Eastern Europe on the Rise (Part Two): Boutiques

Let’s take a look at some smaller outfits in Eastern and Central Europe. Although the distinction between Eastern and Central Europe remains a bit murky, I’ve been told that countries in the east that have joined the EU are considered Central European. Nevertheless, it may be that some of the Central Europe houses will be a bit more expensive than those to the east, but they still represent remarkable value to producers in the west used to paying seriously high rates for post and VFX.

This is the second part in a three part series looking at the rise in production and post in Eastern Europe.

– Part 1: Eastern Europe Production/Post on the Rise … and What It Could Mean for Stateside Production and Post

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– Part 3: The Big Boys on the Eastern Block – Western-style Production at Eastern European prices

Things were tough in the Eastern Block for decades but now it is very much in the process of economic recovery. Infrastructure that we take for granted, may be minimal or just developing in some places. High-speed Internet seems to be rapidly extending through Eastern Europe as a lifeline that both opens markets for skills and brings information. The web also brings means for learning. Several entities in Eastern Europe are providing distance learning for young artists who want to learn film and video skills. There are also brick and mortar opportunities available. These can be a simple as a few artists at a small studio staying late and inviting local talent to come and learn Softimage XSI, or Maxon Cinema 4D, or Adobe After Effects at no charge, to top schools like the Film Academy Baden-Wà¼rttemberg in Ludwigsburg Germany, offering the best training, complete with latest equipment and software they’ll need. You might be amazed to discover that the Academy’s doors are open to anyone with the talent who can compete for the few spaces available each year…even Americans.

The Academy is government and privately subsidized so that the education is free. Former students like VFX Supervisor Volker Engle have gone on to greatness and selected students have worked with Director Roland Emmerich on his biggest films. I mention the school because talented students from Eastern Europe often make it through the difficult hurdles required to enter.

Back to Eastern Europe: I’m seeing a similar trend is in local universities and colleges through out Eastern Europe. Because of the economics of the area, a good program in video production at a small university there is likely to have a tough road financially. One way to pay for the equipment and needed licenses is to charge clients reasonable rates for post production, whilst leveraging the talents of students eager to both learn and get experience. It’s a brilliant scheme because if there is one complaint I’ve heard from film and video students worldwide it is: “I can get hired only if I can demonstrate experience, but I can’t get experience until someone hires me!” There must be a way out of it. Internships are one answer, but there is another route.

Mileta Postic, a Professor of Animation and Visual Effects, has a smart solution to the high cost of education. He’s built a fine program at the Academy of Arts at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia, by engaging in a bit of commercial production work. He’s built a synergistic operation combining University facilities, faculty and student resources with commercial production to help fund his audio-visual media program. It’s based on the following flow: Client needs post work done and client is willing to pay a small but reasonable price >>> University has students in training and talented supervisors in need of projects >>> Students are willing to work and get experience >>> University needs equipment, licenses and improved communications >>> University can offer quality services to producers >>> Fees pay to upgrade facilities and infrastructure >>> ever more sophisticated services become available >>> Producers happy >>> Word spreads >>> More clients become interested and willing to pay >>> Local consumers begin to expect higher production values, and so forth. It certainly works for Professor Postic.

I asked him where his work comes from: “Most of the work comes from Serbia itself, some also comes from Western Europe, mostly England and Germany. London and Germany seem to be the places that commission most work from us.” Curious about what kinds of work they do, I asked: “We do 2D animation, some Flash animation, and lot of 3D animation and compositing. Most of the work involves VFX ‘ 3D combined with compositing. We also do general postproduction and motion design. Most of our current work is TV ads, music videos, but some are VFX for feature films.”

Although he enjoys working with western production companies, he suffers from an avoidance/approach conflict with Hollywood. He’s heard whisperings from other colleagues who’ve worked with us: “I have heard that Hollywood standards are very tight, but that the creativity we as artists can contribute is close to zero. The money is good I guess, and it looks great on your CV and demo reel. I like that Western production work is often technically challenging.

