Digital Storytelling 2010 : Visual Effects - Into New Dimensions will be the fifth annual seminar on the creative use of technology in film and television, focusing on visual effects and digital set design in feature film and television. Speakers from the Norwegian, Scandinavian and International film community will gather in Oslo to present their work.

Digital Storytelling and The Norwegian Film Institute invite VFX artists, producers, directors and writers to this year’s seminar and workshop on the use of visual effects in film and television.

The impact of the blockbuster movie “Avatar” on the filmmaking process and the movie-going experience can hardly go unnoticed or un-addressed. In order to keep pace with the cutting edge developments of the industry, the focus of this year’s seminar and workshop is the phenomen of stereoscopic 3D film.

Keynote Speaker, Oscar winner and Co-Production Designer on Avatar, Robert Stromberg sets the stage for a journey into this new and exciting universe.  We remain on Pandora with presentations by Theodor Groeneboom (Framestore, London) and Canadian Colin Doncaster (Weta, New Zealand and Storm Studios, Norway) both having contributed their VFX talents to “Avatar”.  Swedish director Ted Kjellsson challenges conventional filmmaking with his new film project “Tompta” (produced by ZentropeRamBuk, Denmark). 3-D Cinematographer & Filmmaker Kasimir Lehto (Los Angeles) will talk on how 3-D should be treated and used in a narrative context to support the storytelling and cinematic expression.

This year’s Norwegian VFX Omelette is made up a larger part of Norway’s 3D and VFX studios and talents - Bug, Gimpville, DoP Morten Skallerud, Placebo Effects, Storm Studios, and Storyline Studios - who will present their latest work, many of them already creating stereoscopic 3D commercials and film projects.

And finally the scene is set for a panel discussion on stereoscopic 3D, digital characters and environments; Do completely digital images with synthetic (CG) characters mean the end of film as we know it, or does it represent the next natural step in the enhancement  of our experience of film as a medium?  Our panel consist of a producer, movie theater director, VFX artist, film director and journalist with strong and opposing opinions on the subject.

Since our first seminar in 2006, Digital Storytelling has been an arena for filmmakers, vfx artists and designers with an interest in how visual effects can strengthen storytelling.  Our speakers and panel will also address  themselves to directors, producers, writers, production designers, cinematographers, as well as VFX artists and designers.

We invite you to come to Oslo for an exciting seminar day on Wednesday April 14th.

Welcome to a new dimension.  3-D glasses will be distributed at the door.

Angela Amoroso, Kim Baumann Larsen & Eric Hanson, Digital Storytelling
The Development and Production Department, The Norwegian Film Institute.

Photo/Copyright:  20th Century Fox