Screen Australia has worked with a range of organisations and individuals through its Research & Publication Program (now superseded by the Research Partnerships Program). The aim was to build knowledge about, and audiences for, contemporary Australian screen content through the development and publication of high-quality information, insight and analysis.

Australian Research Council Linkage Projects

Australian Screen Content in Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Education: Uses and Potential (2014-2016)

Stuart Cunningham and Michael Dezuanni, Queensland University of Technology

This project will investigate the educational market for Australian screen content and the ways students use and engage with that content. This will inform policy development, stimulate content production and distribution, and increae awareness of the availability and utility of Australian screen content in educational settings.

Screen Australia is a Partner Organisation alongside the ABC, SBS and the Australian Children's Television Foundation.

Previous projects

Spreading Fictions: Distributing Stories in the Online Age (2012-2015)

Professor Jock Given, Swinburne University

Where do Australians now get their audiovisual stories and how might they get them in the future? To answer this question, the researchers will draw upon and bring together unique data sets, devise new integrated methodologies, and offer important insights into future policies. It is the first systematic, large-scale, public analysis of audiovisual distribution in Australia. Responding to the increased emphasis on audiences and distribution in government policy about audiovisual media, it aims to quantify the changing ways Australians are watching and engaging with audiovisual stories across five sectors: cinema, free-to-air and pay television, video (DVD, Blu-ray, etc), online and mobile. A comprehensive understanding of the field will be developed through analysis of sector aggregates, two quantitative modelling exercises, audience/user focus groups, interviews with key people in the business and, for selected projects and companies, analysis of financial and distribution records and media coverage.

The first publication from this project – Online Video in Australia: Exploring Audiovisual Fiction Sites – was published by Swinburne Institute of Technology on 13 April 2012.
Find out more here.

The second publication – Cinema in Australia: An Industry Profile – was published by Swinburne Institute of Technology on 12 June 2013.
Find out more here.

The third publication – Television 2025: Rethinking small-screen media in Australia – was published by Swinburne Institute for Social Research on 21 May 2015.
Find out more here.

The Place of Communication and Consumption: A case study of Australian regional and rural cinema exhibition (2009-2012)

Dr Karina Aveyard, Griffith University

This research has two principal aims. Firstly, to assemble a detailed overview of contemporary cinema exhibition landscape in regional and rural Australia. This will include analysis of cinema ownership, box office, film programming, the impact of digital cinema and other new technologies, and the relationship between exhibitors and film distributors, and outline the government assistance programs that have been targeted at regional and rural communities.

The second principal aim of the project is to further the understanding of the social and cultural contexts of regional and rural cinema exhibition and film consumption. This will include an examination of how cinema contributes to the maintenance and/or enhancement of quality of life and to sense of self and community. It will also consider the significance of geographic place and the physical cinema space in mediating the film-going experience.

All-Media Production Bible (2011-2013)

Firelight

Project Summary: The All-Media Production Bible is a publication intended for film producers. The book aims to assist producers to adapt, change and develop their production skills to reflect an evolving digital landscape. The subject matter for the publication is practical and relevant to the current environment and will be distributed as a free e-book through State and Federal Screen Agencies, the Guilds and Associations, online publishers including Screen Hub and educational institutions including the AFTRS and Screen Development Association resource centres.

Now released: Hands On – All Media Producing, by Marcus Gillezeau with Evelyn Saunders is now available in a range of formats including e-book (PDF), iPad and Kindle, from http://firelight.com.au/hands-on/#sthash.qpdEGlCn.dpbs

Beyond the 'Remote/Urban' Divide: Re-mapping Australian Indigenous Screen Content and its Audiences (2011-2013)

Dr Romaine Morton & Dr Therese Davis

Project Summary: The project seeks to provide the first comprehensive analysis of the Indigenous film and television sector in Australia since 1993 by developing a new critical framework for the articulation of Indigenous identity and cultural outcomes in screen content. It is envisaged the project will help develop an understanding of Indigenous identity that takes us beyond the colonialist administrative binary of ‘remote and settled/urban’.

Screen Education and Metro Screen (2011-2013)

Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM)

Project Summary: Screen Education and Metro Screen are high quality quarterly film magazines. Screen Education successfully reaches its target audience in the education sector and Metro Screen successfully reaches its audience of film enthusiasts, both providing a vehicle for the promotion of contemporary Australian content.
These audiences contribute to revenues and the sustainability of the projection industry either through box office or rental returns or though Screenrights royalty payments from education institution use.

FilmInk iPad app (2011)

FilmInk

Project Summary: FilmInk is producing an iPad version of its print magazine that will offer new opportunities to broaden its audience beyond its current subscriber base and create new markets, both domestically and internationally, for Australian content.