Mixing methods : creative collaboration in mobile moviemaking

Abstract

This article is a reflection on creative collaboration and synergy, using a tertiary course in mobile moviemaking to explore ways in which collaborative projects involving people from different creative disciplines can generate creative outcomes that surpass – in both innovative value and aesthetic depth – creative outcomes that might be generated by the individual disciplines on their own. The article will reflect on the processes and outcomes of a collaborative class project within this course, with specific reference to the differences in ideation and making methods used by creators in different disciplines and media.

By unpacking the differences between their two creative fields, participants from two different disciplines (Film and Contemporary dance) were able to define common ground through which to conduct a creative collaboration. This paper will contextualise their process, and will suggest a method by which future participants in interdisciplinary creative collaborations may reframe their perceptions of their own diverging disciplinary approaches in order to utilise these differences as strong points upon which to build and solidify their mutual efforts.