Samuli Torssonen
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| Samuli Torssonen | |
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| Born | November 12, 1978  Finland |
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| Residence | Tampere, Finland |
| Occupation | CEO and producer, Energia Productions |
| Known for | Star Wreck |
Samuli Torssonen (born November 12, 1978, according to the Internet Movie Database) is a Finnish film writer, director, actor and producer. He started creating the Star Wreck sci-fi series in 1992 and nowadays he is considered one of the biggest young stars of indie films in Finland.
His latest film Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning (released in 2005) has made him famous because it features Hollywood quality 3D CGI of Star Trek and Babylon 5 space stations, ships, battles, etc.
He is currently producing the movie Iron Sky.
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[edit] Torssonen's film career
The first Torssonen Star Wreck film (in 1992) was merely a computer graphics oriented short film of space battles, but later Torssonen recruited his friends to help him in these productions. One of them was Rudi Airisto, who helped him to add parody aspects to the Star Wreck films.
After four animated short films, Torssonen and his friends released Star Wreck V: Lost Contact (in 1997).
Torssonen's longlasting dream had been to create the sixth and possibly final episode for Star Wreck saga. At first Torssonen thought that it would only be a 15 minute-long special-effects packaged short film. After Airisto moved to the UK to study, Torssonen asked Timo Vuorensola to be the director. Star Wreck IV½: Weak Performance was released (in 2000) and they were on their way to finally making their first professional quality and feature length movie, Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning (released in 2005).
Overall, Torssonen's movies can be described as amateur fan films with a very low budget but with amazingly high standards of execution. The Star Wreck series contains much quirky Finnish and "Trekkish" humour and the elements parodying Star Trek and Babylon 5 are also clearly notable.
Torssonen and his Star Wreck movies have been a small cult hit especially in the Finnish science fiction scene, and now also to some extent for the young and internet audiences.
[edit] Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning - 7 years of indie production
Torssonen's latest film Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning is a science fiction dark comedy about world and universal domination. It can be considered the first Finnish full-length sci-fi movie of DVD quality. It has also been stated as one of the most popular movies to come from Finland.
The movie consists of three professional actors Jari Ahola, Karoliina Blackburn and Kari Väänänen mixed with amateurs and lots of special effects, all of which were made by Torssonen and his friends with home computers.
According to Torssonen it took approximately 6 years just to render the CGI. Meanwhile he also had to finance and coordinate the movie and keep the Star Wreck team together.
The main production phase with bluescreen equipment was made in the studio that was set up in Torssonen's living room (as can seen on the Star Wreck web site). Torssonen was also major part of the post-production team that edited the movie.
During those production years Torssonen and his Star Wreck team gathered a small but enthusiastic group of people (Starwreck.com forums) who helped in doing the movie and who faithfully waited for its final release.
Finally after 7 years of production, Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning was released in the internet on October 1st 2005 under a Creative Commons license, permitting unlimited non-commercial redistribution. Because of this free distribution, the final number of legal viewers cannot even be roughly estimated.
After 2 weeks of its release the movie had been downloaded over 1.5 million times, so it could be one of the most watched Finnish movies, especially outside Finland. Officially the most popular film in the movie theater history of Finland is Tuntematon Sotilas ("The Unknown Soldier") with 2.8 million (domestic) viewers.
Torssonen's Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning has received unprecedented attention in the Finnish and international media since it was mentioned by Reuters, Entertainment Weekly and Yahoo News. Several reviews of the movie and interviews of the creators have been published in Finnish media, including national television news and major regional newspapers.
Torssonen has said that he would like to continue producing films, but not necessarily within the Star Wreck series.
[edit] Filmography
Following is a filmography of Samuli Torssonen as a writer/producer. He has made all of his films in Finnish, but all are subtitled in English.
[edit] Short films
- Star Wreck (1992)
- Star Wreck II: The Old Shit (1994)
- Star Wreck III: Wrath of the Romuclans (1995)
- Star Wreck IV: The Kilpailu (1996)
- Star Wreck V: Lost Contact (1997)
- Star Wreck 4½: Weak Performance (2000)
[edit] Full-length films
Torssonen himself acts in the Star Wreck adventures as main character James B. Pirk (named after the Star Trek character James T. Kirk), captain of the starship C.P.P. Potkustartti (Kickstart).
More information of Torssonen's filmography career can be read from IMDb entry for Samuli Torssonen.
[edit] References
Apart from the Star Wreck movies itself, sources for this article include other Wikipedia articles, as well as the Star Wreck forums and newspaper & internet stories and interviews.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning
- Starwreck.com forums (English and Finnish)
- IMDb entry for Samuli Torssonen
- IMDb entry for Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning
- Star Wreck Studios The world's first internet studio for collaborative film production.
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