholar, Fellow of Syracuse University NY, HEA National Teaching Fellow and academic advisor for NFTS and Aardman Academy. Her films include Bread and Butter, Not Waving, How? Lucky and Terminated: Teeth & Tinder. Previously she edited factual programmes for BBC4, BBC2, OU and was Post-Production Supervisor for BBC Drama.
Dr Neil Fox is a senior lecturer in Film at Falmouth University where he leads the Research & Innovation programme Pedagogy Futures and convenes the Sound/Image Cinema Lab. He is an award-winning screenwriter whose short films, and feature debut ‘Wilderness’ (2017), have played to festival audiences around the globe. He is the co-founder and host of the leading film podcast The Cinematologists and his writing can be found at Little White Lies, The Quietus, Beneficial Shock and Directors Notes.