The company offers the full complement of visual effects services including look development, on-set supervision, 3D animation, compositing and finishing for broadcast, commercials and film. The company recently completed post on two viral movies, through RSA Films, for Ridley Scott‘s new film Prometheus, which opened last week. One of these, “Happy Birthday David” achieved 1.3 million views in its first 24-hours of release on YouTube.
Hoxton Redsox was founded by Paul McGeoch, Giancarlo Bonati and Stefan Gerstheimer. For several years the trio worked on individual projects under the same roof, but also joined forces, working collaboratively on larger projects, hiring additional digital artists as required. With an ever-increasing workload, and the desire to broaden the type of creative projects they could attract, they have consolidated this expertise with the formal launch of Hoxton Redsox.
McGeoch’s fascination with CGI started while studying product design at Glasgow School of Art. After graduating he formed Pictures On The Wall – an award-winning animation company. Now, with more than 15 years experience, he has an in-depth knowledge of the production process with commercial credits for heavy-hitting brands such as Toshiba, Asics, Sony and Orange. He has also supervised spots and music videos for companies such as ISO, Partizan and RSA Films, including technically challenging projects, such as “Like Spinning Plates” for Radiohead, the Emmy-winning “Why The Towers Fell” for BBC Horizon, and “Darkroom” for Philips‘ Parallel Lines campaign, which won a British Arrows Gold.
Bonati was involved in advertising for over 15 years, before making a move into documentary production, when he became an associate producer of Dark Days, which picked up two awards at the Sundance Film Festival. He has been involved in visual effects for the past seven years, having worked at The Mill, Golden Square and Machine Effects. He recently supervised a four-minute CG film for Titanic Belfast, for which he also acted as lighting TD.
Gerstheimer is a well-respected veteran of the Soho post community, where he has supervised large teams of artists at leading houses including The Mill and MPC. He specializes in creature look development for features, broadcast and commercials. His recent credits include the Gold British Arrow-winning Kerry Low “Low Mouse” commercial, and “Spots vs Stripes” for Cadburys, which won VES, British Arrow, Cannes Lions, APA and London International awards.
“Giancarlo, Stefan and myself share a passion for creating great imagery, and have gained excellent experience working at the forefront of innovation in visual effects for a range of clients,” said McGeoch. “But instead of being separate links in a chain we wanted to be the entire chain. So we decided to move this forward with a collaborative style of service in the form of Redsox. As a boutique VFX company we offer the same high-quality imagery as larger post houses, but with more personalized, dedicated service. Additionally, our location outside of Soho means that our overheads are lower and we can pass on that savings to deliver visuals that exceed expectations – both artistic and budgetary.”
The Hoxton Redsox team was responsible for postproduction on two of the three viral films for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus – “Happy Birthday David” featuring Michael Fassbender, and “Quiet Eye” featuring Noomi Rapace, who both star in the film.
Visual effects for both films were supervised by Paul McGeoch, who worked closely with RSA Films director/designer Johnny Hardstaff throughout the production. “David” was shot on a greenscreen stage at Pinewood Studios, with Michael Fassbender delivering a suitably eerie performance. In post, Hoxton Redsox built nine CG sets, including a city, and created various 2D effects, such as the Weyland logo ‘branded thumb’, before compositing and finishing all shots. “Quiet Eye” required a more 2D-specific solution, with Hoxton Redsox animating Hardstaff’s analytical artwork together with compositing and finishing.
“Hoxton Redsox delivered outstanding work across an extremely diverse range of shots” said RSA Films executive producer Caspar Delaney.
