Digital Storytelling 2012, Oslo Norway

Digital Storytelling Seminar, now in its 7th year, took place in May at the Tancred Theater at Filmens Hus in Oslo, Norway. As an active member of 5D Institute and 5D Conference, I was delighted to be able to accept an invitation to attend this partner event.

Digital Storytelling Seminar (DS) is the brainchild of 5D Conference founders Kim Baumann Larsen, Creative Director and partner at Placebo Effects, an Oslo-based VFX company, and Eric Hanson, Principal, xRex Studio and Associated Professor, USC School of Cinematic Arts. In 2005 both realized they missed attending the defunct 3D Festival in Copenhagen, an annual event said to be "Europe's leading meeting place for professionals working in digital design, filmmaking, game development and architectural design." They sought out Angela Amoroso, DS co-founder and co-director, at the Norwegian Film Institute and launched the first DS seminar and workshops in 2006, providing a new platform to discuss the advances in computer-generated imagery (CGI) in the service of visual storytelling.

DS connects and enriches digital artists and filmmakers in the Nordic community and beyond.
Each year new technologies and a wide range of projects are showcased by participants. Themes have varied, but the objective remains the same: To explore relevant and cutting edge topics that educate and inspire, leading to new levels of filmmaking excellence. This year was no exception. Interesting to note that many of the small participating companies are formed of CGI generalists, self-dubbed "Potatoes" that produce a wide array independent projects, and work co-operatively on larger projects, such as soon-to-be released Kon-Tiki, the newest Norwegian adventure film based on Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl and his 1947 rafting expedition across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian Islands. This film was made mostly with Norwegian VFX talents and had a record-breaking budget. Swedish companies Fido and Very Important Pirates did a fair share of the VFX work as well.

I met Dadi Einarsson, co-founder and Creative Director of Framestore Iceland, who sought out DS to become involved and widen the Nordic filmmaking community to include Iceland (where before DS was primarily Scandinavian.) He spoke passionately about his desire to bring more VFX work back home to Iceland. Framestore Iceland has doubled in size within 3 years of operation. Globalization within the VFX industry enabled him to direct a commercial in Iceland for an agency in London with a client in China. They never met in person, yet Dadi delivered the spot in four weeks with previs animatic the first week and the rest followed --all online.

(Latest news is that Icelandic director and actor Baltasar Kormakur has bought the Icelandic Framestore branch in partnership with Dadi Einarsson.)

Stand-out key presenters included Alpo Oksaharju and Mikko Kallinen, from Finland. They are the 2-man development team of Theory Interactive, a new indie game company who combined forces to produce Reset, a single-player, first person puzzle game with a time-travel convention. They have developed their own real-time game engine PRAXIS, and in the process, created a cinematic teaser trailer to test their work.

The lighting and texture are beautifully rendered, giving the trailer extraordinary depth and emotion, and this has set core gamers on their ear. It has also triggered buy-out offers from larger companies, which Alpo and Mikko have refused. They have pursued a creative dream on their own terms and prefer to keep it that way. There is no set release date for the much-anticipated game.

Participants in the "VFX Omelet" (short showcase segment) included Norwegian "regulars": Storm Studios, Gimpville, Qvisten Animation, Stripe, Electric Putty, Netron, Placebo Effects and newcomer Framestore Iceland Studio.

The list of high-quality and eclectic presentations:

Contraband (feature film) show and tell -Supporting visual effects from Iceland -
Dadi Einarsson, Creative Director/VFX Supervisor, Framestore Iceland

Creating Digital Water: The process of creating simulated water and oceans and the problems to be aware of -their work on Kon Tiki - Magnus Petterson, Lead Effects, TD Storm Studios

Stereoscopic Set Extension: Behind the scenes of the thrilling mine-cart sequence in the feature film Blåfjell 2. - Lars Erik Hansen, VFX Supervisor/Producer, Gimpville

Twigson in Trouble: a brief talk about the VFX that Qvisten Animation did on Twigson 3-
Martin Skarbø, VFX Supervisor and Morten Øverlie, Animation Supervisor, Qvisten

Hugo’s There – The Unbelievable Truth: Adding a little character with e>motion. Peter Spence, VFX Artist
, Electric Putty

Spence made reference in his presentation to the [5D] production mandala originally conceived by Alex McDowell, 5D Founder and Creative Director, to illustrate modern filmmaking -- a circular chart that shows overlapping input from all departments, with design at the core. In Spence’s version as creator and sole executor of Hugo, it was himself on the mandala at beginning, middle and end. He does it all, another example of creative vision pursued on the artist’s own terms.

