Contents

Introduction

Artistic Research

Artistic Research Projects

milestones:

Artistic Research Forum

milestones

Work Plans in Artistic Research

WP 1 — Visual Grammar for XR Formats

WP 2 — Audio

WP 3 — Digital Image Creation

WP 4 — Dramatic Structure for Interactive and Immersive Environments

Pedagogic Development

Projects

Student-initiated workshops

milestones:

Seminars and discussion forums

milestones:

“The Artist as Film School Teacher” — follow-up

milestones:

“Order in Chaos” — Niels Pagh Andersen

milestones

Training Programmes

milestones:

Network building

Projects initiated

Storytellers on New Platforms

milestones:

Facebook group

milestones:

The National Centres for Excellence network

milestones:

Projects Proposed

One-to-one collaborations

SIRT Centre Toronto / Sheridan College

OCAD U

DADIU / The National Film School of Denmark

Larger-scale Events

milestones:

Production and Technical Support

Production Support

milestones:

Technical Research and Development

milestones:

Introduction

The first year of the Centre for Excellence in Film and Interactive Media Arts (CEFIMA) has seen a number of changes in the world and industry the Norwegian Film School is a part of. Already virtual reality, which was just beginning to gain attention when the CEFIMA application was written, has reached — and perhaps passed — the third stage of the Gartner hype cycle¹. Recently, the talk has turned to extended reality — XR² — as a way of discussing all variations of mixing live action with digitally generated assets in a 360° environment.

At the time this plan is being written, four of the largest technology companies in the world — Google, Samsung, Apple, and Microsoft — are planning to release, or have recently released, new and improved XR-related software and hardware while some of the early pioneers, like HTC, are releasing improved versions of previous successes.

As recently as 6 months ago, people were talking about VR being at the stage where “the train arrives at the station”³. Recent developments in VR filmmaking⁴, however, show the medium is maturing rapidly — and the plans CEFIMA has for integrating this and other technologies and platforms into the curricula of the Norwegian Film School need to mature as well.

Another factor the CEFIMA strategic plan takes into account is the development of the revised Master of Fine Arts at NFS. Based on the feedback from the first cohort as well as key faculty, the MFA has been radically revised and relaunched with a stronger focus on artistic research and development. In line with the developments seen in the industry and the existence and mandate of CEFIMA, the revised MFA takes into account new platforms and storytelling tools like immersive storytelling, interactive narrative and the various forms of XR and accelerates many of the planned research areas of CEFIMA.

This plan builds on the action plan as presented in the application to NOKUT but is refined to hasten the integration of CEFIMAs areas of investigation with the MFA and BFA programmes at NFS. It also looks at ways of integrating Artistic Research Fellows with the rest of the school community and developing a more conscious relationship between artistic research and education across the board. Finally, there are some concrete plans for network-building and staffing.

The plan is broken down into specific areas in order to ensure more transparent project planning and allocation of area of responsibility and authority, although there is significant overlap between the areas. In addition, dissemination is not given a separate heading. This is not an oversight, but a conscious decision to emphasise that dissemination is an integral part of all activities rather than something separate.

Finally, the expectation is that this plan will be a dynamic document. Already we have seen changes in the media arts world that lead to adjustments in the action plan originally developed. This was expected, and it is expected this will continue. CEFIMA needs to be responsive to changes we see, and to respond to the developments in the worldwide film and interactive media arts communities. Ideally, we will respond in such a way that the programmes created contribute to preparing artists for tomorrows world rather than todays.

Artistic Research

Just as research is the foundation of higher education in most of academia, artistic research (AR) is the foundation of higher education in the fine arts. In Norway, AR is defined as “Artistic Research covers artistic processes that lead to a publically available artistic work. An explicit reflection around the development and presentation of the work can also be included”⁵. This definition is what the Norwegian Film School bases all its AR work on.

