HIFF - Helsingfors internationella film festival

Mushrooms from the city

24.9 Laying in bed with the pillow against my left year. The ear is warm. Some white clouds in the sky. One towel is drying. 

My alarm clock was silent this morning. Maria's rang 7:30. I slept until she brought coffee and dates. 

Then followed the drag of selecting movies from the Helsinki International Film Festival. The system is overloaded at 10:00 and the industry pass works almost on no movies. I wrote some notes about the festival and they are here below in italics.

How to choose the films to watch?

The events are easy to choose. But films less so. Why?

The description of the talks open up easier to me. Of course the speakers can be bad and then you should leave half way through. Even if there is one good speaker it can be worth staying.

With films I check the trailer and Rotten tomatoes. New films have few reviews on RT so it's hard to actually know. You can also check how many seats are booked. That sure gives some idea. 

Before I start the list again remember. I'm just a nobody giving these ratings to help myself deal with the world and the films.

Always Amber 2/5 - queer kids. Not much in my interest.

Anerca, Elämän hengitys 1/5. The trailer didnt work.

Animation celebration - 4/5 Seems interesting. A collection of short animations.  https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/animation-celebration/

Antonia's line - 3/5 solid, non surprising. 

Assassins 4/5 seems interesting, political documentary looking at one thing from many angles. https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/assassins/  This one I want to see. 

The August Virgin - Love story in Spain and finding yourself, I guess based on trailer. Blaaaah.  2/5 https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/the-august-virgin/

Babyteeth. A bit more spicey trailer. 3/5 Could watch, but teens growing up stories are not exactly my cup of tea at the moment. https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/babyteeth/ 

Bad tales - Italian, felt typical. 2/5 https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/bad-tales/ 

In between comment - why are trailers so similar? Too similar?

Bafta shorts tour 2020. 4/5 seems promising. https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/bafta-shorts-tour-2020/ Short films are shorter so if they are shit you suffer shorter. This I want to see as short films is something I might be working with in the future. 

Beanpole - Russian. Seems a bit promising. No personal appeal to me, but some general appeal.  3/5 https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/beanpole/ 

Beasts clawing at straws - I like Asian films. This one doesn't seem so nice. 2/5 https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/beasts-clawing-at-straws/

Being a human person - Documentary about Roy Andersson. Might be interesting, but cant find the trailer and this runs the risk of being too mild and kind. 

Beware of children - Norwegian. Seemed heavy and solid. Something about a dead child. 4/5 Want to see. https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/beware-of-children/ 

Be water -  https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/be-water/ documentary of Bruce Lee. Seems interesting 4/5 But it will probably be endless praise of a hero. That can be tireing. And a lot of talking heads being overly exited. 

The big Lebowski - https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/the-big-lebowski/ Not sure this belongs to a festival. Low hanging fruit if you want to be entertained. Take a lot of sweets with you and woolens socks with you . 

Big vs small https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/big-vs-small/ 2/5 seems feeble. Trailer one of the worst. 

Bloody nose, empty pockets. This could be a helpful reference film for stuff that our production company could work on. Still I don't think it will be more than a 3/5.  https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/bloody-nose-empty-pockets/

Bodyrights - a collection of short films about body related topics. I like short films, but I don't expect most of them to be good, just like feature films. But feature films are longer so even if they are bad they leave some kind of impression in you - short films don't, which make them seem extra bad. 

Bombay Rose - Animation Indian. 

Blaah I got tired of this cataloging. I will just watch and pick out what I like. The below are a list I worked on before I decided to quit. 

Hope - Lady get cancer. Explores themes of life and death. My cup of tea. 4/5 https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/hope/

Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears - This trailer was so traditional, dull and cowardly that I can judge that this film is a 1/5. https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/miss-fisher-and-the-crypt-of-tears/ 

Never Rarely Sometimes Always - https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/never-rarely-sometimes-always/ 4/5 Seems interesting. Travelfilm and growing up type a thang. 4/5

The History of the Kelly Gang - Unpleasant characters in a bad way. Some action, so probably endurable. Feels like these kind of films are infantile and don't have much to give me at this stage of life. 3/5 https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/true-history-of-the-kelly-gang/

The Last Black Man in San Francisco - Prizes, acclaimed and sucking audiences at HIFF. Could be a 2/5, 3/5 or 4/5 so I guess I have to watch it to find out. Rating: ??? https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/the-last-black-man-in-san-francisco/

Welcome to Chechenya - How gays are hunted in Chechenya. 3/5. Interesting topic, but I expect a too traditional and dull plot. https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/welcome-to-chechnya/

White Riot - Perfectly timed movie. Take a historical event that had or had not similarities with an issue today that is drawing headlines and make a movie. That's what the people behind this movie did. Smart thinking from a production company kind of way. https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/white-riot/

--

Here is a list of what I am interested in, in addition to the films above:

Carte Blanche - Ulla Heikkilä - A selection of short films. 

