How to deliver files

Posted in News by Maarten in March 2008

Delivery address is artwork@hecticelectric.nl for Hecticelectric and artwork@avp.nl for AVP.

New Parking Service @ Hectic

Posted in News by FS in September 2007

Since a few months HE has acces to the online Parking service Parkmobile. When you arrive you can register your car at our planning so they can activate the parking during the time of your stay.

Grolsch Eagle

Posted in News by FS in September 2007

Grolsch Eagle is a project we co-produced with the Jelle Oortman Gerlings. At the moment Jelle is living in Los Angeles where we shot the commercial. In an early fase Hectic's 3D team has started testing the first of the glass houses, wich were created to intergrate in the commercial. "The look" was the most important aspect in this project. By building this "look" in an early stage the client could see the result of our 3D modelling during the P.P.M. Our VFX supervisor went to L.A. during the scouting of the locations, to have enough references to finish the project as planned.

Jelle assisted us by making a detailed breakdown of the plates we needed to do the postproduction. Eventually we decided to use HDRI technology because the look shouldn't be fully intergrated within the total image. The client wanted the glass houses to be completely visible. Sven de Jong an JP Leclerqc combined all the elements during the compositing fase in the Flame @ Hectic.

Coolbest

Posted in News by FS in September 2007

In this large project our 3D team and our compositors worked together with director Othmar Sweers. Production wise it was impossible to shoot the backgrounds, Othmar had in mind, in real life. The budget we would need for a shoot in the upper north of Europa was simply out of reach. This resulted in a studio shoot with a blue background. Before the shoot we created realistic backgrounds in 3D. These loose components then needed to be merged with the life action material, which of course had to be shot. We had to use the light and the camera tracking as focus points. Our software designers developped in the meanwhile special software to make all the tracking as smooth as possible.

ARRI Scanner

Posted in News by FS in September 2007

For digital 2K scanning we are going to use the ARRI scanner. We are expanding our scanning equipment because of the gigantic amount of Digital Intermediates we are producing. It is nescassary to expand before we have a data overflow. Besides this logistic advantage the improvement of quality is the most important reason for the introduction of ARRI scanning. Especially the combination of experienced graders and professional color management can contribute a lot to improve the quality of the final commerical or feature film.

How to watch our clips in Linux

Posted in News by Julik in May 2008

Hello, fine visitors! Julik from Hectic Amsterdam here. In this article I would like to quickly explain how to view our clips under Linux.

New Colorist @ AVP

Posted in News by Gerben in June 2008

Since January 2008 AVP has a new grader in the team, her name is Isabell Brockmann. She came into the business at "Das Werk” Hamburg in October 2000 where she got enthousiastic about colourcorrection with al its possibilities. She started in VTR to learn more about all the technical systems. Next step was to be a Telecine assistant, but soon she made the step to junior-colorist and left Das Werk in july 2003 to start at Delipictures. At Delipictures she worked as a senior-colorist for 4 years and now she's here in Amsterdam at AVP. We're happy she joined our team and hope she'll have a great time in Amsterdam.

To get a view of her work, have a look at the homepage: www.isabellbrockmann.com

Letter for the King (Brief voor de Koning)

Posted in News by Maarten in June 2008

HecticProjeX has recently finished work on the movie “Letter for the King”. This movie has been directed by Pieter Verhoef and contains a large number of VFX shots with backgrounds that have completely been generated in 3D and 2D. Several elements have been specially shot for this purpose, in consensus with DOP Jules van de Steenhoven. This project was handled by two VFX supervisors: Jan van de Laar and Raphael Kourilsky. Jan has managed several large movie projects for HecticProjeX. Raphael, known mostly from HecticElectric Paris, has numerous large projects on his name. Together Jan and Raphael headed and formed a team of 14 VFX artists divided over HecticElectric, AVP and HecticElectric Paris. The colour correction of the DI has been done by John Thoborg.

Renderman

Posted in News by Maarten in June 2008

HecticElectric and AVP have recently changed to Renderman, the high-end render software for 3D. With this change we are the only company in Holland that uses this software. Renderman has been developed by PIXAR and offers optimal control in complex 3D models with extreme high definition. Renderman guarantees the best creative results with a proper, acceptable speed. Simon Milner (ESCAPE studios) took care of an optimal implementation within our 3D pipeline.

Flame & Flint 2008

Posted in News by Maarten in June 2008

HecticElectric and AVP have updated their whole infrastructure of Flame and Flint to the Linux platform. Moreover the latest software versions have been installed. With this new upgrade the render speed and the storage capacity have drastically increased. The different Flames are internally connected through a dedicated 4 GB network. All the machines have been prepared for the use of HD and 2K and are capable of playing these in real-time.

