Category: Film school pedagogy

Review of my research into a philosophy of film and media arts pedagogy so far

These are notes from a talk i gave at a one-day conference at the University of Inland Norway, “INN-puf” (pedagogisk utvikling og filosofi / pedagogical development and philosophy). The audience was primarily teaching faculty from the departments of film, TV, and games, and I tried to pitch it so it would be accessible to practitioners who do not necessarily have a background in either pedagogy or philosophy.

These notes will form the core of an article I am writing, and hope to have done before the summer. This talk was loosely chronological; I am not sure if I will keep that in the artcle, structure it another way.

Film school pedagogy

  • My research has showed there is material on «how to»—for example, Training the Trainers from 2005 (Dick Ross, published by the Norwegian Film School & CILECT).
  • There is a great deal of material written about the content of what is taught to the students but very little material that related film school teaching to educational theory in general.
  • My intro to film school pedagogy: Danish researcher Heidi Philipsen conducted pedagogy lectures for staff at NFS in 2010.
  • Her study of the Danish Film School of the late 1990s and early 2000s revealed the key role of scaffolding and constraints in their teaching model.

Areas of investigation

  • Vygotsky and the Zone of proximal development and Dewey’s focus on the connection between experience, reflection, and learning.
  • 4E Cognition: the embodied, extended, and enactive mind.
  • Phenomenology and perceptual learning give us a better understanding our sensory interactions with the world.
  • Situated learning examines how learners are integrated into professional fellowships.
  • The nature of imagination, emotion, and creativity. And the role of art in human evolution…
  • From tacit to explicit…micro-phenomenology, focussing and deep analysis of the particular, specific experience.

Experiential learning–Dewey

  • John Dewey (1859-1952) was an American philosopher and psychologist, and the originator of modern theories of experiential learning.
  • For Dewey, experience was essential to understanding ourselves and to how philosophy is done. Experience is the result of us engaging with the world, of living.

Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results. (Democracy and Education, 1916)

  • Believed that we learn “…to know by doing, and to do by knowing.” (An Introduction to the Principles and Practice of Education, 1889)
  • Many of his ideas continue to resonate in contemporary theories of enactive cognition.

As long as our activity glides smoothly along from one thing to another, or as long as we permit our imagination to entertain fancies at pleasure, there is no call for reflection. Difficulty or obstruction in the way of reaching a belief brings us, however, to a pause. In the suspense of uncertainty, we metaphorically climb a tree; we try to find some standpoint from which we may survey additional facts and, getting a more commanding view of the situation, may decide how the facts stand related to one another. (How We Think, 1910)

Experiential learning

  • David Kolb (1939- ) — see Kolbs learning cycle. A useful model, but also limited in the way it separates thinking / reflecting from action and experience, rather than integrating them.
  • Donald Schön (1939-1997) wrote extensively about reflection-in-action: the ability to reflect while in a situation, showing experiential learning as a continuous process—what can be colloquially called “thinking on our feet”.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

  • Paolo Freire (1921-1997). Brazilian educator who conceived of education as a process of liberation. For education to function as a liberating force, there must be a democratic relationship between the students and teacher.
  • Very critical of the “banking model of education”, where teachers “deposit” knowledge in the student, that the student will utilise later. This perpetuates a rigid power dynamic, with the teacher cast as the infallible expert.

For apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, individuals cannot be truly human. Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other. (Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1970)

Engaged pedagogy

  • bell hooks (Gloria Watkins, 1952-2021) was an American writer, feminist, activist, and educator. Inspired by Freire and education as a tool for liberation.

To enter classroom settings in colleges and universities with the will to share the desire to encourage excitement, was to transgress. Not only did it require movement beyond accepted boundaries, but excitement could not be generated without a full recognition of the fact that there could never be an absolute set agenda governing teaching practices. Agendas had to be flexible, had to allow for spontaneous shifts in direction. Students had to be seen in their particularity as individuals […] and interacted with according to their needs. (Teaching to Transgress, 1994)

Experiential learning and art

  • Maxine Greene (1917-2014) was a pioneer for women in the field of philosophy of education.
  • Wrote about the connection between artistic practice and experiential learning; focussed on the arts as a method for us to find our own voice in society.
  • Pioneered the concept, “wide-awakeness”.

Informed encounters with works of art are always new beginnings. New perspectives open in experience; new possibilities of seeing, hearing, feeling are revealed. When individuals are released to be personally present to paintings or poems or sonatas, when they learn how to let their energies go out to the works in an enlarging perception and a focusing of attention, the fields over which their imaginations can play deepen, diversify, and expand. (“The Spaces of Aesthetic Education”, 1986)

Scaffolding – Vygotsky

  • Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) was a Soviet psychologist who worked extensively with children’s development.
  • Fell out of favour with Stalin, and his works were suppressed until 1956; not well known in the west until the 1970s.
  • Did extensive studies of how we learn language.
  • Best known for the “Zone of proximal development” (ZPD).
  • ZPD emphasises the social aspect of learning.
  • The term “scaffolding” was coined by Jerome Bruner, David Wood, and Gail Ross in 1976 as a metaphor for what educators do to enable the ZPD.
  • A scaffold is a temporary structure that is adjusted and adapted to serve the needs of the construction—analogous to what educators do to support the students appropriate to their skill level.
  • 5 criteria for effective scaffolding:
    • Student ownership of the learning event
    • Appropriateness of the instructional task
    • A structured learning environment
    • Shared responsibility
    • Transfer of control
    • (Applebee, A. N. 1986. ‘Problems in process approaches: Towards a reconceptualization of process instruction’)

Phenomenology

  • Examines our perceptions and how they inform our experience of and interaction with the world we inhabit.
  • Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-61), wrote, “Perception is not a science of the world, it is not even an act, a deliberate taking up of a position; it is the background from which all acts stand out, and is presupposed by them.” (Phenomenology of Perception, 1945/1962)
  • Wrote about the overlapping and intertwining between the artist and the world and the artwork as the representation of this relationship.

Cognitive science

  • 4E Cognition: Embodied, Enactive, Embedded, Extended—emerged from psychology and philosophy in the 1990s as a response to computational theories of mind.
    • Embodied cognition is the claim that cognition is routinely shaped in fundamental ways by bodily forms, movements, states and processes.
    • Enactivism claims that cognition is enacted (unfolds) through looping sensorimotor interactions between the agent and its environment, implying both a close relationship between perception and action, and that there is continuity between the properties of life and of mind. (ref. Dewey)
    • Embedded cognition is the claim that external factors (such as resources or environments) act as noncognitive aids to an internal thinking system located in the brain; so, while the external factors enable cognition, they are not themselves counted as cognitive.
    • Extended cognition instead argues that cognition can involve a coupled system of brain, bodily and external factors: all of which count as cognitive.
    • (Definitions from “4E Cognition and the Mind-Expanding Arts”, Miranda Anderson, 2022)
  • 4E cognition gained prominence after the publication of The Embodied mind (1991 / 2017) (Francisco J. Varela, Evan Thompson, and Eleanor Rosch).
  • Further developed by Andy Clark and David Chalmers in their article “The Extended Mind” (1998), which introduced the concept of the tools we use being part of our cognition as well.
  • The notion of “embodiment” comes naturally for the arts. Using 4E cognition as a framework for understanding how to teach artists has particularly been prevalent in music teaching.

[We] are thoroughly permeated by emotion and by readiness for action. Emotion, cognition, and preparation for action here form a single whole, self-organized around precision weighted, prediction-error minimizing interactions that span cortical and sub-cortical circuits. These interactions couple the active body to the predictive brain. (Miller, Mark and Andy Clark, «Happily entangled: prediction, emotion, and the embodied mind», 2018)

4E and the arts

[…] embracing enactivism in the idea that embodiment and culture are integrated to form a whole, [we] propose to regard aesthetic experience as a “double attunement” toward the objects: immediate and affective, re-organisational and reflective at once. [W]ithin a 4E perspective “[b]ody, brain and environment form one system in which aesthetic experience can be simultaneously and variously characterized as sensory-motor, affective, cultural, and cognitive” (Batisti, Filippo & Elena Valeri, “Embodiment and Aesthetics: Cognition Going Wider”, 2020)

  • Anthropologist Tim Ingold invokes Clark and Chalmers’ extended mind theory and describes making (sketching, for example) as thinking, not just the product of thinking.
  • Shows how art and creativity are an essential part of humanity throughout history and across cultures.

