For the past thirteen years Norway’s largest telecoms provider and the Norwegian Red Cross have collaborated through an anti-bullying program, called Bruk Hue. Cyber bullying has proven itself to be a deep rooted issue among Norwegian kids. And after launching various anti-bullying tools for use in school and at home, Bruk Hue discovered a blind spot in anti-bullying efforts. Coaches in children's activities, like their football practice and band rehearsal, have never been taught how to prevent, combat or even recognize bullying. There was a dire need for a tool that could address the issue of bullying and social rejection in these arenas as well.

As a response to the dire need for an anti-bullying tool in this previously uncovered social arena for children, we made Game Over. A 30 minute fiction film based on children’s own experiences surrounding bullying, and what they need help with from coaches. The film focuses on Liam and his group of friends who are on the brink of securing a spot in a large online tournament. But when one of the friends decides to follow his own plan, a conflict arises. A conflict which escalates and spreads to school, football practice and home. Conversations with kids laid the groundwork for the film’s plot. The film follows both friends and adults as they navigate through these complex problems and subjects children themselves have experienced. With the intent of leaving everyone with new knowledge and thoughts on how to prevent and uncover bullying in all social arenas.

In tandem with ideation and production, insight work has always been at core. It’s easy to make content that feels like moral sermons being preached from adults to children. But we wanted to make content that felt real and relatable. The movie had to contain elements of children preaching lessons to both adults and children, and vice versa. In order to accurately portray bullying among children, the movie had to be made for, with and by children. Therefore, we established contact with numerous children during our research, and interviewed them about their experiences and wishes regarding bullying. These conversations laid the foundation for the movie’s plot, assuring a strong connection to realistic problems from children’s point of view. The issues the movie brought up had to be both relatable and new to the audience. We want everyone to both look at the film and be both challenged, educated and entertained.

Bruk Hue have gathered all their anti-bullying tools into an easy-to-use portal at brukhue.no. Naturally this is also where Game Over was launched and placed. Here it plans to stay indefinitely, or until the content is seen as dated.

Right before the summer of 2022 a soft release of Game Over was done. The movie was sent out to various coaches, conductors, in addition to a screening at a local football team’s club house with the Norwegian Minister of Culture and Equality. The reception has been overwhelmingly positive, with coaches and conductors reaching out saying how they’ve become more aware of underlying conflicts, and how to stop them. Kids have reported the movie to contain both an entertaining value, but also an educational one. They can relate to the issues, and are positive to coaches becoming more aware of these issues. A more widespread release will follow later in 2022.