In Nomine was on site with cameras and microphones when the cornerstone was laid for the Jõhvi Film Campus – a multimedia and creative industries incubator due to be completed next year.
The film campus consists of three components: a creative industries incubator with film studios, a digital and multimedia incubator, and related infrastructure. The campus, funded by the Just Transition Fund, will cost €16 million to build. It is being constructed by Mapri Ehitus, with Novarc Group as the designer.
Teet Kuusmik, head of the Ida-Viru Investment Agency, is pleased with the construction pace: the foundation work is complete, trusses have been installed on the smaller studio, concrete elements are being placed, and truss installation on the larger studio has just begun. “We have been very fortunate with our builder, as they have proposed innovative solutions already during the design process that have helped us save on the budget compared to the initial tender. The solutions chosen meet our core needs – most importantly, ensuring that sound does not penetrate the buildings and that the rooms have good sound insulation,” Kuusmik said in an interview with ERR.
Urmas Adson, project manager at Mapri Ehitus, notes that construction is progressing at a good pace: “Concrete is arriving, steel is arriving. The construction market is picking up, and producers of reinforced concrete and steel seem to have a lot of work, as delivery queues have formed.” According to the project manager, a film studio of this size has never been built in Estonia before.
Tarmo Roos, CEO of Mapri Ehitus, is an avid film enthusiast and looks forward to other blockbuster productions in Estonia alongside Tenet: “I often think Estonia has many ideal locations for apocalyptic stories – abandoned buildings, wild landscapes and forests straight out of a horror film,” he says. “The magic of movies is that sometimes they even foreshadow real-life events – I recently saw Brad Pitt’s new F1 film, and at Silverstone, Hülkenberg replayed a similar scenario.” Life, however, is like a film in which we ourselves are the main characters. In the dramedy of Estonia’s economy, we see strong resilience from entrepreneurs who continue to invest and look forward to a better future. At the same time, they are constantly monitoring their core costs and quickly adapting to find new ways to save time and resources.
Photos by Erik Riikoja
