SOCIAL MEDIALAND: an evil empire? Or harmless useful tool?

Erkki, get out your BIG guns because I've got plenty of ammunition. User addiction to smartphones and social media like other hardcore drugs it's hard to kick the habit. They are designed to get you hooked.When I shot gottaGETinTOUCH, a rap video about cell phone addiction, almost all the subjects looked the same: heads bent, zoned-out, fingers dancing on the keyboard. Flesh and blood humanoids. The SM version of 'Night of the Living Dead'. I can hear Erkki say, 'Hey, wait a minute.' And give me a dozen examples of how the internet has changed the way we live for the better. True. Movements such as #metoo are perfect examples. And yes, the internet is a great way to keep in touch with family, friends, business contact, get news and information in nanoseconds. But, smartphones and social media are also designed to be addictive.

gottaGETinTOUCH (2016)

A whole new, sometimes weird culture has evolved. For instance, South Koreans, are among the world's most prolific texters. According to the New York Times, some of the most addicted users have developed bigger thumps. Thumbers are pros, Indexers are amateurs. The language of texters is acronyms. Of course, there's an online list. Your smartphone's predictive can write your bio: type 'I was born @therealbradg. JK Rowlings tied it. 2 million others tried it too. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google observed that every two days we generate as much information as was created in the entire history of civilization until 2003. When Erkki wants some info, he whips out his phone and talks to it (in English). It answers right back. People who can't navigate in this high technosphere are NETbehinders.

Two teenagers heard the lyrics to gottaGETinTOUCH. They screamed.'That's us, can we be in it'? I told them that I had read girls, on average, texted about 100 times a day.They said, 'At least.' (boys average around 60). Anyone with half a brain, knows kids are among vulnerable. Two books on social media have made the top of the New York Times non-fiction best-sellers list: 'Regaining Conversation' by Sherry Turkle, a media scholar at MIT (Massachusetts Institue of Technolgy) and 'Irresistible' by Adam Alter. If you're a parent buy them both. It's no secret that smartphones and SM sites encourage constant use by giving rewards for checking in all the time. According to USA TODAY, teenage suicides are rising – school and the internet are to blame. Many top tech execs enroll their children in private schools, such as WALDORF, where young students are not allowed any electronic device. One thing is as certain, we can't put this genie back into the bottle. Over to you Erkki.

PS: Erkki told me not to worry about typos and misspelled words. His computer has an automatic spellcheck. Whew. What a relief.

Sources: New York Times, Financial Times Weekend, The ECONOMIST, USAToday

Next week: MolestSTARS: how the internet helped bring some bad dudes down

I use Grammarly, which in addition to spell-checking does some rudimentary grammar checks: punctuation etc. It's pretty neat, IMO.

https://app.grammarly.com/

- Eki

The answer is 'NO'

'DONALDdonald' was fun to make. A new kind of project for Erkki and me. And I wanted to do more with Trump - he has left a trail of trash talk to work with. In black and white, he looks smarmier than ever. Most people I know think this most un-presidential president has turned the US upside-down: black is white, lies are truth, fake is real. I had the the bright idea to keep the graphics and put more Trump words in his mouth. Maybe make him get smaller each t until he finally disappears.

I called Camilla Karsh, our story editor. When I told her my idea, the answer was, 'Hmm, uh, mmmm...' Translation: It stinks. I called Erkki and gave him my pitch. He didn't hem and haw. Right off the bat he said, 'No Maggy'. But I said, 'Trump has said so much stupid stuff we could go on and on.' He said, 'Not a good reason.' I'm lucky. It pays to have people on your team who are not afraid to say 'NO'.

Hercule Poirot

For instance, someone should have said 'NO' to Jim Jarmusch when he pitched PATTERSON, a death-by-boredom movie about a poet-bus driver named Patterson, who lives and works in Patterson, New Jersey. The movie is divided into days of the week and every day is the same. I left on Thursday. 'Parrerson' tanked at the box office. Taking in just a little over 2 million dollars worldwide. I would have said 'NO' to Kenneth Branagh when he decided to re-make Agatha Christie's 'MURDER on the ORIENT EXPRESS'. 

And I would have been dead wrong. It's a hit. But I suspect Agatha Christie's eternal popularity and that beautiful train has a lot to do with its success.When Erkki and I first started working together he told me to 'kill your little darlings'. The term is such an old saw that it sounds trite. But it's true. Still, I hate letting go of 'DONALADdonald'.

