Based close to the Arctic Circle and right beside the home of Santa Claus, Flatlight Creative House doesn’t define itself as a traditional production company. Maria Gullsten, Executive Producer with Flatlight tells us why.
Flatlight describes itself as a ‘creative house’ because its pivotal focus is on telling stories through a variety of mediums, such as video, but also for example through virtual reality and 360° filming. Its work can take many forms. This might be developing marketing content and service design for clients or work on Flatlight’s own creative projects, such as documentaries and TV series. Maria explains: “We want to tell stories…the form is normally digital, but also what is important for us is that we are testing new forms of storytelling”.
One of its recent projects is 100 Moods from Finland. As part of the centenary celebrations of Finland’s independence, Flatlight has been exploring 100 moods through 360° videos featuring different seasons and locations. The company applied for funding support for the project as part of the Finland 100 programme. Maria also notes the wider importance of applying for funding for projects like this. It allows Flatlight to develop its own creative ideas and gain international exposure: “They were looking for internationally interesting projects and they selected a few to fund…this is not only a celebration in Finland…it is also a very good business card for us in the future”. 100 Moods from Finland can be experienced online, but also comes to life as an exhibition, housed in an igloo-style space. For example, this touring exhibition featured at the Embassy of Finland in Berlin earlier this year.
Being located in the north of Finland is very important to Flatlight Creative House for a number of reasons. The company can access regional funding and supports available to businesses. Competition between creative businesses is much more intense in southern Finland and cities such as Helsinki. But the local landscape, climate and amenities is also very important to Flatlight Creative House. Some of the company’s first projects were focused on snowboarding. It works with international companies that are interested in filming in a snow covered location.
While the company’s Lapland location is central to its focus and inspiration, Maria points out this focus is also with one eye on the outside world, with constant exploration of new content and ideas: “I think for all of us the most important thing are the surroundings here in Lapland, all the hobbies you can do here, such as skiing and snowboarding. But of course you need to see and feel something else also. Other people, new content…you need to be active all the time, you need to be curious”.
Flatlight Creative House has been doing businesses for just over 10 years. The company shows great promise to continue to go from strength to strength.
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