The Sound of Hocus Focus/

Coming up: We have the pleasure of announcing the expansion of our world of the visuals to include music and sound design. In January 2010, a large recording studio and two control rooms are ready to provide you with the sound of Hocus Focus – what a thrill! And what an experienced, competent and knowledgeable team who has joined us to create this sound. Preben Grieg-Halvorsen has until recently worked at Punch Post Production as a sound designer and composer. He has a long and impressive list of achievements, including sound design and music to hundreds of commercials for directors like Hans Petter Moland, Erik Poppe, Pål Sletaune and Roenberg. This autumn, Preben has worked with the documentary “Norwegian Solution” by Emil Trier, among other things. Anders Moberg has for many years run his own studio. He has produced, composed and been involved in projects with high-profiled artists like D’sound, Paperboys, Maria Arredondo, Alexander With and Lillyjetz. He has also worked with international artists at different occasions; Take That (UK), Ronan Keating (UK), Natasha Beddingfield (UK), Sophie Ellis-Bextor (UK), Carola(S) and Christian Waltz(S), to mention some of them.

The focus on sound is according to Managing Director Lene Cathrine Albertsen important and motivated by particularly two aspects; Demand and Creativity: ”Both our clients AND our employees have requested the possibility of working in-house with sound design and music along with the editing process. Hocus Focus emphasise the creative working process and we have been operating with a missing link without a sound department. Now, we are happy and proud to have an engaged, inspiring and competent team working with sound and we are really looking forward to be a strengthened and even more exciting partner for our clients”. So watch this space…

Digital restoration/

Save the King part II: Hocus Focus has in these days started part two of a large project for Posten Norge. After completed the scanning of 16 mm key documentation from 1959 to 1978, the work is moving on to the digital restoration of the old Postrevyen (The Post Review). Digital dust bust, colour- and damaged frames restoration are all essential tools to revitalise for example the official opening of Postgirobygget by King Olav in 1975 for future generations. Postens task today is to both provide excellent, uniform postal services throughout Norway in line with the licence requirements, while simultaneously running on business terms and being competitive in a market that is characterised by continuously increasing competition. However, more than ever, the company is through its past established as an irreplaceable part of the Norwegian societys infrastructure and a historic establishment to treasure.

Productive editors/

A stream of exciting projects has kept the editors at Hocus Focus busy lately. Focusing on short films, Thomas Løvig has edited BILTUR (=Drive), directed by Alex Herron and LYSTHUS (=Summer house) directed by Henrik K. Dahlsbakken. Moving on to feature films, Martin Stoltz has just finnished the final cut on TOMME TØNNER (=Empty barrels) and we are all looking forward to its premiere at Norwegian movie theatres in January 2010. Ove Kenneth Nilsen is cutting the trailer for the up and coming fifth family feature film about OLSENBANDEN JR (=The Junior Olsen Gang). Last but not least, Henrik Berge has completed showreels for the photographer Marius Gulbrandsen and Dinamo Advertising Agency. Moving on…

BVE Awards 2009/

Two BVE awards we must mention with great pleasure: The music video CAN’T GET OVER won the Best Visual Effects Award of 2009. The same goes for SHELL from Gimpville edited by Martin Stoltz in the category of commercials. The winners were announced at the award ceremony at Filmens hus, following the Digital Storytelling 2009 seminar last week. Congratulation to everybody involved in the production processes with well deserved awards! The UK based MINISTRY OF SOUND cooperated with director Alex Herron and Jalla Film to promote the artist SEPTEMBER. The result is the award winning music video, which is an extraordinary visual experience in a Norwegian context. The urban science fiction look brings to mind Kylie Minogues international monster hit CAN’T GET YOU OUT OF MY HEAD from 2001. Hocus Focus is proud to have been involved in such a huge and challenging post-production project together with Placebo Effects, Gyro Media and Tor Øra. The visual effects work was in addition supervised by Arne Kaupang and Rune Spaans. Before our guys, Ove Kenneth Nilsen (editor), Bengt Ove Sannes (online compositing) and Haavard Albertsen (online compositing), could get their hands on the material, Haavard and Alex supervised the grading process at RUSHES in London. The result is a brilliant music video beyond the usual Norwegian standard and scope.

Technical goodies/

Hocus Focus has now upgraded the SAN system. SGO’s own technical guru Javier Moreno took advantage of the occasion and installed the Mistika upgrade himself. For the technical advanced, this means adding numerous and innovating opportunities. Further, it means an enhanced and streamlined workflow for our operators. We will use less time on moving files in the future. However, the most important implication is that Hocus Focus from now on can work directly on RED RAW files. It is a true pleasure to be able to draw even more information from every image in the grading process and provide amazing visuals along with our collaborators. To conclude: All are systems and suits are from this weekend on talking the same language and behaving like very good friends indeed!

