Finnish way

I´ve finally managed to learn how to play didgeridoo. The sound is not too bad in these days however you really need to practise a lot about it.

Hello!

It´s been over six months since last updated this blog of mine. Let´s see if I manage to put some new photos here again. Since last time I´m now back in Finland and finishing my studies here. I miss you guys all in Australia and on the other side of the world.

Here is a shot near by the river, next to “high way” of Arctic Circle. As you can see it, even in small country like Finland there is huge distances between places..

p.s. In case you don´t know it, WC means Toilet..

Greetings from New Zealand! it was a nice place, except fucking MAF. Those bastards check out our old tent at the Auckland airport and forget to put the tent cover into the bag! It was really nice to notice this at the night, 350 cases from Auckland. Temperature was + 5 and we didn’t have a cover…

So our journey lasts 8 days and it started from North Island and ended to South Island and Christchurch. Most of the time we ( Alessandro, Rene and me ) just drink something and fight. Other times we have some hiking, driving to see places, take some pictures, sitting in a hot pools, call to MAF and tried to keep the car clean.

In this picture we are middle of hot mud pools, steams and egg-smells. Nice. The place is called Hell’s Gate and there were several nature’s wonderful creations about the pre-historic period.

In this picture I’m standing at the top of the Mt. Robert. The place was remarkable and very inspirative. The following picture is taking from the place near by at the following morning, covering all around mist and fog.

Tongurua national park waterfall

And finally beautiful ( and also very typical Kiwi ) sunset

Hey Guys!

I’m going to New Zealand for couple of weeks, so my “active” writing to here is going to be a bit less active..

Enjoy your time where ever you are!

Picture: Jouko Väärälä 2005

Sauna Seeker has been revealed to the world. The reception was a quite good one, there were no people shouting with the axes and they didn’t block me into the empty, dark room after the presentation. I got lots of critical feedback which was a really good. I feel that SS is not ready to be publish, there is something that I need to fixed.

NARRATION
Generally I’m quite happy with the narration of the doco. The program look more or less the one that I wrote. However I got feedback to maybe define more what is exactly the sauna. Maybe most of the audience members even don’t know what sauna is (which is totally impossible thought for me!) so I have now consired also this point. Right now I’m running out of time here in Melbourne so I’m going to finish my project when I go back to Finland. I already started to think few more shots that I’m going to shoot while post-production more. Some details inside the sauna, some happenings as well. I think that I’m going to use my 16mm camera and shoot the material as the way the original achival footage appeared in my doco. But before I go back to Finland, I have to consired about the matter of the voice-over: the new vo recording have to be done before leaving and that also means that I have to write the supplement script while I’m here.

MUSIC AND SOUND
Argh! Can I shoot myself? Generally the sound is alright, except I need to hire sound technican to save the interview sounds from the crappy material. It is not too bad, there is a big chance to save it. I just can’t use the software – i.e. ProTools – so I want that someone do it for me. I’m still looking for good music. The GarageBand is great software, but I don’t feel myself as a music maker, so also someone else should do it. I know few people in Finland and I let them to do it. I was thinking to add some violins and accordion type of music.

I spent one semester in Master of Media Production. We were studying new things, old things, we study methods, discuss about the different ways to make a movie, new media reflecting to old media and much more. One semester could be a long time but during the studies it was really fast one. There were so many items I wish could spend more time with. Of course it is now up to me what I want to do. However I think this time was really good one for my further education and career.

One of main reasons why I wanted to come in Melbourne and RMIT was that I wish to study international contacts with the locals and use more effectively English as a working language. I think that I managed to do it pretty well, except that I’m perfectionist while talking media business and nothing is enough for me.

In the future I’m going graduated in November 2005. After that I’m planning to set up my own production company to produce and direct short films. Mainly I’m going work with the old media area ( film material, video material ) but it has been priviledge to learn how to make things also in digital area. That is the future but I can always hire someone to do these things.

Thank you for all of you guys for everything and just give me a call when you need quality Finnish film maker!

We have now seen the first rough cut of DD and I have to say that I was a bit suprise how good it looked at! Of course I know that it is only the first one and there is a lot of work to do, but anyway there was a quite good story behind the scenes. In the set everything was so messy, but some editor and the director always manage to find the right pieces for the project.

I’m looking forward to see later the final result. There were few shots which I wasn’t satisfied but maybe Gargi could will do miracles! Maybe in some points the lighting is now in continuity, but generally the lighting looks really what we where looking for. I think it is going to be a very good pilot for the serie!

Working in a crew

Five days shootings at the night time is a really tough one. First of all your daytime rutins changed a lot because you slept at the mornings, everyday you have to set up the same set again and every day we where running out of time. Heh. But I think it is the same with every project: usually I’m so frustrated that I swear that this was my last project. And in the next week, we are already planning a new one..

Anyway I think that the crew work together pretty well. There were no big arguments about art decisions and basically everyone knew what to do in the set. Next time maybe we should even get more people! Few assistants for art department and sound unit could be better, right now these guys were all the time under pressure so they should get some help for the shoot.

I’ve was today nominated for DOP for our collaborative project. This is a great honour and I hope that I could do my job really well. Even there is only one week to go before the shooting..

For the DD, I think that I’m going to use normal narration shots, angles and rhytm. Well of course I’m going to have a big discussion with Rupesh about the storyboard and all the other things, but I’ll guess that he will trust my opinions and my thoughts. Anyway I see DD as a project with lots of contrasts, it is some kind of game: feelings playing with the emotions and the dialogues. Shadows and tight lights also revealed in good way film noir style, which was the director’s wish.

The location is changed in very tight timetable, but I think that the new one is going to be better one. There is not so much details on the walls, we have now brighter walls (which mean that we can actually use more freely lights!) and the facilities in generally are better ones. I even think that we are going to get better reception in this new place, because I think that current Caffeine’s owner is a bit too tight about our project. I was willing to let us shoot there, but he’s attitude was maybe a bit careless.

While doing research for my doco, I have notice the same problems than we have in Finland. It is hard to find co-operations, like companys or sponsorships. So far I’ve asked few places (don’t want to tell in public which companies) about shooting permissions, but they haven’t been not so keen for the idea. To be honest, I don’t know why. I’ve only asked simple things, like free entrance tickets or use of facilities. And in these cases all what I was asking for was very little things, not valuable but more principle ones. I think they only think about the money, even they could get free publicity durimng this project. I wonder why they are all around the world same kind of tight persons. Maybe they are so worried about the image they are going to have after co-operate.

Luckily I’ve found one – actually it is Finnish company – co-operation link. This Finnleo Saunas Australia –factory located in Braeside, outside the CBD. However they where were kindly to help for my project. I have an idea to go there and shoot interview and maybe also get some tips about the project.

FINNLEO SAUNAS AUSTRALIA