No! 10 Years since

Imaginaerum was announced!

I know I am getting older, but knowing that my debut film was announced exactly 10 years ago makes me feel like the time moves too damn fast. I don't remember much about the announcement or the planning, except for this one day.

Thursday, January 28, 2021

Post by Stobe Harju

A Decade

Gone by

With a memory

Of a single day

Promo

And a Story

With no

Screenplay

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10 years ago we had a base funding for Imaginaerum. We had a poster and a bunch of cool concept drawings. We even had a major Finnish Film Production company, Solar Films, behind our movie. But, we had no screenplay and yet Tuomas Holopainen, Nightwish, and I were announcing the film accross every major media in Europe.

We knew we were going to make this movie, we just werent sure how.

For months me and Tuomas traveled around searching for investors willing help us make the movie. There was already quite a bit invested into all of it by the band members themselves, but it wasn’t enough to build a spectacle of that magnitude.

The thing is, I had no time whatsoever to focus on the script while the search for more money was going on.

Nonetheless, we were signing posters, giving a big press conference and doing media interviews. We knew we were going to make this movie, we just werent sure how. I felt like Alice in Wonderland. If I was any smarter back then it would've been suitable to have me feeling like Alice in Chains.

Continued Below

Happy to see you've reached this far.

Ripped jeans

Bowling

Light Speed

Screenwriting

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The few promo pics attached here were taken by the always fabulous Ville Juurikkala who basically sat us down against a white wall at Kingfoo Entertainment, the Nightwish management at the time. We then had Janne Pitkänen, aka Toxic Angel, to finish the teaser poster and attach it to the wall behind us. And like Markus Selin, the producer of Solar FIlms, told us; It's not a movie unless the first thing you make is a poster.

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Can't remember how it turned out except for my new jeans, that were ripped from the crotch area.

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On the very last night after the PR sessions we also wen't bowling with the band and the crew. Can't remember how it turned out except for my new jeans, that were ripped from the crotch area. Red wine might have had something to do with it. Yes. I have a picture. No. I will not share it.

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Everything started happening at speed of light after those couple of days of PR and promises. The script writing, which happened mostly within two months from the movie announcement day, the decision to produce and shoot the movie in Canada and so on. I think that’s why it feels like it’s only been a few years tops.

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It’s already been a decade. Where does it all go? I still have those jeans. Nostalgia is a killer.

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