“So far, I am not that attracted to Hollywood work because of the lack of creativity involved, and the director being so remote. Of course it does interest us in a way, because of what we can learn from it. Most work in the world comes from Hollywood and they are the ones who set standards that we must stay on top of.” I asked him if he sees any advantages for small US productions to consider his company: “For small US production companies, the positive thing is definitely low cost of living and low wages here, which means we are extremely competitive for outsourcing on both price and quality. We may take a bit more time, but it’s worth it.”

So if you want to work with Mileta, think about giving him and his students just a bit of creative leeway and a bit of extra time. It will make your production more appealing; at a price you won’t believe.

Not knowing what people get paid in Novi Sad, I asked for specifics: “In Novi Sad for an average salary it runs around 600 Euro a month. In Belgrade, the capital, it is double or triple that. Yet we are not exploiting our people. What we pay equals to a highly trained professional here, if the client is right and able to pay us properly. Unfortunately our work is sometimes not valued enough [by clients], so some productions hire non-professionals to work for less money. The poor quality of their work shows, but the client is often not well enough informed to even notice the difference. Viewers will eventually demand professional quality in what they are seeing. It is the constant battle at the moment, to show producers that they need a professional to start with, and that the differences in quality matters a great deal; and that viewers will appreciate it.”

Although not posh, their facilities are adequate for quite sophisticated productions. “We have one large studio with green screen, two small production studios with 3-4 computers each and some cameras and lights. Computers are mostly PCs, but we have 2 Macs we use with Shake. We do a lot of 3D work using Maya as our primary package and also 3ds Max for certain work.”

In addition to low cost labor, Mileta can do sophisticated work on the cheap because they receive some government subsidies to cover teacher/supervisor salaries and a bit more to help with the equipment budget. Still there are difficulties. He tells me: “The negative is lack of true logistics, capital investments and variety in projects.”

I asked Mileta what he would like my readers to know most about his program: “That it is a great privilege to have a program in animation and visual effects, and a working commercial studio in such a small town of a small country as Novi Sad, Serbia. We are very open to collaboration; we would like people from the industry to visit us and make friends and give us advice on how we can best serve their needs.”

So there you have it, one small but mighty program that could save you so much in production costs that it would easily cover any costs to visit the studio and make friends. Bring your video equipment and shoot a co-production with them. It’s all in the negotiation and your willingness to reach out.

Looking a little farther west in Kranj, Slovenia, which is a member of the EU, yet often considered part of the Eastern Block; we find thirdframestudios. It’s a small but powerful boutique outfit that can handle a wide range of post production work, motion design, VFX and more, with skill and artistry; but they have a specialty. Here’s how they describe themselves on their website: “thirdframestudios is a full-service content creator providing advanced 3D animation libraries for mobile operators, advanced broadcast 3D graphics, compositing, visual studio content creation and interactive internet solutions.” Their passion is developing content for the micro-screen. They don’t short change their other business for it, but they do have special talent for mobile video.

They’re a small group of versatile technical engineers, artists, creative directors, art directors and…get this ‘ programmers. I think this is the smallest house I’ve seen with an in-house software R&D group. They’re definitely aiming at bringing in both local and worldwide business by offering sterling talent, advanced proprietary tools and cost effective pricing. CEO Andraz Logar, (himself a skilled 3D animation artist,) tells me that they’ve made a company decision to become pioneer content developers in the mobile video arena. More about that in a moment. But if you’re interested in exploring this exciting and a bit scary new venue, these guys might well be able to get you up to speed fast.

The problem is, Kranj is not exactly a household word in America and many other countries. If we’ve never heard of the place many of us just assume that it can’t be very important, or sophisticated or “happ’nin.” But we would be wrong. Kranj is the fourth largest city in Slovenia, and still maintains its old world charm despite its ultra modern electronics industry and of course cutting edge media. So if you’re willing to look beyond the beaten track, you could find a pot of gold in Kranj.

I talked with Logar to better understand what his company is all about and where his production work comes from. “Our biggest clients are in Western Europe, especially Scandinavia,” Logar explains. “A few are American companies, and of course, we offer service to the local advertising agencies as well. For the future focus we will probably try to be more active in Middle Eastern countries and Eastern Europe.”

