Final steps.

Yes, last weekend we did the final sound design and mixin for the movie. I must say, I didn´t have a nice weekend at Kotka, just chilling and doing some sounds. No. On friday we recorded some final sounds for the film, and sat in Arttus apartment ´till 00.00 a.m. There was a lot to do and we did some desperate choices there. On saturday arttu moved the project and files to the studio of Kotka citytheater, where we on sunday did the mixing. Sunday was a hard day, we struggled with the fact that there wasn´t just enough sounds recorded for the movie. Especially for the party scene, there was no sound.
At around nine o´clock in the evening we stopped and thought that this was it. I drove home (to my parents place ) and ate a bit and drove back to Helsinki. There I put the sound to avid, where I found out that there was something wrong with it. Arttu told me that he forgot to normalize the track, I tried to do it put it didn´t help. Sound were missing, changes in the sound and so on. I was shocked. I looked at the film and though "this supposed to be the finished film..this is shit! I must burn everything and cancel the premiere!" I was catatonic. Somehow I fell asleep and in the morning I took the tape with me and started to digitize it..but then I called to arttu and told him that things must be done again. Arttu was ready to do the changes and did the whole monday things to the track. By the way, while I digitized the material, this one guy who works at our school "Kössi" looked at the first scene and said "Is this filmed in Ruisrock, in year 1967?" I looked at him and didn´t know what to say but "No.." then he just replied "well, it looked like that back then. those kind of long haired weirdos all around"
At thispoint I must tell you, I ordered a MacBookPro from apple.fi, the have a home delivery service. On friday when I was at arttus place the delivery guy phoned and wondered if I would be home. Well I wasn´t and told him that on monday after 4 p.m. would be nice. On monday another guy called at around 10 a.m. and asked if he could deliver tha package to me. I said no and was a bit frustradet cause I knew that I wouldn´t be home in the afternoon. Then I asked the guy if he could deliver the computer to my school, and he did! How nice! so now I have a new computer! how cool is that!
So anyway after school I drove back to Karhula, to Arttus place, where we checked the audiottrack. Then I went to my parents place, and showed them the posters, (which have also arrived!) 3 posters were clued together from one part of the poster, and the color ripped of from the surface, Im in the middle of an e-mail conversation what should be done about the fact.
On friday this guy contacted me, about an sportstraining video for some sports thingie. They said that they have a good offer, but the price is 6000 euros, so they are asking for other people for the job. ! so I said that I am interested, but just not sure how much work it would include. Put im sure that it isn´t so big thing that I couldn´t do it for, lets say a 1500 euros. great!
Well see what happens.
Now I am at the dvd producin place at our school. I have already digitized the film for 2 times, but something has gone wrong each time. Lets see if I am able to finish the dvd today. If I do finish it, Ill go and buy some sparkling wine! Then I´ll send the dvd to the printing place on thursday trough somekind of fastmail! yeah!
But today I thought all the hours I have spend on making this shortfilm. It sickens me. But, what else is there to do? Musicvideos maybe? I don´t know. I have done other things too, but all the things, chestbuttons, posters and this dvd printing thingie and the premiere is just something to nibble on cause I´ve done this thing..this shortfilm. The shortfilm is almost secondary now. And that is terribly wrong. Well, I could not have done anything about the shortfilm while it was at arttus hands, so maybe I just passed the time by doing all this crap material around the shortfilm..
But, today might be the final day!

space in between

So, now I don´t edit anymore. Which is a relief and I´m somewhat relaxed. But I´m in a bit strange place now. I do graphic designs for the dvd and colorcorrections and stickers and chestbuttons and the sound designing haven´t even started yet. We have had some softwareproblems, and the premiere date is very uncertain now..dvd printing will be done in Estonia cause its much more cheaper there. it will take 2 weeks to get the dvds from there..there will be 300 copies of the movie..?! but it will cost as much to do them as it would to make 100 in finland.. so..buy! price will be announced later.
The song we have in the film, Kauko Röyhkä - Kotikaupunkini, played by Mikko Nenonen will cost us 250 euros to put it in. Thats a bit shame. But there is no other choice. We also had to ask the permission to use Kaukos lyrics, but that went quite easily; " Voit käyttää uudelleen sävellettyä Kotikaupunkini-tekstiä elokuvassasi. Kauko Röyhkä" ( basicly like this: you can use my lyrics) I got this e-mail from him yesterday. Thanks kauko!
But now when the film is out of my hands sort of, I´m beginning to be frustrated. There are moments, like now when I hate the film and I´m really ashamed that I made this kind of film. Bad film. I know, that this is all really absurd and so on, but when the film is finished, I have been working on it for a year. A whole year. Thats a lot of time. And it isn't anything remarkable. the film. This kind of feeling gives you a new push to do something else. But also it feels really hard, cause I'm still a bit tired from this project, not so much anymore. but anyway. I'm really insecure. I just want this all to be over. Cause it isn't so big thing after all. or is it?
I just wish I could do things one at the time. I feel like everything that I am doing, Im thinking something else at the same time..but I guess that is impossible, unless you just do one thing..this doesn´t make any sense anymore.
Some ideas for the next film. It will take place in fall, few years in the future. There will be a strong lead character, unlike this film I did, it will not be a realistic film, altough it will take place in this world, but not quite. hard to explain. better not. It will probably be shot in Helsinki. ..

