International Journal of Cultural Policy Supporting 'Film Cultural Peripheries'? The dilemmas of regional film policy in Norway (original) (raw)
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Thesis: Voices from the Peripheries: A Study of the Regional Film and Television Business in Norway
This thesis is a study of how regional film and television companies in Norway manage to survive and achieve their goals in the context of a larger film and television business that is centralised, economically fragile, and subsidy dependent. Interest in production studies has boomed in recent years, but little of this research addresses regional film and television companies. This thesis employs a production studies approach and incorporates theory on place and work on the creative industries. It contributes to the limited amount of research that accounts for both structural framework—in particular, the impact of film policy and dependence on public funding on these companies—and agency in terms of the intrinsic value of regional film and television production in a local, national and global context. Using multiple perspectives, this thesis presents an in-depth exploration of the advantages and disadvantages of being a regional film and television company. The case study is its principal methodological approach, including interviews with film workers at four companies and employees at six regional film agencies, as well as policy documents, websites, newspapers and productions. The thesis focuses on four well-established regional film and television companies that have produced critically acclaimed films. All are located outside Oslo, the hub of film production in Norway. The four companies are Original Film in Tromsø, Northern Norway, Flimmer Film in Bergen, Western Norway, Mer Film in Tromsø/Bergen, Northern/Western Norway, and Filmbin in Lillehammer, central Eastern Norway. This thesis argues that one of the greatest challenges to these regional companies (and the government that supports them) is how to develop strong, sustainable regional film milieus among a scattered populace like Norway’s. The regions suffer from low production volume and brain drain and the research shows that these companies rely on human resources to deal with this challenge. Policy development indicates that the public funding of regional film is mostly based on regional and economic, but also cultural, arguments—regional film, that is, should contribute to regional development, economic growth and diversity. I argue that the economic and rural political rationale for support of this business tends to undermine the cultivation of the cultural value of regional film, as well as its quality and professionalism. However, the companies have managed to produce critically acclaimed films and the thesis reveals how the peripheral location can be a creative and economic advantage.
Government strategy also makes a deep impact on the lives of industry workers as Olof Hedling demonstrates in his study of recent Swedish regional policy. Regional and national governments around the globe, believing film and TV production to be increasingly mobile, look to what they term the ‘creative industries’ to assist in regeneration. Exhausted old industries are supposed to give way to thriving, self-supporting, audio visual clusters, while the spending of incoming cultural tourists, curious to know more about the fictional lives of their soap stars, adds a further boost to local employment and wealth. Government support is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it can, potentially, boost overall employment and wages. But, on the other, it seeks to direct industry workers to new and often less hospitable locations. As Hedling reveals, industry workers are reluctant to trade the relative benefits of working in Stockholm, where most workers currently locate, for an uncertain future in regional centres. To understand the attitude of industry workers we need to remember that most are freelance with only twenty-five per cent able to earn seventy-five per cent or more of their income directly from film and TV work. Stockholm provides a wide range of job opportunities both inside and outside the industry, while cities such as Ystad and Trollhattan offer a more constrained employment base resting upon uncertain policy-making of government. Such a top down approach that makes few concessions to the actual experience of industry employees inevitably creates resistance which undermines the effectiveness of government regional policy.
Research on filmmaking outside urban centres tends to concentrate on regional development— researchers note that the cultural industries have a positive impact on tourism, place branding and the local economy (Hedling 2010). More generally, research tends to focus on how the cultural industries affect the places where they are located. However, few researchers have reversed this perspective by examining how location affects the companies themselves. In order to address this gap in understanding, I will revisit the relationship between place and filmmaking in Norway in this chapter. This relationship matters because the Norwegian government supports regional film based on the premise that film production in different places will generate more varied films. Therefore, in what follows I will look at the ways in which four regional production companies in Norway relate to their geographical location, and what being a 'regional company' means to their survival and viability. After briefly situating place in relation to the political context of filmmaking, I will elaborate upon the concept of place more broadly, and then describe my four case studies. I will then discuss the relationship between these regional film and television companies and their locations by assessing interviews, websites, and their latest productions. My analysis will demonstrate that place does matter to these companies, in terms of inspiration, the use of the local landscape in productions themselves, the use of local directors and film workers, and, to a degree, the telling of stories that are identified with the regions in question. I will also reveal some of the complexities involved in promoting one's local affiliation, because regional film production is sometimes regarded as less professional. Place and policy Place is an important concept within Norwegian film and cultural policy, not as an isolated phenomenon but as part of a commitment to regional development. Norway has a scattered population and tensions between the political centre and the peripheries are central to the political history of modern Norway (Pettersen et al. 1996: 259). In his analysis of centre and periphery in Norway, Stein Rokkan (1987) describes how cultural opposition to the values of the central state from markedly distinct peripheries has been strong in Norway. After the Second World War, the state assumed an active role in the modernisation of Norway, focusing, initially on northern Norway. It was a national priority to develop industry and achieve equal living conditions in every part of the country, thanks to a form of exogenous thinking that believed in the redistribution of wealth and opportunities from the centre to the periphery. According to Selstad (2003), more recently the government wants growth to happen from within the regions themselves. As a result, the cultural industries are newly attractive to policymakers because of the positive economic effects they are believed to have. Policymakers, as mentioned above, see the cultural industries as drivers of regional development (Philo and Kearns 1993). The Norwegian government therefore wants film production to take place in the regions rather than be concentrated in Oslo. It is a policy goal that regional film should attract private investors and thereby raise more money for the Norwegian film business, but it should also contribute to tourism, place promotion and work opportunities in the regions.
