Reykjavík Grapevine - 16.07.2010, Blaðsíða 33

Reykjavík Grapevine - 16.07.2010, Blaðsíða 33
The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 10 — 2010 21 dustry as a way to join forces, create an infrastructure and share opportunities.” Finnur founded his own creative start-up company, Agóra, developing crowdsourcing solutions and tools for generating ideas. He remains closely connected to the start-up scene. “In the last two years, the Icelandic start- up community has expanded consider- ably. Networking isn’t really necessary in Iceland, because it is such a small community and everybody knows ev- eryone else. And everyone helps every- one else, too. For example, everyone is doing their best to market the Icelandic gaming industry outside the country. There is no Icelandic market to speak of, and this is such a diverse field that there is really no direct competition be- tween the Icelandic companies, so ev- eryone does their best to share knowl- edge, experience, and connections to help companies get a foothold abroad.” MORE CAOz “We are a creative company, telling stories, and 3-D animation is our platform,” says Hilmar Sigurðsson of Caoz. Ouside Caoz’ conference room, the walls are lined with storyboards and character de- velopment notes, artwork and to-do lists. The com- pany is creating a product that in many ways c o m b i n e s the broad field of the creative industries; everything from art proper to design to highly technical software solutions. “We jumped in the deep-end from the get-go, but we have been very goal oriented through the whole process. Our first film, ‘The Lost Little Caterpil- lar’, we mostly did to prove we were ca- pable of doing it. The second film, ‘Anna And The Mood Swings’, was a much more ambitious project and included live characters. Again, we mostly did it to prove to ourselves and, not the least, our investors, that we were capable of doing this. But the goal was always to develop a feature-length film.” ‘Thor: The Edda Chronicles’ is al- ready fully funded and in production, but the company has more projects in development. “We are already being asked about the sequel to Thor, and we have started laying the groundwork for a film based on the saga of Egill Skal- lagrímsson. Our goal is to be able to produce a new film every other year or so,” says Hilmar. The budget for Thor is 8.3 million Euros, and with the screening rights already sold to 26 countries, the film is on its way to recuperating that amount. “The creative industry brings in a lot of foreign currency. It creates highly paid employment opportunities—we’re talking about exciting jobs that young people seek out and want to perform. I think the economic effects of creative industries are very underrated. If we manage to create another company the size of CCP in Iceland, this would be one of the corner stones of our econo- my,” Hilmar adds. SO, WHAT’S THE PROBLEM? Despite many positive signs for the creative industries in Iceland, there are problems. For instance, high-tech companies such as CCP complain that there are not enough educated workers to meet demand. Agóra’s Finnur Mag- nússon explains: “There is a great de- mand for engineers and programmers. I don’t know a single programmer who has difficulty finding something to do. It is rather that they are moving on from dead-end IT jobs, to something more innovative. There is demand for good people, and this is a problem for many companies. This is one of the fastest growing industries in the country, but the government is ignoring the edu- cational system and the need for edu- cated staff. We need more people with education in natural sciences and tech- nology. This is what Finland did when they went through a recession. And it paid off big-time for them. They are now one of the leading countries in the gaming industry, worldwide.” Professor Ágúst Einarsson main- tains a similar position: “Cutbacks in the educational system, like we are ex- periencing now, is the worst possible solution and, sadly, the one that have been cho- sen. It is pathetic to see that we are not seizing the opportunities when they are in front of us. We have all the condi- tions in place— e c o n o m i c a l , historical, cultural and educational— to succeed in the economy of the future, but Icelandic authorities don’t seem to recognise that pos- sibility.” The lack of an edu- cated workforce also manifests in another way in the start-up community says Finnur Magnússon. “The Icelandic funding environment is not bad; there are a several funds that start-ups can look to for funding and more venture capital funds are in the making. But at the moment there are not that many Icelandic start-ups, so there is a demand for companies to invest in. For people with ideas and a concrete business plan that is focused beyond the Icelandic market, getting funding should not be difficult.” For the more expensive film industry however, funding remains a problem. “State contributions to The Icelandic Film Fund have decreased severely af- ter the recession. For filmmakers, this means fewer projects will get funded, we will develop one or two less films each year, and probably one or two TV series less,” says Caoz’s Hilmar Sig- urðsson. “The remarkable thing is that movie production repays in full all state con- tributions during production in the form of taxes and other fees, so the contribu- tion from the Icelandic state isn’t really an expense. Also, the production span of a film is relatively short, so funding an Icelandic movie is a short-term com- mitment for the state. The other thing