Final cut!!!!

Yes. The shortmovie is now edited. Yesterday I watched it, and did four minor changes to some cutpoints, and thought: Thats it. I´m happy. The movie is something around 24min40s. long, without credits.
Now begins the sound designing. Hope everything goes well. I try to get to Karhula as soon as possible to visit Arttu and give him all the material needed. While Arttu does his sound designing, I finish the graphic design, colour correction (which takes a lot of time) and all kinds of postproduction thingies needed to be done. I guess in a month or so we can deside the premiere date! That will be awesome. I must also edit all the extramaterial to the dvd and do subtitles.
Editing prosses was hard, but not so intensive, cause I didn´t have the time to do it full time. But that´s okay, cause I had more time to think about it this way. It is funny how it came closer to the original script, the one written 3 years ago, as I edited the material. Some scens were cut out, which weren´t in the original script anyway. Some scenes are changed and assimilated to others. a minor change in the order of the scenes has been done.
There is the feeling of inspiration and happines when you discover new ways to do things, especially with the material you have been working with a long time. Its almost as good feeling as the feeling in a filminglocation when you see that this scene works and the material will be great (unfortunately its rarely true, altough it feels like it) and you are in state of inspiration all the time. These kind of feelins are the reason to do things like this. Its a natural high almost! (sorry for the cliche again).
What is a bit bad is the fact that this has really took a lot of my time and energy, and now it is really hard to find the strenght to do schoolwork. i feel like vomiting when I think that I must edit the next 8 weeks of archive material to some kind of short film. Well, not yet but in few weeks will begin a class which takes 8 weeks...oh my god.

New script has begun to evolve in my brain. Soon I begin to write it. I´m very exited about it. But I can´t tell you much about it. I had the idea while shooting this film, and slowly I realized the connections to my other ideas, and realised that this is a script to be done. Everything will start again! But it might take a while before it is done, for I must really concentrate on the next script, cause it must be much much better than the last one.

Now it is time to do some musicvideo-videoart things, and concentrate to school..maby. And ofcourse, to do the sound design and dvd for this shortmovie. So, it never ends, Im always busy.

Nearing the end of editing.

Thanks for all the support, I really appreciate it. But things arent´t so bad as I may make them sound. The shortfilm is now in a pretty good shape. I cut everything out, just to put them back in, in a different way. Many fresh ideas came during last week. I was really happy. Lenght is now 25minutes. This week or next week I will stop editing. All depends how long I can work with the material during next weeks. I have a lot to do again. I should edit one shortmovie (with 30minutes of material, which isnt so much) and this week I must edit a cinema verité-documentary practise, at school. It´s also Love&Anarchy- filmfestival. I have 8 tickets..maby. Let´s see. Yesterday I saw Scanner Darkly and Regular Lovers, I´ll propably write about them later, if I have time. Colour me Kubric, Artschool confidental, Tideland, Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, Science of Sleep and Pan´s Labyrinth are yet to see.
Even though I stop editing in nearby weeks, it doesn´t mean that the movie will be finished. Our sound designer Markku has left the project. Nothing personal I guess, we had no dissagreements or anything, He just felt that he must concentrate to his bands next album.
So, now Arttu Horttanainen will do the sound designing. Hope evertyhing goes well, there will be a bit more for me to do now. But that´s okay I guess. Also the DVD printing is a problem, and that will require some time also.
I´m planning to do some buttons..chestbuttons, I don´t know what they are in English..So anyway. 5 different kinds, about the movie ofcourse, all will have a different character on them. Buy! 2 euros is the price! I don´t know when they will be ready. I must do all this kind of things, buttons, posters, dvd-menus some day...
Only thing I´m a bit nervous about is the fact about the woman characters. They are not meant to represent women in real life, anymore than the male characters are. Maby, when you combine all the characters, you could get something that represenst a person in real life, but in this movie characters represent ideas more than people.

