INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FILM AND MEDIA ARTS vol 2, n.

º1

THE IMPORTANCE OF
DIGITAL FILMMAKING
AND HOW IT AFFECTS
EDUCATION IN
FILMSCHOOLS
SIMONE STEWENS
IFS INTERNATIONALE FILMSCHULE KÖLN, GERMANY Abstract
The present paper discusses the impacts and
changes brought about by digital technologies
and the transformations they entail for the dif-
ferent areas of film production, development
and education. By focusing on the particular
case of one school – The Cologne Film School
(ifs) – and how this school has embraced digital
disruption, the paper scrutinizes all areas that
are impacted by the digital and how film schools
can and should react.

62
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FILM AND MEDIA ARTS

The patterns of production, reproduc- sheer amount of content posted on the because he was at that time one of the
tion, and distribution of cultural content internet leads to an interesting question: few media scientists who focused on
supposedly never changed in such a How can filmmakers today stand out the digitalization of film and media in his
fundamental way and within such a as artists with so many projects being tuition and research. Prof. Freyermuth is
short time frame, as they did within the produced? a brilliant scholar, and his objective was
last 20 years. The cultural relevance of clearly to implement and establish a
digitalization is vast: In terms of con- This has left many film school profes- high level of digital literacy among the
tent, because technical (re)producibility sors and industry insiders wondering students, and a familiarity with the main
is facilitated, and in terms of technolo- what film schools should offer their stu- theories and doctrines on digital cul-
gy, because digital media with its spe- dents in times like these. ture and their defenders – implying, of
cific characteristics is expandable. In course, the transfer of this knowledge to
principal, for a digitally produced work At the ifs internationale filmschule köln the students’ own artistic and practical
or piece of art there is no ending, they – like anywhere else – we have dis- work.
could be changed or continued forever. cussed this topic frequently, and contin-
ue to do so on a regular basis. We try to At the same time we thought it neces-
Our media culture has never been as find answers to the challenges provoked sary to stress the importance of craft in
diverse as it is now – it seems hard to by the digital revolution and its effects audiovisual storytelling in a more tradi-
predict in which direction its evolution on filmmaking, which might be consid- tional sense.
will lead us. New media also means ered to be going in opposite directions,
that there will be new job descriptions, but in fact they are complementary. We In spite of the change in the media, the
new methods of media education and could even say: The digital evolution fundamentals of storytelling remain
that new competences will be in de- left a deep imprint on the development, important. Profound and repetitive in-
mand. Digital workflows increasingly strategies and growth of our school, struction in dramaturgy and the core
determine professional everyday lives, perhaps more than others, since we are elements of storytelling will continue
and job profiles in the media industry one of the youngest film schools in Ger- to lead the students to be better writ-
are more and more differentiated, while many. The ifs internationale filmschule ers. However, writers need to expand
more and more specialization seems to köln was founded in the year 2000, firm- their knowledge of the digital realm –
be in demand. ly built on two preceding schools: the regarding story architectures and spa-
“Filmschule NRW” (Film School North tial storytelling – for instance in the
Film: Even the word seems outdated. Rhine-Westphalia) in 1997, and the context of 3D. They also need to learn
Rapidly developing advances in digital “Schreibschule NRW” (Writers’ School about spatial semantics in general: In
technology have made filmmaking more North Rhine-Westphalia) in 1995. narrative spaces heterotopias come to
portable and more affordable. Anyone life: dream worlds, surrealism, games of
around the globe, who hasn’t had ac- From the beginning, “digital disruption” thought, fantasies. “Story-architects” of
cess to resources and funding for film- was part of our curricula, at first in the future need dramaturgical models,
making before, now has the opportunity critical studies. Our professor for com- which function in 3D, and they need to
to create movies and distribute them. parative media studies, Dr. Gundolf be trained in theory and practice.
Films have become ubiquitous. The Freyermuth, was principally appointed,

63
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FILM AND MEDIA ARTS vol 2, n.º1

