Well crafted production and post production

Film, Television & Multi-Media Post-Production, Direction and Design. Offline, Online Finishing. Grading, Compositing, Visual Effects, 2D/3D Animation. Special FX Dept & Drive-in studio. Wet or dry hire and award winning editors.

Our latest work

M&Co - the largest privately owned fashion retailer in the UK, came to Freakworks as a client via the Leith agency. The shoot for the ads which can be seen on air now was a huge production, it included things like erecting a raised set with a 35metre catwalk, a 30ft Technocrane. The making of this campaign and the campaign itself can be seen here.

Services

Editing

Whether its commercials broadcast or filmwork, we have experienced in house Craft Editors, and we also offer a list of affiliated Craft Editors.

No job is too difficult for our Craft Editors who relish demanding editorial challenges.

We maintain our hardware and software at the cutting edge. But, everyone knows it is the creative skills which drive the equipment to its maximum potential. Our artists take pride in this which means you get the best possible results. We tackle long and shortform projects, wet or dry hire, tape or file based with access to storage which is mirrored to provide maximum security for both project and media files.

Offline

We have the ability to size up to your requirements, we have shared storage which allows multiple editors working on your workflow at one time.

Online

We have a range of finishing suites which run on both AVID and Final Cut. Our craft editors will take your project to final deliverables. Whether it be as small as a mobile or web based content right up to 4K cinema

We have a range of hybrid edit suites, covering both Final Cut and Avid. Our suites are dual machine, there are two workstations within each cutting room, giving the option to an editor to work on two aspects of a project at once. In conjunction with our MCR and Datalab we can handle any format.

All of our suites are networked so jobs can be shared between, graphics, editing suites and machine room providing the ultimate collaborative workflow enabling unlimited access to media.

A comfortable environment is important as offline can take a long amount of time, because we understand this we take care to ensure the environment is comfortable and creative. We have direct dial phone lines into the suites, WIFI, fresh coffee and free parking ensuring your time with us is as comfortable as possible.

Affiliated Editors

Should you wish to choose a specific Editor to work on your job, we have a team of editors familiar with our equipment and clients who can be brought in to specialise on aspects of your job.

Services

Grading

We can offer format comparison, look creation and camera testing so you can achieve the perfect result.

Simply put, colour grading is the process of adjusting colour information in order to change the look and feel of your footage. Colour can instantly change the mood of a scene. A specific look can set the atmosphere of a project. These days, the technology provides unlimited possibilities, the skill however is finding a colourist with the creative talent to bring your film to life. At FREAKWORKS we are passionate about grading being a craft and a creative process as we know exactly the difference a brilliant grade will make to a film. Whether its colour balancing between cameras, matching film stocks, grading individual scenes or unifying a single look and atmosphere, our Colourists will let you know what will create the right effect.

Our grading workstations integrate seamlessly into our post production network, allowing simultaneous edit and grade, we can work up to 64bit on all formats. At FREAKWORKS we love a grading challenge and would happily take one of your shots and show you what we can do, we know you'll struggle to find better. Colour Grading is one of the most demanding, creative and technical processes in post-production. FREAKWORKS have both the talent, the award winning credentials (we graded award winning ParisSexy) on film and the equipment to deliver. We offer look creation and format comparisons. Hopefully the visuals speak for themselves, take a look at our showreel and the examples of grading work we can provide..

A comfortable environment is important as offline can take a long amount of time, because we understand this we take care to ensure the environment is comfortable and creative. We have direct dial phone lines into the suites, WIFI, fresh coffee and free parking ensuring your time with us is as comfortable as possible.

Services

Graphics & Design

FREAKWORKS has a reputation of producing high quality and innovative motion graphics and design.

The creativity of the Designers is the reason our graphics Clients keep coming back to us. Our design styles are tailored to suit your job, the quality is unrivalled and our designers are excellent at interpreting a creative brief and coming back with award-winning results. Due to our design department being networked with the rest of the building, a project can be worked on simultaneously across a range of disciplines. Our edit suites and designers are capable of working from as small as mobile phone content up to cinema size trailers. From 2D to 3D. We also work on a lot of bespoke projects, which can be unusual sizes and shapes from interactive commercial work to international conference work. Our experience ranges from single screens, to multiple screens, projected shapes and multi-touch devices, to digital signage and large scale projections.

Also if it helps you get your project budget approved, in the pitch stages of a project we will also happily work with you to create a style test of your proposed project.

If you have a project in mind, please get in touch or pop in for a coffee and we can explore some creative possibilities to best work with your project.

Our typical experience includes:

  • Wide ranging styles
  • 2D animation
  • 3D animation
  • Stereoscopic work
  • Illustration
  • Typography and animated typography
Services

VFX Department

The VFX Department is networked with the edit suites, so footage can be easily shared around the building.

Effects work can be done on things while they are being edited. We sometimes work with designers and VFX specialists in New Zealand, for two reasons, one, it gives the advantage of follow the sun workflow should your project deadlines require it. The second is that it provides us with the opportunity to tap unto the reknowned VFX talent pool which exists in NZ.

With VFX we are either fixing problems, creating effects, which are invisibles or enhancements, and wow effects.

