Juhana Lumme - Storyteller
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About
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Finnish
Juhana Lumme - Storyteller
  • About
  • News
  • Blog
  • Works
  • Contact
  • Finnish
Blog

How to sell your movie idea

Filmmakers tend to develop several film projects at the same time. The reason is simple; some projects never get made, so it makes sense to have several in the works – even if one falls, another may get produced.

The importance of a pitch

So why do film projects fall? There are as many reasons as there are projects, but when a filmmaker gets an idea for his next movie, he seldom can – or wants to – hire a team of professionals to make it happen. Instead, he has to step out of the artist’s role and turn into a salesman knocking on the doors of the financiers. These could be producers, tv-channel executives, institutes offering grants or potential crowdfunders. To this end, the filmmaker has to turn his idea into a sales pitch. The term comes from baseball, and by pitching the filmmaker throws the ball to the financiers.

If the project doesn’t convince the financiers, it won’t get made. Therefore, preparing a convincing pitch is one of the most important stages of filmmaking.  At its shortest, a pitch can be just one sentence, such as “Jaws in space” for Ridley Scott’s Alien, but usually it tells at least the film’s genre and the story in short.

Mood reel enlivening the pitch

If the filmmaker has enough time and passion, he can prepare a mood reel to better convey his vision. Mood reels are seldom seen in public, for typically they contain copyright-protected material, such as clips from other movies and mood-related music. They are not fine art, but one of the tools the filmmaker uses to push his project forward. Therefore they get forgotten after fulfilling their purpose.

I’ve long wanted – and still do – to make a short film about Eino Leino‘s poem The Dark One, which has for over a century the been the favorite piece of melancholic Finnish youngsters. Since the poem is most likely not familiar to everyone, I prepared a mood reel where I combined my two favorite adaptations of the poem; Hannu Huuska‘s recitation with Petri Hiltunen‘s comic book art. 

This piece was also my first attempt at creating motion comics, which I intend to investigate further in the future. Even though the result is a bit rough, it felt like a pity to just bury it on my hard drive, so I put it on YouTube for all to see. I hope it will introduce the art of Leino, Huuska and Hiltunen to new audiences in the years to come. And who knows – maybe one day it help me fulfill my dream of making The Dark One as a short film.

Blog

Gold in Gdynia – visiting the Polish Film Festival

Let’s face it: there’s really no glamour in making movies – except in premieres, galas and festivals. Therefore it’s always a pleasure for a filmmaker to get invited to one. I had the fortune of winning the Common Baltic Short Film Contest with short film Venus, which bought me a trip to the award ceremony at the 42nd Polish Film Festival in Gdynia. I’d never been to Poland before, and as always, going to a new festival is also a journey to a new city, a new country and its people. All of these have a soul, and you get a glimpse of it on the festival’s silver screen.

The ever-expanding statue of the Polish Film Festival.

The ever-expanding statue of the Polish Film Festival.

As a young city, Gdynia might not have a long history to present, but it does have the atmosphere and functionality of a seaport. All the festival sites are within view in the center, and the city honours the festival with an ever-expanding statue of the main winners.

I found the Polish people friendly and helpful, and as a guest I got treated like a VIP; pick-up from the airport, free hotel, dining with interesting people, invitation to parties and a festival pass – which was nice. However, the main event were the movies. The Polish Film Festival presents the best Polish films of the year, and I was puzzled by Tower. A Bright day, moved by The Fastest and entertained by Double Trouble. Most of the prizes went to Silent Night, which –  I conclude – will be cemented in the festival statue next year.

Besides the usual diploma, my own award included a GoPro, which was an unexpected initiation to the world of action cameras that I’m now eagerly experimenting with.

Finding new uses for GoPro action camera.

Running a long-lasting national film festival is a bold act: it is inviting people to come and see who we are; what is our culture and what we do. Rarely have I seen such an enthusiastic audience and full-packed cinemas. I discovered gold in Gdynia.

Blog

Dumbo Recut

DumboOf late I’ve been frequently exposed to children’s movies, especially Disney classics. Watching Dumbo stepping on his big ears I began to wonder, what would be the most obvious way to help the poor, harassed cub: teach an elephant to fly – or cut off the overgrown skin tissue? Occam’s razor said cut.

Getting down to it, I searched for the right pictures to remake Dumbo. Dumbo’s benefactor would naturally be the circus director, and it was easy to find matching shots.

Dumbo and director

And how to make Dumbo’s new ears? Obviously some Disney animator had had the same idea back in 1941, judging by this jewel of source material:

Elephant

A little photoshopping, and Dumbo is recut. But wait! Isn’t this violating Disney’s copyright? Not to worry, under the fair use -policy it’s perfectly okay to make parody. If Disney wanted, however, to make an official version out of this, I’d be happy to negotiate.Dumbo recut

Blog

Interviewing Mikko Alanne, a Finnish Screenwriter in Hollywood

I interviewed Hollywood-based Finnish screenwriter Mikko Alanne for Finnish Screenwriters’ Guild’s seminar. How to sell your script to Hollywood, and what’s it like to live as a screenwriter in Los Angeles? Mikko’s hilarious and outspoken answers now on YouTube – in Finnish.

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Juhana Lumme
writes fairy-tales for grown-ups - and sometimes for children, too.

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