Monday, 20 November 2017

Finest Sounds Autumn News Vol 1.

Autumn news from Finest Sounds, part 1: Logomo sessions 07 - 08.09.2017


FinEst Sounds project has reached the Demo season 2, with new activities and first cases with bands and brands, artists and companies. In the beginning of September 33 students and 7 teachers from Tallinn University, Humak and TAMK get together in Logomo, Turku. The programme started on Thursday 7.9. with a short introduction of all the students. It was truly an international group, since the students of TAMK and Tallinn were not only from Estonia or Finland but from 10 different countries, including Venezuela, Mexico, Latvia, Russian among others.

Most of the students joined the project for the first time, so lecturer Jyrki Simovaara from Humak started the session with overview of Finest sounds and explained the roles of universities and students. Assignment number one was free brainstorming for ideas for demos. Combining any Estonian or Finnish artist with one creative industry brand, so that they can support each other in order to reach Japanese market successfully.

Even though the students met each other for the first time and working time was short, in the end of the day we could see creative, crazy and potential combinations like Estonian artist Noëp combined with Ivana Helsinki; Finnish vocal group Tuuletar with Saana and Olli; heavy rock band Mokoma with Morrow Games; Finnish artist Suad with Gemmi; The Lieblings with Lingvist, among others. Intensive afternoon with inspiring ideas!



On Friday 8.9. Finest teams had the opportunity to listen to two lectures about Japan, Japanese culture and consuming habits. First speaker, Jenny Moberg from 07design. She has been working in the Japanese market for several years as an agent for Finnish design and has broad a knowledge about the culture, values and habits in Japan. She underlined the importance of IPR process and also reminded that the “old media” should not be underestimated channel in marketing.

“Japanese people appreciate high quality, fairness and loyalty”, she told and said that Nordic lifestyle has great value.


Tuomo Saikkonen from Sakara Records told us the good story how a Finnish heavy rock band Mokoma ended up to play in Loudpark, one of the biggest festivals in Japan. Ichiro Aono, from Japanese Creativeman, visited Tuska festival in 2012 and got enthusiastic so next year Music Finland organized Mokoma to a showcase gig at Studio Coast for an entranced audience of 1500 people. Couple of years silence, negotiations and then 2016 Mokoma was in Loudpark. About the differences in business culture Tuomo told that it was impossible for the Japanese business people to believe that one artist of the band is also the CEO of the record company. It is important to learn in advance the hidden meanings and metaphors of things, like the case “Stam1na and Hawaii shirts” educated.

Two intensive days in Logomo ended with the new presentations of student groups and feedback from the companies. The representatives from Bafe’s Factory and Vita Pictura were surprised about the visual demos and creativity of students. Next step is Music and Media, groups will continue their work online and results will be shown to Japanese delegation in Tampere in the beginning of October.


-Text by Sohvi Sirkesalo

Posted by , , , , , , , ,
Edit This Post
Tuesday, 17 October 2017

FINDING YOUR OWN PATH IN MUSIC

 

Johannes Naukkarinen is a former student of Tampere University of Applied Sciences. He studied in the Music Production study path under Media and Arts degree. Nowadays Naukkarinen works as a freelance producer providing the whole package of creating music. He does music for different artists and works in collaboration with record companies. He also works under his own stage name KIRO as a touring DJ playing mostly club and house music. One of his achievements is the song Profeetat – Eyo that is the best-known song from his production. He has also worked with Nelli Matula and several other artists.

Naukkarinen’s family has always been musical, his father playing in a band and mother singing the choir, and he got his first guitar when he was 8 years old. When Naukkarinen turned 12, he bought his first own guitar and has played in a few bands during his teenage years. After turning 18 and being able to go out to the clubs and listen to the music played there Naukkarinen realized that he wanted to start producing music himself. He just wanted to see where this path would take him and started to work as a producer challenging himself.

“The balance between your contacts and your skills and what you can offer is crucial.”

For Naukkarinen music is everything, it is his life. If he is not working on a project from a client, he does his own music. Sometimes he can just sit at home and create music, even write three or four new songs within a week. Then there are times that he does not do anything music related for a week. One of the best things about working as a freelancer is the freedom, you work when you want to. Naukkarinen might have gigs from two to ten in a month and at least one client.