Re: Erkki's comments last week: Not fair.I can't exaggerate or embellish without Erki pointing it out. What fun is that?

Next week: SOCIAL MEDIALAND: an evil empire?

David Suchet is Hercule Poirot. No-one else should even think about acting the role. 

Ever.

- Eki

DONALDdonald: Trump talks

DONALDdonald (2017)

When I showed Erkki the ballpoint pen a pal in St. Louis, Mo sent me, he said, “Let's shoot it.” The pen has a red, white and blue stem and a PRESIDENT TRUMP'S head. The head talked in his own voice when you pressed it down. It said all sorts of silly stuff that people eat up. Including me. Erkki tied a long string around Trump's neck and strung it up between two poles in the studio and shot it. Trump looked terrific on screen. - smarmy, with pouty lips. Erkki recorded his dialogue. We made up a ditzy, obsessed fan - BETTY BOOB. BB's dumb dialogue matches Trump's. I did the voice-over. Erkki directed. He kept saying higher, higher, softer, breathier, sexier. We did it over and over. And then let the whole thing rest to do another project.

Sharon Pettus, the pen pal sender and I decided to go to Washington D.C. to check out the scene in the capital. We stayed at the Willard Hotel, the turn-of-the-20th-century icon, where the word lobbyists got its start. President Teddy Roosevelt hung out there. So did a lot of people who wanted to promote their company, their country, their cause, or just wanted to be where the power was. They made the lobby their meeting place hoping for a chance to make a pitch to the President. The new 'place-to-see-and-be-seen is the Trump International Hotel. We went there for a farewell drink. Wine is 27 dollars a glass, but worth it. Just to see all the BEs and WANNABEs waiting for President Trump to show up. His only go-to place in the capital.

Back in Helsinki Erkki took in all the footage from Washington. I asked Sharon for her ideas. She suggested Trump's head be in black and white. And the American flag turned upside-down, as a symbol of the topsy-turvy Trump administration. Erkki and I liked it. But the surreal made the real look banal. We dumped the Washington footage. And started all over. One minute on screen took about ten hours in the studio. And Erkki did the animation and other corrections later. The first person who saw it said, “What the fuck.” God bless America.



Maggy has a flair for good stories, and she has never let reality get in the way when telling them. The way i remember the session, Maggy had everything figured out pretty well before she came to the studio. So sure, i said "let's shoot it", but only after she asked me to. So, i can't take much credit for the idea, other than simplifying it quite a bit in the editing session - Humpty Trumpty on the wall (making a great fall) got tossed out, along many other ideas, all in the name of being concise.

-Eki

Shooting “MEOW”

MeoW (2015)

It sounded like a perfect idea. A much-loved horse loses his brother, after living together for 26 years. He's so sad, his two-legged friend (and owner) adopts four cats to keep him company. They all live happily together. Erkki and I wanted to make a cheerful, public service music video about animal adoption, after watching so many sad abandoned animal commercials on TV. This story was sweet, seemed doable and had a happy ending. I arrived at Donnamarie's barn ready for action. Almost. Camera, a chair (for low shots), a cap (the sun was brutal) but forgot my  tripod. Turned on the camera,  trying to hold it steady. Two hours went by. The horse never stepped on the cats but seemed more interested in eating the hay. The cats roamed around, but every time I pointed the camera they would jump out of the frame. We finally gave up, made another appointment and went out for lunch. This time when I arrived and set up, I started shooting anything that moved.  When I checked the footage no scene showed the cats and the horse together. I made another appointment and called Erkki in Finland. I griped and groaned  (he calls it whining) and asked for advice. He said, “I've been in this business 27 years – the only thing worse to film than animals are kids.” Depressed, I hung up.