Big Changes

hello. Today I did some massive changes to the movie. It is now 24 minutes long and, as you might guess, we must say goodbye to some supporting roles. This was really hard thing to do. But screening today convinced me that this must be done.

It is a really funny thing you know. You do something, for so long, you don´t want to loose anything related to it. I love all the material, even the parts I hate. I couldn´t cut anything out. And still can´t, cause Im not sure what is the point in that. The movie won´t be anything like shortmovies made in Taik (my school) or any other school. It is not about the characters, eventough there is a lot of colorfull ones, not about the plot, not about the milieu..so what is it about? The movie is made from totally selfish reasons. Its my daydream from few years back. Its about a feel I had back then. Its a sum of things and events I think are cool. Nothing more. Even the characters, whichs leads to a certain problem about the womancharacters, which are suprisingly often considered as stupid and naive and some people have questioned my mental picture about women because of this. But I cannot understand that. this has nothing to do with that. The women are what they are supposed to be like in this kind of story. Why? Isint that a clisee? Yes!!. But from my point of view, the whole film is naive. No one stands on a bridge drinking red wine and sayin "these roads split the city in half" thats just stupid!! But anyway, I like the scene in my movie.
Im not trying to hide behind things or defend the movie from critisism. Or maby I am. Anyway, this was a test. A sample. what can be done..what not..youknow..I´ve said this before.

Still, After all this, there are still things that work, and things that dont. Today I got some opinions saying in short that "this movie is totally bad". so, that gave me some perspective.

Altough most of the critisism which I recieved were about things I had already thought about., there is something in that when you get some one else to say it. It is hard, you get angry and frustrated and you feel like saying "you dont understand anything! Shut up!" but at the same time, if you can keep calm and think about it, It is often the thing you wanted to hear. Why show it to anyone when its not finished if you want to hear just how good it is.

Now Im really embarassed about the versions I´ve shown to people. But I guess thats one of the lessons of this. Speaking of lessons, this has been a really interesting experiment. I now undestand bad films more! :) no, seriously, this is so allcovering project, you know, whole thing in my arms, almost. That, as I´ve said, this had to be done, to prevent mistakes like this in the future.

It is also overwhelming to see your self surrounded by clisee. A 22 year old art student made a shortfilm which is totally artsy, no connection to reality, bad dialogue and incomprihensible plot. Nudity is just missing.

I also found a wallet. It had 200 euros in it. I phoned the numberfinder and found the number of the person whos drivers license was in the wallet. He seemed a bit stressed about the situation and gave me 3 euros. Haha. Anyway I´m happy that I didn´t steal his money. Do good things and good things will happen.

My Neck Hurts.

My head hurts. Because my neck is jammed or something. I try to stretch out in the mornings, but it doesn´t help. I might have to start doing some sports more often, altough I try to jog once a week and swim. But I haven´t swam in many months, in the sense of sports I mean. Ofcourse I´ve swam in the summer but that has nothing to do with sports.
The TRAILER for the shortmovie "We Can Not Stay Here" is online. Please watch it. Music is by Markku Lahtelan Sirkus their music will be almost all music in the movie. yeah.

The Ex bass player for anathema contacted me to do some videoartvideo to his new soloalbum songs. That is cool. really cool. This will be an interesting project. great.

Time is limited for humans.One day is sometimes really short period of time. I´ve expanded it by putting my computer to work and going shopping/school and so on. Also I´m preparing to buy a laptop. That will expand my working hours more. this big computer can render and capture video, while I do other things with my laptop. THis means that I can do things faster, and more, which means that I will go insane. Or maby not. Maby it´ll help.

I´ve shot and edited two weddingvideos while editing the shortmovie, going to school, seeing my girlfried (yeah, seems that I have a girlfriend now ;) ) and doing other stuff which I cannot recall. Going to movies and bars and so on...reading exambooks ( which actually I haven´t done). So, the weddingvideos really anoyed me, but money is money, what can you do.
But editing weddingvideos really numbs you. I´m proud and scared to say that atleast some of the weddingvideos I´ve done really turn out to be good, like the latest. I shoot them with 2 cameras ( latest video was the first I shot with my new camera, really nice progressive picture, changes of focus..things like that..yeah!) and I edit them to be a nice 1hour thing.. I really don´t know why I write this here. I won´t do any weddingvideos anymore! You can imagine how I felt last week when I had swedishclass and in the evenings I edited weddingvideos. I was ready to tear my eyes out.

But that´s over now. Markku has done some small sounddesign things for the movie, but I haven´t locked the picture yet.. This week I´ll watch it from a big screen! That will be interesting. I´ll take some my friend editing students with me and expetc them to say something. Yesterday I did a new ending for the film. really nice. really. ALtough the music is not yet what I want..