At NFS, AR work begins with a deliberate and conscious verbalisation of artistic intentions. The premise is that in order to learn to create artistic work, the ideas behind the work — including the techniques to be used and tested, the relationship of the work to the creator and the world, and the planned impact on an audience — need to be shared and evaluated. These ideas are, in the BFA and MFA programmes, articulated in a “statement of intent” and the students are in this way trained to see artistic research methods as an integrated part of their development.

Artistic Research Projects

From the perspective of CEFIMAs mandate, AR is key to developing the fields of interactive narrative and immersive storytelling. This manifests first and foremost in the formal AR projects represented by the PhD-level fellows Nadja Lipsyc and Cecilie Levy — both of whom started in the fall of 2017 — as well as in the work being completed by AR fellow Rafal Hanzl, who is completing his project in 2018 with a focus on virtual reality and virtual production. In 2018, these projects will be complimented by the senior AR project Queens Game, led by Maureen Thomas, and 2 more AR fellows being hired in the spring/summer of 2018.

A key aspect of formalised artistic research is developing a strong network of referees and supervisors. The core of this network will be in Scandinavia and will build on the existing NFS networks in Denmark and Norway. It is important, however, to bring new approaches and ideas from around the world; as a result, using referees and supervisors from the entire CILECT community will be an important strategic initiative. The early phase of this has seen a focus on Canada, where there have been notable innovations in digital narratives and media arts. As the relationships with Canadian institutions and individuals become formalised, CEFIMA will seek to extend its scope to other areas as well.

Collectively and individually these projects will lead the development of new digital narrative formats within NFS, and their integration into the daily life of the Film Schools MFA and BFA programmes will ensure all students and staff are exposed to the latest developments. The processes and techniques developed through these projects will be examined, and form the basis of workshops, courses, and production exercises integrated into both the NFS degree programmes and short-form courses being developed.

Having a growing community of full-time artistic researchers — which also includes 2 other AR fellows and 2 other senior projects — gives NFS an opportunity to further develop artistic research and development as a formal part of the school activities.

milestones:

hire 2 new artistic research fellows — application deadline is April 25th, process to be complete by June 15th, 2018 for start October 2018.

develop production plans for AR projects led by Nadja Lipsyc and Ceclie Levy — spring 2018

initiate artistic research workshops for MFA students — fall 2018

initiate Queens Game — project runs November 1st, 2018 to October 31st, 2020

nurture and develop artistic research work by faculty, students, and external partners; both informal, smaller projects and larger, formalised projects needing external funding — ongoing

develop a national and international network of referees, supervisors, and project collaborators — fall 2018 / spring 2019

develop and implement external courses and BFA workshops based on AR projects — spring 2019

Artistic Research Forum

An ongoing challenge for the Norwegian Film School has been integrating artistic research (AR) into the curriculum and disseminating the work being done throughout the organisation. With the start of the new MFA with a greater focus on artistic research, an increase in the number of Ph.D.-candidates, and a need to increase the awareness of the breadth of AR possibilities among the faculty, it is necessary to take steps to integrate artistic research even more into the daily life and education at the school.

A fairly simple and effective method of achieving this is to institute monthly artistic research “salons” where a group of 2-3 people, consisting of members of faculty, AR candidates, and/or students host a presentation and discussion around a particular theme relevant to their artistic research and development. These salons should take place on the same day every month — for example, the last Friday of a month — and last approximately 3 hours.

These gatherings would initially be open only to NFS staff and students but be opened up to the community as the form matures. Two out of every three sessions could be in Oslo, with remaining one in Lillehammer. All sessions would be streamed in order to allow staff and students who cannot make the trip to follow along; one could also use simple online commenting tools to open up for questions and discussions for those participating remotely.

