Design and digital production shop Timber celebrates its first anniversary with the addition of digital effects supervisor Nicholas Hiegel, and a move into a new and expanded studio in the heart of Santa Monica’s creative community. Timber is an artist owned, design-driven company that provides 360 production solutions from animation and live action to VFX and finishing for branded projects.
Hiegel has a wealth of experience in creating digital content including over 20 effects intensive feature films, including Star Trek into Darkness, Hugo, Harry Potter (Half Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows), TRON Legacy and Clash and Wrath Of The Titans. He’s also lent his talent and expertise to television series and short form content. In addition to digital effects supervision, Hiegel’s specialties are miniature and creature effects. He began his career at New Deal studios at the age of 16, worked as a freelance artist at numerous companies throughout the industry (Pixomondo, Shade, Zoic Studios, Illuminate, Brand New School, Cafe FX), and ran his own boutique firm before joining Timber.
“I felt an immediate connection with (Timber Founders) Kevin Lau and Jonah Hall,” he said, “and my experience crosses over with each so that we make for a robust team. I love being challenged by a diversity of projects and disciplines within digital production, which is very much the Timber experience.”
Over the last year, Timber has lent its creativity to commercials and music videos for clients and performers such as UGG, 1-800 Contacts, Lady Gaga, Bank of America Red with U2 (Super Bowl 2014), Beats By Dre, Taylor Swift, Old Spice, Hyundai (Super Bowl 2014), Visa and Chevy.
Juliette Welfling Takes On A Musical, A Crime Thriller, Comedy and Drama In “Emelia Pรฉrez”
Editor Juliette Welfling has a track record of close-knit, heartfelt collaboration with writer-director Jacques Audiard, a four-time BAFTA Award nominee for Best Film not in the English Language--starting with The Beat That My Heart Skipped in 2006, then A Prophet in 2010, Rust and Bone in 2013, and Dheepan in 2017. He won for The Beat That My Heart Skipped and A Prophet.
Welfling cut three of those features: A Prophet, Rust and Bone, and Dheepan. And that shared filmography has since grown to most recently include Emelia Pรฉrez, the Oscar buzz-worthy film from Netflix. Welfling herself is not stranger to Academy Award banter. In fact, she earned a Best Achievement in Film Editing Oscar nomination in 2008 for director Julian Schnabelโs The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
Emelia Pรฉrez is a hybrid musical/drama/thriller which introduces us to a talented but undervalued lawyer named Rita (portrayed by Zoe Saldana) who receives a lucrative offer out of the blue from a feared drug cartel boss whoโs looking to retire from his sordid business and disappear forever by becoming the woman heโs always dreamt of being (Karla Sofรญa Gascรณn in a dual role as Manitas Del Monte/Emilia Pรฉrez). Rita helps pull this off, orchestrating the faked death of Del Monte who leaves behind a widow (Jessi, played by Selena Gomez) and kids. While living comfortably and contently in her/their new identity, Pรฉrez misses the children. Pรฉrez once again enlists Rita--this time to return to family life, reuniting with the kids by pretending to be their aunt, the sister of Del Monte. Now as an aunt, Pรฉrez winds up adopting a more altruistic bent professionally,... Read More