Editing..editing. a small break now

Now I will stop editing for few weeks. Today I started a swedish language class, cause it´s necessary to my BA-examination. (Probaply not a very good idea to write here in english now, it feels really hard, cause all day I´ve tried to switch my thinking to swedish). Also this week is the art goes kapakka festival, espoo cine festival, night of arts and on friday I´ve supposed to have a test on Rabiger: Directing documentary - book. Which I hate, and haven´t read trough yet. So a a busy week coming.
I named my film some days ago. I´m not sure about the english title yet, but the name in finnish is "Tänne ei voi jäädä" translated it means "One can not stay here".
I showed it to one young moviedirectorgenious, a classmate of mine. He laughed a lot and shook his head and said something like "What a cult-piece, I´d never had guts to do anything like this. Quite a spectacle." He also had some nice ideas about the beginning of the film. Then one of the actors and a dear friend of mine Juippi saw the film. He was truly impressed and said "When putting things in a certain perspective, this film is almost better than Predator, maby." (Predator is his favourite movie).
My parents also saw the latest version, they seemed a bit puzzled but happy about the fact that the shortfilm turned out to be something. They said that it doesn´t hide its feelings..or I don´t hide them.
So everything looks well. On sunday I met with Markku, the sound designer, he seemed also happy about the film and wanted to start working on it as soon as possible. that is good, but I´m still on the editing prosess, and It`ll take a while untill I can lock the picture.
The ending music is a big problem. I don´t know what to do with it.

first decent version!

Today was the first time somebody saw the short movie (workingtitle:) "Karhula". I edited a 29 minute version and showed it to one of my fellow editors at school. She was pleased to be the first one to see this film.
Just the thought of showing this version made me do some changes to it. This is good, cause when you are alone with the material, its stops affecting you. You don´t feel anything. Today I got some good impressions and got in touch with the movie again. I got some good advices and encouragement from the person I showed it. I guess she was one of the people who will like this film, cause I´m sure that this will divide people. Some will hate this kind of naive artsy shit. I´m doing my best to do this honestly, not to do any choices because I´m afraid or something.
So anyway, this was a good day. And I´m also happy for other reasons, I now have some life outside my room, away from my computer and away from this movie. It has been very refreshing to be outside, doing other things with real people again. Not just actors or people on the computersceer.
I´m also having second thoughts about my haircutting thing. I´ve also had some ideas about the title of the film. One is a sentence, other just one word... I don´t know which is better. But it wont be "Karhula" cause that doesn´t mean shit.
There will be a 3dvd boxset available this fall. Musicvideo dvd (version 2) with over 15 musicvideos, Videoworks - dvd (something like videoart but not videoart) with over 15 works also. And The Early Works - dvd, with a lot of material on it. These dvd´s will include animation, things which are availabe on my homepage, demoversions of videos, never before seen footage.. all kinds of things. Buy! Price will be something around 10-15 euros. Now the dvds will have menus, not like the earlier musicvide dvd which was made in a hurry. Those who already have the Musicvideo dvd I´ll give the new version for free (or with a discount) if they buy the other 2! waU!!!
I also had a really great weekend, I didn´t notice how the time went by, wasn´t worried or stressed out by anything,almost everything was well. But today when I wen´t to get my camera out of repairment i sat down on a metro and read the local citynewspaper and saw this headline "Dark weekend". Atleast 17 people were killed in accidents around Finland..! and the things in Isreal and all that area are going straight to hell. I was really pissed off. Problem is that I don´t know anything about anything. I´m frustrated.
I´m sure my next work will be a bit angrier and more dark. Not much, but I have some new ideas concerning my next doing.. hm. Better not to write them here.

Rough cut

Now, the first, rough cut of the short film has been edited. It wasn´t very easy job. Every day I faced my own mistakes, my inadequacy as a director and a cameraman. It is clear to me now that a project this size will require atleast knowing camera-assistant, which I knew but couldn´t get. But perhaps it would anyway be the best to get a cinematographer to do the job.
Russian director Kossakovski says that it is essential that director operates the camera also, and this is true in some sense, like when you are shooting a documentary, following some event, you must feel the situation, operate the camera like it is a part of your self, but what I came to realize that in the pre production, when I couldn´t do very accurate storyboards, and thought that this will all be clear to me in the location and the situation, that atleast all the types of shots needed should be in some paper, and someone should watch that all these shots are taken. This is the thing I didn´t do, but fortunately, it doesn´t do much damage to the film. But for future projects, this must be done.
I really can´t say what the film will be like to the audience who haven´t been a part of the making prosses or who don´t know anything about it. I really don´t. For me it seems a bit insane film right now. And there is much work to be done to get some scenes working. We also have to do some afterrecordings for the sound. There had been some problems in some scenes.
Short movie making is trying to correct the mistakes made in the previous stage.