One of the main effects of digital film- which we later named “VFX & Anima- of the school for many years in our fur-
making is of course the multiplication tion”. Our VFX & Animation students are ther education branch. As a field of study
of possibilities to create images and trained to work with the most relevant it combines the classical analogue work
sound. According to renowned media visual effects programs, enabling them in the art department with the multiple
scholar Lev Manovich, digital cinema to expand their possibilities of artistic techniques of virtual cinema. Students
represents, an “elastic reality”. With the expression and design. In addition, they collaborate closely with their fellow stu-
options to manipulate single digital learn how to connect rendered images dents from the VFX-department and of
images or scenes, the medium film is with scenes shot in a photo-realistic course, all the other film students.
transformed to a series of “paintings, way. Via 3D- animation the students de-
paintings in time”. sign and realize entire short films as well The effects of digital filmmaking also
as the settings for virtual reality environ- lead to new fields within traditional
Since the transformation of digital ma- ments. The interdisciplinary structure of film-education, such as transmedia and
terial usually happens during the post the school allows us to teach commu- entrepreneurship, where the students
production phase, digital filmmaking nication between the departments VFX need to be prepared for evolving digital
leads to an emphasis on postproduc- & animation and cinematography, sup- markets. Since audiovisual communica-
tion. More jobs exist now in postpro- porting learning from peers, which leads tion has become the main medium on
duction than anywhere else in the audio to better results. all potential platforms, there are by far
visual industry. In our “Editing Picture more markets to explore than the clas-
& Sound” study course, students learn In 2015 we merged our three BA study sical realm of entertainment for cinema
how to drive storytelling through manip- courses into one course: BA Film. The and TV, promotional films and advertise-
ulating images and sound. Being trained effects and needs of digital workflows ment, such as: games, architecture, nat-
for both editing fields; image and sound had a strong impact on this move. We ural sciences, history, archeology, sports
equivalently, they are enabled to later realized that in times of digital filmmak- and other parts of the economy, i.e. the
focus on one. But the core is still the ing the need for an interdisciplinary car industry. Distribution has changed
same: The editor has to find the right understanding and more intense col- and expanded: There is so much materi-
dramaturgy for each film and defining laboration was increasing. The merger al being produced, calling for strategies
a workflow using various digital tools, aimed to diminish the lack of knowledge to make artistic results visible in a huge
is simply contributory to his or her pro- of the interfaces between the tradition- fragmented market.
cess. This has become a special chal- al departments and disciplines in film
lenge in digital times, where restrictions production. This strategy was also de- Another effect of film becoming digi-
of quantity in the raw material no longer signed to inspire and implement non-lin- tal, apart from the digitalization of the
exist and endless possibilities confront ear thinking and operating, within the production process as a whole and
a generation which struggles with deci- production process. the need to provide digital equipment
sion making. for every step in the workflow, was the
In the spring of this year (2017), we add- re-organization of project work within
In 2012 – after diverse hearings with ex- ed the seventh discipline to our BA Film the film production in our school. Since
perts from the industry – we introduced study course: production design – a de- 2016, our project development and
our new BA-study program “Visual Arts”, partment, which had already been part producing, follows the design thinking

64
THE IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL FILMMAKING AND HOW IT AFFECTS EDUCATION IN FILMSCHOOLS SIMONE STEWENS

process. Meaning: the process leaves our internationalization. Continuing on,

the linear structure and becomes more we have expanded our international re-
open and non-linear, following principles lations considerably and increased the
of iteration, agile producing and proto- number of international programs we
typing. participate in. But also within the more
traditional programs – our goal must be
Finally, we realized that there is a defi- to prepare our students for the future of
cit of artistic and scientific research in audiovisual media in a globalized world.
the realm of digital media. Basically, all
of us feel the need for constant learn-
ing via innovation. This is the main
reason, why we decided to implement
a new research-oriented MA program
called Digital Narratives. Our MA Digi-
tal Narratives is a 2-year international
program, where innovative narrative
forms in digital media are explored ar-
tistically and theoretically. The program
focusses on the creation of trans-plat-
form-experiences rather than one-off-
narratives, and on how audiences can
be “designed” for digital innovation. At
the same time, the effects of digitality
and data on individuals and society are
investigated critically. We launched the
program in 2016 and received a large
international response to the first call.
Today students from all over the world
are studying in this program.

Last not least – digitality produces data

that potentially can go global. When we
became a consortium partner in the
first edition of ESSEMBLE in 2011, this
EU-funded program clearly was an inter-
national mirror of inspiration for the im-
plementation of digital filmmaking in our
curricula at that time and a key factor in

65