Ronan & I awoke at 6 in the morning in preparation for the big day ahead. We headed to the bus station and found our way to Villila Saetadu by 8 in the morning. The moment we arrived the work started. The band, who’s music video I would be directing that day were supposed to be arriving around 9 o’clock so it was full steam ahead to get all of the lighting setups, camera placements and equipment ready by the time the band were to arrive. Everyone on both the Finnish and Irish crew were working as hard as possible to make sure none of the equipment would malfunction during the day and that we would get all the coverage we needed whilst shooting.
The band arrived at 9 on the dot, and after all the handshakes and hellos we began our first rehearsal. The band performed the song a few times in the location and that helped us iron out the kinks of some of our shot placements whilst they prepared themselves for being on camera. We kept doing more rehearsals until I felt everyone knew exactly what I was going for and then we attempted our first legitimate take. We had worked out in the pre-production that the opening shot of the video should only take an hour or so to get, so my goal for the morning was to have it in the bag by half 11 which was lunch. After a few false starts, I think we landed on a near-perfect take which I was very happy with. I shot one more take just to be safe and after that we called lunch and everyone took a well deserved break. After returning from break, the rest of the video went surprisingly smoothly. We had pre-planned all the shots I wanted so it wasn’t a case of figuring it out as we went along. We shot the rest of the video in a handheld, close-up style which helped every feel loose and have some fun as we shot it. This set-up took another 3 hours of shooting and after that we took another small break. This was the final section of the shoot. We had been given a helicopter drone with a go-pro to get some interesting stylistic shots and that’s how we finished our day's shooting. After doing two final takes with that, I was confident we had everything we needed and I called cut on the day's shoot. After thanking the band and all the crew who helped, we began to remove all the equipment from the location and bring it back to the college piece-by-piece. This took another hour to make sure everything was returned and after that we headed home, happy with the work that had taken place that day."
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Today the crew and I got together with the Finnish students and went through the process of pre-production. Many of us had our own roles to fulfill. As it's been mentioned in previous posts, this week the crew and I prepared for a music video with a rock band named Local Masonic. My role, at it's best, was working in the background helping to set up the lighting, the sound equipment, collecting tools from the Studio and being of assistance to all members throughout. At first I thought working with lighting would be an easy job but it actually required more effort and time than expected. For example, we had to be quick placing the lightings in certain positions and making sure everything was properly in tact, and to avoid any one tripping over cables, tripods steady in place, etc. Setting up the Camera Dolly and Focusing were the most interesting parts for me.
As always it was great that all members of the team helped out in all tasks, such as Aaron the director, who gave suggestions of positioning and encouraged us for our contribution; Ronan who also helped assist the carrying of equipment into the shed. It was sometimes awkward lifting heavy loads up the steep staircase, so an extra hand would be needed. Luckily we damaged no equipment and everything went as planned. We're happily organised for the band to perform tomorrow and everyone is enthusiastic to experience the real production in motion! Today me and Sean had our first day in Yle Satakunta, that's the local station here in Pori, it's right around the corner from our hostel, which is handy. The office was great, when we first arrived we were met by Miika, who gave us a tour of the place, the office has a radio studio which runs the local radio station every day until six, when the national station takes over.
There were 4 rooms specifically for editing, the meeting room is a chilled out space with bean bags and swing chairs, though there is a more formal meeting room too. The main space is 3 desk clumps, Miika told us that it used to be cubicles, but that they took them down and communication and productivity is much better. We were then introduced to Karri, he was set the task of coordinating us on our work experience, our first task was to use a camera, Karri gave us a Panasonic DVCProHD P2 with the purpose of recording him interviewing us, so I held the camera for Sean's and he held it for mine, the interviews were just about us and what brought us to Finland, and what we were going to do while at Yle. We shot some footage for cut aways around the office, the camera was brand new to me, but quite simple, by default they use a lot of auto settings. As I got more comfortable with the camera I turned off the auto settings and tried out the features of the camera. We then took all the footage and cut together a video that was just over a minute of the most interesting things we said spliced with the cutaways from around the office. We were then thought Yle's Process for mixing down videos and mixed it down. They put it up on their Facebook, it had 400 views in a few minutes which was a bit of fun. Unfortunately this weekend we had to say goodbye to our first accompanying teacher, Dónall, he travelled home over the weekend but in his place we were joined in Pori by the girls from GTIs Hair, Beauty & Health Science course who had been staying in Kokemäki for the start of the trip.
