Norway's Storyline to leave studios

Storyline Studios, which has since 2005 operated former Norsk Film AS’ Filmparken at Jar outside Oslo (aka Jollywood), will shortly terminate the lease of studios, workshops, offices and storerooms, which has become “too great a burden” for the company.

Storyline MD Knud Bjørne-Larsen said: “Business there used to be 50% feature films and 50% commercials, but during the last three years we have not shot a single feature in the studios – production has been outsourced to other countries.”

According to Bjørne-Larsen, the films by Norwegian director Bent Hamer illustrate the decline: his Kitchen Stories (2003) was fully produced at Filmparken, for Home for Christmas (2010) it worked on the sound, while his upcoming 1001 Grammes is totally made abroad.

“More and more Norwegian films are shot in countries as Iceland, Ireland, Germany and Hungary, which all offer financial incentives to foreign producers. So far Norway has moneywise no initiatives to attract international projects,” he said.

Storyline Studios, originally established as Norsk Filmstudio in 2005, has developed a strong position in digital post-production services, including VFX and sound, now centered at Norway’s largest post-production house at Oslo’s Mølleparken 4.

The company’s camera and equipment rentals will remain at Filmparken, while the shares in Norsk Film Costume (with 100,000 costumes) will be transferred to Filmparken AS – the corporation that owns the property and in the future will lease the studios on a four-walling basis.

Between 1932-2001, Norsk Film AS – the 77.6% state-owned production company – was running Filmparken with 12,000 sqm studio and office space, producing 150 Norwegian features during the period or 25% of all local films by 2001 when it was dismantled.