Rate My Professor John McMullan

Dr. John McMullan serves as a Lecturer in Screen Production within the School of Media and Communication at Murdoch University. He obtained his Doctorate in Screen Production from Murdoch University in 2016. His research interests encompass medium theory, spatial montage, screen production technology affordances, artificial intelligence and moving images, technological affordances and media language or grammar, online video platforms, stereoscopic video, participatory video, and the evolving genre of video blogging. McMullan specializes in the theory and practice of digital two-dimensional moving images. He has recently begun researching Artificial Intelligence in relation to his framework, organized a conference on the future of AI and Screen Production Education, and is working on Generative AI video productions while updating his Medium Theory framework.

McMullan's professional career bridges screen production and academia. His production credits include nationally distributed music videos for Australian artists such as the John Butler Trio, Eskimo Joe, The Waifs, and Scotch of Saint James, with a Best Music Video award win for 'Pickapart' (2001). He wrote, produced, directed, edited, and composited the multi-award-nominated virtual-set short science-fiction film Cyron (2005), earning nominations including Best Director. Additional works feature the experimental short film Date, nominated for best editing internationally and screened at festivals and on national television; the 45-minute documentary Our Story: Six Sisters of the Stolen Generation (2012), screened at indigenous events like Reconciliation Day and the Wairoa Indigenous Film Festival, with multiple SBS broadcasts; and post-production vision for the documentary Synergies – Walking Together, Belonging to Country, directed by Dr. Glen Stasiuk. Collaborating with Dr. Owen Beck, he was selected for The Aussie List 2019 as one of Australia's top 10 emerging feature script-writers. Key publications include 'Video bloggers as digital auteurs: Casey Neistat and the evolution of auteur theory' (2026, co-authored with Damian Fasolo), 'The great jump cut (r)evolution: A case for studying the evolution of vlogging production techniques' (2021), 'A new understanding of "New Media": Online platforms as digital mediums' (2017), 'The digital moving image: Revising indexicality and transparency' (2011), and a book review of Knight: Publisher in the Tumultuous Century by Charles Whited. He teaches digital video compositing, TV studio, music video, documentary, film direction, video editing, creativity, script-writing, photography, cinematography, and online video distribution.