Open Your Eyes – VFX Breakdown

Mystery / 6x54min / 2021

NETFLIX Show Poland

Producer: Marcin Kurek, Sylwester Banaszkiewicz, Agnieszka Kurzydlo, Kamila Kuś, Dagmara Piasecka
Director: Anna Jadowska, Adrian Panek
DoP: Rafal Paradowski
Edit: Piotr Kmiecik, Maciej Walentowski, Maciej Pawliński

MediaBrigade’s showrunner Cyprian Marchewka teamed up with MagicLab to bring this 6 episodic mystery drama to Netflix’s audience. The show required a sequence with hundreds of ravens attacking the protagonist in one of many of Julia’s dreams ending up by setting the hero’s location on fire. The studio has completed 384 VFX shots, mostly creative, under the supervision of senior CG Artist Viktor Plch and VFX Supervisor Michal Křeček. The final look was crafted by our 2D team led by Comp Supervisor Filip Látal and VFX Producer Andrea Shaffer.

VFX Breakdown editor: Simon Hajek
VFX Breakdown music: KINERO

Butterfly Vision – VFX Breakdown

Drama / 95 min / 2022

Ukraine / Czech Republic / Sweden / Croatia

Producer: Darya Bassel, Yelizaveta Smith
Director: Maxim Nakonechnyi
DoP: Khrystyna Lizogub
Editor: Ivor Ivezič

Maksym Nakonechnyi’s debut film, Butterfly Vision, is a harsh and surreal tale. 28-year-old soldier Lilia returns home after months being held captive as a prisoner of war. Obviously, the crew couldn’t film where the war was going on. All the shots of destroyed cities, bomb craters, and the shots from the drone in the air that Lilla controls were created using VFX. The team led by CG Supervisor Viktor Plch created the model butterfly that appears in her dreams and VFX Supervisor Michal Křeček crafted with his 2D team led by Dmytro Medynsky and Digital matte paints led by Jan Kurka the final look. The VFX Producer was Andrea Shaffer. The film premiered in Cannes in Un Certain Regard section.

• CANNES UN CERTAINREGARD

Beautiful Beings – VFX Breakdown

Drama / 123min / 2022

Iceland / Denmark / Sweden / Netherlands / Czech Republic

Producer: Anton Máni Svansson
Director: Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson
DoP: Sturla Brandth Grøvlen
Editor: Andri Steinn Gudjónsson, Anders Skov

Award-winning director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson teamed up with MagicLab to create mystical creative visual effects for his coming-of-age drama Beautiful Beings. The goal was to visually articulate the inner world of Balli to the international audience. Our team led by VFX Supervisor Michal Křeček, VFX Producer Andrea Shaffer and CG Supervisor Viktor Plch along with our 3D and FX artists simulated the world of the protagonist “visions” and Lead compositor Dmytry Medynsky with his 2D team crafted the final delivered look. The film premiered in Berlinale 2022 and is nominated for EFA.

• BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALPANORAMA
• TAIPEI FILM FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL NEW TALENTWINNERINTERNATIONAL NEW TALENT
• BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALWINNERLABEL EUROPA CINEMAS
• CROSSING EUROPE FILMFESTIVAL 2022NOMINEECROSSING EUROPE AWARD

Magiclab Showreel 2022

Editor: Šimon Hájek
Sound Editor: Richard Muller – RICHSOUND
Music: Moimir Papalescu & The Nihilists – Summer Deviation (c) 2003 X Production, Manipulation Records

We are glad to share our brand new 2022 Film & Episodic Showreel!

Showcasing the outstanding feature film and episodic visual effects work crafted by our team of artists, creatives, technologists, and support team this new showreel features work from Open Your Eyes, Pinocchio, Beautiful Beings, Wrath of Man, Discovery of Witches, and Aladdin to name a few.

Wrath of Man – VFX Breakdown

Action / 2021

Great Britain

Producer: Ivan Atkinson, Andrew Golov
Director: Guy Ritchie
DoP: Alan Stewart
Editor: James Herbert

The plot follows H, a cold and mysterious character working at a cash truck company responsible for moving hundreds of millions of dollars around Los Angeles each week.

VFX Breakdown editor: Simon Hajek
VFX Breakdown music: KINERO

Leave No Traces – VFX Breakdown

Drama / 160min / 2021

Poland / France / Czech Republic

Producer: Aurum Films (Leszek Bodzak, Aneta Hickinbotham), Les Contes Modernes (Patrice Nezan, Laurent Versini), Canal Polska (Małgorzata Seck, Alicja Gancarz), Background Films (Mikulas Novotny)
Director: Jan P. Matuszyński
DoP: Kacper Fertacz
Editor: Przemysław Chruścielewski

Poland, 1983. The country is shaken by the case of Grzegorz Przemyk — a high school student beaten to death by militia. Based on true events, the film follows the story of Jurek — the only witness of the beating, who overnight became the number one enemy of the state.

