#bbgjuniorprogram2019

Looking couple weeks back to our Junior Program’s 2nd edition graduation - with a post by our lovely Office Intern Venla! ___________________________________________________________ I’m Venla Heiniö and I am an Office Intern in Blockbusters Gang. I graduated on 29th February from Junior Program 2019 Fall edition. In this post you can find some pictures of the graduation celebration held at Blockbusters Gang’s office on Saturday!

My journey at the Junior Program was a little different compared to other juniors. Everything started from my friend introducing me to Blockbusters Gang. I contacted Emma Ilves and Iiris Juutilainen, informing that I would be interested to work with them. They invited me to their office and after we had gotten to know each other, I was offered a place from the Junior Program. So I started on the Program, a couple months later than the other juniors. I was warmly welcomed and since then I have been a part of this network.

The program consisted of visits to different companies of film and TV industry, such as Yellow Film & TV and Angel Films, and lectures that were held by the Gang Members and people other filmmakers outside of the company. In my opinion nothing else is more interesting way to learn than listening to people passionate towards their career, telling about their experiences and most important life lessons. For example the lecture of Pessi Levanto, one of the top Finnish film score Composers didn’t feel like a lecture. That’s what I like about Blockbusters Gang: we learn by listening, discussing and experiencing. This is something you can not learn from books. For the past four months I have felt almost like exploding from the amount of knowledge I have gained. But that is only a sign for that there has been a lot to learn. All this has led to the point where I have now become a member of the Blockbusters’ Office Gang. The learning still continues and I am more than excited about the future here.

Ps. All photos are by lovely Neea Havu, our Production Assistant (also a Photographer)!

Hienostelijat commercials were filmed one autumn night in September. BBG casted extras and our Juniors Annina and Sanna got opportunity to be part of the casting process. Our member Paula was 1st Assistant Director and our Janne and Pia were her 2nd ADs.

Client: S-Ravintolat Production: Hienostelijat Director: Anssi Määttä Agency: Folk Finland Extras Casting: Blockbusters Gang (Pia Nurmi, Tanja Lilja, Annina Juuso, Sanna Hanén) 1st AD: Paula Haukinen / Blockbusters Gang 2nd AD: Janne Lähteenmäki / Blockbusters Gang 2nd AD: Pia Nurmi / Blockbusters Gang

Finnish Film Composer Pessi Levanto came to BBG office and gave us a great lecture about film & tv composing. His recent works include: Se mieletön remppa, Psychosia and Swingers. I think the lecture was interesting, informative and yet very casual! We went through the different stages of the scoring process from start all the way to wrapping, and we also talked about how to brainstorm with director and editing .

Movie composition was not a familiar job to me and I learned a lot about it. For example that for a full-length movie you need only 40 minutes music! I found it funny to hear, because there is always some music playing background in the movies and I thought there was a lot more it.

Pessi also talked a lot about important things and thoughts about working in the industry like the importance of being kind and respecting others. He also shared a couple stories about networking and helping your co-workers. I liked his lecturing style and and that we had a lot conversations.

Pessi showed us an online system he uses in his projects and we got to know a bit about how it works. We spoke generally about movie music and discussed about good Composers and productions with good music. Even Mökö was focused in listening this interesting lecture.

My name is Sanni, I’m a 21-year-old media production freelancer from Southern Karelian, Ruokolahti, now living in Espoo and working mainly in production department and training my skills in screenwriting too. At the moment I’m participating in the Blockbusters Gang’s Junior Program 2019 Fall edition. Yippee! Couldn’t be more excited.

As a Junior I perform two internships during the program, one as a Office Intern and one as a Production Intern in a film shoot. My office internship has started this week, on Monday, 7th of October, so there’s not yet much to tell (except we were waiting Mökö to come visit us and bring Kauppalehti with it) but what I now like to do, is share my two last weeks with you guys when I worked as a Production Intern in an Art Department at a series shooting of Tack Films.

In August, at the beginning of the Junior Program BBG gave each Junior own ”Junior-Godmother” whom they could ask anything about working in a field and who’d help them out with questions about industry and internships and, basically anything. Mine was Pauliina. We had a cup of coffee with Pauliina, who worked as a Production Manager in production, before shoots and discussed what kind of shootings it would be and what my role would included. I had a good feeling about everything.

Shootings started and in the crew there were 4 Gang members: I, Tove (our Script Supervisor), Charlotta (our Caterer) and Pauliina, of course. I guess Pauliina was still working when the photo below was taken... 

I helped Catering first with very basic tasks. The next day my role as a Caterer’s help switched to the Art Department’s help. The following two weeks I worked with the Prop Master and the Set Decorator and it was amazing, couldn’t imagine better.

Because the series was targeted to small children, age between 4 and 7, the setting wasn’t bulk, everyday condo with a normal people. I’d say it was exactly the opposite: Fairytale world with the princesses, palaces, servants, pixies, glamour and glitter! It was a step into the different world, the world without any problems. Honestly, it didn’t feel I was working. I was just visiting some kind of fantasy world. One day we even had cotton candies as a crafty!

I really liked working in an Art Department. Besides the production was specific and had a rather small crew, to me the visual aspect was important. When working for instance as a PA, you don’t need to think about aestethic or an appereance of a setting. But when helping the Set Decorator you definitely do. I also like working in a set so the role fitted better for me.

I truly appreciate that the Art Department gave me tasks that were relevant to the production. They showed me a huge wardrobe, Artistiasu in Kerava, we went together into the woods to pick big branches and entire juniper (!!) as a setting in studio. We transferred all this ”forest” with a basic-sized van. Even one small juniper was in a cabin with us.