No-Office Films: Film Production Company From Los Angeles and Helsinki

If there is a great company origin story, it’s this. A long time ago, cousins Hannu Aukia and Jaakko Manninen left their home country Finland. They were already known in Europe, but as music and film producers they were determined to make it in Hollywood. The urban legend goes that their first office was similar to the first offices of Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos, but with a Hollywood address. When Finnish bands, brands, and filmmakers wanted to create something in Hollywood, Hannu and Jaakko were “The Finns in Hollywood”. Equipped with Finnish sisu, grit, and mad artistic skills, they made it!

Music for Billboard-topping artists. Winning MTV Music Video awards. Hannu started No-Office Films, because the filmmaking had grown way out of its Hollywood office and city limits. Director and filmmaker Vertti Virkajärvi, a Raindance Postgraduate Program graduate, joined the company in Finland. Film production continued. No-Office Films was now creating movies awarded at film festivals and TV commercials for household name brands.

I now work on commericals and feature films. Emotionally driven stories are what move me – nothing is better than a good performance flavored with VFX with a purpose. I’m especially at home with brand manifestos, films that convey the purpose of a company. Hannu Aukia, director, producer, editor and VFX artist, founder of No-Office Films.

Then social media became part of the creative content medium, and the need for content exploded. Cousin Jaakko got frustrated with the large number of different content versions he had to edit out of each project he delivered for his clients. He wanted to automate the process and once the word got out, everyone wanted to have Jaakko’s content automation hacks, and Tumplate was founded in Finland as No-Office Films’ sister company. I first got to know about Hannu’s work when I worked as a CMO at Space Nation, and Hannu’s film about the company was what sold me on and made me want to join the company. I got to know Jaakko Manninen and Hannu Aukia, while working at Tumplate, and when Isabella was looking for a production company to team up with for producing the From The Ground Up documentary, I knew who to recommend. Here is their reel: No-Office Films operates seamlessly from both, Los Angeles and Helsinki, with teams ready to go from New York to Lapland and from Bangkok to Beijing. They leverage trusted partners worldwide and excel in remote productions. At its core, No-Office Films is dedicated to storytelling. They specialize in developing and producing feature films, commercials, and music videos, ensuring that every project, regardless of scale, comes to life on screen. For a small company, it’s quite unbelievable what all they do. For example, here is their effect and animation reel. They have worked with brands like Audi, Taffel, F-Secure, and Nokia, and with artists like The Rasmus and Teflon Brothers. Their feature movie “Sound of Violence” premiered at SXSW in 2021.

Branded Storytelling

The team of No-Office Films has done feature movies and are currently working on them. But I appreciate their way of doing commercial video. I don’t know if they will like that I say this aloud because in a way it goes against what they sell for brands, but these guys are not marketers. They are filmmakers. But deep inside I think (and hope) they will take it as the biggest compliment, which it genuinely is. Because that’s exactly what makes them good at creating memorable commercial film projects. And good marketers get what I mean. They don’t go with the marketing angle first, and storyline second, they look at everything from the angle of what moves people, and where is the beef. They insert their humor, or they create an emotional storyline even for things like space, technology, web3, and cars.   As a marketing professional, I think the world is way too focused only on fast-moving social media content, and companies who care about branding, should not forget high-production-value video content from their marketing content strategies. Coptersafety’s From The Ground Up short documentary is a great example of longer format storytelling that will make a much bigger impact on the company brand or industry leadership than any social media content ever could. I felt confident that No-Office Films could help Isabella to bring her vision of the film alive.

It was great to work with a Finland-based team who listened to my vision and supported me in telling the story. I especially was impressed by how fast Vertti and his team were able to jump into this project. We had the initial treatment of the film done in two weeks, and the film was finished seven months later. Isabella Presnal, filmmaker and marketing manager of Coptersafety

 

I’ve always been inspired by people who pour their hearts into something. While our film may revolve around helicopters and their pilots, at its core, it’s a tale of unwavering passion. Vertti Virkajärvi, director and co-owner of No-Office Films.

I appreciate creative people who pour their hearts into producing content they believe in and I hope that as brands navigate in the demands of producing more and more content all the time, good filmed content continues to live on.

Finding a balance between large and small productions can sometimes be hard, but when it’s done right, the results are rewarding. Concentrate on carefully selected larger video productions, where professional storytelling and high-quality visuals are at the center (brand videos, launches, TV commercials). Put more effort into individual high-quality productions that evoke emotions, instead of trying to produce a lot of mediocre videos. Vertti Virkajärvi

Yup. Brands need both to create sustainable, high-quality video content strategies. If you are in Helsinki, join us for the From The Ground Up screening event. Get a free ticket now.   Learn more about No-Office Films on their website.