K-retail employer of the year 2009
Finnish grocery K-Retailers are entrepreneurs. Their representative, the K-Retailers´ Association, gives out the award to an outstanding employer of the year, nominated by employees themselves.
In early 2020 Smak Film was tasked to create a video of the recent award recipient Petri Putila. Our brief was to sketch a portrait focusing on the winner´s personality and work community. The client wanted the video to stand tall in the constant stream of video in social media. Smak plays to its strengths in portraits and documentary work and was selected as the creative partner. We were given a free hand in researching and producing the video.
A succesful portrait is built on trust
Our in-house capabilities are strong in research. Both writer-director Markus Palmén and cinematographer Matti Immonen have a career background in journalism. In charting the life of grocer Petri we advanced on two fronts: on one hand we had to understand Petri´s personal journey, on the other we needed to get to grips with Petri´s work community and his concrete actions as employer. Our interview techniques thus varied between up-close and personal conversation and fast employee interviews conducted in the aisles of a busy grocery store.
A successful documentary video project is built on a genuine human-to-human encounter between the production people and the protagonist. The protagonist opens up to the interviewer and the camera only if he or she has had time to develop a basic trust towards the producers. Productions usually move on at a brisk pace so there is precious little time to build that rapport. The production team needs to maximize their time with the protagonist and also often drop the professional façade in these interactions. Writer-director Markus P and cinematographer Matti met Petri twice prior to shooting: for the first time at the scout/recce at Petri´s workplace and for the second time at his home during the interview and voice over session. In these meetings, having lunch together and chatting and joking over morning coffee were just as important -and enjoyable - as interviewing and planning.
Showing life in all its shades
Balancing the private and public sides of the narrative was the trickiest aspect of the project, content-wise. In the end the two-minute video needed to prioritise the employer skills of Petri to hit the communication targets of the client precisely. Fascinating aspects of Petri´s personal journey landed on the cutting room floor, but the end result made us proud. We feel we made a full-blooded cinematic portrait that takes the viewer to inspiring and even unexpected physical and emotional landscapes.
Indeed, a portrait is not credible or interesting if it does not approach at least some of the difficulties and challenges of the protagonist. For Petri, these challenges include striking a healthy work-life balance and coping with the heavy demands of being an employer and a boss. His video portrait reveals also how Petri manages these challenges. Wellbeing is the secret sauce in his success as an employer: “Success is a by-product of wellbeing”, says the outstanding retail employer of the year.
Client: Jaakko Mäntyranta, K-Retailers´Association
Special thanks: Petri Putila and the staff of K-Citymarket Paavola, Lahti, Finland
Production: Smak Film
Producer: Markus Mutanen
Script and research: Markus Palmén
Director: Markus Palmén
Cinematography and editing: Matti Immonen
Sound design and music: Viljami Mehto
