© Imperiumi MMVII
Interview and article: Mape Ollila
Pics: Nightwish, Remedy, Planet Mosh, Solar Films
http://www.imperiumi...erviews&id=1401
Nightwish: "Imaginarium"
The same familiar old song: Nightwish will make the most expensive record ever in Finland. The CD and movie both carrying the name "Imaginarium" are, like we have heard before from Tuomas Holopainen, "the most ambitious project ever made in the Finnish music".
According to Tuomas the idea for making "Imaginarium" was born when Dark Passion Play was finished in spring 2007. By the time there weren't a single song made for "Imaginarium", but Holopainen was thinking about already, what would be the next natural step on Nightwish's path. While we know Tuomas's lifetime enthusiasm towards the cinema, a film wouldn't really become as a surprise for anyone.
- With Nightwish everything has been done already, we have grown so big that there won't be much new to gain along that path. I started thingking which would be our thing, a thing which also would bring something fresh into our concept. I had this moment of "enlightment", like why don't we take another dimension into use: the image. Our music has always been cinematic, so let's concretize it now. I startred creating a sountrack for a film which would hopefully be realeased in one day. I am ambitious and crazy, I want to do something that has never been done before. Even though The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Lordi have made films linked to their music, we are still about to make something innovative, which is unseen and unheard before.
- From the beginning I had it clearly in my mind that if the film ever got real, it would be Stobe Harju who directed it. I was convinced about that along making of "The Islander" -video, and therefore I knew that it is possible to make such quality in Finland that my visions for "Imaginarium" will become real.
Tuomas told his bandmates about his idea around the New Year 2007/2008. It was received with enthusiasm but soon after the first intense moments the reality hit back in the face in the form of questions about how to fianace this huge project. The last needed euros were confirmed in the 'chest' only last week. Only then began the promotion campaign of this huge project.
The lion's share of the funds will come, like for the last two albums, from the band itself.
- We have started with the mentality that if we are ever able to get our investments back, we will be more than happy. It has been very comforting and sweet, when the bandmates believe in this project so much that they agreed to go for it financially.
DRIVEN BY DREAMS
The healthily sceptical bandmembers were finally convinced about the power of the idea behind "Imaginarium" only after they had heard the first "Röskö demo" aka the demo recordings made during the Röskö Summer Camp and after they had gotten to read the manuscript of the film. Director Stobe Harju reveals that he and Tuomas had withheld the manusscript from the other bandmembers for the fear of their possible reactions to it. It is an extraordinary expensive project, though.
- Foremost my concern is that it's gambling with my friends' money. The consultant of the project Marcus Selin says that his biggest concern is the director exceeding the budget and while I am a debutant director, it has created me some stress. However, we have been aware of our resources all the time and we will constantly try to make the most out of it. It's also great because the project was not started from the commercial origins, but from the desire to make this "thing". For the past two and half years we have agreed with Tuomas on most everything.
Also, the fundraising is done. Tuomas tells that they set a ceiling for the budget and it has to hold. Meaning "we will work on the resources we've got". Only the final support from The Finnish Film Foundation remains yet undecided.
The project has been received well until now, but understandably with scepticism, as it can be compared to Lordi's Dark Floors in the recent past which didn't quite succeed according to the expectations set by the band and the production company. Tuomas and Stobe do symphatize Dark Floors because it's appearance, direction and camera work is excellent. Stobe also raises his hat to Solar Films who, despite the modest success of Dark Floors still show faith in "Imaginarium". Stobe thinks that the reason for their faith lies in the strength of the band and the storyline of "Imaginarium", which isn't tied to a certain time. Dark Floors might have come out somewhat late when the Lordi-hype had peaked already. But Nightwish has a long set of successes under their belt. Self-ironically Tuomas says that maybe now it's about the time to fail.
The huge task of the "Imaginarium" project will raise the question whether the new music has been aimed only for the film project, and if the film project didn't catch up the necessary funding, would Tuomas then rather have written completely new music for the upcoming CD. Tuomas answers that not making the film was never an option. Yet he stresses that from the very beginning it was important for him that the music shall work on it's own alone on the CD without the visual back-up of the film.
- I didn't want in any phase start making "Sweeney Todd", a musical where the story is told by singing. The lyrics on the CD will not mention the main charachters' names nor do consist of parts of the film's dialog. Thematically they do swim in the same waters and the CD will tell the same story, but in "more universal spirit".
Stobe thinks that "Imaginarium" is an unseen way of telling a story because it can't be considered to be a music video nor a musical due the lack of direct elements from both aforementioned styles.
