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