Teaching
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The Adrian Miles Reading List
I and many others in the RMIT community are struggling to find ways to deal with the loss of our dear colleague and friend Adrian Miles. Adrian had a profound impact on me in a very short space of time. My current book project has a foundation in many of the challenging ideas he threw… Continue reading
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Priorities
I am lucky to have a job that I love. But in the eighteen months of settling into full-time academia, I seem to have lost sight of the ‘love’ and become fixated on the ‘job’. A weird thing has happened in recent weeks, in that I’ve tried to become more focused on what is actually important… Continue reading
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Pomodoro ramblings
In my first classes this week, I introduced first-year students to the Pomodoro technique. I’ve had a mixed relationship with the technique, but sometimes find it useful in terms of getting my head fully into a project during its opening stages. In solidarity, I too typed non-stop for 15 minutes (a reduced pomodoro — usually they… Continue reading
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Studio teaching
Some random observations and things to try after three semesters of teaching the studio model… Put together comprehensive assessment briefs, with marking criteria Use ticksheets/feedback sheets for marking everything Do not take on faith that the studio ethos will be adopted by the students; the studio ethos should be encoded/scaffolded into the studio structure/assessments Set… Continue reading
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Spectres of the frame; shifting perceptions
Film theory is at a crossroads. The more I think about it, it’s more like the crazy Los Angeles freeway over/underpasses. Is the right way intertextual/intermedial/transmedial/psychological? Is there a right way at all? I’ve been running a studio this semester which looks at the role of the frame in the age of digital cinema. It’s… Continue reading
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Teaching film and media in a neoliberal bubble
First point: I am a teacher. This is a role that bestows on me power and control over others. Second point: I am white, male, heterosexual, educated, and middle-class. This is an identity that inscribes within me a particular world-view. Third point: I teach film and media studies. This is a discipline which is inherently… Continue reading
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Re-framing the frame
‘Framing is a position of thinking.’ – Daniel Frampton, Filmosophy, p. 125. As previously alluded to, I’m in the very strange process of having to think through my own comprehension of the cinematic medium. In a way, I’m taking baby steps towards my own theory of film. I’ll be taking these initial explorations to a couple… Continue reading
About Me
Daniel Binns is a media-maker and theorist of media and screen cultures. He is the author of The Hollywood War Film: Critical Observations from World War I to Iraq (2017), and Material Media-Making in the Digital Age (2021), and has published work on Netflix documentaries, drone cinematography, and film genres. Long walks on the beach are fine, but I much prefer cabins in the woods, board games, RPGs, and movies.
Daniel Binns 