In time, co-hosting sessions with other institutions and organisations would be desirable. Obvious initial subjects for such sessions include Composing for Film and Audio-visual Media with the National Academy of Music and Performance for Interactive Narratives with the Theatre Academy at the National Academy of the Arts. In time, and if the format is a success, we should consider using online tools to host seminars with international collaborators such as Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD U) in Toronto, the Stockholm University of the Arts, and others.

milestones

planning initial sessions — spring 2018

this includes selecting a host, choosing the first few themes and dates, and selecting participants.

first session — October 2018.

plan international online sessions — spring 2019

Work Plans in Artistic Research

In addition to the two areas covered above, CEFIMA will initiate artistic research projects based in the existing Norwegian Film School community of teachers and students at the BFA and MFA programmes. The projects will vary in scope and duration and will collectively look to heighten the institutional awareness of and participation in formal and informal artistic research.

In keeping with the focus on new directions in narrative formats brought on by technological changes, these work plans will build on the existing pedagogical and philosophical tools utilised at NFS and look at ways of understanding and incorporating them into the new directions being developed through CEFIMA.

1.WP 1 — Visual Grammar for XR Formats

A key aspect of film and television storytelling is cinematurgy, the language, grammar, and structure of images in audio-visual storytelling. Over the years, this area has become understood and refined in film schools and among filmmakers working in what is becoming known as “flat film”⁶. As the images being used are going beyond the traditional frame boundaries, in some cases to full 360° immersions, it becomes necessary to expand the concept of cinematurgy in order to develop a grammar and vocabulary for creating visual worlds in immersive stories.

In order to complete this workplan, CEFIMA intends to hire a cinematographer in a 30-40% position to be a project manager for developing a grammar and vocabulary in immersive XR formats.

2.WP 2 — Audio

Another central element is sound. Already filmmakers acknowledge that sound is 50% of the cinematic experience for an audience⁷. Early testing shows audio may be even more crucial to effective storytelling in XR environments than traditional cinematic formats⁸, and exploring this area is key to both developing immersive stories and to developing education for immersive storytellers.

For CEFIMA, this means investing time and resources in projects that investigate uses of audio as a narrative element in immersive environments; this will also cover the creative use of sound as a key driver of audience response and attention in immersive stories.

3.WP 3 — Digital Image Creation

Digital techniques for image creation have become commonplace in the film and television industries, a fact that led to the creation of the programme VFX Design at the Norwegian Film School in 2015 and was the driving force behind the AR project of artistic research fellow Rafal Hanzl, who began in 2014. Today, the various techniques for digital image creation and manipulation form the basis of new and innovative ways of creating immersive environments, and tools like the game engines Unity⁹ and Unreal¹⁰, previously only seen in the games industry, are making their way into the toolkits of filmmakers and post production professionals. Other techniques like volumetrics, photogrammetry, light field capture¹¹ are also making an appearance in the film industry.

Neither NFS nor CEFIMA are primarily engaged in technological development for their own sake, but at the same time, providing a lab-type environment where students and faculty can engage with professionals from both the creative and technology industries is crucial to developing these areas. This work plan will encompass the creation of a research and development centre for filmmakers and related industries to test creative applications of new technologies in ways that might not be possible in a commercial environment.

Finding a project manager with a solid foundation in both the artistic foundation of filmmaking and an understanding of the artistic and creative potential of digital image creation tools will be a priority.

4.WP 4 — Dramatic Structure for Interactive and Immersive Environments

New technologies enable new narrative formats to emerge, as witnessed by the high-profile, interactive drama Mosaic, shown on HBO in 2017.¹² While stories told in a more linear fashion, as for television drama and cinema, will persist, interactive formats and transmedia worlds open possibilities for telling stories and constructing narratives in new and innovative ways using different technologies, platforms, and combining screen-based distribution with real-world elements. This poses particular challenges to writers and directors, who will need to learn new techniques, such as those exemplified by “world building”¹³.

Other aspects of this work will cover new ways of working, where the traditional lines between the film industry pre-production, production, and post production are beginning to be blurred, and in some cases completely removed as decisions made in post-production may lead to script and story revisions and new rounds of production. Here digital technologies allow filmmakers to test their stories, analogous to the way games creators perform play tests, and refine and revise in order to create the version that most accurately represents their vision, something that would have been completely unheard of in the very recent past.

Organising the dramaturgical weekend for filmmakers and games creators will be a first event under this work plan. Workshops and creative projects will follow.