it has ended

YEAH! Last day of shooting was today! I must say, I´m happy. I don´t know will this be a "good short film" but I´ve learned so much I can´t even begin to write the things I´ve learned here. I know so much more now about myself and other people. I´m really tired.
Today we drove to Helsinki to shoot some interior shots. Crew was a bit frustrated about the fact that we had to shoot in Helsinki. We shot the scene where they get the 8mm camera, dream scene number 1 and the beginning scene at my apartment. It was really hot and sweaty. Marja did the part of Anina nicely, altough I was so messed up that I´m sure that no one understood what I said today. I just mumbled and said half words.
But we got all done. Marja seemed a bit stressed out, which is natural, this was I think the third or fouth time I met her. Nice person. "The dream girl" Laura was also really co-operative in those awfull conditions inside the small apartment.
Jarno was relaxed and seemed bit confused but happy about the fack that we shot at his place.
Tero Nummela came and did the part of "room mate" really nicely. Just the right man for the job. We re-decorated my place with lots of beer cans and so on. Netta put some nice mud on the floor of the bathroom. Maspe also came around and helped and slept in the car.

Now, when everything is over (ecxept I must return everything tomorrow, keys,cameras etc) I think that even if this movie turned out to be bad, which can happen, if I loose my mind during the editing or something, this experience has been something that can´t be replaced. Everyone who has been in this project has been really great. The fact that everyone did his or her part, on time and listening my uncomprihensible talking, is amazing. Nothing bad even happened. One scene had to be changed. Nothing more. Weather was great! Everything fell in its place, actors, sponsors, shooting locations and timetables... Only one I can plame for things done wrong is me. Everyone else has been great! And I´m already proud of my self that I managed to do this. Remembering that this is not a schoolwork, this is just some short movie I made in my own time. School short movies are very different things. I could have just been in some bar all this time, complaining that I never do anything. But instead I did this! Altough it destroyed my social life for a while ;)
Also, this has been something that had to be done. When the movie is finished, its an end of an era. 3 years ago was the last time I cut my hair. 3 years ago was the beginning of that year which was the inspiration for that movie, when, at the end of that year, wrote this script. 3 years ago I moved to Kouvola. Now Juippi is moving to Kouvola, going to the same school I went back then.. During these shootins I talked to someone I haven´t talked for a while, (whos been also inspiration for the original script.) When the movie is finished, edited and so on, I´m going to cut my hair. And let´s hope I´m going to be a decend citizen and get a jog or something. ;) not likely. But things that have gone trough my mind last 3 years are now getting to some ending point along this movie and other projects I´ve done during these years. Let´s hope that this is not an end for everything, just that a new phase will begin.
I´ll report here how the editing and dvd-doing and these kind of things are going. So keep on reading! Also other stuff will appear here. When ever I have something to say. (Written in a half-a-sleep-state of mind)

day 9 , and some explanations

Today went okay. We had this rig thingy to be used over the hood of the car. we shot some nice car driving scenes. It was really hot and I sat behind the front seats in between of the front and back seats. It was nice but I got a bit carsick. (picture by Maspe)

But I must write about something else today. In the paperarticle of Kymen Sanomat was mentioned three times that this is an autobiogrhaphical movie. I´m dissapointed cause I tried to explain to the journalist, that this is not an autobiographical movie, but of course, there is not many things happened in my life, that have affected me strongly, and ofcourse, the inspiration of this movie is in one spesific time of my life, and yes, this movie takes place in Karhula, and many locations have some meaning to me personally. So, in that sense and that sense only, this is an autobiographical movie, but like Jesse said in movie Before Sunset, "Isn´t everything autobiographical?" But there is so much more in it. Things I´ve seen in other movies, things I´ve read in books, things I´ve heard, things I wish had been or things I´ve dreamed. All this is also part of my life, but more commonly these kind of sources of inspirations are considered fiction. One could ask why.
I can not understand why anyone does anything if he or she doesn´t have some personal reasons and emotions connected to it, which need to be expressed. I see no other reason to do art or science or anything what you do in life. Isn´t everything about dealing with your exeperiences and the emotions your mind holds inside of it, about different things in life.