Perception

  • 3rd Century Greek philosopher Diogenes Laertius wrote about how a lay person will see something different than a sculptor will when looking at a statue.
  • Perceptual Learning (developed by psychologist Eleanor J. Gibson, 1910-2002) describes long-term changes in our perception—our senses—as a result of practice or experience.
  • Classic example: the sommelier, who has trained their sense of taste to perceive details of grapes, terroir, vintage, etc. that the ordinary wine-loving amateur cannot sense. These changes in perception are significant, permanent, and the result of practice.

Micro-phenomenology

  • Micro-phenomenology builds on the phenomenological idea of the relationship of the consciousness, the body, and the world and applies it to a particular experience.

The specificity of the micro-phenomenological interview method is that it focuses on a singular experience. […] This act enables us to leave our “natural attitude” of absorption into the content of experience (the “what”), to reorient our attention towards the way this experience appears to us (the “how”), and notably towards the usually prereflective micro-acts through which this appearance is constituted. (Claire Petitmengin, ‘Discovering the Structures of Lived Experience’. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, vol. 18, no. 4, Sept. 2019)

  • Can be used as a technique for helping the individual understand what happens in the moment of intuition, inspiration, or creation and thus learn to both anticipate the moment as well as more reliably create the conditions for these moments in the future.

Embodied critical thinking

  • Arises both from micro-phenomenology and from the American philosopher and psychologist Eugene Gendlin, who wrote about “focussing” and the “felt sense”.

Focusing is an experiential, embodied and evidence-based practice of self-reflection. During Focusing , your attention will open up to multiple layers and aspects of living.  It’s called Focusing because it requires a special kind of focus to notice what is not yet clear, fuzzy and vague, implicit in how you interact with your situations and environment.  This fuzzy dimension of experience is called the “felt sense.”  Focusing on the felt sense allows an in-depth clarification process to happen. (‘What Is Focusing?’ The International Focusing Institute, https://focusing.org/felt-sense/what-focusing)

  • There is currently an international research project on embodied critical thinking coordinated by the University of Iceland, involving several European institutions: Training embodied critical thinking and understanding. (https://www.trainingect.com/)

Thinking out loud — what is creativity?

I’m currently reading Margaret Bodens Creativity & Art. As a series of essays on creativity, it’s a worthwhile read, but it also leads me to wonder whether the definition of creativity she proposes — and I’ve come across many places — is sufficient.

In the Introduction, she recounts her definition. “Creativity in general is the generation of novel, surprising, and valuable ideas.” Her definition of “ideas” is broad enough to encompass works of art (among other things). She describes her definition as “threefold”, as she identifies three forms of surprise: the combinatorial form of surprise, the exploratory form of surprise, and the transformational form of surprise. I won’t go into further detail here, but it seems useful to analyse creativity in this way.

The question of novelty is an interesting one; Boden does differentiate between psychological (or individual) novelty — it’s new to the individual with the creative idea — and historical creativity — it’s a new idea in all of history. Both are valid ways of identifying something as novel. These two forms of novelty are also referred to in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entries on Creativity and Scientific Discovery.

For myself, I wonder if there is something missing there. While the SEP entry on Creativity does mention other possible forms of novelty, there does not seem to be any discussion of social novelty — when something may not be historically new but is new to the society in which it reappears.

The other issue I see with this definition is that it tends to emphasize product over process. I would contend that creativity is a process, first and foremost, and that a creative process may or may not lead to a creative product, result, or, indeed, work of art. A failed process can still be creative; the result of a creative person engaging in an act of creativity.

I am also sceptical of the inclusion of “value” as a requirement for considering something creative. It seems to me that value is far too subjective, and risks inviting a very instrumental and quantitative way of judging creativity. While Boden and others who argue for value as a criterion do take pains to specify that value also can exist at the individual level, it still seems to emphasize the external, the product, rather than what I would argue is the true subject of creativity; the embodied and enactive process.

Perhaps part of my scepticism originates with the fact that Boden is often associated with a computational theory of mind. My sense is computationalism can be a useful metaphor for many mental processes, it appears too simplistic to encompass the full scope of human (or, indeed, animal) cognition seen through a 4E lens. Our minds, bodies, actions, and social interactions are simply too complex to be explained through a computational metaphor — unless the power of computation is extended so far beyond the capabilities of any theorized computer system that the metaphor loses its grounding.

Here the SEP entry provides alternatives that I will be exploring more closely, when the authors state that creativity entails that “a product must arise from a certain kind of process—a process that exhibits surprise, originality, spontaneity, or agency—in order to count as creative.” This combination of factors feels better to me, but it still places too much emphasis on the product for my liking. Regardless, the SEP bibliography has led me to the writings of Maria Kronfeldner on this topic, and I will be delving more into her writings — starting with Creativity Naturalized.

Another philosopher mentioned in SEP is Berys Gaut, who, among other things, writes about if and how creativity can be learned. Unfortunately, my university library does not have access to his book chapter “Educating for Creativity” from 2014, but there are other papers of his that seem relevant to my research on this. Key to Gaut’s arguments, according to SEP, is,

Creativity is a disposition—involving both the ability and the motivation—to produce things that are new and valuable, and to do so in ways that express one’s agency through “the exercise of choice, evaluation, understanding, and judgment”. (link)

This is much closer to an understanding of creativity that I can work with. My take is filtered through a 4E cognition lens, and so words like “ability” and “motivation” lead me to think in terms of embodied and enactive (I’m not sure if that was what Gaut was thinking, but no matter). If I consider that creativity must first and foremost involve action; action which originates as a solution to a problem or hurdle faced by the creative individual — or group! That this action thus involves motivation to move forward in order to achieve something new.

Furthermore, I am very much in alignment with the emphasis on “choice, evaluation, understanding, and judgment.” Creativity does not exist without intention, and choice, evaluation, understanding, and judgment all support intention. (For what it’s worth, this is also why I cannot accept that artificial intelligence can be creative — AI has no intention of its own; only that which is programmed into it by its human creators.)

But also Gaut seems to return to the product, and claim that this product of creativity must have value. Again, I think this emphasis on product is misguided. Creativity is a process, which involves facing a problem, challenge, or obstacle. If I were to also frame this in Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow in creative processes, the problem faced must be of such a nature that it can be solved, but that the solution will require effort and methods not previously attempted or readily accessible without effort. This process may be iterative, but regardless involves finding a novel solution to the problem, challenge, or obstacle at hand. Creativity does not have to entail success; a failed solution can both be creative and useful — even if there is no product to show for it.

Let’s see if my understanding of creativity holds as I read more — but I am fairly certain my rejection of both “product” and “value” will hold.

Fumbling my way forward

Progress. I think.

I’ve spent some time processing the feedback and reflections from my visit to the Netherlands Film Academy in September. Aside from the input the participants in my workshop and lecture so generously shared with me, the main outcome from the week is that I was challenged to write a book tying together film school education with contemporary educational theory and philosophy.

This week, I’ve been on a writing retreat, which has given me both the possibility of discussing the contents and structure of such a book as well as lots of time to write.