is that half the production costs of an Icelandic film are usually financed from abroad, so we’re really cutting the legs from underneath us by reducing state funding through the Icelandic Film Fund. SO, WHAT IS THE SOLUTION? “Economic development, as anyone will tell you, is a long-term play,” says Professor Florida. “You have to invest in your communities now to reap the benefits in the future. This means cre- ating the environment and ecosystem that will foster creativity and innova- tion. Economic development is also an incremental process, meaning steps taken today will have some immediate impact but some investments will take time to play out.” “Communities have to realise they are competing for talent. Those who want to experience a ‘brain-gain’ need to have all the features of a complete authentic community—a good job mar- ket, thick amenities (restaurants, arts, parks, etc.), appealing aesthetics, safe neighbourhoods, viable public trans- portation, connectivity, etc.,” he con- tinues. “In addition to creating viable authentic communities, our economic development officials and elected lead- ers have to invest time and resources into developing the support structure— increased higher education funding, incubators, technology-transfer—to bolster the innovation and technology that will cre- ate the jobs of the future.” T h e r e seems to be a scholarly consensus that you have to spend money to make money. Professor Ágúst Einarsson be- lieves that our best pos- sibility to nurture the creative economy is by strengthening the education system. In particular, reducing dropout rates at the secondary school level and increasing the number of university graduates. “If the education system is working, a lot of other things fall into place,” he says. “Authorities also need to nurture cre- ative and innovative companies, and face the fact that there is a long road from idea to profit.” “To be successful, communities and organizations must have the avenues for transferring research, ideas, and innovation into marketable and sustainable products. Universities are paramount to this, and provide a key hub institution of the creative age.” “Cutbacks in the educational system, like we are experiencing now, are the worst possible solution and, sadly, the ones that have been chosen. It is pathetic to see that we are not seizing the opportunities when they are in front of us.” “There is an industrial revolution taking place, fully comparable to the last one, 250 years ago with the arrival of steam power. We have great opportunities to be at the forefront of this revolution and improve our standards of living considerably. The foundation, interest in culture and creative ambition, is already in place,” A Sampling Of Creatives CCP was founded in 1997, with the goal of becoming a massive multiplayer game company. They launched their company EVE Online in 2003 and have since become one of the leading companies in the field, winning critical acclaim worldwide. www.ccpgames.com E-Label is an affordable designer clothing label for the modern wom- an who leads a full life of work, fam- ily and social affairs. Their goal is to create comfortable, stylish pieces that can be worn at work, or at a party. www.shopelabel.com Medialux is a production house situ- ated in Iceland, but working global- ly. They provide music for commer- cials, computer games, TV shows and produces recording artists, with their own personal hub of artists at their disposal. www.medialux.com Marorka provides energy manage- ment solutions for the international shipping industry. They specialize in maximizing fuel consumption and energy efficiency on vessels and fleets in order to reduce harmful emissions and shipping costs. www.marorka.com Iceland Airwaves is the largest mu- sic festival in Iceland, taking place every October since 1999. They have recently come under the new man- agement of Grímur Atlason and the Icelandic Music Export, and feature a huge array of both local and inter- national acts each year. www.icelandairwaves.is Sagafilm is the leading producer of independent film, television and commercials in Iceland and is the only producer of TV shows format- ted for Icelandic audiences such as Idol and The Bachelor. They are based in Reykjavík and work with worldwide partners. www.sagafilm.is Betware is an Iceland-based gam- ing solutions and services vendor with regional offices in Denmark, Spain, Poland and Canada. They of- fer turnkey solutions, gaming plat- forms and a large portfolio of games while constantly researching to keep up with industry trends. www.betware.com gogoyoko is a social music market- place that promotes fair play in mu- sic sales. Fans can buy directly from each artist on the site, while artists can set their own prices and collect 100% of the profit of their sales in order to create a community. www.gogoyoko.is Gagarín is a digital design company that forges interactivity between time and space. Established in 1994 they specialise in creating media rich multimedia solutions for the natural and cultural heritage sec- tors and have created some of the largest and most ambitious projects of this type in Iceland. www.gagarin.is Rebecca Louder Feature | New Economy According to a widely used definition by the Department for Culture, Media and Sports in the UK, creative industries are the following: Advertising Architecture Art and antiques market Crafts Design Fashion Film and video Music Performing arts Publishing Software Television and radio Video and computer games

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