After  the fourth and fifth time (when my camera's memory was filled) and I missed the best shots,) I got a sinking feeling that this sweet little story would never be caught on my camera. And made a sixth appointment. By this time Cherokee seemed to know what I wanted. I'd say, “Look sad Cherokee.” And he would stand by the window of his stall  and (to me at least) looked sad. He was a trooper, especially since he had a bum leg, that hurt and needed painful treatments. But Kickapoo, Smokey, Foxfire and Pumpkin did exactly what they felt like doing. Sometimes nothing. I kept shooting. Finally, with my camera pointed in the right direction, and rolling, the scene was perfect: Cherokee was happily eating his hay, Donnamarie put out the cat's food nearby, all four ran out with their tails erect and started gobbling their breakfast. At exactly the right moment, Kickapoo turned her head and looked straight at the camera. A perfect shot. And a transition to the next scene in the PetSmart store, where volunteers take abandoned animals every Saturday to be adopted. But we needed a happy end shot. I told Donnamrie we had to try to get the cats to come out of the barn. I turned on the camera, yelled “Action” and she opened the door. Two of the cats walked smartly out and to my surprise, so did Cherokee.  I said, “It's a wrap.”

Cute cat videos are hot and they get the most hits on the internet.  PURINA Friskies cat food division gives an “Oscar” (or the cat equivalent) every year for what they think is the best cat video. I watched, what looked like a compilation. It didn't have a story but it did have lots of funny shots of cats doing crazy stuff, such a eating with a fork, or opening a drawer. Grumpy, the cat with the famous tuned-down mouth, became an instant sensation after the owner's brother posted his photo on the internet and it went viral. Grumpy reportedly makes one million dollars a year and travels with his own entourage: an agent, a vet, a groomer and his owner.  The WALKER museum in Minneapolis , Minnesota, curated a cat video film festival that has been shown in different places, including the LOFT cinema in Tucson, Arizona.When I told our story editor all the problems I had shooting “MeoW”, she laughed and said, “Ha, now you're planning to make a 30' documentary with kids. “Well, good luck.”

NEW PRODUCTION: littlemargieproductions website

Shirley Temple.

Whenever I checked our website I thought we've gotta get rid of that pic of me posing like an ancient Shirley Temple – hands on hips looking bratty. Then one day I went there. The screen was bright red and totally blank, with the ominous word “FORBIDDEN' written in bold letters. Cripes. Maybe Elisa (our Finnish server) thought littlemargie was some evil porno or pedophilia site. Or worse. How could we have got into such a mess.

Then I remembered a form letter I received from Elisa in Finnish. I understood a word here and there but not the gist. So I wrote them back (in English) and asked them to translate it and send me an emai (in English). And sent it off registered mail and waited. Nothing happened. When I got back to Europe from Colorado I started calling every number I had in my book for Elisa. Pentti, Pekka, Ilpo, Juusi and a bunch of other guys were all nice, spoke English and said they couldn't help me. Finally a contact was made with someone named Henri. He seemed to have some clout. He said that the system had changed, the payment would be due every two months instead of once every three years and that we would have to make a new contract. YIKES.  This was getting complicated. After four months we sorted it out. But they had lost all our files and Erkki stuck something up provisoire.

The site looked worse than ever. Erkki is always “putting out fires”  - meaning clients need his help NOW. Every monday I'd call and he'd say, “I'll try to get to it next week.” GROAN. Finally I was in Finland, working on one of our public service music videos in his studio. “Erkki puleeeeeeze can we fix the website.”  He said “It's complicated.” And admitted it wasn't just a matter of putting a few new photos up, but of making a template, that would make it a snap to change and add. We decided it had to be done. He got his working and band buddy, Era, who knew a lot about how to do it to help. They kept talking in Finnish and I kept quiet. Every once in a while Erkki would say, “Once we get this done it's gonna be a cinch.” And then I had to leave Finland. Every Monday I called to find out what was happening. He'd sat, “I'll try to get to it next week.” ERKKKKKI! But last monday I called and he was working on it. And I saw a bit. And then a little more. And then it was done. Everything we've ever made was accessible. And looked fantastic. Check it out: www.littlemargieproductions.com

Mouse.

Eki's comment: I'm not a web designer, and i haven't really done much of real www design work other than to maintain my own and Maggy's site in the last 15 years. And... as you can guess, both my site and Maggy's were still really just the same 15 year old frames/html designs with some quick plaster over the worst cracks to somewhat hide their outdateness (well, at least Maggy's was, my own site hasn't even had a facelift in this millenia - and probably never will).

In the last year or two, i had done some content for our studio's site though, and while doing so i realized that maintaining the Wordpress-based SW4 site (designed and set up by my friend Era) was just sooo much easier and sooo much less hassle. So, as Maggy's site needed to be built from scratch anyway, i thought we really needed to go that route with it too. Especially as nowadays sites need to work on mobile devices too.