Pedagogic Development

This was originally, and continues to be, the heart of CEFIMAs mandate, in line with the aims of the national Centres for Excellence initiative. As the Norwegian Film School grows and adapts, it is clearly necessary to ensure the school’s tradition of a highly focussed approach to teaching and student development is not just continued but disseminated throughout the school and beyond.

An aspect of this dissemination is also the continued development and refinement of the school’s pedagogical approach, to ensure the learning environment being created is responsive to the students’ needs while allowing them to develop into independent storytellers and professionals. In addition, CEFIMA will contribute to ensuring artistic research at all levels is integrated in the daily life of the school to a greater degree.

These projects and plans spring naturally out of the previous section, “Artistic Research”.

Projects

There are a number of projects related to this heading, some already underway and some to be implemented in the near future.

1.Student-initiated workshops

In December 2017, CEFIMA responded to a call put out by NOKUT for some stipends for students to engage in and develop their own education. CEFIMA was awarded NOK 75 000,- for this purpose. In January and February 2018, the CEFIMA student advisory board discussed how to distribute these stipends and came up with a set of criteria that were distributed March 20th, 2018.

The jury selecting the stipends will consist of two students from kull 11 — producer Øyvind Eriksen and screenwriter Emil Wahl — as well as Fredrik Graver and a faculty member to be named later. Since kull 10 is graduating in June, they will technically not be students and able to benefit from these stipends; however, the decision was made to allow kull 10 students to work with kull 11 in order to create units that can be of benefit to both current students and recent alumni. If this proves to make potential workshops too expensive to fit within the framework of the stipend, CEFIMA can potentially sponsor with some funds in order to make implementation possible.

milestones:

application deadline: April 23rd.

jury decisions anticipated: mid-May.

course implementation: school year 2018-19.

2.Seminars and discussion forums

Issues around filmmaker education, the development of audio-visual storytelling as an artistic medium, artistic research in film and digital media, etc., are issues of interest to a much broader community than the Norwegian Film School. Presently there is one day each year when teachers in the Nordic countries gather to discuss relevant issues — the Teachers Day at the NORDICIL gathering during the Gothenburg Film Festival. In addition, the European network GEECT hosts two conferences each year, one in spring and one in the fall, devoted to relevant issues.

These fora are important, but at the same time they are a little to limiting to promote an ongoing dialogue and fostering continuing relationships. This was also a criticism and point of discussion during the closing plenary of the GEECT seminar hosted by NFS in May 2017. Creating a series of seminars for national and international networks focussed on different topics related to teaching is a key part of the CEFIMA mandate and will be a priority moving forward.

On a local level, the new Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (INU) has signalled a new and ambitious plan for pedagogical development throughout the institution in keeping with guidelines coming from the national Ministry of Higher Education. CEFIMA will be expected to be a key contributor to this work, and discussions of how best to implement this are underway with the Vice Rector for Education. Planning and hosting seminars on the NFS approach to pedagogy are a natural starting point.

milestones:

gage interest in NORDICIL — September 2018.

work out proposal to be sent to NORDICIL and GEECT — fall, 2018

present initial proposal to NORDICIL — February 2019.

planning — spring, 2019

implementation first gathering — fall, 2019

discussions and planning sessions with the INU Vice Rector for Education and the (soon to be hired) Director for Pedagogical Development — fall 2018

3.“The Artist as Film School Teacher” — follow-up

2017 saw the start and implementation of the pilot project of this pedagogy course for filmmakers teaching at film schools. A small group of teachers from the NORDICIL network participated in both online and face-to-face sessions. Four teachers from NFS started the course, but only one was still active at the end of the year¹⁴.

The course showed much promise, and there was consistent feedback that the topics were relevant and useful. The feedback is being used to create a new version of the course at this time.

August 2017 saw many new teachers start at NFS, and there is a need to redefine the second version of the course to be aimed more specifically at new teaching staff at the school. Along with this, the need for a heavy reliance on online tools is reduced.