Scream Awards/

It is bragging time! The recent announcement of overwhelmingly four nominations to the Norwegian zombie feature film DØD SNØ / DEAD SNOW at Scream 2009 must be mentioned. Just a week after the Toronto After Dark Film Festival announced the film as the winner of the Audience Award for Best Feature Film, the nominations keep coming. The opportunity to snap the award for Best Horror Movie from films like “Friday the 13th” and the excellent Swedish film “Let the right one in” at the Oscar of Horror and Fantasy, sci-fi and comics is uncanny. Other potential categories are: Most memorable mutilation, The best fight-to-the-death scene of the year and Best Foreign Movie. We must hand it to our man, Hocus Focus and DEAD SNOW editor Martin Stoltz: This is certainly not one of those conceited show-off films. It is just horrifically disgusting. DEAD SNOW might be an outsider, but then again, what can go wrong with a slogan like “Ein, zwei, die…”? The place is Los Angeles and in the writing moment it is 50 days, 7 hours and 46 minutes to the annual SCREAM is aired. That is the 27th of October 2009 – so get your chain saw polished and ready…

Save the King/

In cooperation with Gyro, Hocus Focus has completed a large scale project for Posten. To preserve key documentation, we have scanned 16 mm film from the film archives of Posten. Some of the film reels are more than 50 years old! Every single year from 1959 to 1978, Postrevyen (The Post Review) was filmed for internal use, documenting the postal life and work of employees and management. Posten is the largest workplace in Norway according to the number of employees. As such, the archive is also an unique historical audiovisual document of Norwegian society as a whole. Unforgettable images from the official opening of Postgirobygget by King Olav in 1975 are rescued for future generations. The work of scanning Quicktime for further editing, the scanning to DPX for digital storage and the scanning of optical sound take on a new level of meaning and importance.

Hocus Focus reel to IBC/

We are proud to announce that SGO, the manufacturer of the Mistika system, has requested a show reel from Hocus Focus to IBC this year. The aim is to illustrate the capabilities of the Mistika platform to participants from more than 130 countries. IBC is one of the world’s largest film and television conferences and exhibitions, gathering over 50.000 visitors each year. Amsterdam is thus the place to be from the 10th to the 15th of September for everyone involved in the electronic media world of content, creation, management and delivery. Highly recommended by our people and we can soon tease you with a show reel still in production. For more information, take a look at: www.ibc.org

Coming up: Gangster-comedy in the cutting/

Continuing the success of the Nazi-zombie-splatter-comedy feature film DØD SNØ/DEAD SNOW, Hocus Focus editor Martin Stoltz is preparing for a new feature film. TOMME TØNNER (empty barrels) is the title of a new Norwegian gangster-comedy from Euforia film, produced by the team behind DEAD SNOW; Terje Strømstad and Kjetil Omberg. A little teaser from Euforia: Ali, Nico and Bobby have finally reach a stage when everything is right. The Danish has given them a job that cant go wrong and hence will take them way up the ladder `carrier wise´. Because, how hard can it be to steal a stuffed falcon? The duo Leon Bashir and Sebastian Dalén are co-directing the film and started shooting medio July on the RED format with Petter Holmern. We are impatiently tapping our fingers until the raw material is safely stored in Martins editing suite at some point after the 22nd of August. Good luck to the production team and to the rest of you: TOMME TØNNER opens at national cinemas the 8th of January 2010.

BigBang in the Scan!/

We are back with a BigBang. The first rolls of film taken from live performances of the major Norwegian band BigBang are in these days in the Goldeneye II scanner of Hocus Focus. The band has a reputation of being the best live band in Norway and from what we can see and hear, director Lasse Gretland has managed to pin it down on film. And the images do not lie, although there is no doubt that the director has brought in some of the best photographers in the country. The concert film is shot on 35 mm, which is given it a distinctive look. But oh, what a band and what a perfect timing for making this film. On the height of their carrier and with founder and frontman Øystein Greni´s unstoppable energy and intensity. We are done scanning the takes from BigBang´s concert at Norwegian Wood and cant wait to see the result from Slottsfjell and to further work with the film in editing and grading. To everyone else: We can assure you that this will be a unique concert experience to be enjoyed on TV, DVD or Blue Ray DVD.

