ASPERA TEAM AWARDED $219,000 CARRICK PRIORITY GRANT
A team of six Australian Screen Production Education and Research Association (ASPERA) institutions, from five states, was awarded a major Carrick Priority Grant of $219,000 for the project entitled Assessing Graduate Screen Production Outputs In Nineteen Australian Film Schools. The aim of the Project is to formally define, test, validate and regulate academic standards, assessment and reporting practices for creative works produced by graduating film school students in nineteen Australia film schools. At present, the creative works these students produce have only an informal regime of assessment, which is neither well understood by academia nor recognized by national regulatory bodies such as the former Department of Education Science and Training (DEST). The outcome of the project will potentially give academic visibility to as much as 6 per cent of the total university sector now represented by Creative Arts.
In 2005 members of the Australian Screen Production Education and Research Association (ASPERA) devised a system of assessing creative works using an integrated network of State and National Peer Review Committees. This system has never been tested before. The aim of this project is to statistically test the operation of this assessment system on creative works completed by students attending 19 ASPERA film schools. A sample of three Honours productions completed in the last six years from each ASPERA member institution will be used as the test material. The project will be carried out in consultation and collaboration with and on behalf of member institutions of ASPERA – the peak body of all Australian film schools and our Reference Group. A team from Murdoch University, VCA, UTS, Griffith University, RMIT and Flinders University will coordinate the trial process, with the ASPERA member institutions in each state while liaising with DEEWR and CILECT (the International Association of Film And Television Schools). The project will take place over two years. The need for this project and its outcomes will be addressed by two special ASPERA–Carrick Project conferences to which representatives from Department for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) and other national and international institutions will be invited. The project recommendations and report will be disseminated internationally.
Academic Standards: The project will address academic standards in ASPERA’s domain within the Creative Arts. This will include the development and description of a shared understanding of ‘standards’ when it comes to “writing” with images. This development will account for: (i) the unique and polysemic nature of image-based texts
(ii) the collaborative, multidisciplinary and group-based nature of screen production practices (iii) the examination of group-based grading decisions and grading decisions about specific crew performances such as those of the director, creative producer, researchers, scriptwriter, camera person, editor and special effect designer (iv) the examination of the exhibition grading decisions and the importance of audiences and awards in setting standards.
Assessment and Reporting Practices: This project will also address the assessment and reporting practices set by ASPERA’s Peer Review Committees. This will include: (i) setting assessment and reporting practices for use by the ASPERA’s National Peer Review Committee to its five State Peer Review Committees (ii) establishing assessment and reporting practices for assessing multiple authors in a group production and in specific production crew settings such as director, creative producer, researchers, scriptwriter, camera person, editor, special effect designer (iii) setting assessment and reporting practices for evaluating the exhibition quality and scope of creative works
(iv) setting practices for the State Peer Review Committees to report to the National Peer Review Committee and potentially to DEEWR (iv) establishing and implementing developmental, diagnostic and summative assessment and feedback to individual screen producers and their respective institutions (v) analyzing assessment result variations at individual, institutional, state, national and international levels.
The team consists of following ASPERA delegates:
| State |
Delegate |
| WA |
(Team Leader) Dr Josko Petkovic, Murdoch University, Director NASS
(ASPERA President 2006–2007, ASPERA Advisory Council) |
| Victoria |
Prof Ian Lang Melbourne University, Head of Film and
TV School, VCA.
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Mr Leo Berkley, Journalism and Media Coordinator, RMIT
(ASPERA President 2008–2009) |
| NSW |
A/Prof Gillian Leahey, UTS (ASPERA, President 2005–2006,
ASPERA Advisor Council) |
| Queensland |
Mr Nicholas Oughton, Griffith University
(ASPERA President 2007–2008) |
| South Australia |
Ms Alison Wotherspoon, Flinders University, ASPERA Executive |