At this time, “TAaFST” is being revamped as a 12-month pedagogy course worth 15 ects, where the majority of class work will occur in 2-day gatherings of all the participants. The plan was to have this in place for February 2018, but demands on the time of the CEFIMA leader, who is also the architect of the course, have made that impossible.

The course plans will be completed by the summer of 2018, and the first version run exclusively for NFS staff will being in September 2018.

milestones:

planning:

start-up — ongoing

completion — June 2018

course implementation

start-up — September 2018

completion / final assessment — June 2019

4.“Order in Chaos” — Niels Pagh Andersen

This is a project funded through the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme (NARP), which was scheduled to be completed December 2017. Andersens project is based on his work on a number of documentary feature films, including as editor on Act of Killing, Look of Silence, and Human Flow. The completed work will be an ebook, containing both Andersens reflections on the work with these films and the relationship of the editor and director as well as lengthy clips from the films and interviews with his collaborators.

The completed work will both illuminate the work of the editor and the changing nature of documentary filmmaking in the contemporary media landscape. Combined with Andersens experience as a teacher, both at NFS and in master classes around the world, the completed work will become a resource for students and teachers of documentary as well as a reference for anyone looking at the films themselves and the state of documentary.

The work is being written by Andersen, and nearing completion. He is in communication with potential publishers, although there is still a possibility the final work will be self-published by NFS and distributed through our CILECT networks as an ebook.

CEFIMA is paying Andersens salary (in a 30% position) until Sept. 30th, 2018, to ensure he has the time to complete the book and see it published. We may need to assist with finding a competent programmer to create the digital book and will regardless be promoting the book through our international networks.

milestones

start-up — ongoing

manuscript complete — October 2018.

publication and distribution — January 2019

Training Programmes

Providing short- and medium-term training opportunities is a key element in CEFIMAs plans. The intention is for these courses and workshops to be offered to the extended film and games industries in Norway, as well as for NFS students and staff. Many will be located at NFS facilities in Oslo and Lillehammer, but in order to fulfil the national mandate of the Norwegian Film School, a key element will be to also offer a series of training opportunities at regional film and media centres around the country.

These courses and workshops will include:

case studies of interesting projects

workshops in Oslo with NFI and other partners — focus on bridging the gap between games and film

workshops developed for specific MFA or BFA needs but also open for external participants

master classes / workshops with high-profile international creators

master classes / workshops developed with regional film commissions or cultural centres for local youth and professionals

In the short term — fall 2018 — CEFIMA will focus on courses in Oslo with a view to raising awareness of CEFIMAs offerings in the extended film and games production community. In addition, CEFIMA will continue to talk with the TV and Games programmes at the Faculty for Audio-Visual Media and Creative Technology at INU to find points of overlap and mutual interest.

Examples of courses planed for the fall are:

Practical introduction: what is VR/AR/MR/XR/360? — a combination of demonstrations, examples, and basic hands-on workshop.

Dramaturgy for interactive formats — bringing together traditional screenwriters and games creators in a common workshop. Organised with NFI and possibly NRK

Sound for immersive formats. Organised with NFI and possibly NRK

“Lone Wolves” LARP workshop, based on the artistic research project by AR Fellow Nadja Lipsyc and organised by Lipsyc with teachers from Scenography, Cinematography, and Sound

Case study: “Guldfiskteorien” — based on the 360 interactive project created as a personal project by two kull 10 BFA students.

TBA workshop(s) planned and organised by kull 11 (and possibly 10) students through the stipends available from CEFIMA

In order to achieve a successful portfolio of courses and workshops, CEFIMA and NFS will need to assemble a group of teachers, instructors, and mentors who can both teach at the BFA and MFA, as well as isolated shorter and longer workshops and training courses.

