Reflections from Spring 07

Dear friends

It has been couple of months since last time I wrote a lenghty blogentry. Time goes fast. It is now summer.

By the way: I noticed that it has not been possible for you to leave comments earlier to this blog. Or it has been possible only for the registered users. But I have changed that now: You can leave comments whether you have a blog here or not. Hopefully you will leave comments!

School has finished for this spring. Last time I wrote about my life..we had just finished our first short-films as a group. During the spring we made three more movies: Jälkiä-( Traces ), Veljesi Aaron ( Your Brother Aaron ) and Serkku ( Cousin ). Veljesi Aaron was the film I directed. I made the original screenplay for Serkku. They are 3-5 minutes long. Aaron being the longest one.

Little bit about those films....
In these films we were allowed to use some dialogue. This made the projects more challenging but also exciting. In Fiktio-1 we had two days to shoot the film, now we had three full days. It became clear quite early that everyone in our group wanted to improve from our last projects. It is cool to notice this natural progress, everyone learning new ways of doing things and setting the standard somewhat higher.

Aaron is a short story about communication, acceptance and love. I won't tell the plot, because I'd like to show this movie to you someday. Serkku is a story about dysfunctional relationship, violence, use and abuse of personal power. Our movies are done with almost no money, so the settings and effects are not like in "big films". However, many people have been willing to help us without any financial reward. So that has been great.
In these movies our group was still doing the acting-work by ourselves. This will change next year...as there will be drama-students and professionlan actors working with us. This makes me both nervous and excited. In my heart it is more the excitement that I feel.

Next autumn we start making documentaries. I am directing one of them. I am looking for a good idea at the moment.

Last weekend there was a good gig in Jyväskylä. Profeetta ja Uusi Maailmanuskonto released their debut-album and they held a concert to celebrate that. I like their music...and also the memebers of the band are my friends.

This spring went really fast with these film-projects. I really didn't do much more that made films and watched them. I was fun thoug, mostly. Sometimes it was quite stressful. I want to learn to work without stressing out too much. Being flexible but centered in my spirit.

I really like this flat that I am living in. This is on the 9th floor...I've got such a cool bird's eye view from here. It is not cheap for a student like me...but I hope I can still stay here for sometime. It is also a peaceful neighborhood. I like that too. Just few hundred meters from my house there is a lake and a beach. I just swam there couple of days ago. Bliss, bliss, bliss. That was the first time since last summer ( in natural water ).

Right now I am doing my work-practice in one production-company. Filmiteollisuus it is called. I have enjoyed it. We are making a comedy-miniseries for tv. Ten episodes. We are doing it in a fast rhytm.
I have been doing all sorts of things there. Helping the producer and screenwriter. Running errands. Acting a little bit ( Yes, it is true. ). Helping the cameraman/cinematograper. Being an assistant director ( in this instance that meeans that I am taking orders from director and passing them on to actors. The director is not always able to be physically next to the actors. )

Favourite films this spring....
April: Shortbus, Inland Empire ( that new Lynch-movie. Inspiring. ) and Three Extremes ( Asian horror-movie. THree stories in one. Not for the weak stomach. ),
May: The squid and the whale ( good dialogue. good acting. ) Wicker Man ( Classic. Really original. Disturbing. Provokes emotions. ) Science of Sleep ( Visually pretty amazing. Beautiful. Directed by Michel Gondry who is among my favourites. )

In april I went to see Nine Inch Nails concert in Helsinki. They were one of my favourites in High School. Enjoyed the gig.

I did short documentary about a pizza-place near my flat ( Three minutes in length ). People who work there have migrated here from Iraq. To escape the war. I felt sorry for them. One of them said that people who are setting up bombs there and creating chaos are really not from Iraq. Many of them just use this chaotic situation of Iraq to fight their battles there. I haven't studied the situation that much lately so I don't really know. It does not look good at all, that is something I do know.

It seems to me that we ought to co-operate much more on this planet to resolve this kind of conflicts. We are eager to go to other countries if there is some profit to be made or some exotic experiences to be experienced...but when other countries are in real trouble we don't want to dirty our hands.
It is not that we all ought to go to hotspots of this planet and sacrifice our lives...but that we shouldn't say that it is none of our business. It is our business. We are all interconnected. Not only because we live on a same planet and thus share the natural resources etc. But because we are brothers and sisters spiritually. If we don't care about our brothers and sisters...we are doing harm to our soul. We are connected on a level of our Heart/ Soul.

This is why racism and all other prejudices are so off the mark- If we put those 'blinders' on, we are forgetting who we truly are. Cutting ourselves from our Home, this Soul-space, where we are all connected to each other. That is not a nice space to be in. AND it is especially inappropriate attitude to take in this time...when LOTS of co-operation is required to save our ass! From what? Global warming, pollution, terrorism, clash of cultures/ethnic groups/political groups, corporate corruption etc.

But let us enjoy the summer here in northern hemisphere.. and lovely winter-days for my friends in Australia. I wish to hear from you soon.
Send comments now. It is easy. I might create a myspace-site for myself soon too. Maybe I can add some films and pictures there.

Much love. I think of you all often and that makes me feel warm and good.

Peace, Lauri Anssi M