The International Journal of Film and Media Arts Volume: 2, Number: 1 (2017) is now available online.

Vol. 2, No. 1. Spatial storytelling: discussing the future of cinema

For its 2017 first issue, the International Journal of Film and Media Arts publishes a special issue dedicated to digital cinema: from platforms to storytelling.

The issue is divided into two parts. In the first part, named “reflections”, we collect a number of papers and essays written by different researchers involved in Essemble — a research and training endeavour developed by a consortium of Universidade Lusófona (Portugal), LUCA (Belgium), Moholy-Nagy /MOME (Hungary), and ifs (Germany). Sylke Rene Meyer reflects on the core concept of spatial storytelling that was used as a driver for creative production in Essemble’s latest stages and the consequences it has, namely on what concerns the hybridization of film with other storytelling formats such as videogames.

Narratives and storytelling are also the topic of Natalia’s Fabics paper, that focus on the problems these new media create for more traditional forms of storytelling. Paulo Viveiros discusses the concept of the multitask-cinema as a core outcome of the transformations digital cinema is going through and the consequences this has both for creators and audiences.

Ivan Marino debates the role of effects in the moulding of cinema audiences, a core topic within Essemble, since many of the crossings between animation and film are in many cases related precisely with the role of effects in film. 

In the second part, named “applications” Brecht Debackere and Peter Moyes both present us with case studies of projects that using VR technologies expend the possibilities of the cinematic experience, while Tony Costa discusses the challenges digital technology implies for cinematography teaching. Finally, Simone Stewens reflects on the consequences and implications of the emergence of digital filmmaking for film education, one of the core objectives of Essemble.

Altogether, these different papers highlight the overarching importance of the work conducted throughout Essemble in promoting critical reflection and experimentation around digital cinema. It’s our conviction that this practice based research approach is the one that best suits the complexity of problems and challenges these technologies, and the social consequences they have, imply.

We hope that by reading this special issue, not only the reader gets a better picture of the work that was developed throughout these years, but also of the questions and sometimes perplexities that everyday drive the educational and research endeavors of these different schools.

Good readings!

The editors, Manuel José Damásio and Sylke Meyer

Table of contents

Editorial

Digital Cinema: From Platforms to Storytelling

Manuel José Damásio

Full Papers

Right, Left, High, Low: Narrative Strategies For Non–Linear Storytelling

Sylke Rene Meyer

Moldear a la Audiencia: Sobre la Génesis del Efecto en el Discurso Audiovisual

Ivan Marino

Ventura: A Character’s Mental Landscape as History

Edmundo Cordeiro

Where Good Old Cinema Narratives and New Media Collide

Natália Fábics

Multi-Task Cinema, Or a “Whatever Style”

Paulo Viveiros

The Importance of Digital Filmmaking and How it Affects Education in Filmschools

Simone Stewens

Cinematography in Cinema: Relationship Between Teaching Contexts And Its Application

Tony Costa

Reflexive Perplexities: The Virtual Camera in ‘She’s Not There’

Peter Moyes, Louise Harvey

Memories in Decay: 360º Spatio-Temporal Explorations of the Past

Brecht Debackere

CFP open: Vol. 2, No. 2. Videogames and narratives

The call for full papers and book reviews for vol. 2, No. 2 (to be published December 2017) on videogames is open