StoryFutures and Final Pixel have announced a new partnership to focus on upskilling and driving innovation in the creative industries.
The new alliance brings Final Pixel’s “leading-edge industry expertise” to Royal Holloway, University of London, and to StoryFutures, where the teams will work in collaboration to “address creativity and skills gaps in the future of media production”, a press release said.
“The partnership aims to build on StoryFutures’ reputation of pioneering R&D programmes and driving applied research to bring about growth of the creative industries, and Final Pixel’s award-winning expertise in virtual production.”
Final Pixel is taking up a residency at Royal Holloway’s Futures Studio, a cutting-edge virtual studio, jointly funded with Surrey County Council.
This will enable Final Pixel to extend its virtual production training opportunities, while also providing technical, innovation and training support for local companies and students as part of the StoryFutures collaboration.
Linked to the CoSTAR National Lab for Creative Industries R&D, led by Royal Holloway, it is claimed the partnership has the potential to help address national skills shortages in emerging technologies such as generative AI for virtual production.
“This partnership represents a shared vision to empower a next generation of talent in our creative sector,” said Amanda Murphy, head of partnerships and training at StoryFutures.
“By uniting our resources and expertise, we can really innovate to enable diverse creatives to get hands-on with exciting new technologies in our on-site studio built – for the future of production – to drive new forms of media.”
Michael McKenna, CEO and director of virtual production at Final Pixel, added: “Working in alliance with the highly regarded StoryFutures team and prestigious Royal Holloway reflects Final Pixel’s commitment to excellence in filmmaking.
“This will enable us to collaboratively develop solutions to addressing skills gaps and driving R&D innovation in emerging areas of technology. I can’t wait to see the outcome of this unique and forward-thinking partnership.”