“The fact is that the jump from a student into a professional starts from yourself.”

Most of his clients come through his connection to Rähinä Records. Naukkarinen got his chance when they needed a producer and he had the confidence to say that he could do it. For the past two years, he has gotten good contacts and widened his client base. The circles are quite small in Finland so knowing a couple of the main people helps in the long run to get to know others as well. It starts to work out once you get to show what you are made of and have the right people notice it.

For Naukkarinen TAMK has offered a good and supportive community to help him in his career. According to him, the professional and qualified teachers together with the likeminded fellow students taught him a lot. The feedback you get from people that surround you is important when you are still honing your skills. With the teachers experience and knowledge and new ideas from other students you already have a good environment to grow as a professional. There are also many good opportunities offered by the university for the students to get out there and experience different things and collaborate with new people. In addition, the mandatory practical training is a good chance to gain contacts. By showing interest and being driven in the work that you are doing you can reach the next step in your career.

“I ended up coming to TAMK because it was the only place that offered also a creative side to music production, not just the technical side.”

Posted by Unknown , , , , , , , ,
Edit This Post
Sunday, 1 October 2017

COMBINATION OF MULTIPLE SKILLS AND INTERESTS


Alisa Komendova, a third year Interactive Media student at TAMK, originally from Czech Republic moved to Finland back in 2005. Nowadays she already has marketing and PR/communication experience thanks to her Bachelor degree in International business. She has also been working as a freelance photographer since 2007 and has just started branching out into the world of video production.
It was the combination of all these skills and interests that led to the internship.

Komendova did her internship at Dreamloop Games, a video game development company located in Tampere, Finland. She joined the team at the position of a marketing assistant / media content creator. The company wanted to reach its audience with a series of behind-the-scenes videos and introduce the team, creating a relaxed and friendly relationship with the customers.

Komendova met the CEO and CMO of Dreamloop Games at one of the monthly IGDA meetings in Tampere. Mutual friends introduced them and after a brief chat with them it turned out that, she had all the skills they were looking for. As Komendova already had a bachelor degree in business, she was familiar with the business side and did not need much introduction into that part. The second side of her role was a cinematographer and an editor that she was just starting to focus on study- and profession-wise. Komendova was with Dreamloop Games for almost a year.

My internship at Dreamloop Games was a perfect opportunity to refresh some older knowledge and practice some new skills.

IGDA is short for International Game Developers Association and they have headquarters in multiple countries, including in Finland. The chapter of this association that is located in Finland was founded in 2002 in order to support the game industry on a national level. Many game companies located all over Finland are a part of this society and take part in the events held by IGDA. The local activities brought to us by IGDA Finland Hubs are independent parts of IGDA. Their aim is to work with the local game developers and help them collaborate, connect and create a sensible environment for them to work in. The Hubs that are located in the bigger cities of Finland are committed to hold free gatherings monthly or so that anyone who is interested can attend including students looking for internships or connections.

Komendova has worked in the media field since 2006, as a freelance journalist and later a freelance photographer, so the Interactive Media degree was quite interesting for her. However, she was first accepted to the International Business degree. During the first year there, she considered re-applying for the Media degree, but later came to a decision to continue her business studies as she found value in the knowledge and skills. After graduating in 2013, Komendova applied for the new Fine Art study path, but didn’t feel like it was her place already during the entrance exams. The following year, she applied for Interactive Media and was accepted. Now she can combine her business knowledge with her media skills and experience to shape her professional future to suit her best.

I think it really teaches you to work independently, to continuously develop your skills and to grow professionally, to search for new professional connections.

The best part of any TAMK degree must be the mandatory practical training. It really makes you consider what it is that you would like to do in the future, what skills you have to offer. Komendova’s internship at Dreamloop Games helped her to build a solid body of work for her video portfolio bringing in other cinematography and editing jobs. It introduced her to a completely new business segment - video game development. In addition, you can shape your studies to your needs, to focus on your talents and your strengths.

Moreover, as I still have the second half of my practical training ahead, it will bring even more experience and networks to my professional life.

Posted by Unknown , , , , , , , , , ,
Edit This Post