I have been shooting stills for Helsinki Pride as early as 2008, and i joined the official team shortly after. Working for the pride is exhausting, shooting several evening for the various events, coming back home and doing some editing during the night and early morning, getting some sleep and repeat. Exhausting but at the same time one of the best and meaningful event of the year. The people are really nice and supportive, a lot of good will from all the volunteers and organisation.
2020 came and with restrictions of the Covid19 pandemic, the pride was not going to happen with the usual parade, concert, picnic. I was called upon to be cameraman on the upcoming livestream small event, with only 2 hosts Jamie and Juuso and a bunch of pre-recorded performances by queers from all sides of Finland. My role changed from cameraman to team member of the broadcast team and with no equipment and against a facebook algorithm overly censoring us, we got the broadcast going.
This was not smooth!
Retrospectively, given the equipment, this was way too ambitious, but i learn so much from it and decided that this will not be the same again, that gave me the information of what went well and what didn’t and what to improve.
12 months later, i was doing successful streaming for TanssiARTessani, Rosebud, that is a story for an other time.
Helsinki Pride online show screenshot gallery
Project: Helsinki Pride online show 2020 on facebook
Client: Helsinki Pride Yhteisö