Coded Bias - How code is racist. Interesting topic. Content of so much interest that it carries a lot of mistakes. 4/5 or 3/5. https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/coded-bias/

Corpus Christi - convict presents himself as a priest in a small village. Sounds like a fun concept. 4/5 or 3/5 https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/corpus-christi/

Dau. Natasha - Only the text gave me some info, the trailer gave no info. Therefore it's interesting. https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/dau-natasha/

Days - Will be suffering to watch, but still seems interesting https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/days/

Disco - Could be interesting, listed with hesitation. https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/disco/ 

Echo - Icelandic, slow and probably painful. Maybe worth watching: https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/echo/ 

EFA 1,2 and 3. Shorts. Interesting. 

EMA - text says it need to be watched in cinema - so I'll watch it in cinema. https://hiff.fi/elokuvat/ema/ 

So I have only watched two movies. Coded bias and Assassins. As said the ticket I have doesn't work on many movies. 

Now is now.

23.9 Wednesday - Yesterday I was the morning at the office. After that I went to do bouldering and from there home. At 1700 I went to the annual meeting for the housing company where we live. After that we had a board meeting. 

22.9 Tuesday - On Tuesday it was work and then Titus and I played Starcraft 2 and ate pita kebab and drank beer. 

21.9 Monday - On Monday back to office. I went for an excellent jog in the evening. I felt strong for the first time in a long time. 

The picker

20.9 Sunday - On Sunday we went Picking mushrooms to Sibbo national park. 

Skyping

19.9 Saturday - On Saturday I went to two movies. Coded Bias and Assassins. After the films I picked up some excellent -60% groceries. Shops sell old products for -60% after 21:00. Before 21:00 they are -30%.

Film festival in Covid times

Super deal

18.9 Friday

17.9 Thursday. On Thursday I picked up a charger that Titus had found. 2nd hand for 50 euros. New it's 1000 euro so the company saved a lot. 

16.9 Wednesday. We had to correct the voice over so I drove car from one place to another. 

15.9 Tuesday. At work it was a lot of editing of the kids show. We made first rough cuts and it went very smooth. The thing you need to be careful with is that you choose the best material. When that is chosen with thought the rest is easy. Maria and I do rough edits and Titus polishes. We also recorded a voice over for a corporate project.

14.9 Monday. I worked the day at the office and in the afternoon I met Kenneth. We looked at the apartment we filmed our kids show in and thought of smart investment decisions around it. The prices in Helsinki have increased like crazy. Well, not as crazy as in many other cities.

Time keeps flyin' at tremendous speeds

 in the evening we went fishing

So here I stand again. Delayed post and stress because so much precious content has faded away beyond the grasp memory. 

In July I was on holidays. In August I went back to the firm. And the last two weeks of August were crazy. And the week after that was not nearly as chill as I had thought. And the week after that was not either as chill as I would have expected.

we got no fish

24.7 Friday - I stayed for a week at our cottage in Porkala. It was a pleasure. The days went fast. You only had time for breakfast and something small to do in the day and then the day was gone. Amazingly fast went the last week of holidays in June. It was also my first longer stint at my parents cottage. It was very pleasurable. 

Surfin' USA

Resting in the ocean

harvesting the ocean

25.7 Saturday

I drove to Klaukkala and bought a kayak.

trying out.

I tried one 2nd hand canoe and one new at the nearby lake. 

This is the model

My baby

26.7 Sunday

So now I had a kayak and Titus came back after having had stayed at a friends place for a night.

inspection d'entrecote 

peaceful

The first journey with the kayak was around the cape of Porkala. About 17 km.

27.7 Monday

Father enjoying the new garden furniture that Titus has built

I, P, I and E visited. I got a huge bream. 

huge bream

28.7 Tuesday

We went canoeing and it was calm and the light was very special.

Porkala cape

Northern tip of Sand island

The fog was comin'

Ready for departure

29.7 Wednesday

Chillin' in Porkala.

30.7 Thursday

We went for a boat trip to Salmen.

They are after us

Corona onboard?

Rönnskär lighthouse

Calm spot

Enjoying the view

yawning under the rainbow

Night time

Enjoying the night time

31.7 Friday

It was time for the Porkala adventure to end. We packed up and packed the car and I was back in the city.

Snack

1.8 Saturday and 2.8 Sunday - I assume that the weekend was free, that M came back from her trip to the Baltics.

3.8 Monday - back to business. The great holidays were over and the preparations for our first fiction piece was about to start. 