And so, I’ve developed a first draft outline, which looks like this:

  • Introduction
    • Background for this handbook
      • my pedagogic history
      • the field of film school pedagogy, such as it is
      • the need to expand our understanding of arts pedagogy and understand why we (can) organize teaching the way we do
      • artistic research
    • Content and structure of this handbook
      • from filmmaker to film educator
      • some theoretical pegs:
        • Dewey & Greene
        • Freire & hooks
        • Kolb, Schön, etc. and the transformation of experience to practice through reflection
        • Vygotsky & Bruner
        • Phenomenology; Merleau-Ponty
        • E. Gibson, Connolly & perceptual learning
        • Lave & Wenger; situational learning
        • 4E cognition: Varela, Clark, etc.
        • Contemporary neuroscience & cognitive sciences
  • Teaching / learning
    • Why education? Education as schooling vs. education as life
    • Creating the conditions for learning
    • How do we learn?
    • Lave & Wenger and forms of learning “in situ”
    • Friere, hooks and transformative education
  • The artist as (film school) teacher
    • What makes an artist unlike an academic
      • What art is (cf. Noë), What art does (cf. Eno)
      • Embracing intuition and emotion as integrated parts of a process
      • Both arts and sciences rely on creativity, but when does creativity come in?
      • Truth and lies. Honesty and authenticity. Reality and unreality
    • What makes an artist like an academic
      • Teaching, research (both artistic and academic), and the responsibility to a field
      • Professional ethics
      • Transforming research and experience to teaching and practice
      • curriculum planning
      • the bad things: European (& national) qualifications frameworks (EQF) and how to navigate them
    • From tacit to explicit knowledge, and how to talk about it
      • Moving from “show, don’t tell” to “show, observe, and tell”.
      • A vocabulary toolkit for educators to talk to each other and discuss and share teaching practice
      • theory+practice=❤️
  • Teamwork
    • Learning at different paces and from different starting conditions
      • Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development
      • tutoring and scaffolding. Cf. Wood et.al.
    • Teaching co-creation
    • Collaboration in variable conditions
      • construction of different types of exercises
      • collaboration between artists on a common artistic vision
      • tools for communication
    • Learning together and from each other
      • peer learning
      • the student-teacher and teacher-student (Freire)
  • Creativity as process
    • Moving from intuition to awareness and back again
    • What is creativity?
    • Flow; or, how to create the conditions for creativity
  • The importance of reflection
    • Dewey “One does not learn from experience. One learns from reflecting on experience”
    • Reflecting alone and reflecting together
    • Forms of reflection
    • Reflection on, in, as, and through practice
    • Practice as reflection
  • The nature of practice-based arts education
    • The learning is in the doing. Or…?
    • Learning to fail; or, learning from failure
    • Failing to learn; or, fear of failure
  • Learning as a journey
    • Learning to learn
    • How is it that as I teach, I become a better artist myself?
    • Moving the students from passive to active learning
  • Cognitive processes
    • Against Descartes: 4E cognition — embodied / extended / enactive / embedded
    • Practice is not the result of thinking; practice is thinking
    • The plastic brain, and it’s relationship to the body
  • Perception and senses
    • Perceptual learning and sensory development
    • Phenomenology of senses; how do we know the world
    • Embodied cognition
  • Emotion
    • Seeing the whole person
    • Landing and being in a situation when coming from somewhere else
    • Art and emotion — Art is emotion
  • Constraints
    • Scaffolding — institutional, group, and individual. What is it, and how can it work?
    • Focussing creativity and artistic exploration
    • The zone of proximal development
  • The artist and art in a societal context
    • Why do humans make art?
    • What does art do to us?
    • Situating the artist in the world — do artists have social responsibility?
    • Science / Art. Reality / Non-reality. Explains the world / Expands the world

It’s not finished, but I feel like it’s a good start. I’m sure it’ll change as I move forward and start filling out more text and details under each point. Already I can see some potential for repetition which perhaps is unnecessary — or perhaps may end up being a good way to dig deeper into topics introduced earlier.

I only have 2.5 months left of my research leave, and so I am pretty damn sure I’ll need more time…

Reflections. And next steps.

I spent a few days in Amsterdam last week, and had some very interesting and fruitful sessions with faculty members from the Netherlands Film Academy and Amsterdam University of the Arts. Also, nice to get positive feedback on what I’m working on and affirmation that it’s relevant and interesting for more than just me!

In the aftermath, I’m starting to see the contours of where I’m headed next, both with respect to film school pedagogy and the relationship between art and AI.

1. Research outcome

I entered into my research semester with some ideas about how to present the results, but after discussions with members of the FilmEd research group at the Film Academy, these ideas are starting to become more concrete. I firmly believe that theory and practice must go hand in hand in order for either to be effective and useful, and have set myself the goal of giving filmmaker-educators a more explicit theoretical toolbox to draw on in their practice in the classroom and workshop.

As I’ve observed previously, there is relatively plentiful material on «how to» for filmmaker-educators (and artist-educators), but there is much less material available on questions of «why».

A few years ago, I wrote a handbook for teachers at the Norwegian Film School. Like many other tools, it focussed more on how than on why, although I did refer to the work Heidi Philipsen had done while researching the Danish Film School. It was quite specific to the peculiarities and structures of our own film school, and perhaps not so useful for anyone else. I last updated it in 2018, and have more or less considered it a dead end.

When I spoke about this handbook in Amsterdam, however, I was immediately challenged: why not repurpose the handbook idea, and create a resource for filmmakers teaching at European and international film schools where they can find relevant educational theories to apply to their teaching practice, both in order to lift the quality of their teaching and in order to have a vocabulary with which to discuss their teaching practice with others. And, with the challenge came a deadline: fall 2026, when European film schools will be gathering in Łódź, Poland for a planned thematic gathering of GEECT members.

Which begs the question: what would such a handbook look like?

2. Handbook for film school teachers

In 2005, the Norwegian Film School, with the support of CILECT, published Training the Trainers, a series of 10 booklets written by Dick Ross and accompanied by a curated DVD; aimed at filmmakers who were becoming teachers. It was (as it’s now out of print) a highly-regarded resource at film schools around the world, with practical and useful advice for those looking to find a way to turn their professional experience into classroom activities. Other examples of the same genre exist, and my own handbook would fall into a similar category.

What Training the Trainers does not do is relate practice-based film school education to the existing and extensive body of educational and cognitive theory and philosophy.

As I’ve written about earlier, I have been studying both Dewey and Vygotsky, and subsequent theorists who have built (and are building) educational theories on or inspired by their work. In this body of work, there is much that is directly relevant to film school — indeed, any practice-based fine art — education. The core is understanding several factors, including:

  1. The cyclical relationship between practice, experience, reflection, and planning. (Yes, much like Kolb’s learning cycle). Or, as John Dewey wrote: "One does not learn from experience. One learns from reflecting on experience" (How We Think, 1933).
  2. The social aspect of learning, which includes Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, and the concept of scaffolding as developed by Bruner et.al. after Vygotsky was translated to English. In other words, what learning theorists know as «social constructivism».
  3. New theories of cognition, as signalled by theories of embodied and 4E cognition. Understanding cognition is key to understanding how fine arts education can be structured, so as to ensure students learn holistic approaches to their artistic practice involving the interplay of mind, body, and environment.
  4. Phenomenology and, as a related field, perceptual learning. The arts involve the senses, both in the artistic creation and in the reception, and understanding how our senses work as our primary connection to the world is especially important in artistic education.
  5. The role of emotion needs to be addressed as well. Not only does art speak to the emotions, but classroom situations and interpersonal dynamics are effected by emotion, which can help or hinder learning.

This is not an exhaustive list, but does reflect the strands I am pursuing now. Reconciling these strands can be challenging, as some of them seem to conflict with the others. For example, one criticism often levelled against the classical learning cycle, and the notion of "reflection in action" as articulated by Donald Schön, is that it treats reflection as something separate from action or experience, even as it seeks to demonstrate the importance they have for each other. In other words, it appears to build on an understanding of mind based on the mind/body dualism. This seems directly at odds with 4E cognition and related theories, which seek to erase the separation of mind and body, and, indeed, our environment.

I am certain there is literature on this, although I have not come across it yet… (If anyone reading knows of any, please do let me know!) But I think regardless that reconciling the cyclical connection between experience and reflection with the extended and embodied mind theses, where a case can be made for certain types of experience — specifically acts of creation — are, by their very nature, reflection and experience.

And so, I am left looking at: reflection on experience, reflection through experience, and reflection as experience. Also, the role of our senses and of emotion in reflection and experience.

Finally, if emotion is emerging as a key for me in understanding arts pedagogy and creativity, what does that say for the role of AI in creative processes? (More on that in a later post; I need to chew on it first.)

