 As a teenager, Vaala befriended Theodor Tugai – who later became known as a film director and actor under the name Teuvo Tulio – and the pair recognized their common interest in films.They decided to start making films together, but their first feature-length attempt, "Mustat silmät" in 1929, never received wide distribution.Vaala himself was reportedly so disappointed with the resulting film that he dumped the original camera negatives into the sea.