These are best seen on our VFX showreel so you can get a feel for the skill technique that goes into some of the VFX required. No request is too much of a challenge for our VFX team and the end result is reliably flawless.

Services

Sound Department

Take a listen to our Sound Department showreel, all of the sound design, composition and finishing has been created and produced by our team here at FREAKWORKS.

Services

Stereoscopic 3D

FREAKWORKS have been training and working in Stereoscopic3D since 2007 and have enjoyed a variety of influence from Inition in London, Buzz Hayes from Sony Pictures, Bernard Mendiburu and Alain Derobe in Paris. Hamish Allison, Creative Director has also been guest lecturing on 3D around the UK for Universities, Film Festivals and on behalf of Avid Technology.

In 2010 FREAKWORKS became the first company to shoot a S3D Cinema Campaign in Scotland and were recognised as Avid Technology's partners in S3D, creating and producing promotional S3D content for them. time with us is as comfortable as possible.

We offer full Stereo film finishing facilities, we can provide on location, equipment, stereographers and convergence pullers. We have worked and understand the differences in tv and cinema ratios.

We offer filming solutions to incorporate S3d consultation from script to screen. We can offer full production and facility services dependent on your needs, whether you require S3D production or direction consultancy, S3D D.I.T. services, full post production services

Beginning to End creative solutions from pre production, filming, to post, screening and distribution

We have been championing S3D with our clients as we believe it to be an exciting opening in Film production. Whatever the format; feature films, shorts, commercials, corporate or programming and Hamish Allison, Creative Director of Freak Films is a trained Stereographer.

FREAKWORKS aim to always be at the forefront of technological innovations both to maintain our commercial edge but more importantly because the team here are all passionate about creativity and S3D offers us a whole new world to explore.

The company has built up a reputation for this and is known to often be the 'first' to work in new formats or with new kit. (Eg. First in Scotland to shoot on RED.) When it comes to S3D we intend that to be no different, and become Scotland's first base for S3D Production and Post Production.

Facilities

Studio

Post Production supervision or whether you are looking for a director to take that forward we have resources. All of our Direction and Post Production team are experienced and hands on enough that should you need it they can be brought in to your schedule at any stage.

Facilities

Direction services

Post Production supervision or whether you are looking for a director to take that forward we have resources. All of our Direction and Post Production team are experienced and hands on enough that should you need it they can be brought in to your schedule at any stage.

Facilities

MCR

Datalab

The FREAKWORKS datalab acts as a data management bureau for all your Digital Film needs. With Panasonic's statement that it will no longer produce tape based cameras, coupled with Sony's push towards it's file based formats, the Datalab is becoming your best friend. This starts with the design and implementation based on your data-acquisition formats, 2D or 3D. These formats and cameras include R3D, Canon 5D/7D, P2, RAW, Cineform, XDCAM, XDCAM-EX, Silicon Imaging and Phantom (add more here).

The Datalab was originally concieved in 2007, when FREAKWORKS had to deal with the first R3D project shot in Scotland. (insert News button to Irn Bru R3D) Therefore as one of the very first facilities in the UK to deal with R3D RAW, (?RAW?) new workflow solutions had to be developed. Our objective is to make the editing process as seamless and fast as possible and to do any preparation and transcoding work from tapeless productions, prior to the post production. This can be in conjunction with our Stereoscopic department in completing Stereoscopic prepping passes prior to S3D post. We also have the facility to provide an onsite DIT (Digital Imaging Technician). This role replaces the traditional film loader and is the most effective way to transfer and manage image data on set. Offers assistance and production management across all stages of your production pipeline, this can include digital dailies, workflow consultancy, rushes for editors and a full range of digital transcoding for commercials, features films and broadcast. Similar to a film lab, you can provide us with your rushes that we will process and transcode ready for your post production.

Digital Dailies service

The files that are recorded by digital cameras are rarely able to be used directly in edit systems. They need to be transcoded so they will work. Think of it as getting one-lights from film negative. You can't stick film negative into an AVID; you need to get it telecined first, then capture the tape into an edit system. Similarly, Digital Camera Negative (DCN) files need to be 'developed' before they can be used. Like film, they can be put onto tape, which can then be captured into an edit system. However, we can also transcode them directly to the format that the edit systems use, thus missing out the importing step. This is a much quicker workflow as data is copied to the system many times quicker than real-time.

The benefits of a tapeless workflow include:

  • Faster than real time workflow
  • Automatic splitting and labelling of clips
  • Preservation of original metadata and timecodes
  • Detailed on-screen burn-ins
  • Easier conforms

One of the most important things to consider when shooting daily is how you store your master. As anyone knows who has had a computer die one them hard-drives are liable to failure. The best way to store data is on LT04 tape, which is a robust long term storage medium. Our datalab offers two types of LT04 tape archive. Basic option, recommended for all jobs, is a copy to our internal LT04 archive system.

As this is continually archiving work going on in the facilty, the tapes are not available for removal, but provide a secure digital master which can be restored to our main drives at any time. These tapes are recycled after one year.

Additionally, we can create a LT04 digital master which you can take away with you. This will be an idustry standard .tar archive, which can be used on any LT04 tape machine. This option is recommended for all jobs where you need to keep a master for longer than a year, and is a standard requirement for insurance and competion bond companies, especially on feature films.

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