Film school pedagogy – moving from tacit to explicit knowledge

Some notes about my background:

  • Lived in Peterborough, Ontario (Canada) and worked in theatre, music, radio, publishing, and journalism from 1984-1992. Studied intermittently — inspired by Mark Twain: "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." (Or so I told myself.)
  • Moved to Vancouver in 1993; worked in arts events administration for visual arts and theatre. Studied filmmaking in 1996 (Vancouver Film School), was sound editor in documentary and picture editor in fiction for final projects.
  • As a filmmaker, worked in camera and sound departments, directed two short films, but worked primarily as 1st Assistant Director for television series.
  • Moved to Toronto for a management job at the Canadian Film Centre in 2002.
  • Came "home" to Norway in 2006; started at the Norwegian Film School in 2009.
  • Began a "practical-pedagogic education" in 2008, and was introduced to basic pedagogic theories with an emphasis on constructivism (Piaget) and social constructivism (Vygotsky).

I had a great deal of intuitive and tacit knowledge about the necessity of experience for learning, especially in the cinematic arts, but was introduced to pedagogical theory at NFS, when Danish scholar Heidi Philipsen conducted workshops for the staff in 2010. These workshops built on her PhD-thesis Dansk films nye bølge: Afsæt og aftryk fra Den Danske Filmskole (2004) which, among other things, examined the key role scaffolding and constraints played in the success of the Danish Film School of the 1980s and 90s.

One of the key findings from Philipsen’s research was that the imposition of rules, or constraints, released the imagination and creativity of students;

One of the directors in my research explained that initially he found it very frustrating to be forced to work within constraints, such as in the pen tests. He sought to revolutionize stylistic devices, and thereby to create original films. He would become furious if forced to make a scene with a specific theme, within a specific deadline, and with specific kinds of other conditions concerning the use of camera, actors etc. (this would be a typical example of a pen test). But, in retrospect, he, along with all the other respondents, was grateful that he had learned to work within constraints. They made him feel secure, inspired, and focused; they also made him experiment, because he wished to make his own personal film and not the same kind of film as the other students working under exactly the same conditions. (Philipsen, 2009)

She found these constraints were one of 2 kinds of scaffolding she identified at the Danish Film School — "institution scaffolding (rules ordered by the leader or teachers) and team scaffolding (the use of collaboration)." (Philipsen, 2009) — and these were key methods behind the success of the Danish Film School from the mid-1980s under the leadership of Henning Camre and Mogens Rukov.

The idea of educational scaffolding — creating learning situations which provide learners with challenges they must stretch to achieve but at the same time are not beyond their capabilities — was not new to me at this time, as I had been introduced to it just two years prior. The term is a way of describing what teachers and tutors must to in order to maintain Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (ZPD).[^1]

Vygotsky emphasized that the creation and maintenance of the ZPD involved at least two factors: there is of course the learner themselves and the active role they take in their own learning and the social and cultural context in which they are learning (which includes both teachers and peers / collaborators). This is mirrored in the scaffolds constructed within the educational setting at a film school, where the role of the institution, the role of the team members, and the (active) role of the individual student all must interact in order for development and learning to occur.

Following this, I began researching experiential education in greater depth, focussing on John Dewey, David Kolb, and Donald Schön. Schön, in particular, was much discussed in Norwegian artistic research circles at the time. His description of the reflective practitioner, as a qualified professional who due to a combination of education or training and professional experience is a able to reflect in the moment and improvise solutions to previously unencountered situations,[^2] resonates with the way artists work. Creating experiential learning situations which can then prepare filmmakers and artist to become this sort of reflective practitioner is key for any art school.

At this time, I also began reading John Dewey, particularly the works Democracy and Education (1916), Experience and Education (1938), and How We Think (1910, 1933). Dewey’s pragmatist philosophy and insistence on education as an essential part of being a member of society, his insistence that "…education […] is a process of living and not a preparation for future living" (Dewey, 1897) resonates both with my own beliefs and, indeed, the Mark Twain quote I started this piece with. Also, it encapsulates the reality of a film school very well, where no filmmaker emerges from school fully taught but rather is sent into an artistic career and work in the industry prepared to learn from new experiences and constantly develop.

The way to achieve this can be summed up in two more examples from Dewey: "Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results." (Dewey, 1916) and, "We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience." (Dewey, 1933). These emphasize both the importance of practical work in any learning process; practical work that will lead to concrete experiences, and the importance of reflecting on experiences in order to internalize and share what learning has come from them.

The role of reflection is, to me, the key to moving from tacit to explicit knowledge. For many, especially in professions where craft plays a sentral role, training new members of the profession has often emphasised demonstration. If, however, experience and reflection are highlighted then the key becomes creating settings where the learner can test, fail, and gain experience combined with reflecting on the consequences of their own choices in any given situation. This leads to deeper learning, and, indeed, faster development.

I also attended an internal pedagogy course at our university college, and quickly concluded that pedagogical theories and techniques aimed at traditional lecturers was not the most relevant for filmmakers coming to teach at a film school with a heavy emphasis on practice-based work. As a result, I proposed a Nordic seminar on film school pedagogy at a NORDICIL-meeting in 2014. This was funded in 2015, and ran as a pilot project from 2016-17 as a collaborative seminar between Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland.

This experience has led to an internal fine arts pedagogy course at our institution, Inland Norway University (INN), which I have led with varying collaborators (Carl Svensson, Christy Dena, Trond Lossius, Kjersti Norman). The course was completed in 2018-19, 2020-21 and 2024-25 and participants who successfully completed it were granted the ects necessary for holding a teaching position in higher education in Norway. In addition to the Norwegian Film School, participants have come from the television and games departments at INN as well as LIMPI, a private songwriting and music production school in Lillehammer.

Through conducting this course, I have found there is a need to a common vocabulary for discussing what it is filmmakers do when teaching. Much has been intuitive and tacit, much as my own, earlier, experience, and perhaps the most fruitful aspect of the courses has been a forum for peer discussions. My own research has shown that while there is a body of literature that describes classroom techniques (or didactics) and there is a vast body of literature on pedagogic philosophy and theories of education, there is very little illuminating the philosophy of the fine arts classroom from the point of view of film practitioners. As a result, we borrow and steal, perhaps especially from music, and make do.

The project I am working on now is to contribute to changing this.

In recent years, I have vastly expanded my research beyond Dewey and Vygotsky to include a greater variety of schools of thought. I am reading various contemporary theorists in the field of 4E cognition and the extended mind theory. I am exploring other forms of experiential learning, including the writings and practices of Paulo Freire and bell hooks. I have recently been introduced to the writings of Maxine Greene on aesthetic education, and will be delving further into these. I am returning, in a way, to phenomenology through the writings of Maurice Merleau-Ponty on the sensory basis for our experience of the world. And I am examining the way our senses themselves "learn" through what has been named perceptual learning and the relevance this has for artists and creators of all kinds.

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This, of course, is just a selection of the strands I am exploring; the commonality among them is my wish to combine them into a theory of filmmaking and fine arts education. (And, to be clear: not the theory. A theory.) I hope, through this work, to provide a vocabulary for discussing not only what we do, but why we chose to organize our classrooms and workshops the way we do.

Some years ago I wrote a "Handbook for teachers at the Norwegian Film School." It was a very internal and practically-oriented handbook, last updated in 2018. It’s time to look at it anew, and to rewrite it for a broader and international group of educators at film, television, games, and media schools who share a background from professional and artistic practice. And perhaps to give them a tool for discussing their teaching practice with both local and international colleagues.

Footnotes

[^1]: Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
[^2]: Schön, D. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. Basic Books.

Three*

Some of the ideas I’ll be exploring in the months — my research semester starts in 18 months — to come.

  • Dewey’s pragmatism, as laid out in Democracy and Education, How We Think, and Art as Experience.
  • Experiential learning, as laid out by David Kolb and critiqued / refined by several others since.
  • Donald Schön’s observations and theories on reflection in action / praxis, with special attention to Lisa Candy’s The Reflective Creative Practitioner.
  • Vygotsky, of course. The zone of proximal learning and scaffolding are key concepts in any educational programme geared towards developing both technical and artistic skills.
  • Seymour Papert’s constructionism. In filmmaking programmes, the students learn best when actually making films, both for purely internal critique but also for public distribution through festivals and the like.
  • Situated learning and «legitimate peripheral participation» as analysed by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger.
  • And, as I’ve already mentioned, 4E cognition, with special emphasis on how it relates to creativity and craft.