Nordic Journal of Media Studies, 2020
The creative industries have had a major impact on cultural policy, and it is often argued that these industries can be a vehicle for regional growth. Using regional film production in Norway as a case, I discuss the creative industries, the cluster concept and its impact on policy. I analyse two film policy documents from 2007 and 2015 in order to show how the issue of size and critical mass is an unsettled topic within the creative industries, and I question the relevance of film as an economic and regional development tool in a country with a small film industry, such as Norway. This article shows that the creative industries concept, adopted from international discourses, especially creative industries policies in the UK, has influenced Norwegian film policy, reducing the importance of cultural objectives and increased the focus on the business potential and economic aspects of culture.
This article explores what two regional film production companies in Norway do to survive and succeed with their goals. The production of feature films in Norway is largely an Oslo-based effort, but despite this reality, there are companies in the regions that produce feature films. The analysis draws on semi-structured interviews with eight employees in two companies. Mer Film has in relatively short time managed to attract talented directors and establish networks with international, critically acclaimed production companies. Filmbin was one of the first film companies in Norway who committed themselves to the production of films for children. The article shows that success must be related to context and that reputation, talent development and choice of genre, geographical location, networking and social capital, risk diversification, entrepreneurship, organizational culture and leadership, are essential factors for the companies.
The Nordic Journal of Cultural Policy, 2019
This article examines approaches to cultural diversity in a global- local axis. Can one talk about local cultural diversity in a film industry that is increasingly global? Cultural diversity is a goal in European film policy and an important rationale behind the support of European films. Geographical location is a key factor when discussing filmmaking because of the assumption that film and television production at different places represents diversity and therefore contributes to democracy and varied representations. Still, few studies examine whether filmmaking in the peripheries does, or can, contribute to diversity in film. Using Norway as a case, interviews with people in four companies located outside the capital were conducted to discuss diversity and the geographical dimension of filmmaking. The article argues that the companies contribute to diversity because of a commitment to shoot regionally, and because they use local film workers and talents. The companies act in a glocal context where they focus on the national and/or regional in order to get public funding, but projects that are too place- or cultural specific in content are usually not interesting to an international audience. They choose a hybridisation strategy, using local places to tell universal stories
The rise of film production locations and specialised film services in European semi-peripheries
Hungarian Geographical Bulletin
The research on a creative economy has been gaining momentum globally in the recent years, but the associated concepts such as the cultural economy, the creative class, creative cities and so on, have typically been urban or national in orientation. There is evidence showing that many important developments in creative industries take place now in almost all parts of the globe. One of the creative industries which may serve as a vivid example of the complex interplay between the global core and the local periphery is film industry. The paper aims to discuss rise of film production locations and specialised film services in European global semiperipheries. Globalisation of film industry involves the expansion of production away from the established and globally recognised centres, such as Hollywood or Western Europe. While some researchers refer to this development as a 'runaway production', this paper examines it through a broader look to core-periphery relations and points out their implications and consequences from the perspective of European countries (with a focus on post-socialist countries of East Central Europe).
Tallinn Film Cluster: Realities, Expectations and Alternatives
Baltic Screen Media Rview, 2013
The article takes a close look at the entrepreneurial practices of the Estonian film industry and at how these particular practices may be understood to influence the evolution of the film production cluster in Tallinn. It asks how these processes of institutional evolution of the local film industry may be understood to influence the specific nature of audiovisual culture in contemporary Estonia. The article is based on a study that was conducted in mid 2012. The study consisted of interviews with the repre- sentatives of the local film industry, including respondents from production companies (“studios”), post-production companies and distributors. The second phase of the study was a confirmative roundtable with the select group that included the previously interviewed filmmakers and a few additional industry insiders. The key research ques- tions were: (1) what are the existing co-operation practices between companies like and (2) considering the further evolution of the industry cluster in Tallinn, what are the companies’ specific expectations and needs. The current status of the cluster’s competitiveness was evaluated by using Michael Porter’s model for analyzing conditions of competition (Porter’s diamond). Also, development perspectives of the cluster were evaluated, considering the needs and expectations of entrepreneurs. Key results of the research were divided into two basic categories: (1) current state of clustering of AV enterprises and (2) perspectives and alternatives of further development of the AV cluster.