Arvokas Metsämme

Arvokas Metsämme

(click the image to see the web documentary)

One aspect of being independent freelancer has always been a bit of a soft spot for me. It is working alone. Thus every oppor­tunity to work together with a profes­sional, solid team is a blessing which I enjoy very much.

Some time ago, actually two years ago already, Petteri Saario – one of our most highly respected award winning nature documen­ta­rists – and his company DocArt approached with an idea.

He had been asked to do a documentary on the myriad of challenges our forest industry faces presently: the need to evolve, to create innovation, to come up with clean, sustai­nable way of running a business, to face the ecolo­gical challenge, not to mention climate change…

He suggested to me that we’d pitch a web documentary to go along with the full length feature he was creating. Goes without saying, I was thrilled.

And on top of that, the client accepted the proposal.

I worked on this for the past spring with DocArt – and enjoyed it tremen­dously. Delivered it to the client for approval and now, the client gave a green light to show this without limitations.

The Anatomy of Arvokas Metsämme

The work consists of an intro­duction and 12 articles. All custom coded touch-natively – i.e. not using any ready made canned templates – and thus work on all devices. We used video, lots of aerials, stills, animated graphics, virtual objects, interactive 360°-imagery, etc.

All the tools I have in my toolbox, so to say.

Focusing on different themes, all related to our forests: from biodi­versity to biodiesel, wooden furniture and wood archi­tecture to cloth made out of wood, not to mention the health benefits of nature and the benefits we achieve by experiencing it – even virtually.

The core and soul of the whole project is the 90min. documentary Petteri did. I have perso­nally seen it probably ten times — on screen and in a big theatre – and it does not cease to impresses me. There is a trailer in the intro­duction so you get the feel of it. And if you want to arrange a screening, it can be arranged (there is contact info for this).

Our work challenges the way we are used to seeing our forest industry, looking for new ways to use the biggest natural reserves we have in this country in a way that is sustai­nable and best for all of us.

We don’t offer all conclusive answers – or pretend that we even know them – but present twelve stories which we believe show that the future as we’d like to see it develop. The biggest industry in this country should not be toilet paper production or just making pulp to produce generic paper, but something totally different.

All the challenges we face — both natio­nally and globally — speak for the need of change in our thinking. In this matter and in many others. This work should be seen as a conver­sation opener in this matter.

I think this is the most extensive piece of work I have ever done — maybe the most important as well.

I am very, very happy – and proud – of the result. I learned an enormous amount while working on it myself. It is a body of work which most probably will evolve and be expanded in the future – but it depends naturally on the client.

My sincerest and most humble thanks to Petteri, Antti, Tiina and Sari for the possi­bility of working on this together.

It was simply an awesome experience.

Click here to see.

2 Replies to “Arvokas Metsämme”

  1. Hi Tim -

    thank you. I enjoy so much when working in colla­bo­ration – as you know. I was watching our piece some time ago and there is another one I am really proud of.

    It is amazing how fast the technology has moved. It is only seven years ago NYT published their “Snowfall” and this present piece we did makes that look very elementary and simple. (With all due respect — but time does its thing…)

    And that was like 4 million views in the first days, Pulitzer Prize and I don’t know what not…

    I remember getting an avalanche of emails (yes, pun intended…) following the publication asking if I could produce something similar. I was a bit careful with my answer, but now I can say with confi­dence that yes, no problem. 

    Responsive, fluid, adaptive, parallax, animated graphics.… whatever you want, I am pretty confident I can do it — and do it fast and smooth.

    What surprises me is that our media has not adopted this more widely. Yes, it is a handcraft which has a learning curve, but once you get it down, it is fast and very infor­mative way of commu­nicating certain messages.

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