* I’m lousy at titles. I might end up using some variation of the number of the post for 2024. Or not.

«Surviving Bologna» – a presentation, summary

I attended the Swedish Research Council’s annual symposium on artistic research on November 27th and 28th, and while there gave a presentation I had called «surviving Bologna». The talk – and the slides – were in Norwegian, but I have translated the slides, and post them here with some comment (since they are a little cryptic on their own).

I will emphasize: this is not a transcript, and I was a little more detailed and a little less flippant when actually presenting. But the content is more or less the same.

Not much to say about this one; I introduced myself and The Norwegian Film School.

Wasn’t the European education landscape lovely before Bologna? Wild, varied…and somewhat unpredictable.

This got a laugh. And, I’ll admit, I hoped it would.

It’s a fair depiction of how I view the aims of the Bologna agreements: create a uniform landscape where the «product» – the students – are ready for commercial exploitation. (i.e. the labour market).

I started working at the Norwegian Film School in 2009, and around the same time we received word that all arts educations in Norway were going to have to adhere to the new national regulations derived from the European Qualifications Frameworks – the product of the Bologna agreements.

We determined, rather quickly, that we needed to define this turf for ourselves, rather than sitting back and waiting for someone else to do it for us. Most likely in a way we would not appreciate… We did, however, have to teach ourselves some new terminology like «learning outcomes» and «Blooms taxonomy» as we felt we needed to master this language ourselves if we were going to make good use of it.

This also meant delving in to the relationship between conventional academic education and fine arts education.

The more we looked at it, the more apparent it became that our approach to education is fundamentally different from what one finds in (most) academic programmes.

I probably should have put quotes around the word «common» here, but regardless:

As far as I know, the classification of higher education done by the OECD in 1973 was the first attempt to compare higher education systems around the world. One unfortunate byproduct of this work was to place fine arts as a subset of humanities, effectively reducing the importance and autonomy of art schools connected to universities. While there has been much work done the past 15 years to change that classification, it represents a mindset we still encounter every day.

As a result we needed to spend a lot of time and effort creating a new landscape.

In this view, fine arts education is completely autonomous from and parallel to academic programmes – although we are naturally still part of the education landscape. The important point is to make it clear that much of what is applicable to one is not applicable to the other (although there is naturally some overlap as well)

Just claiming a difference is not enough, of course. It has to be clarified.

The $64,000 question.

We can begin to answer it by looking at the way learning outcomes are structured.

Knowledge is key to all education, on some level. We take «knowledge» very seriously indeed. Not only are many disciplines in filmmaking extremely technical, working on a film set can potentially be fatal if people don’t know what they’re doing. Both Norway and Sweden have seen deaths occur on film sets in recent years.

Add to that people are working with electricity, power tools and construction, traffic…there is a lot of stuff filmmakers have to know.


But – we never formally test the students in what they know. The have to demonstrate knowledge constantly, but they will never be tested in it.

Skills are another important learning outcome under the EQF, and given that filmmaking can be viewed as a skilled profession, acquisition of skills can also be seen as important. And indeed, operating sound equipment, setting proper lighting, creating an appropriately distressed look on the walls of a set; these are a small handful of the many skills Film School students are expected to learn and, in some cases, master over the course of their three years.

Again, as with knowledge, however – their skills will never be formally tested. There is no lighting exam.

How can this be? Well, quite simply, we are not a professional school; our mandate does not end with the skills our students acquire – it begins there.

And that is what «general competence» is about, isn’t? What can the student do with their knowledge and skills.

Although…we never really liked that word «general».

«Artistic competence» is much more telling, and gives us a chance to define what it actually is the students will be tested in (more on that later).

Once we had set the ground rules on how we approach learning outcomes, we need to define the learning outcomes themselves. This was a time-consuming process, and involved going though lesson plans, placing them in some kind of order, identifying holes, rewriting, hounding teachers for revised plans, rewriting those…

In March of 2011 we had a revised and updated description of the Film School’s study programmes.

That left a small problem we had created for ourselves.

Just how does one test and evaluate artistic competence?

Luckily, we have the appropriate tool. Years ago, the Norwegian Film School did what artists around the world have been doing since the origin of art: we stole a good idea from someone else and made it our own.

This is the «hensiktserklæring», which can be translated as either «declaration of intent» (more literal) or «statement of intent». I prefer the latter, primarily since the «declaration» seems unnecessarily bombastic.

For every production exercise the students make throughout their studies at the Film School, the students must write a statement of intent. Early in the studies these are quite simple, but as they progress through the programme they become more and more elaborate and detailed.

We (the teaching staff) put together the teams (one member from each of the disciplines we teach). Each team has to come up with a collective statement of intent and each individual team member must then write his or her own. These are written with guidance from each students’ teacher, and must be completed before the main creative work begins. For example, a director will hand in the statement of intent before principal photography begins, while the sound person (who will do both production sound and post sound) will hand hers in once she has seen the locked picture edit.

So – what goes into this thing?

First of all, the student needs to describe what she wants to achieve with this exercise – artistically / creatively. We give the students fairly specific tasks for the production exercises, and so they are already set on a fairly narrow path, but there is still a fair bit of leeway to be creative and express oneself artistically.

The key is that they are specific; the example I used in the presentation is «I want the audience to feel sad, even cry, at the end of the sequence.»

Ok. How?

This is the key to an effective statement of intent: the how.

«I am going to work with my actors to help them find a way of conveying the pain the character is feeling without slipping into cliched gestures.»

«I will find use a still camera with only subtle movement that finds a framing that leads the viewer closer to the character and their emotional state.»

«I will create a soundscape that gently brings the audience into the characters head at the same time as the camera brings us physically closer to him. I will highlight this with instrumental music that is melancholy without being sentimental.» 

All made-up examples, but they give an idea of what the statement of intent could contain.

We are extremely rigid about never commenting on the «quality» of a finished production exercise in an evaluation situation. To put it bluntly: we leave it to the film critics to opine about whether a film is good or not.

What we do it read through the statements of intent and discuss and analyse whether the intent has been achieved. Why and why not are key questions. A good quality evaluation situation can only occur if the statement of intent has been specific – and ambitious enough to allow for the possibility of failure. If students never fail, they’re not trying hard enough…

Procedurally it’s simple: the whole class and all the teachers gather; we see the film and hear the statements of intent read out loud. We then discuss these statements with the members of the team. Often another film team will be assigned the task of leading the discussion, both to ensure that everyone participates in the end and also to ensure that the students get to speak first.

Invariably it takes a few months for the students to get the hang of this process, but generally they become quite adept at it during the second semester of their studies.

A long-term benefit of this practise is that it teaches the students to reflect over their own artistic practice constantly, leading them to become more confident and skilled artists.

The final stage was to define the structure of the educational programmes at the Film School.

The Norwegian word here is «emne», which, depending on the country you’re from, could be «subject» or «class».

You take a certain number of classes throughout your degree programme, with some electives along the way, and this way construct a programme that leads to a specific degree. Most of these classes, or subjects, are relatively self-contained, with their own set of requirements for successful completion.

At the end of each one you get a certain number of points or credits, and when you have enough – you graduate.

Not so at the Norwegian Film School. Although we on paper do have subjects, these subjects are fluid and blend in to each other. They are integrated, and none of them are completed before the entire programme is completed.

It is only at the end, after completing the 3-year, integrated whole, that you will have competed all the subjects.

Which, of course, means there is only one exam. At the end, and it’s for the whole pot of 180 ects credits.

The basis for the exam is the examination film, a 25-minute dramatic film the students have made in teams the final year. In addition, all disciplines other than director and producer have a personal project they have completed which gives them an opportunity to explore some aspect of their specific discipline in more depth.

As with production exercises, the statement of intent is key. The film will not be judged on some theoretical measure of quality, but the students contribution is judged on the basis of their specific and detailed intentions.

What the exam really tests in the end, is: has the student been able to use the knowledge and skills they gained to develop as an artist?

Each student should have a much greater understanding of what kind of artist they are, what their strengths and weaknesses are, where their potential lies. Insight is key, both for developing as an artist and, more prosaically, for passing the exam.