- Yes, I would like to think that nobody has done this before because Pink Floyd's "The Wall" only maybe walks far in the same regions. "Moulin Rouge" walks also in the same regions. Same with "Sweeney Todd". We will hear the whole album contents in the film and it will tell the same story, but there will be dialog over the music and between the music as well. Part of the music will be re-arranged so that maybe some intros get dropped or chorus parts will lack the sung lyrics and other such alterations like some parts might get elongated. Arrangements will be made according the demands set by the narrative.
I recall hearing Tuomas say a couple of years ago that "on the next CD there will be a video from every song". The original idea of "Imaginarium" was to shoot 12 thematically connected music videos or short movies to form a whole.
- My original idea was to make it without dialog and without too clear featured storyline. Ideas for those came from Stobe.
First Stobe was interested in making a film without dialog, but during the writing process it became clear that this idea will not hold. Tuomas admits that even he himself is unable to watch a film without dialog much past the half an hour mark. One has to ask if the becoming film can be applied as a promotional tool for the traditional music industry or even modified for commercial use so that any song could be cut out for a stand alone music video? The aswer is no. Stobe reveals that Nightwish will play at least on one but no more than on three music videos.
- The idea in the beginning was that any song could be cut out for a standalone music video, but the storyline has developed and formed so solid that it's hard to imagine any part of the movie be viewed as a music video any more. The band has been written in the storyline to appear playing when the story needs it, not just "playing in the meantime". In music videos it's important that the band is clearly shown, but in the movie there are songs without a sight of the band. If we make music videos from this film material, editing them will take some special decisions.
WHAT, WHERE, WHEN AND WITH WHOSE MUSCLES?
The project was aimed to release the CD and film as closely as possible, but making the CD has proceeded so far that it's release can't be postponed any more. The first sigle from "Imaginarium" will come out in late 2011 and the album right in the beginning of the year 2012. According to Tuomas the film will hit the theaters "a month or three" after the CD release date, but definitely during the first half of 2012.
- We played with the idea that we would let the film out first, then the fans would have been forced to go to cinema on order to hear new NW-music. Unfortunately it was impossible, because we must start touring and it takes time to hire tecnicians and book the gigs. Original plan was to release the CD in September 2011 but now it's been postponed to next January. For practical reasons the CD must come out first.
Let's play some more with the idea that the film would have come first. If it would have succeeded it had really turned the music industry's earning logig upside down. The most eager fans would have wanted to watch it several times in theaters and paid a ticket for each view. Pirating the music would have been difficult: who'd want to listen to a pompous metal symphony recorded with crappy camcorder microphones for bootlegging. At the best case the movie would have earned the invested money back at the box-office even before anything physical was available for pirating. Now when thinking this idea when it's come to public knowledge, one has to wonder why any of the huge bands or artists haven't realized this concept yet?
"Imaginarium" is a co-production of Nightwish's Scene Nation, Tuomas's own Potoska Publishng and Finnish film production company Solar Films. Like Tuomas said already: not making the film wasn't an option - not even if Tuomas had to gamble on all his property. Fortunately he didn't have to go that far.
- We have lived this dream so many years already that I couldn't have let off of it even at some point raising the funds seemed quite a desperate effort. I heard someone say that it'll not work, just go and make the plain album. But I couldn't have been able to live with myself if we didn't do this. I was about to mortgage my property to finance this project. The others would not let me, though.
Stobe says that he remebers exactly the moment when the manuscript was finished and he and Tuomas finally understood how good it actually turned out. Tuomas went straight from the spot to tell the managers that it was the time for everybody to understand the fact that this album cannot be made without the film. Simultaneously Stobe became aware of the stress of the project.
- Only then I realized all the pressures involved. It was about the band's own money and film budgets tend typically never remain in their frame. Even the manual of The Finnish Film Foundation for professionals of the trade begins with the sentence: "Film making is a risky busiess." Hence we took so long time for the pre-planning and hence we were forced to make extremely careful plans. Every possible hurdle that may occur must be predicted and resolved in advance.
Solar Films in the role of professional consultant posesses a large expertise in the film making business, unlike this work team. The support from Solar will ease their pressure. Stobe gives an example:
- Anything can happen, but for those situations we have Solar, who try to prevent surprises. Unpredicted situations may occur and there goes the budget blown in the air. For example, two main role actors may get sick simultaneously causing the schedule extend for a week because all weekdays have been booked for shooting other scenes. This may create a snowball phenomenon. These are issues for the production company to mind.
According to Tuomas, as an amateur he can not comprehend how this kind of project can be completed in one year, but he has full faith in Stobe and Markus Selin. His trust has a strong base: Selin has produced about 30 feature films and Stobe has completed earliear some "impossible" projects. Harju produced 90 minutes of cinematic material for the award winning videogame "Alan Wake" in an astonishing schedule.
