We spent our Saturday night with our good friend Roope who we had met while he studied at GTI last September to Decemeber. Roope and his Boyfriend showed us around Helsinki before bringing the less tired Irish to the student Sauna before we spent our very last night in Finland and HELSINKI! We had such a great time and we had to say goodbye to Roope and life in Finland.
We collected our baggae from the hotel Mary was staying at and we made our way to the airport and back home. We had been awake for 24 hours straight so the squad (5 media students and 2 Hairdressers) all slept on the journey home before saying goodbye to each other. WHAT A TRIP!! WE ARE HOME SAFELY!
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Our final day began in the early hours of the morning. Roope, our friend and tour guide for the weekend brought us up to the highest point in Helsinki and we watched the city below us. We sat on the top of the park and sat there together, taking in our last full day in Finland. After walking the park another few times we said our goodbyes and headed to the hotel. In the morning we got up and began our day by meeting up with everyone and heading into the center of Helsinki to begin our final day of touristing. Roope brought us to a beautiful church in the middle of Helsinki and we all took a moment to appreciate the view and brilliant weather we were having. After that we headed to the local market in Helsinki. It was filled with a variety of stuff, from local food dishes to reindeer souvenirs. The group split up at this moment and we all took the opportunity to try the food that was jumping out at us the most and to buy some last second gifts for our family and friends. After this we headed to Helsinki’s own Skywheel where we all got aboard and took the opportunity to appreciate the beautiful weather that we were having and to get a unique perspective on the city. After the wheel was done we all sat down for a drink and took the time to relax. The next stop that Roope had planned for us was a boat ride out to an island off the coast of Helsinki. We all got our tickets and boarded the boat. Once we arrived we all split off into groups and went exploring the island. Heading to the local museum and appreciating the beautiful grounds that the island was built on. We topped off our wonderful day of exploring Helsinki with a beautiful dinner at a restaurant that Roope recommended. We all took a moment afterwards to reflect on the three weeks that we’d experienced together and what we had learned along the way. Everyone shared stories that had happened during the trip and we all took our turn telling each other what we were thankful for.
Today we filmed the 15 Second Film which we were planning with MIACO Cinema. The 15 second action scene starred Ronan, featured Sean, was co-directed by Aaron, and I was Assistant Camera Operator. It was a classic beat up the bad guys, save the girl action scene, there were slow motion shots, these were shot on the RED Dragon Camera, it can shoot in 6K at a very high frame rate(128FPS in this case), this means the footage is so high quality it can be slowed down seamlessly...
The first shot of the day was a stunt. There were two cameras used, both REDs. One was taking a slow motion shot and one was taking a regular speed shot, they had different angles, and after a few takes they switched places so that there was a slow motion and regular speed shot from each angle. The stunt was the villain of the piece falling from a height on to a safety mattress. The cameras both moved with the actor falling and could be edited afterwards so as not to see him landing on the mattress. Photo By Frej Blomqvist The actors were working for over a week on the choreography for a slow motion dolly fight scene, the dolly is a method of pushing the camera on a track to get a shot that moves with the action.
Today was spent preparing for our 15 second short action sequence that we will be shooting tomorrow. I myself will be playing the hero character who fights all the bad guys and gets the girl. I haven't really done anything like this before so it's quite exciting to be part of something like an action sequence.
Today was the day that we picked out our costumes. We were picked up early at half 8 this morning by two of the students from the college and were brought to a costume place near the same area. The costume place is owned by a theater group and we were able to pick out whatever we wanted from the costumes. I managed to get most of my outfit from the selection but I was unable to find a cowboy hat. The cowboy hat was important because I was meant to throw it at the first bad guy and then run over and punch him. But for some reason it seems to be very hard to find a decent cowboy hat here in Pori. But I have let the producer know that I couldn't find one so hopefully they can sort something out for tomorrow. Other than that im ready to go and im very excited for tomorrow. Frej gave us a one to one lighting class on Monday, a national bank holiday Monday! He showed us quick and simple techniques he has used when on real film sets, knowing this now rather than on a real film shoot ourselves and not looking like the newbies was so fantastic and a credit to Frej for thinking outside the box and making sure we knew that before the film shoot on Thursday!
Today I watched Jussi, a 17 year old Finnish guy edit the music video Aaron, Ronan and Jason shot last week while Cathal and Myself were at YLE Pori. It was so great to see young talent fly through the editing and enjoying it. He also showed me a few things he picked up during his first year at the College. During a quick break, I had a wander around the college to see how the other lads were getting on. I came across Ronan, Cathal and Aaron. I saw Janne (Ronan's mentor) demonstrate some cool martial art moves for their short film this coming week. They asked me there and then if I wanted to take part and be one of the characters, I said yes (OF COURSE!) Janne showed me a very interesting martial art defensive move and I quickly adapted to the role! This week I get to be a bad guy in the short film. I can't wait! Yes I am suppose to be editing but this trip has broadened my horizons, I am currently in the process of re-thinking of future career as an editor because although I like to edit, I like to also get involved in the production of the film and to me its fun that way rather then staying in an office editing on a computer. I'm happy to have had that *wake up call* during this trip. We woke up this Monday morning at 8 o’clock. It was a bank holiday in Finland and everyone was off Work & school. Our lecturer Frej took us for a workshop today at the college on his day off. He picked us up from the hostel and told us that the two areas of film-making that we would be tackling today were lighting setups and the Red Camera.Before we even started working the day got off to a cinematic beginning. The college had recently installed a new security and Frej wasn’t feeling confident about his ability to turn off the alarm. He had sixty seconds to turn it off before an alarm would be sent to the local police station so to add to the drama he started to play the ‘Mission Impossible’ theme music and got us to record him trying to turn the alarm off.
