19/07/2013 - The Norwegian facility house found Norway’s Jollywood 'too great a burden' and will concentrate on camera and equipment rentals, commercials and post-production services

After operating former state-owned production and facility house Norsk Film AS’ Filmparken at Jar outside Oslo, aka Jollywood, since 2005, Storyline Studios has terminated (as of July 1) the lease of studios, workshops, offices and storerooms, which has become “too great a burden” for the company.

According to managing director Knud Bjørne-Larsen (photo), of Storyline Studios, business at Jar used to be “50% feature films and 50% commercials,” but during the last three years Filmparken has not serviced a single feature: “Production has been outsourced to other countries”, according to Bjørne-Larsen.

“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.

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.

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.