Looking back in order to look forward: re-scripting and re-framing screen production research

Filmmakers who are also academics want to make creative works as research. This has proven to be a challenging and time-consuming objective for practitioner-academics, despite governmental policy (namely, Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA)) advocating non-traditional research outputs. For example, it is one thing to make a film as research – but it is another to have it recognised as research within an institution, which usually includes the need to provide evidence of peer review or its equivalent. This topic among many has been hotly debated at Australian Screen Production Education and Research Association (ASPERA) annual conferences, and occasionally in some of its publications. But the debates are still ongoing, and given that soon after this special issue is published Australian universities will receive their ERA results, these debates are also likely to continue. ASPERA celebrated its 10th year as an organisation in 2014, and given the growing number of research qualifications amongst the ASPERA community and the formation of a research committee, it seems like now is the time to give support and direction to what is a vibrant community of screen practitioner-academics by not only generating but also recording debates about screen production research. With this we hope to advocate and raise awareness of screen production as a legitimate and important mode of research in the academy. Other research topics hotly debated through ASPERA have been the screen production doctorate and the day-to-day expectations and pressures brought about by ERA. For example, while many of those teaching screen production have research interests in creative practice, there has been a significant increase in the number who are capable of publishing more traditional works too, such as journal articles, book chapters, refereed conference proceedings and in some cases, monographs. This special edition of Studies in Australasian Cinema – the first of two dedicated to ASPERA – reflects the increase in screen production academics who are also publishing more traditional scholarly works, though importantly, scholarly works that are about and/or for practice. Building a cohesive and constructive community of practice is essential for any academic discipline, perhaps even more so for those in creative arts areas where ‘makers’ as well as ‘theorists’ play an important role in defining the scope and nature of research. In relation to ‘makers’ who are also ‘theorists’, such as those who have successfully completed creative practice doctorates, we might usefully conceive them as ‘thinkers’ – people whose work, whether creative or critical, is informed by ideas and wider contexts. In this way, conceptualising a screen production community of thinkers is both useful and productive. For one, it negates any complicated and