Eight new doctoral students in a unique new PhD program at the film school.

The eight new PhD candidates who will be a part of the new PhD program at the Norwegian Film School for the next four years are Izer Aliu, Therese Næss Diesen, Jørgen Stangebye Larsen, Rasmus Eriksson, Marie Suul Brobakke, KriStine Ann Skaret, Simon Jon Andreasen og Ole Christian Solbakken. The film school collaborates with the TV-school and the Game School on the program.

- Our PhD program is unique both in the Nordic region and internationally," says PhD leader Trond Lossius. We are the only PhD program in film and related audiovisual art forms that offers a program where artistic practice is at the forefront. This is likely what has attracted so many interesting applicants with a strong background in the industry and the field.

The positions for doctoral students were announced in December 2022, and we received nearly 70 applications for seven positions. Five of the doctoral students are employed at the film school, and two are affiliated with the TV School and the Game School at the Faculty of Audiovisual Media and Creative Technology at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences. In addition, one doctoral student is employed at Kristiania University College.

- We had exceptionally strong applicants, says PhD leader Trond Lossius. We would have liked to admit three times as many.

-The doctoral students bring both artistic expertise and interesting projects with opportunities for innovation, Lossius adds. We also see exciting connections between the projects the doctoral students will work on. We are in a perfect position to build a strong collaborative research environment that will contribute to innovation in audiovisual storytelling and the artistic processes that underlie them, the PhD leader concludes.

Doctoral position in fiction direction funded by Eckbos legat

Izer Aliu, a director and screenwriter, is a doctoral student in fiction direction. This doctoral position is funded by Eckbo's legat.

Izer Aliu graduated from the directing program at the Norwegian Film School's bachelor program in 2012 and won an Amanda award for his graduation film, 'Å vokte fjellet' ('To Guard a Mountain'). His feature film debut, 'Fluefangeren' ('Hunting Flies') in 2016, won an Amanda award for best direction and was nominated for the Nordic Council Film Award. The NRK series 'Jordbrukerne' ('The Farmers'), for which Aliu was a co-creator alongside Anne Bjørnstad, won several awards at Cannesseries. His latest feature film, '12 bragder' ('12 Feats'), received the award for Best Nordic Fiction at Oslo Pix.

Aliu will look at editing form the director´s perspective and his point of departure is the question «Is all editing a lie?» explore editing in different phases of filmmaking, from pen to production to post, and if there’s a way to “cut” without “cutting”.

To Aliu the research fellowship means a welcome creative room to be able to immerse himself in his won work as a filmmaker.

- I remember my time at the film school as one of the best thing that has ever happened to me since I had everything I needed to make films whenever I wanted. And I had the energy. Energy is an important part of filmmaking. It is the fire that continues to burn after the first spark of inspiration, to say it poetically - or perhaps a bit pretentiously. In the attempt to tell something more about the world, about ourselves, through the arts, you often become frustrated, exhausted and misunderstood, but you still have to find the energy to carry on. I feel that the journey I´m embarking on now gives me that energy, Aliu concludes.

Doctoral students in sound design, cinematography, documentary, and production design

The other four doctoral students who will be based at the film school for the next four years are Rasmus Eriksson, doctoral student in cinematography, Therese Næss Diesen, doctoral student in sound design, Marie Suul Brobakke, doctoral student in conceptual documentary direction, and Jørgen Stangebye Larsen, doctoral student in production design.

Similar to Izer Aliu, they are all alumni of the Norwegian Film School.

Sound designer Therese Næss Diesen has completed both her bachelor and master degrees at the film school, making her the first in the school's history to have entered all three levels of education at the school. She has worked on recording, foley, sound mixing, and sound design for short films, feature films, documentaries, and TV dramas, and she has worked as a team with Yvonne Stenberg under the name 'Foleyjentene' ('The Foley Girls'). Næss Diesen has also explored sound art in other formats, such as installations, audio dramas, and VR. As a doctoral student in sound design at the film school, she becomes part of an interdisciplinary research project in sound and will explore sound and space.

Documentary filmmaker Marie Suul Brobakke also graduated from the film school's master in 2020, specializing in conceptual documentary direction. In addition to her artistic practice, she has taught documentary filmmaking and visual storytelling at the Danish School of Media and Journalism and has several years of experience as a TV director and video journalist in Copenhagen. Her latest documentary, 'Study of a Fight,' premiered at CPH:DOX and was published on New York Times Op-Docs. During her doctoral period, she will develop a concept for a documentary series about women's relationship with nature while challenging narrative form.

Cinematographer Rasmus Eriksson graduated from the film school's master program in 2022. He has worked as a photographer and camera operator on many Scandinavian productions, including 'The Rain' (Netflix), SVT's 'The Thin Blue Line' and 'The Bridge,' and was recently the cinematographer for the TV series 'Brother' for SVT. During his master's studies, he developed a strong interest in virtual production and has served as a VP supervisor on several Scandinavian projects. From the perspective of a cinematographer, he will explore the artistic possibilities and limitations of using virtual production. He will delve into questions about the visual expressions enabled by VP, how to overcome technical challenges and limitations when working with the technology, and how workflow changes when using VP. What artistic choices will open up with this technology?