What about the other way around? How does the Film School develop?

For every workshop, every lecture, every production exercise: students give us feedback, most often written feedback. The purpose is twofold: we believe that when students give feedback on a given workshop or other module, they raise their own awareness about what they’ve learned.

The other side of it is we can constantly monitor what’s working and what isn’t, and dynamically adjust the course of the education. We use this feedback both to adjust what’s coming for the current class, and of course to plan an altered course for the next class.

As a result, we never have successive groups of students who have identical experiences – although the broad strokes are certainly recognizable.

Ok, so this slide didn’t really work.

I tried to draw an analogy between being out on a dark night experiencing a meteor shower and both being awestruck by the beauty and gaining an awareness of your place in the cosmos, and the experience you get when faced with great art. I then went on to say we want to produce artists who can give an audience these experiences.

A little bit about what’s next for the Norwegian Film School.

And referring back to the flowers at the beginning: we want fine arts education to partake in designing the landscape. It has to be done by people who understand how this kind of education works and what it needs.

There wasn’t much time for questions, unfortunately.

On Creativity

I read Stephen Downes’ blog regularly; I always find it thought-provoking and interesting. Today was no exception.

Today’s entry, entitled No Paradox Here (go read it at the source) inspired me to think about my own work at The Norwegian Film School, where creativity is our bread and butter…

Specifically, Downes quotes Spencer, who writes:

Creativity: It happens when students have freedom and limitations

His response is:

Creativity is possible even if there are limitations, but only if there is freedom.

Well…not exactly. And it depends on how you apply limitations and freedom.

We are a school for creative artists (filmmakers), and the entire programme is built around the conscious application of limitations in order to stimulate creativty. It’s not our own invention by any stretch, but we have over the years refined teaching methods that enable the students to both explore their own creativity and push the limits their own abilities through the imposition of limitations.

In our experience, too much freedom stifles creativity rather than encouraging it. (And yes, we do realise misguided use of limitations can also stifle creativity.) By specifiying a series of condititions for each film exercise the students are given we give them a well-defined area to explore, encouraging them to make mistakes and take chances within those limits.

There is theory for this, and we lean on Vygotski with his development of the concepts scaffolding and zone of proximal development, and also conscious of the importance of letting the students reach a state of flow. Being an arts school where all the teaching staff are practicing filmmakers, not trained educators has led us to set up weekly staff meetings where we discuss the students development, future teaching plans and the practical and theoretical aspects of this pedagogy.

So, in this case, Spencer is correct: creativity will only happen where there are both limitations and freedom — the limitations designed to encourage creativity and the freedom to explore within these limitations.

But Downes is also correct: this is no paradox. Rather, it is a necessary condition for creativity.

Insight Out raw

I attended the 2012 Insight Out seminar at the film school in Potsdam, Germany from March 19 to 23 this year. I am dumping my “raw” notes here; they are unfiltered, unspellchecked and a little unstructured. They are useful to me – if nothing else, the act of taking notes helps me remember things – but probably not to anyone else…

