FINNISH ANIMATION: Tuhru

from Ami Lindholm's fantastic Anxiety/Relief

most likely reason you can't find information on anything: you're not looking hard enough. I humbly apologise to Finland for any comments about how, "there's just not anything here!!" I was a fool. a lazy fool who really, really didn't want to sit in front of a computer doing a research project.

but oh how things have changed!

Tuhru are a great animation/illustration/design collective and all fantastically talented ladies. Check out the link above of Ami Lindholm's Anxiety/Relief, a witty animated diary about the creative process. grand!

and I've found some more good stuff, but more on that later!

FINNISH ANIMATION: general research

just a bit of general noodling about on my research on Finnish animation (which is purely, ashamedly through that wonderful digital resource we call the world wide webs)

Finnanimation is pretty interesting. a non profit association, it has a comprehensive list of all the Finnish animation production companies that have joined it as members (it's also supported by the Finnish Minister for Education and Culture, which makes it pretty official).

a worthwhile nugget: the president for Animation Magazine visited the country in 2009 and wrote an article here

also, Nick Dorra has some interesting animation stuff on his blog (although it hasn't been updated since 2011, the article on the Finnish animation environment is especially interesting)

some excerpts:

The studios are doing well, the Finnish animation sector in general is growing at a good pace. Animation contributes 32% of the Finnish audiovisual exports (survey 2011 by FAVEX)

(so while I don't necessarily know much Finnish animation, it seems to be doing pretty well! it might not be as burgeoning as say, Belgian animation but it's certainly not in a complete drought)

The financial environment is that of a small European country. This means that there is a limited national audience (5 million inhabitants), forcing producers to seek out coproduction options. Like elsewhere in the Nordic countries, programmes are subtitled, not dubbed, which makes for easy intertanional transactions.

The Finnish Film Foundation supports short and feature films reasonably well, but takes a much more reserved role with TV projects (usually only helping to finance development and a trailer or pilot). The Centre for Audiovisual Arts (AVEK) supports small scale demo projects tailored to the new media / transmedia niche. TEKES, “The Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation” also supports some projects, especially with a more technological focus.

The film investment business in Finland is quite unevolved. However there have been some recent developments and one interesting player to look at is Mediatonic.
Interesting stuff! so there's some funding there and it's doing okay. I'm going to have to noodle around more (something I'm interested in is whether, as in certain schools, continents or countries there's a definite, 'flavour' of animation)

WHAT THE HELL IS PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE ANYWAY?

plowing through my notes from the past few weeks' lectures, trying to make sense of what I'm trying to learn here anyway!

so, as far as I can tell what I'm working out here is how other people (within animation and other relevant creative fields) work; how they got to how they work; how other people (in similar situations to me and many other students but at different institutions) are learning... about how other people work, potentially

some questions:

what's the animation scene like within Britain/Europe/other countries around the globe?
what's the best way to go about finding information? sneakily? journalistically? and if you're asking other people questions, is it better to be polite, ass kissing or insistently rude?
how do people work differently within other areas? I'm talking about comparing small companies, individuals, fine artists and freelancers
how the hell do I learn?
what inspires me?
where on earth do I want to fit in to all this?
do I want to fit in to all this?
does anyone give a damn?!

...

what on earth am I going to have for tea?