• Venice Film FestivalBest FilmNominee
• Polish Film Awards 2022Best FilmWinner
• Film Festival OostendeBest FilmWinner
• Cottbus Film Festival Of East European CinemaSpecial prize for Best Director

Hodinářův učeň – VFX Breakdown

Fantasy / 2019

Czech Republic / Slovakia

Production: Evolution films
Director: Jitka Rudolfová
DoP: Ferdinand Mazurek
Edit: Jakub Hejna

Hodinářův učeň is a fairy tale about the watchmaker’s apprentice Urban, who is on the daring journey to find the watch which can warn the owner of Death.

• Czech Lion AwardsBest Stage DesignNominated
• Czech Lion AwardsBest MusicNominated
• Czech Lion AwardsBest Costume DesignNominated

Magiclab Showreel 2021

Editor: Šimon Hájek
Sound Editor: Richard Muller – RICHSOUND
Music: Moimir Papalescu & The Nihilists – Summer Deviation
(c) 2003 X Production, Manipulation Records

A Discovery of Witches – Breakdown

Drama / Fantasy / Romance / 8x45min / 2018 / UK

Producer: Dominic Barlow
Production: Bad Wolf
Director: Alice Troughton, Sarah Walker, Juan Carlos Medina
DoP: Petra Korner, Christophe Nuyens, Suzie Lavelle
Editor: Philip Kloss, Nick Arthurs

Distributor: Sky

Diana Bishop, historian, and witch, accesses Ashmole 782 and knows she must solve its mysteries. She is offered help by the enigmatic Matthew Clairmont, but he’s a vampire and witches should never trust vampires.

• National Television AwardsNew DramaNominated

Trilogy Garden Store – VFX Breakdown

Drama / Comedy / 3x115min / 2017

Czech Republic / Slovakia / Poland

Producer: Viktor Tauš
Production: Fog’n’Desire Films
Co-producers: Czech television
Director: Jan Hřebejk
DoP: Bartek Cierlica
Editor: Vladimír Barák

A historical chronicle covering the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s, tells the story of a Czech family whose members are trying to recover the consequences of WWII and at the same time face the dramatic changes in society after 1948.

Magiclab Showreel 2018

Editor: Šimon Hájek

Magiclab VFX Showreel

Editor: Šimon Hájek

Some start they business in garages, some in basements. We can see the progress since our humble beginnings in 2009 when we got the chance to lead the VFX for Julius Ševčík’s ambitious feature Normal until this year, when we again worked with director Ševčík, now for an internationally co-produced Masaryk that premiered at the Berlinale Film Festival. We like all the genres, from heart-warming family comedies, epic period films to thrilling crime dramas, we love it all!

Magiclab Showreel 2017

Editor: Šimon Hájek

Every year our team grows as the number of projects increases. Commercials, short and feature films, music videos and much more, all of it requires a special care that we loving giving in MagicLab. Take a look at our newest showreel, that includes films that were screened in festival competitions such as Rotterdam, Cannes, Berlinale or Karlovy Vary.

Masaryk – VFX Breakdown

Drama / Biopic / 106 min / 2017

Producer: Rudolf Biermann
Production: In Film
Co-producers: Czech television, RTVS, ZDF, Arte
Director: Julius Ševčík
DoP: Martin Štrba
Editor: Marek Opatrný

Set in 1939, Jan Masaryk escapes to America to forget his personal and political betrayal. Being the flamboyant son of the first president of Czechoslovakia Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, he struggles to live a normal life as he works as the Czechoslovak ambassador in London just before the outbreak of the second world war.

• Berlinale IFFBerlinale Special
• Czech Lion AwardsBest Picture

The Red Captain – VFX Breakdown

Thriller / Action / 2016

Producer: Viktor Tauš, Agnieszka Kurzydlo
Production: Fog’n’desire films, SOKOL KOLLAR, MD4
Co-producers: Czech television, S PRO ALFA, RTVS, Barrandov studios
Director: Michal Kollár
DoP: Kacper Fertacz
Editor: Lucie Haladová

1992. Three years after the fall of the Berlin wall; six months before the split of Czecho-Slovakia. Homicide detective Richard Krauz, 32 years old, is desperate to distinguish himself from the police of the previous regime. One notable notch in his belt is the capture of serial killer Ondrej “The Beast”. During grounds-keeping at an old cemetery, a corpse with a nail driven through its skull is disinterred.

• Tallinn Black NightsFirst Feature Film Competition