Festival News 2010 - Magazine of the Tampere Film Festival

The two penniless in co-operation
University of Tampere newslab course has made Festival News since 1992

Jaana Hakala
Liisa Alatalo, translation
Susanna Alatalo, photo

Old Festival News papers arranged in a circle

– I remember the warm feeling flashing in my heart, when I saw somebody reading our magazine at the Film Festival, reminisces the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) correspondent in the U:S. Paula Vilén her experience of making Festival News.

– The whole job gave a nice feeling of responsibility almost in play, recalls the MTV3 and The Finnish News Agency (STT) correspondent in Moscow Mirja Sipinen her student journalism.

Work night and day

The first Festival News in the 1980's were information leaflets, which contained short articles and practical information. They were made in a hurry by a few people.

– In the early years the journalists probably did not have time to see a single film, when they spent all the days interviewing and all the nights in doing layouts and translations, says Kirsi Kinnunen, the information secretary of the festival some years back.

Reija Grönroos, who worked with Festival News in 1990 and 1991, confirms Kirsi Kinnunen's recollection.

– We slept a couple of hours per night. The rest of the time we worked. If we were very tired, we took a shot of whisky for stimulation, confesses Reija Grönroos, who works at present as a news editor of Radio Tampere (YLE).

Practice with a real publication

Reija Grönroos participated in making Festival News also in 1992, when students of journalism began editing the magazine. This arrangement met a need both for the newslab and the film festival, students needed magazines for practice and the film festival writers of articles.

All writing and photographing was done by students.

– In the newsroom there was a whole lot of brisk doing going on. We worked hard and a deadline was always lurking so close that we could not afford any idling about, describes Paula Vilén.

Student of visual journalism Jonne Renvall participated in making Festival News in 2007 and 2009, first as a photographer and then as an editor. According to him the magazine offered good experience of both work and culture.

Students' jigsaw puzzle

Until a few last years the whole magazine has been planned piece by piece starting every year from the very beginning. Layout and style has much variation from one year to another.

– One can rather seldom make a publication for which one can develop entire style from the beginning. There were not too many rules disturbing creativity, recalls Mirja Sipinen.

She participated in making Festival News in three years and in one year she concentrated on layout.

Festival News is a unique phenomenon in the film festivals of the world. The idea has been borrowed at least to Clermont-Ferrand, where the magazine is made by the information staff of the festival, however.

Updated 11 March 2010 11:21