And other thing, why couldn´t I do an autobiographical movie, in the traditional way? I don´t see that you need to be old or a war hero to do a thing like that. (altough it might give you a good reason for it) I´ve seen this autobiographical movie made by a guy when he was 30 or something, and it was one of the most interesting movie I´ve seen a while at that time. Movie called Tarnation. Check it out. It was just about how messed up that guy (and his family) is. So anyway, my point was, that it isn´t all about what you have gone trough in life, but how you deal with your life and what can you get out of it, what ideas, how you express your emotions and impressions and what do they mean to you. Cause that is all that is important, all what matters.
I have no reason to do a shortmovie about some korean kickboxing hero, who uses some drug I´ve never heard of and likes to eat raw fish. That might be interesting to some people, but it is highly unlikely that I could get any personal connection to that kind of story. I´m sure that I could find something that I could relate, but maby you get my point.
Stop.

days 6, 7 and 8

I haven´t written here for a while. Been very busy and tired. On wednesday we shot the leaving-scene at Äijänniemi. We got some nice footage there, and the scene got some new dimensions when we found a nice bonzai-looking tree. I shot the scene under that. That was the Final scene with Laura, who plays Kevät. She didn´t want to leave the shootings, so she did some sound assistant job! Henry had some personal reasons, so he had to leave a bit early. That was ok, I got the scenes that I wanted. Also the "dreamscene2" was shot. I think I was really tired on wednesday, cause I cant remember anything from that day after shootings..Juippi, Kake and Maspe went to Hamina to see some "horny piano playing" by Vilho. I was too tired to go.

On Thursday we had to shoot the first scene at Karhula, cause Atte has to leave to Tampere in the evening. What I didn´t realize was that on first Thursday of the month was a market day. So the market place which supposed to be empty was full of people. I got very upset. We shot the scene at the bus station. Thats a bit bad. I don´t know what I´m gonna do with the start of the film. Shit.
After this we went to Sam´s pub to shoot some indoor scenes of Juippis place. I couldn´t concentrate, and some things went wrong. But we got some ok material from there. I wish I had been more sharp that day. But I guess this is getting to me, the stress, little sleep.. all that. After this one journalist came to do a piece on this movie. Me, Henry and Kimmo talked very confusing things to her. I was in conflict with many things which I said at the other interview to KymenSanomat. This interview will be published at Ankkuri, and possibly in PK..or something. Also the radio interviews and newspaper interviews will be available at my webpages as soon as I get to Helsinki, and have the time to put them there.
On Thursday evening we wen´t swimming, and ate some pizza. I fell a sleep at somepoint, and woke up with my jeans and shirt on at 3:30 a.m.


Today, Friday we shot some hitchhiken scenes. Things wen´t ok. Nothing special. End is near.

day 4 -the party & day 5 - stealing the car

Yesterday I didn´t have time to write here, cause we stopped shootin about 22 p.m. and after shooting and cleaning up the beach we came to my place and watched some material with Henry, Kimmo and some other people. Anyway, the party scene worked out quite well. We were late, right at the start, so we were in a hurry. When I arrived I was shocked by the view at the beach, cause there were quite a lot of people there. This was my first big scene with lots of people, so it took a while to get things going. Food and drinks had to be served, things had to be in the right place, we had to shoot certaing things, improvice others. Challenging.
Only now I realized that altough there were a lot of people there, many of those who I thought would come, didn´t. Thats a shame, cause people had fun, and a lot of Laitila beer and cider was left over. Almost no one drank the red wine!! People should do things more! not just work and be scared!!
I must correct something, about the actor of Mesoaja, Antti Filppu. At no point, was the situation like I described before "monday was out of the question too" - like that. Filppu just wanted to know if I had a back up plan, if things would go wrong. Of course I didn´t. I know things can go wrong, but I trust life, and if Antti wouldn´t have shown up, Im sure I would have come up with something else. I just got scared, when he called, and misundestood and paniced. But anyway, Antti came, and things went nicely with him! Some really strong scenes were shot.
Also Henry had some really nice, and fresh ideas about his scenes with Susanna. Kimmo and Laura did their part just the way I imagined. Juippi on the other hand had some cards up his sleeve, he got a bit drunk and expanded his role a bit by doing some demonic movements.
So everything worked really well. Exept I would have wanted to film the band more, but we ran out of battery for the camera. But we filmed the band enough I think. The music sounded really nice by the way! Thanks guys!!


