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The two buddies never imagined working under one roof. After slow reckoning miracles happen. An official time to give an official statement to make it official... Finally! A dog person meets a friendly neighbourhood cat dude.
Janne and Stobe have always been lone rangers in the industry. The two private entrepreneurs have had their companies for years now.
When Khimoo was established in 2010, Stobe and Janne started first working together within a month from the founding date. It could be stated that they both have been a Khimoo duo from the start.
It's official. We're making a movie.
The first time these two really met was in 2010 and because of Nightwish. Both having made work the band appreciates, made them meet at the band's traditional fall band camp in Kitee, Finland. It was the same night the famous whisper from Tuomas Holopainen to Stobe Harju happened "It's official. We're making a movie".
Immediately after the camp, Stobe called Janne to join his concept art team for Imaginaerum. The first concept they came up with was the Imaginaerum villain, The Snowman - Mr. White.
They sat in the gloomy rooms of Solar Films, Finland for hours together with Gina [Janne's wife and an insane visual artist] and Arto Tervo [a superb concept artist we all miss having available] trying to come up with suitable concepts for the Snowman. The rest is pretty much a water slide in a water park story... visions met each other. Well not always. As the tribute to Gollum (by Gina) here shows, Stobe can sometimes be quite demanding with some concepts and maybe ask a little too much. The thing is that there are many, MANY concept drawings.
After 10 years of friendship and numerous projects done together Janne and Stobe had been discussing officially joining forces for several times until Stobe said it felt inevitable to get under a single umbrella.
Bro! Wouldn't it be kinda cool if the roller coaster cart was like a shoe and had huge flames coming out of its ass?!
These guys used to have nightly meetings after midnight, and chat for hours while playing co-op games like Dead Space 2 & 3, Uncharted 2 (yes-there is a cool co-op), Division and so on. That's when the actual creation took place. One of the two would just pause in the middle of a shootout with a squad of NYC Cleaners and go "Bro! Wouldn't it be kinda cool if the roller coaster cart was like a shoe and had huge flames coming out of its ass?!" Know that this idea probably came out from the fact that the Cleaners in that game use flamethrowers as weapons... "guys".
Anyways. That stuff brings us to WHY these dudes are a visionary match.
While Stobe brings in new productions, handles the narrative and the directorial vision, Janne contributes something completely different into the play. His work with Nightwish among others have proven Janne to be one of the most underrated visual storytellers out there. So when there is enough time for both to singlehandedly focus on their strengths, it's like putting money in the bank whenever a new production starts. Why not get a lottery ticket while at it?
Even though Janne and Stobe have a perfectly straight relationship, it was pretty much like a distant marriage while shooting Imaginaerum.
there is no regular business partnership that replaces the undying support by a friend
While Stobe would stay up late nights in between the shooting days in Montreal, Canada and not get any sleep because of all the things in his head for the next day, he started having some incredibly gloomy thoughts. There was no one to talk to about the issues.
He turned to Skype and his friend Janne to call him at 5.00AM Finnish time and Janne picked up. They did that in several occasions. Those talks saved the movie.
That made a difference in Stobe's mind as he knew he wanted to work in a collaboration with Janne. There was no regular business partnership that replaces the undying support by a friend. That whole thing is another story that will perhaps be told some day.
So now, the pack is full of Janne's driving design force and technical knowledge besides the quirky narrative and darkness that Stobe brings into play. The timing was perfect as Janne and Stobe started their first true company joint project with Nightwish's Noise. As usual they started with those incomprehensible messy lines on a whiteboard by Stobe. Those were then cleaned up by Janne into something totally different. That made Imaginaerum and all the projects ever since.
Even though years have gone by with more joint productions and workshops that you can imagine, one thing is clear. The dog and the cat lover have merged into one and feel unstoppable. All credits to Lara, Thunder, Halla, Iggy and Dozer; our pets. ❤️
[Disclaimer: The Snowman - Mr. White Concept drawing that can be seen attached here was our top pick for the movie and was brainstormed in collaboration with the team. The final version and drawing by Arto Tervo - The dude.]
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