Day 1
_________________________________________
Session 1
general overview of workflows and formats in digital film and home entertainment
– by Flying Eye – media management consultants; ie getting the techies and creatives to understand each other.
Background: jan. 19th Kodak files chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Film continues to dominate archiving, but digital acqusition taking over in production – one could say has taken over.
SDTV –> HDTV –> 4K (digital cinema)
Digital workflow allows for crossover between production and post; this is not only possible but even likely. (and desirable?)
– fewer steps digital – digital than film-digital
– DCI is still active; produces SMTE standards. last revision 26.01.2012 www.dcimovies.com
– DCI focusess on distribution & security
– DCI also gives specs for testing of distribution
Last 3 years have seen an almost exponential growth of digital and 3d screens compared to film-only
Rumour that Hollywood will stop releasing 35mm in 2013. This will have a major effect on those screens that have not converted to digital –> but what about arthouse? archiving? less industrialised territories? second run? festivals?
Issues:
– projection brightness
– higher framerates (48fps)
– heigher resolution (8k+)
(these last two have big implications for production and post pipeline)
– industry still learning to handle 3d
– film language for 3d still under development
As always, the choice of camera is chosing the right tool for the job – should not be a choice based solely on technological considerations
Interesting development also in DLSR; both Canon and Nikon have released new cameras this month. N D800 (better colour but more noise) and MKIII (less noise but more moire and false colour)
Brand new! Digital Bolex announced last week.
Acquisition formats
– resolution
– bit depth
– compression
– colour space
mm.
Field recording: disk based, flash memory (SSD, etc.) and tape based
With online storage of masters, one can move away from a “sequential” post to a collaborative one.
– also Cloud-based. Example, Hugo Cabaret moved 3PB data between 11 different collaborators in post. ref Pixomondo – teams all over the world working on the same production.
Consumer delivery: IMF – interoperable master format
– standard for mastering for all consumer delivery formats.
Frame rate: 24 vs. 25 fps –> DCI compliance requires 24 BUT the latest standards allow for 25 fps DCPs for cinematic release; but even though the standards exist, the equipment to play 25 fps is not widespread.
___________________________________________
Session 2
Broadcast Changes.
John Ive from IABM (http://theiabm.org/)
represents the broadcast equipment manufacturers
analogue –> digital –> IT/IP
– this last element is what has actually changed workflow
More delivery platforms and consumption habits are changing; leads to both creative, business and technological need to adapt.
– how to future-proof in a situation where change is accelerating?
Drivers in the consumer world
– live programming
– multichannel pay-tv
– recorded media – multi-format
– video on demand
70% of tablet owners use them while watching TV (UK)
Daily viewing hours still increasing
From tape to file – file = video + audio + metadata
Analogue and digital are still linear / sequetial workflows –> IT/IP changing all that
IT is faster than real time and paralell
“ingest once, use anywhere”
But why are we struggling?
– have to unlearn ingrained workflows
– exponential rise in content
– formats!
– cost of investments and upgrades
– too many things changing at the same time
Metadata – provides the context necessary to make sense of data.
– there is no “one size fits all” as different organisatons need different metadata.
Workflow
key in IT-workflow becomes media asset management.
Existing cloud services – worth checking out to see the (possible) future of media asset management.
Security is an issue in cloud storage
– local laws where the servers are; which agencies can access my files?
– leakage and hacking?
_______________________________________________
Session 3
Peter Adams – editor of Anonymous
editing and VFX
– shot on Alexa
– communication between editing, VFX and production was key in both prep and production
– got technical files from the camera. DP predefined different luts that were applied to the dailies and a form of pre-grading
–> gave DP a chance to pre-grade, and the looks were changed along the way.  Eliminated dailies colour grading and predefined som set-ups for the colour grading
– raw material recorded to hard drives, copied at the end of each day by a quality controll dept. – replaces the lab
– this dept. produced timed and synced dailies, already logged and organised.
Editor and director watched dailies at the end of each shooting day
– Started editing while the shoot was going on.
– often involved sound and vfx while cutting scenes in order to get the full effect
VFX and editing started working and testing together about a week before production started.
– technical compatibility as important as collaboration
Good communication also key to ensuring efficiency; avoid wasted labour
– back and forth collaboration allowed adjusting plans to ensure maksimum efficiency
By cutting along the way, the editor had a cut ready for a (internal) screening about 2 weeks after principal photography was finished.
– worked another 2 weeks on a directors cut
– another couple of weeks, then another screening
Editing moved to LA, but VFX still in Germany.
– an assistant stayed in Babelsburg, but editor and main assistant moved.
– conference calls with VFX every two days.
– used a watch folder (dropbox) and a player called cinesync – which allows you to draw on images and the drawings are synced real time between LA and Germany
– moved editing to London in so the director could do ADR with the actors
Recreating historical London from before the fire: combination of VFX and production design – CGI and sets, set extentions, etc. This required extensive previsualisation between those two depts. – but editing was not involved in animatics, etc.
______________________________________________
Session 4
s3D Now! – research project
On the effect of 3D on storytelling, production and sound, in addition to testing workflows
3 main research questions
– optical phenomena in 3d and their limits
– staffing on 3d productions
– sound in 3d films; how is it different from 2d
Project entails a short film, a behind the scenes doc and a book
Sound for 3D – there is no litterature right now
– how does 3D effect set sound and post sound?
some challenges
– clocking with many devices
– stereographers equipment is noisy
– same is true of data wrangler
Shooting
– more wide shots, longer shots, fewer ots. –> difficult to get mics close
Post
– need 3d image for sound post in order to miks to the correct space
– increased detail level in sound design
– new approaches for surround channels since the audience is inside the space and sound must reinforce this
– may need different playback systems – eg. 7.1
Sound concept
– must remember the room / space is a stylistic device ie. a storytelling device
– directors must learn to include more departments
MORE PREP.
3D Alliance Karlsruhe
investigating storytelling in 3D
forms alliances between art and science (esp. mathematics)
Beyond – 3d filmfestival
* 3D symposium 22-24 june. *
Working towards directing attention from technical aspects to creative aspects
big challenges: no standards and lack of educated people.
3D requires a new dramaturgy; one that uses space actively
– both in terms of staging and emotionally
Requires new rhythms in editing
“in 3d, the post people become painters”
___________________________________________________
DAY 2
Session 1: The Law of the Internet with Prof. Jan Bernd Nordemann
Intellectual Property rights: remember everyone who has had creative input in the film — editor, cinematographer, actors, composers, etc. — owns the intellectual property rights to their work. The Producer needs to remember to acquire all these rights for distribution.
– in particular internet and “all unknown media” rights
– need explicit agreements for “non film use” –> for example merchandising, books, etc.; also prequels, sequels, remakes, etc.
Old programmes – anything before 1995 – are problematic for internet distribution
– especially from before 1965
Why? Before 1965 no mention of unknown media in contracts. –> rights remained with the creator/author
In 2008 German law granted distribution rights to producers for content created 1966-late 70s for what were “unknown media” in that time period. ie. video, internet.
– The authors can make a separate remuneration claim to a governing body.
In US the situation is different under “work for hire” provisions –> producers retain more distribution rights
In the case of full funding by a broadcaster, the internet and unknown media distribution rights may be with the broadcaster. At the very least, the broadcaster retains the “7-day catch up” distribution.
– VOD a separate issue.
No one “right” on the net. Many different forms and rights of distribution on the net.
– EST – electronic sell through (purchase)
– VOD – on demand viewing by time-limited download, but not sale.
– Streaming – on demand viewing, but no downloaded copy for viewing
Remuneration
– free
– free with advertising
– pay-per-view
– subscription
– etc., etc.
Geographically limitet rights – based on geolocation of IPs
– there is a question about the EU; must rights be whole EU or can there be rights specified for individual states
Music rights are the most complicated thing, in part because of national composers & musicians rights organisations. In some cases, rights must be negotiated with individual performers and composers –> this is a major hurdle for film distribution.
Another aspect: live streaming of TV.
Creative Commons. Has become part of the copyright system, but is free of remuneration. –> since it is noncommercial there is a limit on the kinds of content that will be CC licensed.
Platforms have to adhere to national laws for all territories in which they are available.
– example: youth protection (age limits) could determine at what time you can stream certain content in certain territories
Piracy. Still unresolved. Copyright vs. individual freedom.
_________________________________________
Session 2: Production Designer Sebastian Krawinkel about Anonymous
Every scene in Anonymous was designed, and built either physically or digitally.
Used a modular system – elements that could be moved and reused in different ways.
Original idea was to shoot plates in England, and use them in CGI. In actual fact only one plate was used.
Made models which were shot, then manipulated in VFX to create London
Art dept. researched and built large parts of 16th century London – Art. dept. made many 3D models, then handed these to VFX for completion.
Krawinkel had 12 weeks prep for research.
Based sets and 3d designs on contemporary paitings of London. Houses based on existing houses that survive from that era.
Extensive previs, both 2d and 3d
Close working relationship between Art Dept. and VFX in prep.; sharing of concepts and files; planning of physical and digital elements
In the interiors, modules were built and reused in many sets; simply fleshed out with some unique elements in order to distract the eye from the reuse of elements,
Primary interior lighting from candles; used “candle wranglers” and special 3-wicked candles. (Chose to shoot Alexa because the candlelight caused noise in in the footage from the Red camera that was tested)
In certain situations, the modular sets were combined with CGI and digital sets
Used 5 different sets, so that while one was being filmed, the other 5 were in various states of preparation.
Modular system works when architecture is geometrical, the director is very visual and can see possibilities, and the AD can make a schedule that works.
__________________________________________________
Session 3 – 3D storytelling and workflow planning
Part 1 with Ludger Pfanz
3d has a history all the way back to Lumiere and Meliers
Digital 3d allows perfect sync in projection
Theses
– 3d starts with the script
– from “frame” to “stage”
– space has meaning
– depth dramaturgy
How to organise space for 3D
– Topos: space –> space has potential and dynamism
“What is not in the script cannot be staged” – scriptwriters need to learn to write for 3d space.
– for example, in Coraline the day world is flat, while the night world has a lot of depth
Can layer an image to have more going on different levels –> mise en scene
Alex Weimer & co. – “Lost Place” a case study in 3D filmmaking
Mystery thriller, based on real backstory of US cold war experiments.
How to make the 3D count?
Things that lend themselves to 3d
– ensemble cast
– limited number of locations, which are explored by the characters
Depth chart: an analysis of the script to decide which scenes need more or less depth, where parallax is in front or behind the screen
Can increase Vertigo-effect by increasing inter-axial distance between cameras (for example) –> puts a strain on the viewer
Production considerations
– stereo rigs can weigh in excess of 40 kgs.
– changing rigs can take several hours of calibration
– stereographer becomes a key crew member; important to give them the time and space to work
– special rig for steadicam – down to approx. 25 kgs.
– stereoscopic mirror rig eats about 1 stop
Editors observations.
kept each eye separate – even on separate hard drives
Used Avid media composer 6 – latest version has 3d capability; allows linking two picture and one sound clip to create a stereoscopic clip.
What about pacing? – the pace of the editing and choice of footage to use determined by the action and shots exactly as with 2d
Cut in 2d, then view sequence in 3d.
Some differences
– backgrounds are a bigger distraction in 3d – even if out of fokus. Need to be aware of this
– tracking shots can, if necessary, be held longer in 3d.
– lens flare and reflection is a bigger problem in 3d.
VFX and post production; on set data wrangling
– data integrity key; backups and more backups.
– DIT followed file naming convention agreed upon in prep.
VFX did on-set check and screenings of footage; used After Effects since the editing workflow had not yet been established
Involved in prep in order to avoid overwork in post 😉
gathered textures, etc. on location
built websites, graphics, phone apps, etc. etc. in advance so they were filmed “live” during production – again to avoid work in post.
Have not yet decided on software package, but considering Fusion rather than Nuke.
Big challenge creating effects that also have to have depth.
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DAY 3
Session 1 – Case Study ARTE – broadcast workflow in the transition from tape to file
ARTE is a grouping of public television networks; French and German cooperation, started in 1992
Head office in Strasbourg
Tapeless: started with SD tapeless in 2001; went live in 2005
Introduced HD in 2008
APIOS: database for managing broadcast assets; uses metadata to automate programming, archiving, etc.
– also manages audience number, etc.
– this system is available for all now, can also be used for archiving, vod, etc.
HD-tapeless: decision to go tapeless made in 2008
BCE won the contract to effect the changeover to tapeless
APIOS is based on Oracle and on Windows-only.
Going tapeless has much simplified by removing steps, need for synchronisations
(MAM = media asset management: key feature of tapeless system)
In a changeover like this, change management — training & listening — are key
To any such system, metadata is key –> it is crucial that this is entered and managed correctly.
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DAY 4

Session 1: Case study Melancholia: Pan-european co-production with Peter Hjorth
check http://www.gearless/MEL%20VFX%20featurette%201stcut.mov