- We were told that "Alan Wake" must be done without cinematics. Those can't be finished within the schedule. The executive director looked at me and asked: Stobe, will we get it done? In a second I replied "yeah". It took exactly 30 weeks to accomplish the task. We made some fine looking, even award-winning cinematics for the game. Success in that task makes me feel confident in front of this project. We began planning "Imaginarium" with Tuomas even before I started working with "Alan Wake". In the last months we have shared the full belief in completing this project according to the scedule as well.
CLUB OF COMMON THINKING
You will not get huge spoilers out of this article, because despite my best effort the couple refrain from exposing the storyline of the film in words. Tuomas only says that he had a clear vision of the general themes which should appear in the originally planned short movies. Those can be discussed now.
- Dark Passion Play was gloomy, but the subjects of this theme album are the beauty of the world and it's good sides and the power of imagination and memories. Very un-metal'ish themes, without forgetting the dark side and melancholy. This will become a good heavy metal album, there will be heavyness and hard blasting, but I wanted to present more of the better side of life. I want that when the crowds come out of the cinema, everyone will be filled with good feeling and lust for life.
In practice during the existence of Nightwish Tuomas has told us that his songs are his way of writing his diary. Can "Imaginarium", a fantasy film, still represent the pages of the same diary, and how?
- After the hard times on the previous album I might have understood something about life and become... not necessarily "more posotive", because it is such an awful word and "positivity" sucks ass, but I am maybe... more life-happy. This feeling I want to bring to others, too, so it's still the same old diary I'm writing. I don't know, it may happen that soon my life might seem to look like going down the sewer and the next CD will be black metal, but this is my current feeling.
Stobe agrees that all said above by Tuomas will be visible in the film: despite how low a person falls in life, there will always appear the ray of light which usually comes from the person's own imagiantion. Always a small thing that brings strength. Stobe even opened the story a little:
- For the main charachter of the film, the old composer, music is the most important part of life, but the most importand rays of light still come from other directions. After watching the film understanding those little things will hopefully be much clearer to the viewer. The composer has had quite a wild imagination when he was a child, and by returning to his childhood fantasies he will learn to understand his current situation in life. Fantasies will help him to remember the most important things along his past life and surprisongly not all are about music. Fans may detect very familiar references to some familiar persons.
Writing the storyline has been a special challenge for Harju, because he has known the members of Nightwish for a relatively short time and they haven't discussed about what has happened in everyones' lives. So Harju has been forced to re-write the band members' history with the means of fantasy. The musicians have received Stobe's visions with good spirits, and at lest in Tuomas's head has Stobe dug so deep already that their connection partially reminds me of telepathy. They don't even need to speak everything aloud. According to Stobe their preferences in many things like in literature, cinema and music are sometimes disturbingly similar.
- In the beginning or the project I was occasionally afraid of Tuomas to consider me a yes-man, because there didn't seem to be found a single thing to disagree. Even our subjects of disgust were similar.
The mental connection between the two interests me to the degree that I ask Tuomas how well another person like Stobe or the storyboard drawer of the movie, Arto Harju-Autto at Lapland Studios or the concept artist "ToxicAngel" Janne Pitkänen, will be able to transcribe someone's imagination into images.
- The images are as close to my visions as ever possible. With Pitkänen we have created this connection years ago and Stobe has taken it to other dimensions, because all I had in mind was the 12 songs, each with an attached image.
Even when the progress of the project via the participants mirroring each other's minds could be called some kind of positive whirlwind, Stobe compares it to a hen vs. an egg situation.
- I have had access to listen to the band's demos at every stage and every time I had my hair standing up, even with the first demos Tuomas declared plain shit. Of course I didn't reveal the shivers I got, but when every new demo tops my all expectations, it drives me to do my part better, too. Everyone has visions in their head when listening to Nightwish's music, but when the songs grow while the work progress towards the final mix, it builds up my challenge as well.
- The things will grow also while mine and Tuomas's preferences are so similar, we'd bounce ideas between us asking if this would sound good and the other would reply instantly that it's good but wouldn't this sound even better. It happens all the time. We have been able to compromize, too, which is very important.
SYRUP, S'IL VOUS PLAIT?
Stobe says that after reading the manuscript of "Imaginarium" it'll be appropriate to ask whether the story will be too sweet, but it's credibility lies on the synthesis of music and image. Tuomas considers these starting points a really big challenge for making a credible film.
- The concept sounds just as honey-filled and syrupy as anything can be. The challenge lies right there but we are on a good cause here. If we manage deliver it into people's ears and eyes with credibility, it will work!
It took some efforts from the musically uncompromising Tuomas to digest the fact that the flow of the movie demanded previously explained changes in the music, but now Tuomas agrees that it makes the project even more interesting and he can still publish his original visions of the songs on the CD.
Tuomas has good feeling about the CD. "Imaginarium" is ready except the vocals and mixing. Mixing will start on April 1st and they have reserved two months for it. You can make your conclusions about the tracks to work on at the mixing desk.