THE STORM

Posted in News in August 2008

NL-Film has recently selected Hectic to create all visual effects for the Ben Sombogaart film The Storm (De Storm), to be released next year. The movie will include al large number of VFX shots that simulate water effects. Hectic has already conducted extensive preliminary tests and research in this field, with the company’s entire 3D crew devoting many hours to the task at hand. Raphael Kourilsky of HecticElectric Paris will serve as the project’s VFX supervisor. John Thorborg will take care of

HecticTransit

Posted in News in August 2008

The digital video revolution is yesterday’s news. Hectic Electric and AVP are already taking the next step: making sure everyone can find their way in the jungle of their newly digitalized, high-speed work environment.

Soon, audio and video will no longer have to be delivered to broadcasters on tape, but can simply be put on a digital file that’s kind of an upscaled version of MPEG. Only this file uses a different way of coding to ensure high quality. It’s the brand new MXF 30.

Putting together an MFX file will remain a clear and orderly process, but delivering it to broadcasters is set to become much more

Become a HE-Man (or Woman)!

Posted in News in September 2008

HecticElectric and AVP proudly present HE Magazine, a 72-page insider's guide to the post-production industry.

The new magazine is not only meant to open a window into the world of HecticElectric and AVP but also to serve as a platform for everyone who is interested in the numerous ways in which communications, culture and technology interact.

Bol.com Battle makes the front page of CGSociety

Posted in News by Julian in November 2008

Maarten Boon gives a thorough breakdown of the workflow we used on the Bol Singstar commercial on the CGSociety front page.

You can also see some of the in-progress renders and sketches for the characters.

Broadcast copies via our Hectic Transit system

Posted in News by Marielle in February 2009

Since the beginning of this year broadcast copies are no longer delivered to the broadcast stations on digital betacam tapes, but as MXF files via our Hectic Transit system.

A commercial can be entered into the system in no time, and once approved by the client, the digital distribution to the broadcasters of choice is executed using the internet browser and a few mouse clicks.

A simple but safe process that saves time and costs.

For more information, feel free to contact our planning teams.

At HecticElectric: Amrita Kraakman & Jasper Wolf planning@hecticelectric.nl

At AVP: Dorien Plante & Patty Veenstra bookings@avp.nl

De Storm

Posted in News by Marc Kubbinga in September 2009

Friday the 11th of september 2009 the film De Storm had its world premiere in Vlissingen. De Storm is the latest film of Ben Sombogaart, which tells about the flood in 1953 in Holland, Zeeland. HecticProjeX, the collaboration between AVP, HecticElectric and HecticParis achieved a tremendous amount of work in a very short notice. A lot of the water shots has been created in full CG. The full opening shot, a shot of more than 30 seconds, has been created in CG. HecticProjeX has developed a special technical pipeline to be able to produce the necessary shots in the amount of time available. A significant part of the compositing is done in Scratch. The interactive way of adding rain, fog and spray on most of the shots in film continuity, was only possible in this online environment. VFX supervisor Raphael Kourilsky was responsible for all visual effects. Colorist Gyorgy Balatoni was responsible for the grading. HecticProjeX and its complete team is proud of the final result. The result is the sum of all efforts of all operators, as well as the people from NL Film.

Scratch At HecticElectric

Posted in News in September 2009

HecticElectric Amsterdam recently expanded its facilities with a Scratch color-correction system, replacing the old Avid offline suite.

The system is fully intergrated in the AVP-Hectic network. The system will be able to autoconform all material what has been scanned at the ARRI scanner at AVP, and to process the incoming RED material. You can book the suite with all colorists working at AVP as well as with a number of select freelance graders (contact us for their reels and further info).

Files via HecticTransit

Posted in News by Mariëlle in December 2009

From now on it is also possible to download or upload files straight from the HecticTransit site.

You will find a selection of file formats under the Publishing bar of your commercal.

Need information or help? Contact us at AVP: bookings@avp.nl or Hectic: planning@hecticelectric.nl.

Hectic Electric is looking for a 3D intern

Posted in NewsJobs by Amrita in January 2010

We are a post-production company based in Amsterdam. We are working on high-end visual effects for commercials and features. For the next few months we have an opening for a talented intern to join our team of about 15 people. We are offering to work and learn in a professional environment and further develop your skills within our small, cozy company.

Applicants must be be enrolled in a Dutch school.

Preferred skills: Maya, some basic Nuke and Realflow chops would be nice.

To apply, please submit a motivation letter and CV with a link to your online website/portfolio to jobs@hecticelectric.nl