NB: Peter works exactly the way we want to teach Digital Visual Design.
Melancholia had collaborators from Denmark, Sweden and Germany on the post production effects.
Peter worked as a “VFX Director” – closely with Director, DoP and PD throughout the production cycle
Partners in VFX included:
– Pixomondo in Germany
– Film Gate from Sweden
Peter and his VFX producer Karen were hired at the script stage
– made some models, working with the scientists who provided a large amount of the background reseach for the film.
– first VFX breakdown and budget already two months before preproduction started; worked closely with the films producer to find a solution that works with the total budget

Storyboard
– Peter worked with Lars, DP, PD and 1st AD
– final film very close to storyboard
Developed the colour and look of the Planet Melancholia; worked with Gaffer and DP so they could find a gel they used to give the effect of the light from Mel. shining through windows, etc.
Predefining what is needed; working with production to ensure what is needed is filmed.
Karen did cost estimates to see what is best done on set, what is best done in post.
The general trade-off is big, wide shots better as post VFX, while smaller, closer shots better as on-set SFX
Involved in planning 2nd unit shooting – ended up saving time and money
Made a production plan for FX shots

Financing
breakdown based on final script
gave all studios same breakdown, storyboards in order to get best possible bids.
shots were cut all the way until the end in order to make the budget work, or in some cases redistribute resources
Economy not the only factor in chosing post studios
– artistic style and visual understanding
– experience and capacity
– key competences
– personal contact
– location (travel time for Peter and Karen) –> this was a factor in chosing German Pixomondo over a Canadian competitor.
Tight schedule: shooting finished in September; film had to be ready for pre-Cannes screening in March
Budget har to consider shooting costs, personnel, construction, post hardware, travel, file transfers, etc. etc.
4-country co-production; there are national demands for where budget is spent – VFX also has to help by spending in those regions… (plus a large list of other investors)
— Worth noting that Film i Väst (Göteborg & Trollhättan) is a major booster of filming and post in that region —

The Shoot
Peter on set all days when vfx-shots planned
Input in how actors responded to the Melancholia planet in the sky
participated in shooting reference elements, plates, inserts, spinter unit with sfx and art dept. (most high speed); 2nd unit of varying sizes (inkl. model shoot), special elements (in this case, Northern Lights on Iceland), pickups (greenscreen)

Editing
Important to keep track of the shots used, that the vfx plan is still being followed; see if new shots come up, etc. –> important to follow up that the total VFX shots stays within the budget.
Peter takes job of VFX-editior: does rough versions of vfx shots once there is a “real” cut of the film available
Make vfx-demos for the post studios involved, allow them to start sketching their versions while waiting for the final version of the picture
Post studios provided temp versions for screenings

VFX
Online of film to vfx studios
briefings and presentation of shorts
VFX production schedule finalised
maintain communication and make visits, viewings — this is key to ensure what is delivered is what was wanted.
VFS shots to foley, sound editing, music
Coordination important, to ensure everyone knows who does what, when, and also movement of files, scheduling of approvals and viewings, etc.
Important also to coordinate with Producer to fit promo and trailer production into the schedule; they can really destroy a post schedule otherwise.
Peter works much like a director with the vfx-providers; is the creative leader of the team and needs to get the most out of the different artists.
– tools like Skype and Cinesync are useful, but there is no substitute for sitting and speaking in the same room.
worked with ftp –> still the easiest way to distribute files.

Grading
Peter supervises the delivery of every vfx-shot; also attends final grading
involved in creation of LUTs for dailies; ensure all vfx shots work with the LUTs
Grading requires delivery of alpha layers; mistakes in grading can ruin the effect of compositing!
Things like stars can cause major problems in downconversion for release formats — all these versions must also be checked.

This case shows how important it is for the FILM that the VFX director is involved from script to delivery.

Q&A
Alexa – shot 10-bit log with on-board compression codec.
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DAY 5

Session 1: Visual effects photography and 3D with Mark Weingartner
Visual effects and CGI are not the same thing: not all vfx are CG, although they may have CG elements.
– many elements, plates, miniatures, etc. are shot, then manipulated, composited in post.
Useful book: VES Handbook of visual effects
Things like Vistavision still used for f/x
For 3d models – use lidar scans instead of photos for plates.

Session 2: “101 It’s Easy” –> new company helping production companies make transition to file-based
Protection of media is key
Digital allows sharing and collaboration to a much greater extent; this increases complication
Cloud-based file management is key to collaboration and sharing; producers need a system that can be secure but flexible.

Session 3: Dolby PRM-3200 reference monitor
John Bleau
New monitor a response to the lack of a proper display in post after CRT discontinued.
– main problem is there is no longer a universal reference standard
– LCD and plasma have severe colour and black/contrast limitations.
– OLED and plasma have a short life
– DLP best colour, but poor contrast, poor blacks
Dolby monitor 40000:1 contrast, 12-bit colour. Can handle raw output from Alexa, for example.
$40,000 –
Calibration probe is another $30,000…

Session 4: Digital Gremlins! with DP Keith Partridge (films extreme locations, etc.)
or… the many deaths of digital footage…
One way to kill a camera…–> drowning
Cameras don’t like water! Adventure cinematography can get wet…
Other ways –> dropping and freezing.
Logistics of the shoot determine choice of equipment
When one is in a remote location it’s crucial to use things one is familiar with –> if something goes wrong you can quickly fix it / find a solution

Session 5: Pixomondo and Hugo Cabaret
shot on Alexas with a 3d beamsplitter rig.
extensive metadata recorded
Nuke for compositing
VFX involved in setting up the LUTs
One pitfall of 3d: stereo artifacts
– 2-stage removal process: automatic tools followed by manual cleanup
– not all stereo artifacts are in camera; some are real-world etc. occlusions and reflections –> in both cases they are visible to one eye and not the other; creates an annoying effect and need to be dealt with.
Tools used included both rotoscoping and CGI
in this case: vfx was not involved in chosing shooting format.

Session 6: Summary
SD and tape (with the exception of HDCamSR?) are gone from post; soon from production?
Codec chaos…
Film?
In broadcast today, 1080i50 is the format — but not the format of the future.
How many pixels are enough?
Chosing a camera today is becoming as much a creative choice – much as chosing a film stock (Kodak vs. Fuji) was before
Next technological advancement on display side is autostereoscopic (no glasses) –> holoscopic interesting but still a ways off
Stereoscopic 3D is here to stay, but needs to be driven by story, not money!
Filebased –> leads to demands on coordination, integration and compatibility in order to allow effective creative sharing.
– key question is how to make the technology/infrastructure invisible so the creatives can get on with their work!
Archiving: digitise tapes or lose them. Film is still supreme on the theatrical side, but what will replace it? Very important to resolve this.
In broadcast, adminstrative and production worlds are moving closer – driven in part by consolidation of databases. How close should they get?

As an aside, this was the first time I used my iPad 2 as my primary computing device for an extended period.  The laptop stayed in the hotel room while I wrote, checked mail, etc. on the iPad with my Logitech fold-up keyboard (Norwegian link). The battery lasted all day without trouble (used about 10% per hour when in use constantly – just as advertised).

Film school pedagogy – a preamble to some musings.

In the last few months I find myself increasingly engaged in discussions about film school pedagogy and, more specifically, the dearth of literature devote to this topic.

From what I can tell there are three published works about Film Schools and how they structure their education.

  1. Heidi Philipsen of The University of Southern Denmark published in 2005 her PhD thesis “Dansk films nye bølge” (The New Wave of Danish Film) about the pedagogical principles at the Danish Film School.
  2. Canadian filmmaker Paul Lee published in 2001 his PhD thesis “The FIlmmaker as Artist-Educator” submittet to The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
  3. In 1990 American Sociologist Lisa Henderson submitted her PhD thesis to the University of Pennsylvania entitled “Cinematic competence and directorial persona”, a study of an unnamed Masters-level filmmaking programme in New York City.

The three works are quite different, although the Henderson and Philipsen works are both field studies of established film school programmes.

What I find interesting is how little bearing these works have on my own experiences working at Film Schools before I came to Norway. As a result, through the discussions I have it becomes apparent to me that I should mine my own experience in order to write a contribution to this area.

The three film schools I have worked at – Vancouver Film School, the Canadian Film Centre and The Norwegian Film School – are wildly different, and an attempt to integrate what I have learned form the three will at very least be interesting to me. With any luck it will be interesting to others as well…

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