Start with an overview of who we have with expertise in the fields now as well as existing teachers who have a history of investigating new technologies and an interest for working with CEFIMA

Talk to pre-existing networks about becoming either staff or guest instructors

Through extended networks, identify others who could come in as guest instructors and mentors for short and long courses as well as projects.

milestones:

finalise plans for fall workshops – spring 2018

identify and find instructors for fall workshops and MFA programmes — spring 2018

run first series of workshops – fall 2018

plan longer courses and workshops — fall 2018

identify and contact instructors for longer courses — fall 2018

initial offerings longer courses — winter / spring 2019

planning with regional film commissions and communities — winter / spring 2019

first regional offerings — fall 2019 / winter 2020

Network building

Many of the activities listed above also build networks, but there is also a need to have a specific strategic focus on this work. Networks serve many purposes, not the least of which is dissemination of results and practices, and enrichment of the broader NFS community.

Projects initiated

1.Storytellers on New Platforms

In the fall of 2017, CEFIMA / NFS joined the emerging network “VR Oslo”, an initiative launched with the support of Innovasjon Norge and localized at Kunnskapsparken — Oslo Science Park. The network brought together individuals and companies exploring VR from a wide variety of different aspects and industries. While this grouping proved interesting as an introduction to the breadth of applications of the various XR technologies, it has its limits.

In February 2018, a small group of VR Oslo participants decided to investigate forming a network of VR Storytellers. CEFIMA will host the inaugural meeting of this network, and if the conversation proved fruitful, we will expand to provide seminars and networking sessions for storytellers around Norway exploring the various ways of using XR in the creation of narrative works across genres.

milestones:

plan initial meeting — April 2018

public launch of the initiative — Spillkonventet, June 18th and 19th, 2018

further actions to be planned in the initial meeting.

5.Facebook group

The CEFIMA Facebook group¹⁵ was launched in September 2017 and has 190 members as of March 24th, 2018. The purpose of the group is to bring together a diverse selection of creatives working with new narrative technologies worldwide. At this time, there are members from Australia, Asia, Africa, North America although the majority are from Europe. The group was initiated and is led by Christian Fonnesbech, a Danish games producers and consultant.

This group has already shown itself to be valuable, leading, for example, to the contact between Australian transmedia storyteller Christy Dena and the NFS AR candidates Nadja Lipsyc and Cecilie Levy. For the group to add value to the CEFIMA network in the coming months, more of these kinds of connections need to be made, and the hope will be that some potential instructors and guest teachers will be identified in the group.

milestones:

group start — September 2017

initial evaluation — May 2018

6.The National Centres for Excellence network

NOKUT organises 2-3 gatherings per year for the Centres for Excellence, a practice that will presumably be continued by the new owners of the initiative, SIU. These are useful gatherings for meeting with and learning from the experiences of the other seven centres in Norway. To date, CEFIMA has not initiated any direct contacts outside of these gatherings, but the potential for such contact exists and grows with each meeting.

milestones:

attendance at 3 gatherings in 2017 (2 for staff, 1 for students) and 1 in 2018 to date.

Projects Proposed

1.One-to-one collaborations

In addition to networks, CEFIMA will seek to initiate a number of one-to-one collaborations on behalf of the Norwegian Film School to add to the collaborations already existing.

SIRT Centre Toronto / Sheridan College

The SIRT Centre is a research and development centre owned by Sheridan College in Toronto, Canada. This centre is funded through a variety of Federal and Provincial government programmes in Canada and focusses on providing an environment where production companies and technology developers can research and test both technology and techniques related to virtual production and XR in a state-of-the-art 930 m² studio facility on the Pinewood Studios lot.

As the film programmes at Sheridan College are part of CILECT, building a relationship with SIRT and Sheridan comes naturally through existing networks.

The milestones for this network are:

initial meeting — September 2017

follow-up meeting — March 2018

formalisation of mutual interest — spring/summer, 2018

development of SIU (Senter for internasjonalisering av utdanning) application — fall, 2018

deadline SIU application — spring, 2019 (deadline TBA)

OCAD U

OCAD U (Ontario College of Art and Design University) is the premier fine arts institution in Ontario. Among the many programmes is one in Digital Futures, developed in collaboration with the Canadian Film Centre, which encompasses, among other things, games and interactive storytelling, in a cross-disciplinary MFA study.