New technology and new forms of collaboration

Production designer Jørgen Stangebye Larsen graduated from the film school's production design bachelor program in 2010 and has since worked on a variety of feature films in Norway and abroad. He received an Amanda Award for his work on Maria Sødahl’s 'Hope' and was nominated for Amanda for Joachim Trier’s 'Oslo, August 31st,' Sara Johnsen’s 'Uskyld' ('All Is Forgiven'), and John Andreas Andersen’s 'Skjelvet' ('The Quake'), for which he was also awarded the Nordic Films Talent Award. His long-term collaboration with director Hans Petter Moland has resulted in films such as 'Out Stealing Horses' and 'Cold Pursuit,' starring Liam Neeson. Their latest film project, the American production 'Thug,' is expected to premiere in 2025.

His research project, 'WYSIWYG - The Cyclorama of the Future,' focuses on how to achieve artistically, aesthetically, and cinematically interesting results ('what we get') when what we see 'in-camera' is a world or universe brought to life through a combination of traditional physical sets and 'On-set Virtual Production' technology with real-time LED walls containing virtual backgrounds.

He uses physical cycloramas from the 1800s, enormous painted circular images of famous battles and cityscapes, often with built physical sets in the foreground, to create an immersive experience as a starting point for emphasizing the artistic approach to digital technology.

Stangebye Larsen will explore virtual production through his work as a production designer on major film projects and through smaller lab exercises in collaboration with industry colleagues.

-'On-set Virtual Production' is a disruptive technology that challenges the traditional way of making films, which I find very exciting, says Stangebye. How do we embrace this technology, and what new forms of collaboration are required when digital creation of a film moves closer to the physical? Can VP affect the way we tell stories and how we create the worlds where these stories unfold?

-The research perspective gives me a new approach to my work and future projects. Production design spans across many disciplines. I can now focus an area that represents new technological development in the field and explore the collaborations that are neeeded to achieve successful results with this technology, Stangebye concludes.

Interdisciplinary collaboration across faculties

Among the eight PhD candidates affiliated with the new doctoral program, two will be based at the TV School and the Game School. Documentary producer KriStine Ann Skaret is a doctoral candidate in documentary and audiovisual media at the TV School. She is exploring the intersection of dramaturgical methods and documentary material, balancing journalistic accuracy with artistic freedom, through the development of one or more documentary series.

-This community of doctoral students provides opportunities for collaboration across institutions, where we can benefit from each other's expertise, networks, and resources, both in our own projects and in relation to teaching, says Skaret.

Skaret has a long track record as a documentary producer. Her productions have received awards at home and abroad, and they range from artistically experimental films to more traditional documentary portraits and hybrid films. She was recently nominated for the Nordic Panorama Producer Award, which is awarded to a Nordic documentary producer deserving special recognition for their contribution to the documentary film.

Skaret views the doctoral position as an opportunity to delve deeper, experiment, explore new methods, and contribute to the development of her field.

-It's fantastic to have the opportunity to develop working methods based on my own ideas and the nature of the project, says Skaret enthusiastically. The focus on process and exchange rather than commercial outcomes opens up possibilities for working with new methods and, hopefully, discover new qualities in the work. I feel incredibly privileged to have this opportunity for reflection and immersion, with such a strong academic community behind me. It also provides a financial security that hopefully will encourage being brave and taking risks.

World building and new methods

Animator Simon Jon Andreasen is a doctoral candidate in game design and animation affiliated with the Game School. He is an experienced director in radio, film, and TV and has developed interactive stories and games distributed by leading publishers and broadcasters. He is a co-author of the recently published textbook 'Håndbog i universskabelse' ('Handbook in Worldbuilding').

Andreasen will explore how artists from various disciplines can use thinking and digital tools from worldbuilding to adapt existing stories to new platforms. He comes to the doctoral position from the National Film School of Denmark, where he led the animation direction program for seven years.

-In Denmark, I have created four smaller artistic research projects on how to develop original universes. Thousands of students in Denmark, the Nordic countries, Europe, Africa, and Asia have benefited from this. However, to truly develop the method, I need to delve deeper. With a PhD program for film, TV, and games, Norway is far ahead of the rest of Europe; the program in Lillehammer is simply a lifesaver for my work in developing new knowledge about how to create the universes of the future.

The last addition to the PhD program is screenwriter Ole Christian Solbakken. He is a lecturer in screenwriting at Høyskolen Kristiania, where he is part of the DIKU-supported research project 'Writing the Writer' led by Siri Senje. Solbakken is a graduate of the Norwegian Film School's bachelor screenwriting program. He has written the animated film 'Christmas at Cattle Hill' ('Jul på Kutoppen') and worked on several feature films, including 'The Murders in Congo' ('Mordene i Kongo') and 'Handling the Undead' ('Håndteringen av Udøde').

Solbakken´s artistic research revolves around the biographical drama. In the writing process he will explore drawing as a method to get under the skin of the lesser-known artist brother of Gustav Vigeland, Emmanuel.

Exchange with the students

Over the next four years, the PhD candidates will also teach and exchange knowledge and experiences with students. Doctoral student Jørgen Stangebye Larsen has previous teaching experience at the Film School and looks forward to continuing. Just before he started as a doctoral candidate in September, he conducted a joint workshop for the new class, Class 14, in the Film School's bachelor's program.

-Teaching for all the different disciplines together is exciting and focuses on how most parts of a film production are relevant in different ways to all roles; more than focusing on what is ours and mine and what sets us apart from each other, says Stangebye.

-Film is a collaborative art form. Collaboration and understanding each other and what we can contribute and benefit from across disciplines are crucial and what makes filmmaking so rewarding, concludes the production designer.

You can read more about the PhD program "Artistic Research in Film and Related Audiovisual Art Forms" on the website of Høgskolen i Innlandet (Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences).