Switzerland now has a film lab for virtual worlds

The new Story Lab of Migros Culture Percentage now promotes games and virtual reality projects in addition to films. The goal: synergies instead of competition and media diversity.

Like other Swiss funding institutions, for example Pro Helvetia, or the Pacte de l'audiovisuel of the SRG, the Migros Culture Percentage is now also taking the development of content for new and interactive media on board.

As part of the Solothurn Film Festival, the Migros Culture Percentage presented the "Story Lab"is presented. Film funding is no longer just about "film": the Story Lab is open to all kinds of audiovisual narrative formats. Specifically, projects in the areas of film, series, virtual reality, augmented reality, 360 degrees, cross-media and games are to be funded.

Responding to change

More audiovisual formats - does that mean less film funding? Nadine Adler Spiegel, who heads the Migros Culture Percentage Story Lab, counters: "We don't have a subscription to funding. As a private institution, we are free to react to the digital transformation and to a reception behaviour that is changing."

However, the new distribution mode does not aim to put old and new arts in a competitive relationship. On the contrary, synergies are to be created.

"We finance ideas and research. It can also happen that only during the development of the material does it become clear which audiovisual format best suits a project," adds Nadine Adler Spiegel.

Future-oriented content and synergies

The fact that the Story Lab is taking on these new formats is forward-looking. In addition to their artistic relevance, audio-visual content increasingly has a functional touch: gamification in teaching materials, apps with informative audio-play accompaniment on hiking trails or animated museum tours on tablets - all these offerings need solid storytelling.

Accompaniment is at the centre

The Migros Culture Percentage Story Lab deliberately focuses on projects that are still in their early stages. "It is a need in the sector to accompany the development process of a project, for example with coaching and mentoring, and not least to mediate between the artists and provide them with a network," says Nadine Adler Spiegel.

How many projects the Story Lab will support each year is still open.

Source: SRF / Storylab