Of particular interest is developing a relationship with OCAD around artistic research, which can include sharing an AR candidate, sharing supervisors at Ph.D.-level, and organising summer workshops for artistic research in media arts and digital narratives, both in Toronto and Norway. Such workshops could potentially involve researchers at KHiO working in similar media.

Current milestones are:

initial meeting — March 2018

exploration of mutual interest — spring/summer, 2018

formalisation of mutual interest / possible further meeting — fall, 2018.

planning of summer courses — spring, 2019.

DADIU / The National Film School of Denmark

The National Film School of Denmark has long led an educational consortium in games — DADIU. This consortium brings together students from a wide variety of technical and artistic programmes to learn about and create games together.

There have been informal discussions about CEFIMA / NFS participating in DADIU, and this has potential for introducing certain groups of students to both the methods and potential of interactive media for telling stories.

Potential milestones are:

discussions between NFS and the NFS of Denmark about participation in DADIU

planning of NFS curriculum to identify potential student groups for participation and to adjust their programmes to allow for it

7.Larger-scale Events

The hosting of the 2017 Spring GEECT Symposium showed both the potential and pitfalls of planning and organising large-scale gatherings and events. While the event itself was successful, there was unrealised potential for much more. While this can — and will — be mitigated, there is still a need to recognise the pitfalls and plan for ways to avoid them in the future.

The primary pitfall is not having a plan in place for follow-up and building on the results of the gathering; any future activities of this sort organised by CEFIMA must include a concrete plan for follow-up, network-building, and dissemination. This planning must build on the assumption that an event is only truly successful if it leads to ongoing work among the participants and the institutions they represent also after the event itself is over.

For CEFIMA, the focus will primarily be on two kinds of events: the conference or symposium aimed at educators or industry, or a mix of the two, and the summit or workshop focussed on a specific question or topic. The former can realistically be thought of occurring at two-year intervals, while the latter could be planned with a biannual rhythm with one event in Oslo and one in Lillehammer each year. Initially, the conferences / symposia would focus on the Scandinavian and Nordic context, while the summits and workshops would involve smaller groups with international representation.

milestones:

plan content and frequency of events — spring 2018

proposed first smaller-scale event — spring 2019

proposed symposium / conference — fall 2019 or spring 2020

Production and Technical Support

A key element of CEFIMA is to build on the tradition the Norwegian Film School has of experiential learning — “learning by doing”. The school has long practiced a way of teaching and learning that supposes students will develop into creative practitioners through directed exercises where they practice elements of their art combined with conscious reflection on this practice.

Production Support

CEFIMA presupposes institutional learning can follow the same pedagogic principles, and while it is possible to gain significant insight through reading and case studies, true learning and integration of new practices, technologies, and narrative forms must build on practice. A consequence of this is that CEFIMA will support a number of productions within interactive and immersive media on the condition these productions lead to an understanding of how to create educational programmes preparing BFA and MFA students for future artistic careers working with these media and platforms.

To date, CEFIMA has supported one such production: “Guldfiskteorien”, a personal project by kull 10 students Thomas Pape and Jacob Thorndal. This is the first interactive 360° production created using both NFS and CEFIMA support, and will lead, among other things, to a case study for students and staff at NFS. CEFIMA will encourage a greater variety of such projects among student and artistic researchers as well as looking to the broader community. In this context, it can be interesting to provide alumni grants for small-scale projects, among other things.

The kind of projects to be supported can include:

artistic researchers’ projects

student-initiated projects

independent external projects

production companies looking for “R&D” related to developing projects

aesthetic examinations of the “grammar” of new platforms, including 360° stories, interactive VR, AR, location-based storytelling, live rendering, etc. — involve film school staff and students

milestones:

planning call for projects — spring 2018

first call for external projects — fall 2018

mapping potential projects for support among MFA students — fall 2018

implementation first external project support — winter / spring 2019

Technical Research and Development

Another aspect of this kind of support is more technically-oriented research projects, looking more specifically at new technologies. CEFIMA has the advantage of being part of an educational institution, where technologies and techniques can be tested in an environment free of the commercial pressures faced by production companies. It would be an advantage for both NFS and the broader film and games industries in Norway if CEFIMA can provide a research and development sandbox, where private and public companies can field test technologies and techniques before putting them to use in the creation of narrative productions.