Luckily, after a few false starts he managed to turn off the alarm and we were in. We started off with the lighting set up. Frej talked to us about an iconic scene from the movie ‘Apocalypse Now’ were the lighting was crucial and then we attempted to recreate that with a mannequin that they had at the college. Frej walked us through his 3-point lighting process which he has been perfecting over the years and gave everyone a shot at adjusting the lights and finding a specific look that they liked this most. This highlighted to us that there’s no such thing as perfect lighting and how much it’s dictated by taste.After Frej was satisfied that we all had a good grasp of the lighting set-up we moved onto the RED camera. The RED is a daunting piece of equipment, costing thousands of euros and used on film sets all over the world, we were all trepidatious about handling it. Frej did a brilliant job of taking the equipment and showing us how simple it really is once you’re shown the basics and from there you can start adjusting to your own preferences. From there, we shot a short scene using the lighting set-up that we had assembled previously and saw the massive potential the RED allowed for film-makers who are looking for as many choices as possible when filming. All in all, it was a brilliant day. Getting to use professional equipment in the real world and getting a workshop tailored to you from a seasoned professional was a massively worthwhile experience and I feel all the group have improved a huge amount just from the few short hours that we had the class. This weekend I watched Janne Turkki perform some Finnish music in an acoustic band that he and his friends volunteered to do in the Winston Pub. It was an insightful experience to watch a different kind of music from my own culture and especially to feel involved in the crowd as they cheered on.
Along with Ronan, I got to know many of Janne's connections, such as his partner and friends, and they had lots to tell us about the Finnish culture. I especially was fascinated in their discussion about Lapland and how its border is only across the river to Sweden. In fact, the Northern Lights can be seen in many regions across Finland - not just Lapland itself. I also learnt more about activities that Finnish people generally like, such as snowmobiling, relaxing in sauna's regularly and skiing. Finnish people especially love their coffee and (like many of us Irish) having a few beers with friends. To be honest, I truly felt that there was very little difference between Finnish and Irish people in a social context, as we were all enjoying ourselves and actively involved in a discussion. Next week will be an interesting end to our trip as we plan to create a 15 second film, using Instagram. The team and I have all come up with many ideas on how we should produce our project. Usually films with a shorter duration can be easy but when it's all action based and story-telling, it can be more difficult to deliver the final result. The challenge for all of us will surely be a good one! Over the course of the trip I've been filming an experimental short film. Aaron and I have been picking up scenes as we have spare time. We've been filming around Pori and Nakkila. The film is silent and it stars Aaron. Using sets at the college I was able to set the first scene with very high production values. There is a very well built jail set, the movie opens with Aaron sitting in a cell before being released. The scenery on the way to and from college made for a very interesting road trip montage, with Aaron sitting in the bus looking out at the world. Today we filmed a scene outside The Pori Town Hall, amongst other places in Pori, including the train tracks. The town hall is a very striking building and I feel like it adds a very grand tone to the piece. Through out the sequence in Pori Aaron's character is walking around, he's searching for something, maybe it's somewhere to go, maybe it's a person. I'm delighted to have tried this idea out here in Finland, the setting is so different to Ireland that that alone adds an interesting tint to the whole piece.
I've learned a lot from the experience of working on the fly like this, picking up shots when we can and making the whole film work around things we have at our disposal. This week myself and Cathal got to experience how Finnish news is reporting on. We had the great pleasure of being able to spend our week in YLE Pori Radio and News station. We created a small interview video for their Facebook page and then Kati ( Reporter) took us to one of the locations where she conducted a story about a drone that flies 40 feet into the air and takes pictures and collects data of forestry area's for the forestry industry. Kati showed us the whole process when she interviewed the operator of the drone, filmed it, and later edited the interview for Radio and Tv. Whats more is she asked to use my iPhone video I filmed of the drone taking flight to upload it to their Facebook page which hit 1,000 views in less then 24 hours!!
I know want to come to Ireland and see the process RTE or any news team go through to have it on on TV screens for the 9 o'clock news! I've learned a lot of things during my time here in finland. The course here involves a lot of hands-on practical work so we all got the chance to get involved and learn things a little more in depth than we would have before. Recently, Janne Turkkii had taken me and Aaron for an acting workshop lesson.
Acting is one of the things that I had specified in my application and Janne is a professional actor himself. And with this he was able to teach us the basics and fundamentals of preforming in front of an audience. Two other students from the school were also present during this workshop as Janne felt that more opinions would be needed. The main thing that Janne was trying to teach us was how to act without saying a word. This includes us not making any of our own sound effects as well. In my opinion, this is definitely a skill that requires perfection in order to become a great actor. This is something I learned after seeing that Finnish play at the Pori Theater. A play in which I did not understand a word that was spoken yet was able to enjoy the preformance regardless since the actors had done their job. Overall, I got positive feedback for my efforts in that class. Acting is one of my favourite aspects in filmmaking in general so it was great to hear good responses coming from Janne. What Janne is trying to teach me at the end of the day is to not act nor pretend when im preforming. He is trying to tell me to live in the moment actually be what im trying to be. For example, if im supposed to be scared than I've got to really be scared. Or if im sad then I must really be sad. This is also the basic fundamentals of method acting. Method acting is tracing back real life experiences and bringing them into your performance. With this you will get real emotions and be able to make your performance more authentic. Janne is planning on another workshop next week before I go so I will be looking forward to learning more. I've been learning quite a lot on this trip. |
Media 2016Cathal McCormack Map of Pori |