MODERN FILMMAKING PROCESS

Fredriksten Fortress – 350 years in eleven minutes: The history of Fredriksten Fortress, an outdoor projection on the walls of the inner fortress -Jørgen Aanonsen, Managing Director and Torgeir Holm, Creative Director for 3D and VFX
, Netron

The Cows Are On Your Table: the challenge of augmenting more than 100,000 breakfast tables with a digital story
-Kim Baumann Larsen, Creative Director and Partner, 
Placebo Effects

This last VFX Omelet presentation of an augmented reality app was among the most novel. Using an ipad aimed at a QR code on a milk carton, a scene comes to life in the ipad. 2 small cow characters appear to come from behind the carton and graze on the table, talking to each other and interacting with the viewer. One can see the potential well beyond the breakfast table for this idea. Kim will be among the presenters at Siggraph next month.

Keynote Speaker Sebastian Sylwan, CTO Weta Digital also 5D Founder, in his address entitled “The Evolution of Storytelling Through the Convergence of Art and Science” spoke about history of the role of art and science in service of story, leading off with Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting of Last Supper citing how artists have always used technology, in this case perspective, to enhance the telling of the visual story.

Jumping forward, in an interview for a local Norwegian online magazine Sylwan spoke about the non-linearity technology has afforded filmmakers today: “Traditionally, film production has evolved over the last 120 years to include specific tasks. Because film was expensive, you needed to plan very well what needed to be done when you were in front of the camera… Nowadays, the visual effects part of that has grown a lot, compared to where it was even 10 years ago. That growth has been accompanied by a lot of technological advancements, and those technological advancements have enabled some of the creative parameters to be extended, experimented with, brought forward, involving impulses from various areas. In short, I think we are talking about a type of virtual production now. There isn’t really a checklist in my mind or a definition of what virtual production is or isn’t, but I think it’s basically about using virtual tools in order to make films. So it’s really production with the best tools available, and those tools are able to enable communication between creative figures in the film making process that would normally not talk to each other.”

Sylwan also presented a Weta show-reel and took numerous questions about their past projects including Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which highlighted Weta’s advances in facial performance capture, particularly the eyes.

The final Key presenter was Swedish VFX studio Fido a company that specializes in creatures. Originally 4 companies, (4 people) merged to form Fido in 2005, and have kept the same staff and added 18 artists and have 45 workstations for peak times. They are recently acquired by film production company Forestlight groups are sister company to Noble Entertainment- one of the largest distributors in Scandinavia. FIDO balances longer-term feature work with shorter-term commercials and use the same teams for both. There are no department splits. Fido has a very-well developed fur and feather pipeline as well as a system for creating realistic ocean surfaces.

Claes Dietmann, Producer at Fido, presented a show reel featuring Fido’s impressive VFX work on creatures on 3 production: German feature Yoko, Underworld Awakening, and Kon Tiki.

Yoko is a children’s story of a young yeti (Himalayan snowman) with magical powers.

Fido designed the creature from start to finish and built an animatronic character (costume with animatronic head) for many of the shots as well as all the matching CG character shots and props.

Staffan Linder presented the werewolf transformation they created for Underworld Awakening, a film project they started, then lost to Canada and were later awarded the transformation animation sequence again. They created a horrific transformation that was a success in being unique among all other werewolf transformations before seen.

Mattias Lindahl presented Fido’s creation of the larger-than-life whale shark that attacks the raft in Kon Tiki. They spent a year on this film - which will have a U. S. release without subtitles. Each scene was shot twice; once in Norwegian and again in English.

Digital Storytelling and Grafill have curated an exhibit of Kon Tiki concept art that will open August 29, 2012 at Grafill gallery in Olso. http://www.grafill.no/nyhet/storm-studios-fra-storyboard-til-kon-tiki-bilder

The incredible growth in Nordic VFX production in recent years and following the success of films such as Max Manus (Made entirely with Norwegian VFX talent), Troll Hunter, and Kon Tiki, make Digital Storytelling Seminar not only interesting and informative, but also alot of FUN and my thanks to my hostess Angela Amoroso, for without her hospitality my attendance would not have been possible.