We were also joined by our friend Roope from Helsinki, he had studied with us in GTI before Christmas and it was not only great to see our friend again but it was also great to have someone with us who even though he hadn't been to Pori before was able to show us around to places we hadn't been before, things as simple as being able to read signs and tell us what they say were great to have. We spent the weekend walking around the toward finding interesting things we could do now that we knew what some different places actually were. Also, probably most interestingly for me, we went to the supermarket, a simple thing, but with Roope there it was like a tour through all the different foods and drinks are his favourites, he finally showed me which carton was the chocolate milk, bought us some local Tar Sweets (yes, made with actual tar), Finnish Rye bread, cheese, confectionery, some very special bakery items, it was definitely more interesting than going to Hesburger (like a Finnish Supermacs) again.. It was interesting to see Roope in his home country, casually chatting in Finnish to strangers in the street while he looks for directions. It was fun being tourists together while still having a cultural guide. Saturday was an interesting day for me. It was our first day off since we arrived so we were free to explore the town of Pori and experience it's culture. Earlier that week, the stuntman and actor that I was working with, Janne Turki, offered to get me discounted tickets for a play that was to be held at the Pori Theater. Acting is one of the things that I will be learning here so I felt it would have been beneficial to me to see professionals at work, even though the entire thing was going to be in Finnish.
The play was a musical adaptation of the "The Full Monty" and in order to understand at least some of what they are saying on stage I watched the original movie that morning. I still didn't understand a word said in that play but because I watched the movie I managed to get the gist of things. What I was paying attention to the most was the actors themselves. From how they expressed themselves on stage to how they delivered each of their lines I could easily tell what sort of characters they were playing and that was not just because I watched the movie. After all, it's not always easy to be able to entertain someone especially if they don't understand the language. It was because of their acting that I was able to enjoy the play more so than I expected. Before that though, Janne Turkki gave me a grand tour of the Pori Theatre. His wife was going to be in the play and he has worked there for a very long time so he was able to give me the ticket for free. Those tickets are quite expensive so I was lucky. Janne had told me the main theater itself (which was the one I was in) is actually hundreds of years old. I got to see some of the props and sets that were going to be used in the show that night and I even met some of the actors that were going to be in the play as well. They were very friendly towards me and were also very good at speakin English to me. Overall, it was an amazing experience for me as I would like to be actor in the future, and to direct films myself. For the past few days I have been using a new editing software called Avid which my mentor Frej told me the big TV companies not only in Finland use. On my first day of using Avid I found it very difficult (of course I would) but Frej and a third year editing student Anna really made sure to give me as much help as I needed.
My assignment for the past week was to edit a video which was based about us Irish students visiting their College. The students themselves filmed interviews of us and a few quick cut away shots and gave the clips to me. I had the pleasure of having to make this video, using Avid, to be uploaded on their college's website! I am so happy with my progress with Avid because it isn't a very easy editing program to use. Frej praised me with my edits and next week I start my work experience at the Pori YLE TV and RADIO station offices, making video's. We awoke at 8 o’clock to be ready for the bus that was picking us up today. We met Donal outside the hostel. Frej, the lecturer who has been showing us around and looking after us all week picked us up at half 9 and we headed off to Tampere. The day consisted of us attending the Yle news & media stations and been given a guided tour by an executive producer of the tv station. After walking into the reception and being greeted by the people who would be taking us around for the day, we headed off into the production offices and the behind the scenes of the tv station area of the studio. Our tour guide started off by telling us that the station 'saw over one thousand people enter and leave every day in and out of the station'. We headed into the media centre where all the footage was arranged, edited and broadcast throughout the day. It was explained to us that the biggest editing suite had over 'eight televisions operating all at once', in conjunction with eight different cameras that were showing both a live feed or re-runs of an edit depending on which screen you looked at. We were then informed how all this equipment was kept within a short space of each other to limit the amount of time it takes to shoot, edit and broadcast the footage. Everything except the news is solely broadcast in Hd whereas the news gives people both the high-definition and standard definition to choose from. In total there is fifteen editing rooms in that studio alone, along with three colour correction rooms, five sound rooms and three outer broadcast units that work around the clock to capture news that is happening in real time. We were then brought to the tv production aspect of the station and shown a variety of sets that are used throughout the year in order to help create whatever show is being made at the time. We were told that there is over fifty set builders who work daily in order to facilitate the requests of the producers of the individual tv shows. The executive producer described to us, the decision making process which goes into which shows get the green light and which don’t. He said the two key aspects of making that decision are what the general audience is deemed to want and what makes the most financially to produce. Almost all of the shows are edited on Avid which is the software we’ve all been using for the last week.