These R&D plans can include:

testing new equipment, acquiring what works

labs for production and post in Lillehammer and Oslo

production pipeline connecting Lillehammer and Oslo

technical testing of new work flows and exhibition formats

milestones:

mapping of the need for this form of R&D — fall 2018

mapping of equipment and techniques to be tested — fall 2018 / winter 2019

formalising partnerships with external public and private partners — winter / spring 2019

opening CEFIMA R&D lab — fall 2019

¹ From https://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp, the hype cycle is defined as «Gartner Hype Cycles provide a graphic representation of the maturity and adoption of technologies and applications, and how they are potentially relevant to solving real business problems and exploiting new opportunities. Gartner Hype Cycle methodology gives you a view of how a technology or application will evolve over time, providing a sound source of insight to manage its deployment». The third stage is the «trough of disillusionment» and comes after the community realised the expectations and media coverage were inflated.

² There are several definitions of XR, but one useful one is: “XR stands for Extended Reality, and it’s being used as the superset of all those technologies that aim to change what we know as reality.” From https://martechtoday.com/martech-landscape-xr-212308. For the purpose of simplicity, the acronym XR is being adopted through the rest of this strategic plan document to cover the variety of virtual and augmented reality formats.

³ Referring to the Lumiere brothers famous early film “L'Arrivée d'un Train á la Ciotat” showing a steam locomotive arriving at a station, from 1895.

⁴ Witness the reports from the 2018 Sundance Film Festival: https://www.wareable.com/vr/best-vr-sundance-film-festival-2018

⁵ From the report «Vekt på kunstnerisk uviklingsarbeid» published by Universities Norway (UHR) in 2007. Quoted from «Forskning og utviklingsarbeid innen fagområdet kunst», a report by the National Council for Artistic Research, 2015, p. 10 (translation by the author).

⁶ «Flat film» is the term starting to be used among storytellers working with 360° and virtual reality environments. It refers simply to any audio-visual distribution medium that relies on a defined frame size and flat screening surface (like a cinema screen or a television). CEFIMA staff have been introduced to the term through artistic researcher Cecilie Levy, who has picked up the term through working with 360/VR communities in Amsterdam.

⁷ See, for example, http://britishfilm.org.uk/lynch/Sintro.html, where David Lynch is quoted: «Films are 50 percent visual and 50 percent sound. Sometimes sound even overplays the visual.»

⁸ A fair bit of literature is starting to appear on this topic; see among others, http://designingsound.org/2016/06/30/the-importance-of-3d-audio-for-vr/

⁹ https://unity3d.com/unity

¹⁰ https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/what-is-unreal-engine-4

¹¹ See https://www.viar360.com/blog/types-of-virtual-reality-capture-methods-that-allow-you-to-replicate-the-real-world/ for an overview of these techniques.

¹² Mosaic is presented here: https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/8/16621468/steven-soderbergh-mosaic-hbo-app-download. Unfortunately, the app version, necessary for interactivity, is only available in the US market.

¹³ USC hosts a «world building» institute, directed by prominent production designer Alex McDowell. From their website:

World Building is founded on three beliefs, namely that storytelling is the most powerful system for the advancement of human capability due to its ability to allow the human imagination to precede the realization of thought; that all stories emerge logically and intuitively from the worlds that create them; and that new technologies powerfully enable us to sculpt the imagination into existence.

http://worldbuilding.institute/about

¹⁴ Two of the teachers initially enrolled left NFS as of July 31st, 2017, while a third found the demands of external production meant is was not possible to continue regularly.

¹⁵ Find the group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/986526221489560/