4.8 Tuesday - 5.8 Wednesday - 6.8 Thursday - 7.8 Friday Was the the first work week. We worked on a couple of projects and the pace was picking up. After T and M having visited the theater where we were supposed to shoot the kids show we decided to use our old home and apartment as the location. There was construction work going on outside and it was too noisy. Only problem was that our apartment was a bit small. So we took down a wall.

After having taken down to wall

Rumble.

Real strong shoe ad

8.8 Saturday - 9.8 Sunday - 10.8 Monday - 11.8 Tuesday

I can't recall if we were taking weekends but the pace was picking up.

Open space

12.8 Wednesday 

The director, producer and costume designer on set

13.8 Thursday - 14.8 Friday - 15.8 Saturday - 16.8 Sunday. Preparations continued. We started to pick up stuff for props and decor as the scripts were finalized and the tempo kept going up.

building walls

Father's tea time

17.8 Monday -18.8 Tuesday. The last week started. Things were not done and it got a bit stressful. 

Lunch break. (Döner Harju is much worse novadays)

19.8 Wednesday - guess what!? Preparations continued. 

Romance on Vasagatan

Ready!

20.8 Thursday - And finally we were ready. Just about two days before the shoot things started to fall in place. I felt we had started too late but we made it anyways. The set was beautiful. It had been intense - working on the set, preparing, rehearsing. 

If nothing else this was a week that really taught me new things - under severe time pressure.

and action

21.8 Friday - shoot started. M, T and me were a bit tired when the shoot started I'd say. The following five days form a continuum. We lost track of days and we got up early every day and worked until 4-5 so the days were not that long. But it was intense. We shoot two episodes a day and had lunch and yes man yes. A new chapter in my life - I was experiencing quite new stuff for the first time in life. We all were. 

Producer, 1st AD, director

22.8 Saturday - 23.8 Sunday-24.8 Monday - was the same!

At the set

Taking photos

At the set 2. Photo by Maria

The back room

25.8 Tuesday - last day of shoot - At five we were done but we started packing immediately afterwards so the work continued. Relieved and tired and overwhelmed by all the people (as I am an introvert) it was great to go home and rest. 

26.8 Wednesday - T, M and me thought of resting but we were all back at the office the next day. Worked continued until the end of the week.

27.8 Thursday - 28.8 Friday - We continued working. 

29.8 Saturday - resting

Great night out

We went to my parents place.

30.8 Sunday 

On Sunday we went to check out a house that was for sale in Jorvas which is the place where I grew up.

Mom checking the house

And checking another house

Chillin' after sauna with Ipad

31.8 Monday

On Monday it was back to office.

Back to business after week-end.

1.9 Tuesday

2.9 Wednesday

3.9 Thursday

4.9 Friday

5.9 Saturday - Today I woke up around 9. The alarm clock has been ringing at 7:30 this week. It hasn't been too bad to wake up that early. And it wasn't considerably more pleasant not to wake to the beep-beep-beep.

We went for a coffee to cafe Sävy. Long time not been there. Latte for M, single cap for me. Then we bought groceries for around 20 euros and prepared a brunch at home. I took out an old laptop to see if it still didn't work. It didn't. I might try to fix it. 

I went jogging in the central park and listened to the pod My dad wrote a porno. It does make me smile but I think it there is some kind of ridiculous twisted faking going on at times. The speakers are not going deep, restrain from exposing themselves and...well it's hard to explain. I'll try to find the words for another blog post.

After jogging I took a shower and cleaned the toilet. I cut one kohlrabi and one carrot harvested from our own gardened and we ate those cut in small pieces. Dipped in yoghurt dip. Then we went to our old apartment and where we shot the kids show and picked up our last plants and furniture. 

Now is now. 

Actually now is not now. 

Now is 13.9.2020

5.9 Saturday

Weekend! Yay!

6.9 Sunday

Our mother's 66th birthday

Speech

Checking out some of our stuff

7.9 Monday - Back to work. The week was again packed with work, but a little less than the previous week. 8.9 Tuesday - 9.9 Wednesday - 10.9 Thursday. Work, work, work, work.

Ockie

11.9 Friday - First time in a long while we quit at 1700. During the weekend I have been relaxing as I haven't since July. 12.9 Saturday - Relax. 13.9 Sunday - relax.

So all in all when I look back this long time. July was holidays, August was accelerating work pace peaking at the moment just before the shoot and September has been a reducing work pressure. That's it. When you don't update often you see new patterns but you miss the detail.

Again I promise - not to you but to myself - to update more regularly. 

Ta-ta