Course Title: Engage in the business of creative practice
Part B: Course Detail
Teaching Period: Term1 2020
Course Code: BUSM8795C
Course Title: Engage in the business of creative practice
Important Information:
This course will be delivered through face-to-face classes, interaction with industry mentors, and the learning support material and resources in Canvas.
School: 375T Vocational Design and Social Context
Campus: City Campus
Program: C6160 - Advanced Diploma of Professional Screenwriting
Course Contact: Penny Johnson
Course Contact Phone: +61 3 9925 4815
Course Contact Email: svdsc.mac@rmit.edu.au
Name and Contact Details of All Other Relevant Staff
Teacher: John Reeves
Email: john.reeves@rmit.edu.au
Nominal Hours: 70
Regardless of the mode of delivery, represent a guide to the relative teaching time and student effort required to successfully achieve a particular competency/module. This may include not only scheduled classes or workplace visits but also the amount of effort required to undertake, evaluate and complete all assessment requirements, including any non-classroom activities.
Pre-requisites and Co-requisites
Enrolment in this core course at RMIT requires you to have completed all first year courses.
Course Description
This course will build on the industry-focussed skills you've learned and practised across the program, further assisting you to market yourself as a screenwriting professional. You will research and focus upon the wider screenwriting industry, skilling up for a successful career. You will fashion your own personal development and business development plans to help sell yourself and your writing projects, and lay the business foundations for your screenwriting-related practice.
National Codes, Titles, Elements and Performance Criteria
National Element Code & Title: |
CUAPPR603 Engage in the business of creative practice |
Element: |
1. Develop and apply professional work practices |
Performance Criteria: |
1.1 Develop a professional work ethic to support creative practice 1.2 Collaborate and communicate with other professionals about the business aspects of creative practice 1.3 Determine the skills and knowledge needed to operate as a successful creative practitioner 1.4 Evaluate own current skills and knowledge and the need for related professional development 1.5 Assess potential for using specialist expertise to complement own skills and knowledge |
Element: |
2. Evaluate different business practices |
Performance Criteria: |
2.1 Investigate different ways that creative practitioners do business 2.2 Investigate range of business practices, systems and procedures that need to be considered as part of professional creative practice 2.3 Assess relevance and implications of particular business structures 2.4 Identify physical resources required by own creative practice and how they might be accessed 2.5 Develop an overall approach to the business aspects of own practice based on evaluation of relevant information 2.6 Evaluate all aspects of own practice on an ongoing basis, as a key component of business and personal growth |
Element: |
3. Address financial aspects of creative practice |
Performance Criteria: |
3.1 Investigate financial considerations for creative practice 3.2 Research and assess different ways of commercialising work and ideas 3.3 Evaluate different ways of costing and selling creative work 3.4 Assess broader financial management requirements and their application to own practice 3.5 Develop and apply individual approaches to financial management of practice |
Element: |
4. Analyse the rights and obligations of creative practitioners |
Performance Criteria: |
4.1 Evaluate legal and moral rights and obligations of professional creative practice 4.2 Practise work and business in ways that meet legal and moral obligations 4.3 Pursue own rights as a creative practitioner consistent with own professional and ethical standards 4.4 Establish and maintain sound approaches to safety and sustainability in professional practice |
Element: |
5. Evaluate professional opportunities |
Performance Criteria: |
5.1 Evaluate work opportunities within and beyond the creative sectors 5.2 Identify and pursue potential work opportunities beyond established patterns of work 5.3 Identify and access sources of professional advice 5.4 Evaluate local and global opportunities for own practice 5.5 Identify and evaluate opportunities offered by current and emerging trends in the consumption of culture and creative products 5.6 Analyse the experiences of others as a way of discovering different opportunities |
Learning Outcomes
This unit equips you to approach the business aspects of working as a creative practitioner in a professional manner.
You will have the skills to operate as a sole practitioner, in writers' cooperatives, or as freelance or contract workers. Regardless of the business model, all practitioners earning income from their practice engage with the professional business requirements for a sustainable creative practice. You will be able to plan and profit from your work as a freelance writer, or as an employee in a small or large organisation.