The final stop of the tour consisted of us going to a live recording of a tv show called “Christmas Advent Calendar”. The show runs from the beginning of November until Christmas Eve and it is one of the most successful shows on Finnish television, drawing in an audience of half a million viewers some years. We saw a rehearsal of a scene play out in front of us which was a fascinating experience and very beneficial to all of us. So far my experience in Finland has been better than I had expected. I settled in on the first day really fast. And then to top it all off, the Finnish teachers and students have been very kind and patient with us since we don't speak their language. Upon arriving at the college, we were taken on a tour around the school and were shown it's facilities and equipment. I got talking to Janne Turrki who is a professional stunt man and actor and is also a student getting his film degree at the college. Later that day we were assigned to groups where we would have to listen to an audio track and then go out and film some images to go along with it
The group that I was assigned to consisted of myself, Jason, Janne, Marko and Donne.This brings me to today. It was one of the more shorter ones so far but we were still kept busy. Our group was one of the first to finish the edit so we put the final product onto a hard drive and gave it to the lecturer that was doing the workshop with us this week. Our video was shown in the auditorium and there was a certain sense of satisfaction upon seeing the finished product up their on the big screen. Other than that the weather has not been as cold as I would have thought. There's still some snow around the place, especially in the more open areas like the country side. Yes I still have to wrap up well and yes I still find it cold myself but it is still nothing that I haven't experienced before. Other than that I am looking forward to what the rest of this trip has to offer me and will be documenting these experiences here on this blog. After finishing our first day at Sataedu the team settled comfortably in Pori in our situated accommodation near enough to the market square. We were all very lucky to have received the funding through the Erasmus programme to make our trip possible, and it gave us a brilliant opportunity to gain a better understanding of a new culture and surrounding. Finland wasn't at all like it was presumed to be for us as media students - the assumption was that Finnish people were a lot more reserved and less likely to be conversational other than within the areas of their own interest. The reality was anything but what we expected. All the media lecturers at Sataedu, the Finnish students and the overall staff were extremely kind and welcoming upon our arrival... It was also very generous of Taru Tuomisto and Frej Blommqvist to transport us to the university each morning and to inform us of the best places to visit around Pori in our free time. As it was previously noted, we were first introduced to all the class and one of our mentors, Marco, engaged closely with all crew members. In getting to know all the students and the way Marco was determined to get to know everybody's closest interests and aims, it made me appreciate such a different learning technique than what I previously experienced in Ireland. He communicated in a very natural way which made all of us feel comfortable in opening up, and he was versatile in speaking both English and Finnish so that everyone could be acquainted that more easily. It was very interesting to see such a different learning structure; because the environment involves media production, it's style was very much like that of a vocational schooling but with all having their own duties to attend... On Tuesday we all started out doing our usual routine - at this stage all members from Ireland had their own role to play; Cathal and Aaron practicing creative designs using symbols and paint on the old-fashioned editing tape, Sean edited clips from interviews each of us participated in from speaking about our trip to Finland and it's differences from the atmosphere back in Ireland, and finally Ronan and I worked with our filming crew adapting camera shots to a group soundtrack we were all assigned to portray in our own interpretation of it's music beat. It was intriguing to see what each of us could bring together with ideas and performance with the help of a soundtrack given to all of us - it had to be unique and something which we all agreed on. Because all our Finnish crew members were enthusiastic film makers, it made Ronan and my experience that more energizing to work with... Towards the end of the day, we collaborated all our action clips onto an editing software named Avid Premier and creatively added in transitions and colouring contrast to make our filming project more captivating. Janne Turkki, Taneli Vaharautio and Marko Hietikklo all gave us some interesting tips to edit at a faster capacity and how even to reverse an action clip. We always appreciated their patience if there was ever a time we needed further clarification and Ronan and I always tried our best to take our time speaking English so that they could understand best what's asked of them. As much as the learning prospects give us an understanding of a new working environment and team work, it was also insightful to get to know many of our Finnish classmates outside the classroom. They had so much to tell us about Finland, it's language, cuisine, popular events and places which they would recommend us visit. Like every day, the process has been a great learning experience and each of us are so grateful to be part of this programme. There is nothing really negative about our stay here to note. Ottaa paljon hauskaa ! We woke up at 7 local time, which still feels like 5 to us, Taru and Frej picked us up at 8 and brought us to Nakkila where the college is. The college shares it's building with Villilä, a movie studio. When we arrived, the first thing we did was get a tour I the facilities: Editing suites where Sean will mostly working this week and the massive studio where the rest of us will be doing most of our work. We met Marko Luukkonen, alumni of the school who is now very prolific filmmaker here in Finland, known for documentary and art films, he showed us examples of his work which was really interesting. Marko was brought in for the week to run a project with us and some of the students from the college, we were given pieces of audio and asked to put images to them. He encouraged artful shots, testing the limits of exposure and subject matter, not necessarily "proper" technical shots as are encouraged in college usually, but we use our technical knowledge to create the experimental shots. Me and Aaron were put in a team with one of the Finnish students Mikael, we all had a similar idea for the video, to use unsettling shots to go with the unsettling vocal track. Workstations were set up around the studio space for trying out different techniques to use in videos, there was one with an aquarium, a Red Scarlet high-speed camera was set up in front of it, the aquarium was filled with water and then we dropped black and green food colouring into it. When filmed at high speed these images can be slowed down for a great, almost smokey effect. The other workstation me and Aaron worked at today was my favourite, we were given a film strip with 25 frames on it (1second of video), we were encouraged to paint it, scratch it with blades, whatever we want, these frames would then all be photographed and put together as a second of video, I attempted to do an animation, which is a first for me. After college we went to the beach!!
The snow covered sand and ice-flows at the shore were the biggest reminder today that we're not in Galway anymore! |
Media 2016Cathal McCormack Map of Pori |