31 Check It Out

Whenever Eki and I get an idea for a new project, the first thing we do is google it. If there´s a lot out there on the subject it doesn´t mean we drop it. Instead we try to develop the doc with a little Margie production slant. When we began to get serious about doing a production about pot, we found a lot of stuff on the subject. For example: “Marijuana Inc” produced by MNBC had over 40,000,000 viewers on cable and over 350,000  on Youtube. And there was tons more.

That told us a whole lot of people were interested in marihuana. The MNBC angle is high drama. We decided ours would be low-key. “marihuanaland” is told from an outsider´s point of view (a Finnish film team) and zeroes in on the cannabis industry in Oakland, California: how it operates within the state law and how it has affected the city. 

Chasing Esa-Pekka (2008)

When we were developing “Chasing Esa-Pekka” for the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) they gave us all the docs made about the composer/conductior Esa-Pekka Salonen. Because people who are interviewed a lot tend to repeat themselves, we were able to see in advance what Salonen had said before.

When we interviewd him we tried to ask questions that steered him into new directions. We also decided that watching him conduct all the time would be boring, except for the most dedicated music lovers. Our solution was to film him in different situations in several locations: Los Angeles, Milan, London, Stockholm, Helsinki. It was a new way at looking at Esa-Pekka and his work.

Lesson 35: It´s all been done before but…


Nest week: 32  S´not Fair: copyrights