Rules of engagement : investigating the transformation of unwritten social protocols into screen-based representations through hybridity and liminal practices

Abstract

By deconstructing the filmmaking process - a process that employs both documentary and fictional conventions - this project aims to uncover the complex relationship between actual and screen-based reality. It examines how the process of filmmaking itself further blurs the boundary between the two, and via its position between moving image art practice and narrative filmmaking, the research explores hybridity in screenbased practices across disciplinary boundaries. This practice-led inquiry resulted in a 22-minute-long semi-fictional film Rules of Engagement, which consisted of three filmic vignettes depicting everyday scenarios wherein individuals come up against unwritten or tacit social protocols. The thesis takes a deconstructive approach: examining, dissecting and disassembling every phase of the process of filmmaking. Each section addresses a particular question, which contributes to the full enquiry. The text is structured around a number of conversations and interviews, transcripts from source material, critical discussions, a detailed breakdown of the screenplay, critical debriefs with key collaborators and feedback on the editing process as a semi-fictional conversation. Finally, a series of public screenings and talks isolated particular critical questions relevant to the work and to the thesis. This written contextualisation explores the relationship between a variety of cultural sources — moving image artworks, narrative film and television drama, and how these elements — both fictional and nonfictional, contribute to a growing body of work which complicates the boundaries and operates across the (moving image) divide between fine art and narrative filmmaking. The research and the film Rules of Engagement, makes its contribution to the field of contemporary art practice and narrative filmmaking via the careful and forensic uncovering, exposing and embracing of both explicit and tacit knowledge within the processes of filmmaking.