I CREATIVE ESTONIA
The Widescreen Studios on the outskirts of Tallinn are bustling with people, many of them wired with headsets and walkie-talkies. 67 local crew members are keeping busy producing a series of commercials for a large German retailer, a first production for a new client, Markenfilm.
Münchhausen Productions Setting International Standards By Maris Hellrand / Photos by Jaanar Nikker and Kristiin Kõosalu For Nikolai Mihailisin and Mika Pajunen of Münchhausen Productions however, this isn’t by any means their biggest production so far. For another German commercial, they recently brought almost 200 people on set at the Seaplane Harbour in Tallinn. Since founding the company three years ago the business partners, from both shores of the Gulf of Finland, have acquired an impressive portfolio of clients including Audi, Kia, Siemens, Microsoft, Unilever, Withings, Jack Wolfskin, Franziskaner, Nivea, eBay etc. Niko and Mika first started working together seven years ago on different projects for the same Finnish company. By 2012 the time seemed ripe to start a business of their own. Münchhausen’s ambition was to transform the culture of film, video, photo and TV productions from one which used to focus on the location and attached resources such as equipment, logistics and crew, into an international production service as a combination of different networks, processes and competences. The film production world has always been based on relationships and recommendations – so building up trust as a new player was not easy, as even the closest neighbouring countries hadn’t brought many productions to the Baltic region.
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LIFE IN ESTONIA #41
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Says Mika: ‘We are doing pioneer work here. Three years ago we went to Sweden for the first time and were met with questions like ”do you have electricity for 24 hours a day?!” Scepticism is nothing but ignorance. We are still educating people. In a sense we are the “visit Estonia people” – the locations tell a lot about the country and we are actually selling the country to our clients.’ Mika, the strategist in Münchhausen, sees the strong idea and a great track record of international co-productions of both founders as basis for the first breakthrough: ‘This starting point helped us overcome questions of trust and pricing that can often be quite high hurdles for newcomers to jump,’ he continues. Nonetheless, Münchhausen had soon bagged its first large international productions. Niko explains that the company doesn’t depend on Baltic or Scandinavian clients any longer; it doesn’t even matter what the season is: The client decide with whom to go into production by the variety of possibilities, the selection of locations and the ability of international crews to make it happen both technically, in terms of processes and experience. It is extremely important to be able to adjust to different working habits of different cultures and integrate them into the service. The biggest breakthrough projects so far have been their first car commercials for Kia and Audi at the end of 2015. These were shot in Lapland, Finland, and Barcelona, Spain, as this kind of production requires very special equipment and conditions that are not available in Estonia.