Madventures/Blog

1. So what you guys have been up to since we last talked to you?

RIKU: Mostly just recovering & dropping painkillers, as I had an operation last
Friday… Got a Lounge-Book laptop stand though, so I’ve been able to
coordinate the DVD publishing & pre-ordering issues straight from the comforts
of my futon. That is, all the work has been taken care of by Tunna & the Mad
Team!

TUNNA: Editing our UK episodes. Yesterday I bought plane tickets to a remote Island
deep in the tropics!

2. You make television – but do you really watch it? What are your favorite shows or favorite kind of programs? What do you hate?

RIKU: No TV on a daily basis, but then again I do check out stuff every day in the
web. I just yesterday got the pre-ordered Peep Show season 6 on DVD – that’s
one of my favorite comedy shows.

My all-time favourite (Non-Finnish) tv shows shortlist would maybe include
Wonder Showzen, The Tribe (was it called Going Tribal in the US?), The Office &
Extras, Summer Heights High and Jam… And I can’t wait to continue my BBC’s
Planet Earth blu-ray marathon. The best movie ever made is by the way
Koyaanisqatzi and right now my favorite shorties are made by the French posse
Kourtrajmé.

Hate? I don’t bother to hate crappy TV that much, I’m sometimes curious to watch
almost anything, even TV Shop sometimes as it’s pretty psychedelic! Oh, as a
professional journalist, I of course have to hate Fox News!

TUNNA: To be honest I don’t really have too much time to watch Tv. But when I do I
usually watch quality documentaries. If I love some show or a series I usually
buy it on DVD and watch it when I have the time.

What I really hate in television are reality shows exploiting people. Big
Brother is one of them. You put a bunch of people in one place, irritate them
and then get them to scheme against each other. These shows are based on
pure greed.

In general I hate TV being so conventional and predictable. Networks are
dependent on the advertisement income and therefore have to please as big
crowds as possible. And, when you have to please everybody you have to make
lots of compromises and be very careful that nobody gets angry and change the
channel.

Luckily there are some brave producers who believe that television can be
something else as well. You shouldn’t underestimate the viewers. I believe
there are many of us who demand edgy and more honest shows instead of this
plastic shit where you can’t do or say anything cause your viewers might get
angry.

The highlight during the last few years: Wonder Show Zen (MTV)

3. You’re always preaching the joyous gospel of traveling, but there must negative sides to it too. What are the worst thing about traveling?

RIKU: Of course there’s always the negative side. Difficult to answer shortly, we’ve
written a lot about this in our book… Some things: in case you fly, there’s
the obvious global environmental hazard. It’s possible to reduce that though,
by supporting the carbon neutral traveling NGO’s and by staying abroad a longer
time and keeping your standards there a lot lower than at home – that is no AC,
minimum use of electricity, public transport etc etc. Everyone should keep
these in mind…

Then there’s the inevitable change, the impact of mass tourism for the people &
the environment in a particular location. More travellers are aware of how to
travel sustainably, less negative the impact. Here’s one good text about it.

We of course believe that both on the individual & the global level the positive
sides overrun the negative ones!

TUNNA: In Papua New Guinea we were arguing with Riku if it was right for us to be
there. Somewhere where no white men had been before. Are we planting the seed of
babylon by being there? Should we just leave these people alone and isolated? Do we
change something permanently when they see our cameras and computers? Yes and
no.

Everything changes and that’s a fact. But how it changes, that’s everyone’s
responsibility. We believe that awareness will help to preserve these fragile
cultures which are very vulnerable and will be destroyed soon if awareness is
not raised.

4. What can we expect from the DVD? Give us some details.

RIKU: For our international friends probably the biggest difference is, the DVD
episodes are 50%-100% longer (so-called “1-hour TV eps”), completely uncensored
Director’s Cuts by our own wizards Tunna & Jussi. And a lot of extra for sure.
Here’s the details.

TUNNA: Much longer and totally uncensored episodes! Because of the slot length we were
forced to cut our American episodes to commercial 30 minutes which is only 20
minutes of actual material! We had to cut away great scenes which are now
included in the DVD episodes. As there were no slot requirements anymore we
were able to edit as long episodes as we wanted.

Though we had a great producer in the travel channel who tried to push it to the
limits, we were forced to censor some of the roughest material that couldn’t be
shown on TV – but now everything will be as it is!

10 new behind the scenes episodes! As we were shooting we kept the camera
rolling all the time and managed to get lots of behind the scenes material. We
edited that material together and actually ended up making 10 new episodes of
out of it. These Behind the Scenes-episodes open up the actual episodes a lot and it’s really
funny stuff, too! You can see what a sissy Riku really is when he’s not playing his
macho role. Of course, you can also see what happens to me when Riku finally gets revenge
and wakes me up, very rudely…

5. If the backpacks would have to be packed like RIGHT NOW, where would Madventures travel and make the next episode?

RIKU: I’d say Bhutan. That would be the slowest, most zen-like Madventures episode
ever. Pure chilling in a country which introduced the Gross National Happiness
index… That’s what should be in order right now, slowness.

TUNNA: Bhutan it will be, and the theme is: The great art of chilling out.