What do 79 people, one old factory and a great band have in common? Music video!

How to sum up this music video project? Incredible people, cold weather, warm feeling in the heart.

I had 10 days between finding out that I will be directing and filming a new music video for Estonian band Francis and the first day of filming on location in Tallinn. I could not have been more excited to make another music video in my home country, especially as I really love the song River Run and the band's drummer Kaisa is my dear friend.

But organising things from other side of Europe is not always easy, especially with such a short deadline. I grew up in Estonia but have lived in the UK for a while now, so I got busy mobilising troops over the internet. I was even treated to a video tour by Kalmer from the band who walked around the vast area of Põhjala Tehas (https://www.pohjalatehas.ee) where we would be filming, just so I could have a better idea of all the locations I could use with the band and other performers.

So one cold November day, I stepped off the early morning flight from London to Tallinn, after sleeping only 1 hour and was on my way to the location to meet the band for the first day of filming.

Thank you Kaisa for helping to organise make-up artists who did a great job with making the band look really good and all the rest of the people look tired, dirty and ill. (Exactly as requested by the director :D )

I still can hardly believe how many kind people came to be part of this project at such short notice - all in all, 79 people in the age ranges of 3 years to 98 years were involved in the making of this video, 50 of them dancers from various Estonian folk dance groups.

I am so thankful to each and very person and especially Mari Tomp who was one of the choreographers and also brought along so many people from her dance troupes. Thank you Arthur Peedimaa, our behind the scenes photographer for capturing so many moments of the few days we spent at the captivating location of Põhjala Tehas.