One Mile Challenge

Another video produced by Vita Pictura productions: one mile competition. Took place this summer near Haapsalu, a town on a shore of the Baltic Sea in Estonia. We managed to produce an amazing video thanks to helicam and a construction crane that had been installed near by.

One Mile Challenge is One Mile Top Speed Competition and the biggest top speed competition in Baltics. Please visit the website for additional information: onemile.ee. In 2013 there are two competitions held - on 8th June and 24th August. Be there and enjoy speed and fast cars!

Gumball 3000 in Tallinn

Okay, below you can check out the video filmed by my company Vita Pictura productions. Starring David Hasselhoff, Tony Hawk, some cars, and lots of other things. Let me know what you think about the video! Btw it was filmed in Tallinn's Townhall Square this spring. Wait for more video uploads soon...

Gumball 3000 @ Raekoja plats [Official Aftermovie] / 21.05.2013 from Vita Pictura on Vimeo.

Honey

Bonjour gentlemen and gentlewomen! Didn't write for a while and I sincerely apologize for this inconvenience  So I had to write about something. Therefore this post will be as random as most of my publications here: it is about honey and honeymakers' gathering in Tallinn. I provide you with photos from the gathering:

Iisaka Farm from Northern Estonia

"Propolis", "Honey Comb"

Estonian Honey Days
(next event: 12.-13. October 2013)

Honeymaker from Lambri Talu in the Central Estonia (Tartumaa)

The fans of honey also organized a lecture about the God's nectar. The only things I remember from that lecture is that honey is good for your body, especially if you have constipation. So here you go, if you are having "stomach problems" - eat honey, or better drink it with tea. Another useful fact that was announced: add honey to a warm cup of tea only when it is 40-60 degrees celcius, since if tea is too hot it will kill most of the useful features of honey. See you soon with some more exciting and amazing stories. Amen.

E-government

     Estonia has been boasting about becoming a pinnacle of e-government, e-economy, e-commerce in Europe and beyond. Truly, now you can vote through the Internet (not sure who is observing the elections now), most of payments are done virtually, companies are run from computers.

     However, here is a little story from reality. I registered acompany using my ID-card attached to my computer through an ID-card reader. Next day I got an e-mail stating that “the company’s name is already a registered trademark in this area of activity”. Basically I had to change the name or register a different area of activity for the company. I wanted to keep the name and changed the activity. Then I received an e-mail saying that I will get answer in the next 5 working days. After three weeks of no answer and tons of phone calls to various institutions which kept giving me different phone numbers, I decided to visit the damned registry department, analogue of the British Companies House.  

     I entered the old factory building where they were located and took a huge industrial elevator to the fourth floor, and entered an empty hall with couple of elder-looking women chatting in a corner. The moment I stepped in, I knew I would have to deal with predictable bureaucracy, still so common here. And as I had expected, a dull looking woman in her 60-s greeted me with concrete face that reminded me of Berlin Wall or barb wires of Gulag in Siberia. She explicitly stated that I have to change the name of a company and not the area of activity. Moreover she said that area of activity doesn’t matter at all. Following this logic, I wouldn’t be able to use any words that make sense, for my company’s name.

     After couple of days of not being able to change the name through the Internet registration portal, I thought that I would lose the money spent on registration and one month’s time on nothing, I got an e-mail saying my company has been registered under the name I wanted to use in the first place.  Apparently some employees do not know how to do their job.

     

     What is needed to be said in conclusion, that you may try to act as a cutting-edge, modern and efficient e-system that revolutionaries the way we live, but you can’t ignore the silliest inconveniences in your system, because they define your system, they are your system. Once you address the issues that are basis for problems, you will be able to create a truly quality service/product. In another words, don’t fucking judge a book by its cover. If you don’t know how to do business, e-commerce will not help you, if you don’t know how to run a government e-voting is not going to make it more efficient, if you suck at filming expensive red cam is not going to help you. Amen.

On a brighter note, I provide you with fail compilation video.

Sigma (UK)

Just got my new camera, so wait for new posts soon!

For now, just gonna publish an interview we filmed two weeks ago in Tartu, Estonia, with UK DJ Sigma (with Russian subtitles):

The whole footage was filmed in club Illusioon in Tartu.

filming sessions

My camera broke after falling down on the floor, so do not expect photos any time soon. Last month was spent filming different parties in Tallinn. It is part of a future TV show. I will write about it more throgougly after we finish filming the pilot episode covering music and night life in Tallinn and Estonia in general.

In short, what our company wants to achieve is to exchange English style cinematography with lifestyle and music in Estonia. It still seems like there is not enough of cultural and music communication between Estonia and other  European countries, and that is what we are trying to improve at the moment.

While I am busy organizing shootings in Estonian clubs, I'll post a video we have filmed couple of weeks ago in Club Hollywood in Tallinn:

(DJs: Fred V & Grafix)

Performance at KuKu Klubi

Me singing and Mihkel Kleis playing the synthesizer at KuKu Club in Tallinn, Estonia. (17.03.12)

Duo is called Ratkiller. 

Video taken from a phone so the quality is usual. I do not usually perform, but I couldn't turn down an offer to perform with Mihkel, whose music is really great.