Today we shot the car stealing scene, and the scene with Sivullinen jumping on another car. We changed the actor for Sivullinen, he´s now Atte Häkkinen, who was a great choice for the role. THings worked out today really well, altough I forgot to put my shoes on in the morning. I went to the location without any shoes?!? Well Maspe, my bro who has been a real help in these kind of situations went to get them. And I must say something about our catering services. Its awesome! My parents do everyday a really nice meal for us. Our film wouldn´t be anything without them! Also Sami Ristiniemi came to do the role of an angry and closeminded businessman, and did that really nice! He gave us some umbrellas also.
Juippi was really nervous, cause this was his first "big day" with some lines. I expected something like this, cause he couldn´t practice the lines cause they were given to him yesterday, cause matti wrote them just 2 or 3 days ago. But I think that Juippi did his role fine, but I think that he himself doesn´t think like that. But he shouldn´t stress so much.
I gues thats that. Things are going a lot easier than in the beginning! This is fun!

day 3

I forgot to mention, that yesterday, when Henry did his fall at the "mountain scene" he really fell a long way along the down hill lawn. He couldn´t stop sliding down and his back got a bit hurt during that. Anyway, he´s fine now.

Today started out badly again. When the actor for Mesoaja called and told that he fainted lastnight and that he cannot come to the set to day. I got really upset when he said that tomorrow would be out of the question too. I tried to explain that couldn´t be, but we didn´t get to an agreement. I had to go shooting, so I told him that today he wouldn´t have to come, but we´ll talk later. We shot some nice scenes with Henry and Kimmo, everything went quite smoothly. Exept each and every one of us was badly burnt by sun, and I didn´t have any hat, so I wore the hats of the crewmembers (see the picture, taken by Netta Kervinen).
When we shot with Laura and Kimmo, Laura was very nervous, but i think she did her part quite well. I was nervous too, and when the two of them walked along a path behind my parents house, the sight was a bit scary cause they looked like me and someone from the past..! ;) I forgot to put on the progressive mode from the camera, that was a shame, cause when we looked at the material, it looked a bit bad, without the deinterlacion thing. But it´ll be fixed later. Yep, thats that. Tomorrow is a big day.

second day

Today, things went okay I guess. Things were more in my control, crew was energic and so on. The day didn´t start so well anyway. First, last night I woke up in the middle of the night and remembered some shots that I had forgotten to shoot. I was very upset ( I punched the wall couple of times). Then I fell a sleep. Then, at about 6 am I woke up to a terrible stomach ache. I couldn´t move. My belly hurt so much. I managed to get to the kitchen, where I almost fainted. My eyes went blurry and ears were humming. I drank couple glasses of water and started to feel better. Then I realized that I hadn´t drank anything for many many hours. Slowly I felt better, and fell a sleep again. Then, when we arrived at the shooting location, I realized I had forgotten my camera home. I drove back to get it. After this everything went nicely. We shot the scene at the "mountain" it looks like it was shot in a studio!? weird. But it looks good. Then we shot some scenes I had forgotten.
I should have believed that first days are always bad, and no important scene should be shot. But this was a matter of schedules, cause Susanna, who plays Tuuli, wouldn´t have managed to the shootings later. But anyway the parts with Tuuli and Olavi, of the scene 11, which was shot on friday, are covered, and they are the core of that scene, but where to cut in, and how to get Tuuli to the scene is now a little problem, but since I´m so great editor, I´m sure I´ll manage.

I think we´ll get a shortmovie out of this. But it well be a bit od I think. 2 days have gone, 8 to go. This is a massive project to do. Now, I know that I hate that goddam glidecam. But some scenes well be shot with that anyway. Tomorrow some scenes with Laura, who plays Kevät.

Picture is taken by Netta Kervinen, click to see it in larger scale.

first day..

The only thought in my now is something like this " okay, I managed today. But there is still 10 days to go...". Not like everything didn´t go quite well, but my head is a mess. lets hope some sleep will clear my head a little bit.

Go outside

Yesterday, while walking around the town of Karhula (soon to be the locations for my short movie) I noticed that thigs are much more simpler outside. I can sit on my chair, eyes nailed to the computer screen, trying to figure out what the lead characters can do while walking in the streets of Karhula, and I can figure out something, but of course the real and good ideas come from the real world, by looking, listening and feeling. This is a very simple fact, but it is easy to forget. Fortunately I remembered it yesterday, and came up with solutions to few scenes which I didn´t know what to do with them.

Today I spent few hours at the marketplace, watchin people and walking around. It was a bit cold, so it wasn´t so fun, but I filmed something with my videocamera, and I hope I can get the same documentary feel to my fiction short movie. But it might be that we don´t have too much time to just walk around with the crew and actors and just to shoot something. But I´ll try, no matter what they say.

It´s also this that I really want to live in the situation, to shoot what ever comes in mind, but it´s hard if someone in the crew doesn´t understand that. Fiction projects are often carefully planned and therefore they are just fiction, with no touch to the real world. (well this is not true in most of the movies, only in student films maby, and of course they must be carefully planned and plans followed.) I mean that they might end up as very stif with no air to breath in. Someone may consider this to be a succesful outcome.