A new boy in town/

If not in town, certainly at Hocus Focus. We are proud to present grader/colourist Mathias Theissen as a new member in our team. For the last years, Mathias has worked at the post-production company The End. He is a versatile kind of guy, who has been responsible for online, colour grading and visual effects on exciting projects like the documentaries Modern Slavery and USA vs. AL-ARIAN. Mathias is now taking the challenge of working on our Mistika system, after years with Colour and other systems – something he looks forward to. As we are experiencing a great demand for our grading and online services, we are very pleased that Mathias chose Hocus Focus as his new employer. So in the year of 2009 – the year we celebrated our 10th jubilee – we are counting 11 experienced and knowledgeable people in team Hocus Focus. That includes three grading and online operators and three permanent editors. Welcome Mathias!

Opening hours/

Hocus Focus has its doors open for all our clients during summertime with the exception of week 30 and week 31 (18th of July to 2nd of August). All our good people are taking a well deserved summer vacation, so our services are scaled down. However, we still have some exciting projects in progress over the summer. Coming up is for instance a new Maria Mena music video produced by Sheriff TV and directed by Magnus Martens. Hocus Focus = film scanning. We have just started up a large scale film archive project for Posten – the largest workplace in Norway according to the number of employees.

Expert meeting/

The first SGO Mistika Expert Users Meeting is scheduled to take place in Spain from the 22nd to the 24th of May. As part of the exclusive group of Mistika masters, Haavard Albertsen is invited to this extraordinary opportunity to influence further technological developments of the Hocus Focus post-production platform. Haavard brings along our up-and-coming operator Bengt Ove Sannes to meet the most experienced and talented Mistika experts from all over the world. It is a tribute to “the established, dedicated and loyal Mistika artists that have demonstrated their remarkable skills using SGO Mistika to post produce successful eye candy commercials; high profile music promos, well-graded films, compelling trailers, stunning spots, funky internet virals, subtle and sleek special effects for award-winning corporate videos, to mention just a few of the great projects achieved over the years”. However, before work there is pleasure: Haavard and Bengt Ove are arriving in Ibiza with style in a pre-event sailing adventure from Alicante. Good luck with finding that sea leg, boys!

Hocus Focus Jubilee/

Hocus Focus is celebrating 10 years in business. 10 exciting years with incredible growth. Two young guys from the north of Norway doing every attainable production, joined forces with the prettiest girl in Oslo. Now Hocus Focus has become one of Norway’s leading post-production companies. With ten amazing employees and many loyal clients. Our clients provide us with every aspect and scale of the field. But we have all one thing in common: We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE film. Commercials, short films, feature films, information films, documentary films, short feature films, music videos and TV-series. So we have every reason to celebrate our 10 years of audiovisual experience and experiments, welcoming the next 10 with a party to remember. Hocus Focus is certainly looking forward to all the people, stories, images and sounds which will amaze, surprise and move us on our way into the future.

Archive film and restoration/

Hocus Focus has just completed a larger project of restoration for Statoil Hydro. On behalf of Yellow Film in Stavanger, a large number of historical documentations from the 1960s and up to contemporary time have gotten a facelift. Our Goldeneye II film scanner raised to the occasion and utilised its unique qualities by scanning damaged, old and shrunken 16mm and 35mm film. The result is the magnificent and the extensive visual material can now be restored digitally.

Hocus Focus = Film Scanning/

Finally, Hocus Focus is scanning film with an outstanding quality. The art of fine-tuning the Goldeneye scanner, as the precision tool it must be, has kept the management at Hocus Focus on hold for a longer period of time. However, in close cooperation with Imagesystems, we have invested time and effort in a circling process of testing and adjusting. The result is impeccable – we are back in business! Hocus Focus is scanning everything from new commercials; Onelight and HQ, to old archive film for restoration. The working process – from the scanning of film and offline, to colourgrading and online on the Mistika platform – confirms Hocus Focus’ position as a high quality supplier of every segment of the post-production process. And we are able to do so at a remarkable speed. The secret is the system, which allows our operators to perform their excellent skills at the same platform. The combination of grading (Mistika 4K colourgrade) and online (Mistika) is extremely efficient, simultaneously as it can match our clients high standards of technical quality and creative opportunities.

Coming up: TT2/

The second season of the popular television series – Tingenes Tilstand 2 – is in the last stage of the post-production process at Hocus Focus. The large, exciting and time consuming series is at the moment occupying all of our three offline editors Thomas, Ove Kenneth and Martin. In addition to keeping our online guys and post-producer girls Haavard and Bengt Ove, Elin and Lene busy and engaged. We are really looking forward to meet the ever charming host Petter Wilhelm Blickfeldt Schjerven on the television screen again, presenting all the peculiar things the people of Norway is collecting. However – hold your horses – we have to wait as long as to the autumn of 2009.