Clearly Logar has a large vision for his company. Today they are small with only 7 people on staff, but they’re well situated for growth. Central and Eastern Europe are bustling emergent economies. To garner staff for this growth, thirdframestudios is involved with University and art school internship programs.

He has yet to work with Hollywood producers (although he does have clients in America) but he looks forward to it with some reserve. He has time-zone concerns and the fact that directors are so far removed. “We have people working over night in order to communicate with clients in Asia and America, but still, the delay in communication causes headaches even with the present communication technologies available. But we manage to deal with all these problems.”

I asked him to describe their modest studio: “Our motion graphics/vfx/mobile content department is relatively small; it consists of three 3D seats, two compositing seats and two versatile product management seats with equipment needed for the job. This includes PC (Windows and Linux) and Mac work stations. We farm out our blue-screen and motion capture work to reliable subcontractors.”

For software they use mostly Cinema 4D and Maya for 3D work. (As a side note, I’ve noticed that Cinema 4D is very popular all over Europe for both film and TV work.) Andraz explains: “Maya serves us well when we animate characters and simulate dynamics; but Cinema 4D is probably the work horse for everything else, modeling, texturing (via Bodypaint), motion graphics animation, rendering and particles. Since Maxon ‘ makers of Cinema 4D ‘ has announced new version of Cinema (10) with character animation and rigging tools said to be on par with the ones in Maya, we will probably ditch Maya completely in 2007.” Pretty strong endorsement for Cinema 4D I’d say.
As for compositing work the crew pretty much sticks with After Effects at the moment. “The majority of our work is motion graphics. After Effects is probably the most used software in our company. We have been playing with Shake for hardcore compositing and Motion for motion graphics, but our pipeline is not yet ready for them to be used on a regular basis.”

Since they have an in-house development team of programmers, they maintain an edge over much of their competition. They also work with the R&D people at client houses to develop custom software in order to accomplish specific productions tasks efficiently. “We have an IT department that creates software on demand. It consists of four full time staff and three part time programmers. They keep us ‘ the 3D/compositing geeks ‘ happy. This same team is currently developing standalone proprietary software for the creation of specialized mobile content.” Clearly they’re aggressively looking toward the future.

Even though the pay at thirdframestudio is not much above average for their area, they treat their people well. Part of their corporate culture, is a very generous performance based bonus program, which keeps their people happy. Andraz explains: “Our company has pretty average salaries (for the local environment,) but we always pay bonuses to the responsible people if the client and production team is pleased with the end result, and if ‘ of course ‘ we deliver all the milestones on time. It happens quite often that the staff gets double salaries due to exceptional quality work.” He indicated to me that this kind of bonus is somewhat unusual around Kranj.
One question kept occurring to me, so I asked if it would make sense for an aggressive outfit like thirdframestudio to move operations to a more central film producing area. Andraz gave me a bit of personal insight: “The positive thing (being in Kranj) is definitely the quality education that people from this part of the world enjoy. The other positive thing is that we live in a culturally rich environment. Here we have an abundant mixture of nations and mentalities that keeps things exciting. Also, Eastern European economies are growing fast at the moment. There are downsides of course. We now have an increasing cost of living, and not enough specialized universities for our industry.”

Finally, I asked Logar what he’d like our readers to know about thirdframestudios, and this was his response: “Our strongest advantage over great competition is mobile content. Since we have long-term clients in the mobile industry and direct access to their R&D departments, we are very on track with trendsetting techniques in mobile industry, and therefore we have a lot of knowledge when it comes to creating content, especially for 3G mobile networks.”

If you read my piece on bitfilm and the excitement around developing and marketing mobile video, you’ll understand one reason I picked thirdframestudios for a closer look. America is a bit behind Europe and Asia in mobile video and thirdframestudio has the special knowledge and artistry to work with you when you’re ready to jump into this exciting and scary venue. Because they’re so small and Andraz always insists upon quality work; you may well have to wait in line. But again, this is an investment. It’s a situation where you form a relationship with this company ‘ a bond of trust ‘ that may lead to highly lucrative symbiosis in time.

– Part 1: Eastern Europe Production/Post on the Rise … and What It Could Mean for Stateside Production and Post

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– Part 3: The Big Boys on the Eastern Block – Western-style Production at Eastern European prices