Details of Learning Activities
In this course, you learn through:
1. In-class activities:
- lectures
- teacher directed group activities/projects
- class exercises to review discussions/lectures
- peer teaching and class presentations
- group discussion
- class exercises
2. Out-of-class activities:
- independent project based work
- writing and reading assignments
- online and other research
- independent study
Teaching Schedule
Teaching schedule
Week |
Date |
Class Content |
Assessment |
Week 1 |
Feb 13 |
Initial discussion of Engage in business course, and your professional planning. Your cashflow proposal Your writing mission #1: a two-page two-hander dealing in any way, shape or form with the words of Bob Dylan: "My love she speaks softly |
|
| Week 2 | Feb 20 |
Running a professional screenwriting business Guest speaker: Susan Bower |
|
Week 3 |
Feb 27 |
Guest speaker: C S McMullen Industry organisations |
|
Week 4 |
Mar 5 |
Placement 2020 Guest speaker: Ash Simmons |
|
Week 5 |
Mar 12 |
Your practices, systems and procedures |
|
| Week 6 | Mar 19 | Different types of professional practice |
|
| Week 7 | Mar 26 |
Guest speaker: Chelsea Cassio Your skills matrix Be honest with yourself and stop making excuses |
Assessment Task #1: Knowledge assessment |
| Week 8 | Apr 2 |
Developing your own professional development plan https://spinsucks.com/communication/pr-pros-professional-development/ Your writing mission #2: a two-page two-hander dealing in any way, shape or form with the words of Adam Lindsay Gordon: "Life is mostly froth and bubble, Two things stand like stone. Kindness in another's trouble, Courage in your own." |
|
|
Mid-semester break: Monday 6 April to Monday 13 April inclusive |
|
|
Week 9 |
Apr 16 |
Professional development plan: review Guest speaker: Fida Chahda (TBC) |
|
Week 10 |
Apr 23 | Face to face meetings |
Assessment Task #2: Skills matrix & Professional development plan |
Week 11 |
Apr 30 |
Face to face meetings |
Assessment Task #2: Skills matrix & Professional development plan (cont'd) |
Week 12 |
May 7 |
Face to face meetings Social media intensive Guest speaker TBC |
|
Week 13 |
May 14 |
Business development planning https://www.business.gov.au/Planning/Business-plans/How-to-develop-your-business-plan Your writing mission #3: a two-page two-hander dealing in any way, shape or form with the words of Whoopi Goldberg: “We’re born with success. It is only others who point out our failures, and what they attribute to us as failure.” |
|
Week 14 |
May 21 |
Celebrate your success and look to the future: placement planning progress review |
Assessment Task #3: Business development plan |
Week 15 |
May 28 |
No scheduled class: semester review TBC |
|
Learning Resources
Prescribed Texts
None |
References
Resources are available in Canvas. |
Other Resources
You will require access to a computer and to the internet for this course. RMIT will provide you with resources and tools for learning in this course through our online systems and access to specialised facilities and relevant software. You will also have access to the library resources.
The University Library has extensive resources and provides subject specialist expertise, research advice, help with referencing and support through:
The Learning Lab
https://www.rmit.edu.au/students/study-support/learning-lab
The Study Support Hub
https://www.rmit.edu.au/students/study-support/study-support-hub
Overview of Assessment
Assessment is ongoing throughout the course. Your knowledge and understanding of course content is assessed through participation in class exercises, development of personal and business development plans, and through the application of learned skills and insights to industry research, culminating in your practical vision for your own screenwriting practice.
Assessment Tasks
Students enrolled in Vocational Education and Training qualifications are assessed for Competency. To be assessed as Competent means you have consistently demonstrated the required knowledge and skills at a standard expected in the workplace. To be assessed as Competent in this course, you will need to complete each assessment task to a satisfactory standard. You will receive feedback from the teacher at the conclusion of each assessment task.
You should refer to the assessment brief which is available through Canvas for full assessment criteria.
Assessment 1: Knowledge Assessment
Due Week 7 (on Canvas Thursday 26 March)
This assessment task allows you to demonstrate your knowledge of working as a creative practitioner in a professional manner.
Assessment 2: Skills matrix & Personal development plan
Due Weeks 10 & 11 (on Canvas Sunday 3 May)
You will need to create a skills matrix assessment, engage in a 15-minute mentoring session with two trainers, and develop a professional development plan.
Assessment 3: Business development plan
Due Week 14 (on Canvas Sunday 24 May)
Completing this project allows you to develop and apply professional work practices and evaluate professional opportunities for developing and managing your own creative business practice.
Once you have achieved competency for all assessments in a unit of competency, you will receive an overall result. If you have not completed an assessment task to a satisfactory standard, you will be given an opportunity to resubmit that task within one week of receiving feedback from your teacher. If the resubmission is deemed unsatisfactory, the matter will be referred to the Program Coordinator.
Results that apply to courses that are delivered and assessed in accordance with competency-based assessment are:
CA: Competency Achieved
NYC: Not Yet Competent
DNS: Did not Submit for Assessment
Assessment Matrix
The assessment matrix demonstrates alignment of assessment tasks with the relevant unit of competency. These matrices are available through Program Administration.
Other Information
Attendance
Your learning experience will involve class-based teaching, discussion, demonstration and practical exercises
It is strongly advised that you attend all timetabled sessions. This will allow you to engage in the required learning activities, ensuring you the maximum opportunity to complete this course successfully.
Information about your studies
You can access My Studies through the RMIT website for information about timetables, important dates, assessment dates, results and progress, Canvas etc.
https://www.rmit.edu.au/students
Assessment
Information on assessment including Special consideration, Adjustments to assessment, (eg. applying for an extension of time):
https://www.rmit.edu.au/students/student-essentials/assessment-and-exams/assessment
Academic Integrity and Plagiarism
RMIT University has a strict policy on plagiarism and academic integrity. Please refer to the website for more information on this policy.
https://www.rmit.edu.au/students/student-essentials/assessment-and-exams/academic-integrity
Credit Transfer and Recognition of Prior Learning
Credit transfer is the recognition of previously completed formal learning (an officially accredited qualification).
Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is an assessment process that allows you to demonstrate competence using the skills you have gained through experience in the workplace, voluntary work, informal or formal training or other life experiences.
Please speak to your teacher if you wish to discuss applying for Credit Transfer or RPL for the unit(s) of competency addressed in this course.
https://www.rmit.edu.au/students/student-essentials/enrolment/apply-for-credit
Course Overview: Access Course Overview