Film schools, for a long time, thrived around centres of film production. The co-existence of industry and education created a mutually beneficial ecosystem that ensured a well-oiled cultural machine (Geuens, 2000). In a field where learning is based on mentorship, such interdependencies made perfect sense. The digital age, through ubiquitous production equipment and distribution channels, provides exciting possibilities to democratize film production education - away from an exclusive focus on established production centres, giving room to voices in formerly neglected regions. But film production education remains difficult without access to media professionals as mentors.

In this paper, I discuss block-teaching curriculum design as potential model to address the growing demand for media production education outside of established production centres. Sharing the experience of introducing block teaching to the Bachelor of Cinematic Arts at Multimedia University in Malaysia, I highlight implications on teacher availability, student appreciation as well as attendance. More importantly, I suggest pedagogical opportunities around complex learning (van Merrienboer & Kirscher, 2012) that a block-teaching curriculum design offers.