The only problem was, i had never set up a Wordpress site. After quick surfing on and around the subject, i realized that learning to set the site up would take some considerable time, as well as very likely messing it up many times before getting it to work properly - i had no illusions about my mad skillz on that topic. It's not rocket science, but not something a newbie can do in an hour either. At least not this newbie. So, it got postponed until i knew i had enough time to actually make it work. Which turned into an eternity, of course.

Cut to Maggy's last visit - we were editing at the studio, and Era happened to walk by, and was kidnapped to the web site team. He was kind enough to spend the time to show me how the initial setup needs to be done. It was kind of simple, but only when you know exactly what you're doing. You just need to do the right steps in the right order, all of which i have blissfully forgotten already.

Between the IDEA and the REALITY Falls a...

Shadow. I think we've used this T. S. Eliot quote before. But it deserves a repeat. An idea comes in a blink. A flash. It's easy. Then the hard part, like an all-white jigsaw puzzle. First you have to find the border pieces and then.... We usually start with a synopsis. But in this case our story editor says forget the synopsis do the Treatment.  I hate the Treatment. You have to know where the story is going and imagine how to shoot the different scenes so they fit. The synopsis tells the story. But the treatment, if it's good, shows the story.

A blank page.

When we have a new project we talk about it a lot, collect related info from different sources and then try to put it all together on one page (single-spaced). It's not uncommon to do nine or ten drafts (each numbered). There should be no typo errors or spelling mistakes. We like the project we're working on so much that we're shooting a small test film before it's even commissioned, to go with the proposal we'll pitch to the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE).

At the Nordic Film Festival I've been to pitching sessions where producers and their commissioning editor present their projects before a panel of CEs from the Nordic TV companies. Sometimes it ain't pretty. They demolish the un-prepared. Or those with weak proposals. The winners are calm, confident and can answer any difficult question. They tell their stories, which have a beginning, a middle and an end, concisely.  Sounds simple and logical but try it. For example, I should be working on the Treatment for our project. But writing this blog is a lot more fun. Tomorrow I'll tackle the un-tackable.

Q.  Do you ever wish you were in another business?

A. Nope. When we don't have a TV project to work on, we make music videos for the fun of it (see GETTIN' OLD AIN'T EASY).

January: Cats-R-fun 

GETTIN' OLD AIN'T EASY: a Finnish, French, American music video

Billy The Cat - "Gettin' Old Ain's Easy" (2013)

Eki and I just finished the edit on "Gettin' Old Ain't Easy." We both like it a lot. And in two weeks it's had over 500 hits. A drop in the Youtube ocean but still... Partly it has to do with Baptiste Daleman, the singer/composer/guitarist who composed the music, performed and recorded the song (I wrote the lyrics). Baptiste has a following, especially in France. Although now he's got a gig in the UK - London and Brighton. He started out as my guitar teacher. But we soon got tired of him trying to teach how to change chords and instead started writing tunes after I played "A Tiny Ton of Trouble" - a music video that Eki and I did last year.  He asked me to write something for him.

Our first song was "Dating Mating & Hating after 30."  I thought the lyrics were Cole Porter-ish but being 29 and romantic Baptiste thought they were cynical. So we left that one and I wrote "Gettin' Old Ain't Easy" A sweet sentimental take on old age that has a sad beginning and a happy end. It also has kids and cats (one of whom is Billy) which people love to see in videos.

When I was in the US - the Wild West - I did the filming. Lots of it. But then I decided to re-shoot a scene because I didn't like the t-shirt the motorcycle rider was wearing. Big mistake. We took the new shots and I forgot to turn the camera off. Eki told to look at the footage before we met to pick out the scenes I liked best. Big surprise. 25 minutes of the fan in my living room going round and round. I decided not to tell Eki until he saw the rest of the tape. When he took a look he said, "Mmmmm."  Not a promising beginning. But then he went to work and I was quiet. Never once did he have to say, "It's ren-der-ng." 

Q. Did Billy the cat find a good home?

A. Yes. A fantastic home with an adorable couple who have two other sweet (female) cats who love him to pieces and two dogs, one who lets Billy cuddle up to him when the weather gets cold. They send me photos and I still miss him.

Next month: A New Project