Nazi-Zombies to Sundance/

Congratulation to Hocus Focusown Martin Stoltz, director Tommy Wirkola, Miho Film and the rest of cast and crew of “Død snø”/”Dead Snow”. The amazing invitation to participate at the Sunday Film Festival is undoubtedly among this years most inspirational and uplifting happening for anyone working with and for feature film in Norway. Sundance is the largest and most prestigious independent film festival in the world. Manager of the Programming Department Adam Montgomery could not have given “Dead Snow” any greater recommendations: “Dead Snow is hands down the best, most original Zombie film I’ve seen in over a decade – you really can’t go wrong with Nazi Zombies”. Sundance Institute is dedicated to the discovery and development of independent artists and audiences. The originator, the heroic Robert Redford, gathered in 1981 a group of friends and colleagues to establish and promote independence, discovery and new voices in American and international film. The festival has brought us unforgettable films like “Blood Simple” and “Reservoir Dogs” with their just as unforgettable directors, the Coen brothers and Tarantino. Removed from the pressures of the marketplace in the mountains of Utah, creative risks, authenticity and unique visions are encouraged. Evidently, a perfect match with what is described as a Norwegian feelgood-Nazi-zombie-splatter-comedy. Good luck at Redfords table in Utah, USA 15th to 25th of January 2009. “Dead Snow” opens at national cinemas 09/01/09. If you can’t wait, take a peek at: http://www.dodsno.no

Spot of the day/

Honour and glory to Try, Paradox and Hocus Focus. As one of the most critically acclaimed international web sites for creative businesses, Creative Online chose “Don’t disturb” as the spot of the day. The serious but funny film is part of an attitude campaign for The Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted (NABP) concerning guide dogs. For more information, see further down the page: A Good cause at Christmas time.

Workshops in special effects/

This autumn, Hocus Focus arranged requested workshops for students. In cooperation with Danvik FHS, parts of the teaching schedule of the practical film course where held at our premises and suites. Online and colourgrading operator Bengt Ove Sannes focused on how special effects can be efficient in narrative storytelling and making. Additionally, they worked on and transformed the students own films and images. Great fun and mutual imparting of knowledge – can be recommended!

Sølvtaggen to Try & Apt/

It is quite an achievement – to make Nordea’s financial services a commercial hit. But so they did, Try and Apt together with a strong team of collaborators. Smallfilm with director Mikkel Ohrvik and producer Rut Solli has obviously managed to communicate the creative efforts of Try and Apt and brought it all the way back to Hocus Focus and Thomas Løvig (editor), Haavard Albertsen (online) and Bengt Ove Sannes (online). The award is Sølvtaggen for October, in all its glory. Sølvtaggen is a Norwegian advertising competition to promote excellence and creativity on the Internet containing interactive commercials and campaigns, arranged by INMA. Congratulations to everyone involved! To read more about the Nordea campaign, see further down our website and Found in Translation

Quality AND Quantity on Web/

To ensure an up to date information flow to all our clients and colleagues, Hocus Focus has now hired a Web editor. Lene Vibeke Hansen is helping us with the gathering and structuring of information, writing texts and most importantly: Get it out there to you!

Gullruten 2008/

“Uti vår hage 2″ won the award for the best humor program at “Gullruten 2008″ Our own Thomas Løvig was the assisting editor on the last episode, “Allværsjakka”, directed by Ole Endresen, also known for the TV serie “Etaten”. We congratulate the staff behind the popular serie!

Another win for "Tog"!/

“Tog” and Motion Blur won yet another award with Silver at the 2008 Clio Awards. Congratulation again to Motion Blur and our editor Ove-Kenneth! Read more at http://www.clioawards.com

Max Manus/

Our editor Ove-Kenneth Nilsen joins the Max Manus production. Ove will be co-editor with Wibecke Rønseth on the feature film Max Manus. Last time they worked together was on the feature film “The Beautiful Country” (directed by Hans Petter Moland). Max Manus, directed by Roenberg (Bandidas, 2006), is the true story about one of the most brilliant saboteurs during World War II and his battle to overcome his inner demons. Max Manus is played by Aksel Hennie and among the actors we have Agnes Kittelsen, Nicolai Cleve Broch, Petter Næss and Victoria Winge

New editor at Hocus Focus/

Hocus Focus have permanently employed Martin Stoltz as editor. During last year the editors at Hocus Focus had a rush of productions. Ove Kenneth Nilsen and Thomas Løvig has been fully booked with productions, (which among other have been rewarded both Gullblyanten and Gullfisken). We therefore have decided to reinforce our editing staff. We have during the five last years collaborated with Martin Stoltz. He has worked for us as a freelancer -alongside his studies at The Norwegian Filmschool at Lillehammer. During this time he has edited numerous award winning musicvideos, commercials and drama productions. Martin is a competent, committed and creative editor. With his good sense of humor, warmth and sociable person he suits perfect at Hocus Focus. We are very happy to have Martin onboard and look forward to offer one more skilled editor.