I have also made carefull plans, but I´m aware about the fact that things won´t work as planned, and I´m more than willing to change the plans. This kind of attidute is almost everytime misinterpreted to not knowing what you want. That is so wrong I can´t even say how wrong it is. I mean, when I live my life, I don´t know what I want or what the result of my actions will be, but I know the direction where I wanna go. I know what I want this short movie to be like, but there are alternate routs to get there. I realize that this kind of thinkin is hard to everyone else making this project, but since this is a very small project, why not make it the hardest way there is? :)

Lately I bought the movie Before sunset, by Richard Linklater, on dvd. I´ve seen it before and liked it alot, but I´ve now watched it three times and I´m so amazed by the way it has been made. The camera follows the characters who are talking non-stop, it seems that it is a documentary, but of course it´s not, camera angle changes, you see these little details what they are doing or thinking, they go on a boat, talking, camera angle changes, and the light hits so perfectly to Celines hair..for example. There are so many amazing details and the use of camera, not to mention the perfect performance from the actors, and it´s all controlled, yet feels totally real. Watch it.

I´m so tired right now...

Doing things, random thoughts.

It is very hard to do things. There are many dangers in that. The first danger is that one doesn´t realize the amount of work the smallest thing requires. And why that small thing is worth a lot because of that.

When one realizes this, one can appreciate and understand things much better, but the second danger is, that after realizing how hard things are, one gets overwhelmed and stops doing anything. The amount of thinking and working seems to be too much, in things like cinema or other projects, where the idea and work required may sometimes seem insane. This mustnt happen. If the script says "the boat must go over the mountains" then the boat goes over the mountains. It requires a lot of planning and physical power, but if that is something that stops people from doing something, why do anything? altough the reasons for doing this may seem totally worthless and insane. Physical and mental strenght is something to be used, not to be preserved somewhere for better times.

This is where the third danger comes. All this, the boat over the mountains, at the end it is just a vehicle for something else, it is not the soul purpose of the movie. People do that just to express some though or feel, cause thats the main thing. So after all that work, one realizes that it isn´t so great, it is not so important, if we can´t understand for example, what the lead character feels, or something like that.

It´s the same thing with running, I suppose. Why go running? And when running, if you stop when you feel tired, why did you start at the first place? Altough you didn´t go running just for the sake of runnin, maby you needed some exercise. That can be achieved in many ways, but you decided to run, so don´t stop until its absolutely necessary.

3 days ´till shooting

So, this Friday will be the first day of shooting of my first big short movie project. I´ve planned this since December, the script is much older than that, although you couldn´t tell from the looks of it. Shootings will take about 11 days. Almost all of it will be on location, just 2 days indoors. Let´s hope the weather is what we need. If it isn´t.. well that remains to be seen.

I´m the writer,producer,director,cameraman and editor of this upcoming movie. When I got some money from the South-eastern Finland artcommittee things started to roll. I put out some adds to find some actors. But after a while I found some promising ones trough a friend or something.
During the spring I wrote the script again and got shooting equipments from a firm called Mediacenter and a drink sponsor from Laitila, beer, cider and lemonade. Slowly I gathered a small group of people around me.

I couldn´t work very much on this, cause I study at the University of Arts and Design, in Helsinki. So that took a lot of my time. Also I did 2 musicvideos while doing this. Manitou - Fools in Control in the winter and Total Devastation - Aware. So I did everything like a part time job, almost all by my self. Expect the clothings are designed by Netta Kervinen, who has done a great job with them, which I couldn´t have done. So of course that is a really big part of the pre production. And I´ve had help from my brother Matti Rautaniemi.

Anyway. Today I woke up when one of the soundguys called and told me that we didn´t have any sound equipments, cause there had been some mistakes in the renting business. So now we have to find the soundequipments fast, but if we cant get it anywhere else, we must rent them from Helsinki. ( we shoot in Karhula about 120 km from Helsinki, not such a big deal) Before we could have get the equipments for free, now we might have to pay. That sucks. This will resolve tomorrow.

I also noticed that the beach we use as a location, has a gate so people can´t drive to the shore. After a few phone calls i managed to get a key to it. I also coloured some pants using black tea leafs! and built some reflecting thingies from folio and styrofoam.

I think the hardest part is still to get the message trough to people..cast and crew. It always feels like no one understands anything I say. But no one has quit or anything, so I think we´re okay.

Nothing more today, this is my first post, lets hope it gets more interesting when things get a little more messed up when we start to shoot!