Saturday, January 22, 2005
Monday with Markku proved to be very enjoyable in more ways than one. First and foremost, he's a real cool dude and we had a lot of fun. His English is just fine, but like most Finns he feels that it is not that good and wants to improve it - fine by me. It'll be Monday's with Markku for the foreseeable future.
Secondly, he is one of the most prolific filmmakers in Finland and the fact that he and I will be meeting regularly can only help me in the future and I got the first example of this while in Helsinki this week. Markku and Petri - the head of the production at the Finnish Film Foundation, basically the guy who decides whether or not a film gets any money - are close friends. I was in Helsinki for a meeting with Petri to follow up on a meeting we had a few months back. Well, now that I am running in a circle that I never thought I would be running in, my meeting with Petri went as good as it could have possibly gone. I didn't know it until the end of our meeting that he and Markku had talked about this past Monday. I have a feeling I will begin to receive a lot more support for the initiatives I am developing.
This week in Helsinki was really crazy. I was hobnobbing with some big celebrities but since I have no idea who they are or who they aren't, it makes no difference to me and I think that that attitude shows and so I stick around and have some conversations.
And speaking of really crazy, when I got back to J-town today I checked my email and I received an invitation to speak at a Roundtable Discussion of Eastern European Film and Media Financing at the Berlin Film Festival next month. As luck wouldn't have it, my flight arrangements were made before I received this invite and those arrangements are pretty hard to change. But I feel like I simply have to change them so that I could join this discussion. Here's a list of the people who will be involved:
1430-1500 WELCOME & INTRODUCTION
Chairman: Alain Modot, CEO Partner, The Media Consulting Group, France
1500-1630 ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
Invited participants
• Maria Silvia Gatta, Head i2i action & Evaluation, Media Program, Brussels
• Balázs Zachar, Head of AV Department, Ministry of Culture, Hungary
• Zuzana Mistrikova, Director General Media and Audiovisual Department, Slovakia
• Jacek Fuksiewicz, Films Department, Ministry of Culture, Poland
• Delia Mucica, Films Department, Ministry of Culture, Romania
• Howard Brodsky, Project Planer, East Finland Commission, Finland
• Thierry Baujard, CEO, peacefulfish, Germany
• Juliane Schulze, Senior Consultant, peacefulfish, Germany
So, which one of these is not like the other? Well, screw it, I know what I'm talking about and only have to sound smart for a few minutes which is something I think that I can do.
Secondly, he is one of the most prolific filmmakers in Finland and the fact that he and I will be meeting regularly can only help me in the future and I got the first example of this while in Helsinki this week. Markku and Petri - the head of the production at the Finnish Film Foundation, basically the guy who decides whether or not a film gets any money - are close friends. I was in Helsinki for a meeting with Petri to follow up on a meeting we had a few months back. Well, now that I am running in a circle that I never thought I would be running in, my meeting with Petri went as good as it could have possibly gone. I didn't know it until the end of our meeting that he and Markku had talked about this past Monday. I have a feeling I will begin to receive a lot more support for the initiatives I am developing.
This week in Helsinki was really crazy. I was hobnobbing with some big celebrities but since I have no idea who they are or who they aren't, it makes no difference to me and I think that that attitude shows and so I stick around and have some conversations.
And speaking of really crazy, when I got back to J-town today I checked my email and I received an invitation to speak at a Roundtable Discussion of Eastern European Film and Media Financing at the Berlin Film Festival next month. As luck wouldn't have it, my flight arrangements were made before I received this invite and those arrangements are pretty hard to change. But I feel like I simply have to change them so that I could join this discussion. Here's a list of the people who will be involved:
1430-1500 WELCOME & INTRODUCTION
Chairman: Alain Modot, CEO Partner, The Media Consulting Group, France
1500-1630 ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
Invited participants
• Maria Silvia Gatta, Head i2i action & Evaluation, Media Program, Brussels
• Balázs Zachar, Head of AV Department, Ministry of Culture, Hungary
• Zuzana Mistrikova, Director General Media and Audiovisual Department, Slovakia
• Jacek Fuksiewicz, Films Department, Ministry of Culture, Poland
• Delia Mucica, Films Department, Ministry of Culture, Romania
• Howard Brodsky, Project Planer, East Finland Commission, Finland
• Thierry Baujard, CEO, peacefulfish, Germany
• Juliane Schulze, Senior Consultant, peacefulfish, Germany
So, which one of these is not like the other? Well, screw it, I know what I'm talking about and only have to sound smart for a few minutes which is something I think that I can do.
// posted by Howard @ 10:13 PM 
