Oskari Sipola | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | March 10, 1984 |
| Occupation(s) | Director, Screenwriter |
| Known for | Dreaming Wide Awake |
Oskari Sipola is a Finnish director and screenwriter. He has been a board member of the Finnish Film Directors' Association since 2008. From 2020 to 2022 he was the president of the association.[1][2] Together with writer/screenwriter Tua Harno, Sipola runs a podcast called Käsispodi, which focuses on screenwriting films and TV series.[3]
Sipola directed the music videos for Poets of the Fall's single Dreaming Wide Awake (the only video from Twilight Theater) as well as Phoenix Effect's debut single Broken Promises and their later collaboration with PotF King See No Evil.
Credits
Music Videos
| Title | Artist | Release |
|---|---|---|
| Broken Promises | Phoenix Effect | 2008 |
| King See No Evil | Phoenix Effect | 2009 |
| Dreaming Wide Awake | Poets of the Fall | 2010 |
| Young and Beautiful | Olavi Uusivirta and Anna Järvinen | 2011 |
| Beautiful Marjaana | Scandinavian Music Group | 2011 |
| Pleboi' | Timo Small Scam | 2011 |
| Beasts | Jemina, Selina Sillanpää and Tim Ries | 2012 |
| Thousand Years Ago | Olavi Uusivirta and Pauliina Kokkonen | 2013 |
| Always I Stay | Elias Kaskinen &; Heroes of the Day | 2014 |
| City of Youth | Darkness | 2015 |
| Summer Together | Elias Kaskinen &; Heroes of the Day | 2015 |
| Let's Be Free | Maria Ylipää, Johannes Brotherus, Riku Nieminen and Pihla Maalismaa | 2015 |
| Let's Put Out the Fire With Petrol | Johannes Brotherus and Pihla Maalismaa | 2015 |
Feature Films
| Title | Release |
|---|---|
| August | 2011 |
| Let's Be Free | 2015 |
TV Series
| Title | Release |
|---|---|
| The Decisive Blow | 2011 |
| Wet Crackers | 2012-2013 |
| New Day | 2010-2018 |
| HasBeen | 2018-2019 |
| Bull Kill Weapon | 2021 |
Short Films
| Title | Release |
|---|---|
| Her Name Would Be Kaisa | 2003 |
| Loose | 2005 |
| Rupture | 2008 |
| No Man's Land | 2009 |
| Wings and Teeth | 2009 |
| Little Brother | 2009 |
| The Rest of My Life Yours | 2010 |
| Uroot | 2011 |
| The Darkest Hour | 2016 |
Interviews
YouTube comment (identity verified)
I'm a big fan of Stobe, but when the Poets contacted me they wanted a video in the style I work in (my previous videos were for Phoenix Effect). You're allowed not to like it, but I'm quite happy with it actually :) We froze our asses making it but had a lot of fun. Working with PotF was a great experience, hope I can make more videos for them.
Forum AMA answers re: Dreaming Wide Awake
My first impression was that it's not an easy song to make a video to. It's very powerful, but also long - over four minutes. I immediately came up with the idea of being in a whiteout world of snow and ice. Everything else came in later.
It's a video about reacting to loss, about a man living on the border of reality, not always sure what's real and what he's imagining. He has never gotten over the loss of his love and replays the moment of her death in his head over and over. It's very suggestive and can be interpreted in many ways so it's not necessary to try and find the "real story" behind it.
The flower is symbolic of life in the middle of a dead world of ice and snow - he's grasping for it, but can't find it until the end when all seems lost.
The place we shot the running is a beach in Helsinki called Kallahti, close to the tower (the beach can actually be seen in the background in some of the shots of Marko singing).
The decision to use just Marko was mostly about his role as a "narrator" in the story. There were also some scheduling problems with the whole band, as we shot this video in a very tight schedule.
We did a very detailed plan and a shot list, but did not draw storyboards, using much more of a "run-and-gun" method in getting the feeling of being inside this man's head.
We used a tiny bit of keying in this video, on the flower disappearing when the man reaches for it. That effect took about four hours to complete.[4]
Trivia
- The video for Dreaming Wide Awake was shot with a Red One camera. Shots of Marko Saaresto singing were shot on top of the Cirrus building in Helsinki, the tallest building in Finland in -24C temperatures.[5]