Screen Culture Careers

Liam Burke presents insights on the state of contemporary screen and screen-related cultural industries, and how to forge a career path in them.

Drawing on industry-engaged teaching examples from Swinburne’s Cinema and Screen Studies Major, Associate Professor Liam Burke will explain the dynamic workings of the contemporary screen and screen-related cultural industries to offer attendees strategies to equip themselves for a screen culture career.

The contemporary screen industry landscape continues to undergo major transformations due to the rise of streaming services and changing approaches to screen distribution and exhibition. With this transformation comes a diverse array of new screen industry careers that require a wide range of professional skills.

Liam will articulate how Swinburne’s Cinema and Screen Studies Major provides students with knowledge and tools to navigate today’s screen and screen-related cultural industries in ways that help them anticipate tomorrow’s careers. With reference to industry-engaged examples such as the ‘Movie Mogul’ project, this presentation will encourage creative new ways of thinking about how to prepare for a 21st-century screen culture career.

About Jessica Balanzategui

Dr Jessica Balanzategui is a Senior Lecturer in Cinema and Screen Studies at Swinburne University of Technology, and Deputy Director of the Centre for Transformative Media Technologies. Jessica is the author of The Uncanny Child in Transnational Cinema (Amsterdam UP, 2018), and has published widely on children's media, entertainment cultures and technologies, and Gothic and horror screen genres in leading international journals. Jessica is the founding and chief editor of Amsterdam University Press’s book series, Horror and Gothic Media Cultures, and she received the 2020 Australian Film Institute Research Fellowship for her research on Australian children’s media.

About Liam Burke

Associate Professor Liam Burke is the coordinator of the Cinema and Screen Studies Major and a research member of the Centre for Transformative Media Technologies. His research interests include, Adaptation, New Media and Migration, Transmedia Storytelling, Comics and Manga, Animation, and Transnational Screen Traffic. He has written and edited several books including Superhero Movies, Fan Phenomena: Batman, and The Comic Book Film Adaptation, and the co-edited collections The Superhero Symbol and Superheroes Beyond. Liam is a chief investigator on the Superheroes research project with ACMI, which was responsible for Cleverman: The Exhibition and Superheroes: Realities Collide VR experience.