Finnish filmmaker KIMMO KUUSNIEMI and Folk Metal legends KORPIKLAANI made an extended and hectic tour of Russia, traveling from St. Petersburg to Siberia and back. On a follow up tour – this time to Japan with Finnish metal legend, Waltari – they had more time to contemplate Japanese lifestyle and history. Filmmaker Kimmo Kuusniemi traveled with the band. His unseen documentaries are now released online.

Just recently Scars And Guitars‘ Andrew McKaysmith conducted a long and interesting zoom -interview with Kimmo Kuusniemi, talking about Kimmo’s relationship with Korpiklaani, The challenges he faced when taking footage on the road, Editing hundreds of hours of footage into sub-40 minute packages, Almost losing many hours of footage on a train, Kimmo’s history as a film maker and documentarian, The difficulties doing business in the music industry and more.

Join and watch the chat here:

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Video on demand -links:

MADE IN RUSSIA (39min 22sec)

• VIDEO ON DEMAND LINK: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/madeinrussia
• MADE IN RUSSIA HOME PAGE: http://www.madeinrussia.uk

LIVE IN JAPAN (31min 22sec)

• VIDEO ON DEMAND LINK: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/liveinjapan
• LIVE IN JAPAN HOME PAGE: http://www.liveinjapan.co.uk

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Furthermore, here below KIMMO KUUSNIEMI tells us more about his ‘behind-the-scene’ experiences on this project:

4 YEAR RELENTLESS JOURNEY THROUGH RUSSIA AND SIBERIA TO JAPAN – NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER SURRENDER

With these documentaries I broke several rules of professional filmmaking.

RULES OF FILMMAKING: The first rule: “Never get involved in films that don’t have a budget.”

BEGINNING OF THE 4 YEAR STRUGGLE, THE EASY PART

I didn’t realise the mad journey I was about to sign up for when I met Jonne at my brothers garden in 2016. Jonne asked me if I wanted to make documentary about Korpiklaani. When I heard that Korpiklaani were going to have a long extended tour through Russia and Siberia I was sold.

There was no budget, so according to rule number one, walk away. Which of course I didn’t as the excitement of the road trip overpowered the sensibility, which is a common problem with creative people 🙂

After unsuccessfully trying to get the record label to fund the film etc. the only way I could see to do this was by Crowdfunding. I had never done this before so even this sounded exciting. The band didn’t want to take the risk of crowdfunding so as well as everything else I decided I would do the crowdfunding myself.

So I broke the second important RULE OF FILMMAKING: “Never take personal risk financing a film”.

CROWDFUNDING THAT FUNDED THE CROWDFUNDING ADVERTISEMENT

Eugene (Co Producer) and I did a very extensive advertising campaign for the documentaries. When the crowdfunding ended we realised that the money raised didn’t even cover the work and time we put into the Crowdfunding advertisement.

We did not get the money to finish the film but instead we did find some very loyal and supportive Crowdfunders who believed in the films as much as we did. Not everything is measured in money.

JAPAN, YOU LIVE AND DON’T LEARN AND MORE RULES OF FILMMAKING BROKEN

During post production on the Live in Russia film the band were going on tour in Japan and the plan was to get me there to film another documentary. Japan has alway’s been my top ten list of destinations to visit. I have made commercial films for Japanese markets before but never had chance to visit. So very tempting.

RULES OF FILMMAKING: “Never make the same mistake again”

Once again I broke the first rule of film making: “Never get involved with films that don’t have a budget.” So now I have done it twice in one project.

As planned with Jonne I again set up a crowdfunding project for Japan. Just when the campaign was online I was forced to cancel it for reasons which are most bizarre.

Against all the odds I still ended up on tour in Japan with Korpiklaani and Waltari. In Osaka I also met Piotr from Polish Death Metal band VADER. Last time we met was in Poland 25 years ago, when I made their first music video for MTV Europe.

HOW TO FINISH DOCUMENTARIES WITHOUT BUDGET; DOCUMENTARIES ARE ALL CONSUMING BEASTS TO FINISH

Then the hard work of editing all this footage together began. I spent a lot of time to editing the Russia film into a loose three hour version. At the same time I was trying in vain to find extra funding through sponsors etc. At this point I had to stop as I had already used all my rainy day savings and needed to work on commercial films to balance the accounts.

Then film editor/musician Sophia LA stepped in to save the day.

Sophia was really excited about the material and wanted to trim my 3 hour version into the final documentary. She spent a long time editing and did a fantastically brilliant job on it but the film was still in it’s first finished version two hours 47 minutes long. She also had reached her limits on working with the film.

JAPAN, WHAT TO DO WITH JAPAN? CROWDFUNDERS STEP UP!

MADE IN RUSSIA was now finished to a long version and could be shown to the Crowdfunders who liked it so much that some of them were willing to donate to help funding so we could start work on the Japanese film.

This gave us a much needed moral boost to get the “LIVE IN JAPAN” edited.

Making films and music is a very lonely place; you don’t get much support until you have finished. Here we are talking about projects that took 4 years to get published. So the support from Crowdfunders was very important and gave me a reason to finish my films, while all the time I was working on the commercial side of filmmaking to balance my books.

DVD FORMAT IS DEAD, TV DISTRIBUTION IS DYING, WE LIVE IN THE MATRIX

The next problem is how to release these films.

All my documentaries have been globally distributed through my International TV Distributor. He was basically interested in this these films but was doubtful about the interest from the international TV companies as Korpiklaani are not Metallica or Iron Maiden.

During the 4 years these films took to finish, DVD’s have had a sudden death.

COVID-19 TO RESCUE

Then came COVID-19 which changed everything. Film and Music Businesses grinned to sudden halt.

It was time again to get back to these films and finally get them out. I shortened the “Made In Russia” to 39min. Set up the websites and we were ready.

Now the new exciting option to release documentaries is your own VOD (video on demand) channel. Not the same as Amazon or Netflix but you are your own master.

DID I LEARN ANYTHING FROM THIS PROJECT?

No, I would do the same mistakes again. The journey through Russia and Siberia was life altering, a once in a lifetime experience and something I will never forget. Great memories are worth the pain.

Kimmo Kuusniemi

More information on SPLIT SCREEN FILMS: http://www.splitscreendocs.com

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About Kimmo Kuusniemi

Kimmo Kuusniemi is a professional film maker and musician based in UK. He has made numerous films from music videos to International TV Series. With his partner in film, Eugene O’Connor, together and separately they have worked with such names as Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Madonna, Rush, Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Kimmo’s band Sarcofagus were formed in 1978 and were the first Finnish heavy metal band. He also made probably the first in the world broadcast quality album length music video “Moottorilinnut” in 1980.

In 2008, Kuusniemi made an international TV documentary Promised Land Of Heavy Metal about the Finnish metal scene as a co-production with Finnish Broadcasting company YLE. As he is known the “Godfather of Finnish Metal” he had unlimited access to the Finnish metal scene, which also even helped him to get an interview with Madame President of Finland.