In addition to Tuomas's compositions the movie will include some more action related music, "in between score" created by Petri Alanko, who also worked in the "Alan Wake" -crew. Alanko appreciates Nightwish's music and knows the lines which the music by Tuomas follows, so Stobe considers him the only possible choice for the job.
Tuomas recalls his visit at the score recording sessions in London:
- We have so much of the choir and orchestra and whatnot bells and whistles and it will be impossible to put it all on the record. But we have to use it somewhere, it is so awesome material.
The cynic in me counts that a separate film release accompanied with an expanded version of the already released CD would make an additional bait to purchase the physical movie DVD when it will be released some day.
CYCNICS AS HANDBRAKES
Stobe thaks his luck for having the realist Markus Selin in charge of the production company connection. Harju considers himself a dreamer like Tuomas, one who can make the budget grow enormous in no time. For the luck the cold palm of the financial reality (in the form of Selin's hand) will slap occasionally on his face. Also Jukka Nevalainen works as an anchor when the feet of these two dreamers will get floating too high above the ground. Someone must be able to shut the window through which the dreamers keep shoveling money in the wind.
- We are the Ozzys and they are our Sharons laughs Tuomas.
Along his position as the rope holding the Stobe-balloon, Selin has taught Harju the realities which have to be in order before even starting to shoot the project.
- One must know how to select actors before delving into grand visions, because it'll be the actors who will cost really lots of money. How huge effects are necessary and which are genuinely important for the storyline. I would like to have everthing on the manuscript visible on the screen, but then again, it won't be a realistic option. Markus has an important role - someone has to conduct the magic pocket calculator.
We will not talk about actors because casting has only begun. Also the names of the actors won't be of importance.
- We don't want the film to culminate in any known actor/actress instead of Nightwish and the storyline.
According to Tuomas there are no roles available even if Cruise or Depp would want to work for free in this film. Stobe thinks that if for example highest on the poster would read Johnny Depp above Nightwish and "Imaginarium", it would be wrong. But there will not be any fear of such thing.
UNBELIEVABLE BUT CREDIBLE
The film will be fantasy and surrealistic by character but it's credibility is built with every detail. One aspect is that English pronounciation has to be credible. The cast must be native speakers of English. No additional fee for proper language, but costs will be followed intensively. "Even if we'd like to have a few flocks of whales floating in the sky but the sum would be the same to hire the main actor for a week, we rather have the main actor" explaíns Tuomas.
Shooting of Imaginary will begin in the spring with director of photography Hena Blomberg. Blomberg who photgraphed the Islander -video knows already the wawelegth of Stobe and Tuomas and will be familiar with the scenery of the film.
Currently music and storyboard are ready as well as part of concept art which should be all finished by June. I had a chance to listen to one instrumented and orchestrated track while watching a couple of hundreds frames of the storyboard, and I won't question the cofidence Tuomas and Stobe have on the project. Holopainen and Harju are definitely crazy, but the line between genius and crazy becomes maybe even more volatile by "Imaginarium".
The indicator of a successful fantasy is it's ability to open doors in even the most cynical person's mind. It can peek throgh the shades of real world into places where miracles happen. Six minutes and 41 seconds of music from "Imaginarium" and the cartoon-like storyboard frames were enough to blow me out of the usual and the teardrop in the corner of my eye told me that we can expext huge things from the "Imaginarium". Only the short section from it's beginning include shaking, moving beauty, comfortably familiar to fans - and plenty of miracles.
The "brothers" seem to have enough visions, but which of them will turn into realty on the film will be seen. At first "Imaginarium" sounded like a "100 million euros -project" to Stobe but with careful planning and research they aren't too scared of the costs any more.
ENTER 2012 IMAGINARIUM TOUR
Stobe begins to vision how incredible it would be to hear Nightwish play the music from the film with live orchestra in front the film running on the screen in the background. The idea of Nightwish playing with an orchstra has been tossed around since Century Child era, but wasn't there even more reason to do it now? It's another dream allright, but dreams have been the fuel for Nightwih for well over a decade. The band powered by dreams has gained a lot and there is a reason to presume that even bigger things are waiting in the future.
In the real world the band will start touring next Janyary and the whole year 2012 has been reserved for touring. How the "Imaginarium" will transfer on the stage is yet covered by twilight. Meetings with Teemu Koivistoinen, the man who has created stages for Lordi and other known Finnish acts, have been held and ideas tossed about how to fit selected film scenes on the concert stage. Tuomas says that the film demands video screens on the stage, but everything is still pending. They aren't taking the whole CD on the stage, even the idea of playing the full theme album plus three encores makes Toumas shiver in disapproval.
What will actually end on stage will be seen in January 2012
[ Translated by The Enigma, March 08. 2011 ]
