💡Note: Gallery of Henriikka Laukkanen's photos are below the article. You can still see some of them being used along the article.

One last major ATT26 job was to participate at Kumpu E-9 School’s (Kummun E-9 Koulu) annual Musailta, (eng. Music night). And for many this would be the major media production job.

Photo: Henriikka Laukkanen, 2026

Not to brag, I already had my warm-up at Riveria’s studio-live last autumn with second year students where I got acquainted in the essentials of how things work in such production: Cameras on stands, linked to a multicaster through SDI-cables and so on. – So, all that would go down at musailta would be no different…

Famous last words…

When we were doing a production meeting, I was assigned to secretary of photography, where my job was to make a list of all of the songs being performed and their respective performers at the event and make a breakdown of each song so that the multicamera director, Ike would know beforehand how cameras should (in theory) be positioned for most optimal views for the footage being recorded live.

Picture of me at work, initiating my workflow. // Photo: Henriikka Laukkanen

I would eventually start working on the basic list with the school’s music teacher and start inviting the performers themselves to share a general idea of their songs so I could do some sort of timeline with respective elements to share with the multicam director.

Photo: Henriikka Laukkanen

Photo: Henriikka Laukkanen

And because the job wouldn't be stressful enough for as is amount of the job, Esa Huuskari, a Riveria media teacher had an idea if someone could do graphics for the event to show on the wall from the projector at the diner hall's stage wall.

Because I am keen on both timely challenges and graphic design, I took the job and started to work on it instantly as the showtime was in a few hours and there were no time to waste (much like with this portfolio article against the night).

Screenshot of the PowerPoint-presentation of the graphics. // Joonas Tapanainen

Creating the graphics were quite easy task, but knowing I was battling against time, obviously I would forget some details and as seen from the photo below, I had to lend Esa's laptop to make the crucial edits on the fly as my own Samsung Galaxy Book4 360 (Non-sponsored insert) was occupied by both the ongoing presentation AND the multicaster central unit.

Photo: Henriikka Laukkanen

Photo of me (on the left) and Ike (on the right) looking at the multicam feed. // Henriikka Laukkanen

All in all, I think the Musailta-event went as planned, except for a few surprise-changes, but that's to be expected because plans do in fact live their own lives, so I understood that.

🤔 What did I ultimately learn?

Because I had undergone the Finnish Defence Forces conscript-service in the summer of 2024, working under stress was quite a familiar concept and it didn't really make me indifferent about the whole project's process.

But again, I did learn being careful with my choices, voicing my thoughts and ideas constructively and smartly and doing as being told as a secretary of photography. I also learned that such role in such production does have quite a significant power role, so when I walk away for even a minute, the whole production can go upside down in a landslide. — So better think twice, should you or not really move away to do another very crucial task and contemplate whether it can wait or not.

✨ Points to improve:

1. LISTEN to the director and their wishes. They're the heart of the production. Not you.

2. Be open about your intentions so you won't cause a mayhem inside the production and the team.

3. Try to be more swift next time around to save up on crucial time.

But all in all, I think I did do my job as a secretary of photography quite well, and as with again and again and again and again and again… there's always time for improvement for everything.

You cannot be a finished package ever.

Life is all about learning new stuff constantly.

Such as not putting all of your portfolio work the night before.