POST-PRODUCTION PHOTO & FILM Dec 2008

Alphadog is a high-end post production company offering high quality retouching and photo-realistic computer generated images (cgi). The Alphadog team can create stunning visual representations of automobiles, packaging and all types of indoor and outdoor locations. In addition, with its cgi talent the company can create complete environments or exaggerate and embellish real life scenes. The gallery shows some selected examples of the company's work.

CGI Images:

• Bundesministerium für Umwelt advertising campaign. Agency: KNSK.
• Lucky Strike softpack campaign. Agency: G2.
• UNICEF campaign Ph: Beatrice Heydiri. Agency: Serviceplan.
• Brewery by Alphadog.

Post Production: Audi, Blood Heart, Mercedes SL, Bitburger Ph: Cristian Lohfink, VW Panamerica Ph: Tom Mennemann, Udo Lindenberg Ph: Frank Wartenberg, Schwarzkopf Ph: Sabine Liewald, Jeanner Ph: Thilo Sicheneder.

Established in Munich in 1988 and with an additional branch in Düsseldorf, the Giesing Team is a celebrated and highly-reputed audio production firm. The company specialises in the production of complete sound designs and mixing and mastering for television and cinema commercials, as well as audio books featuring some of Germany's top vocal talents.

Through its close collaboration with partner firms Trailerhouse and Mona Davis, the Giesing Team is one of Germany's main producers of cinema trailers and delivers stunning musical compositions and scores. Its long list of clients includes McDonald's, Columbia TriStar, Sony, Buena Vista, Constantin Film and Mercedes-Benz, among many others. Current cinematic trailers include 'Three Investigators: Terror Castle' (Walt Disney), 'Das Parfum' (Constantin Film), 'Buddenbrooks' (Warner Bros) and 'Death Proof' (Senator).

The Giesing Team has won numerous prestigious awards for its productions, both national and international, and is known for its friendly yet efficient workflow.

Specialising in post production, pre-press and production services, the PX Group has bases in Berlin, Munich and Hamburg. Clients include photographers, advertising agencies, magazines, industrial and creative businesses. The company covers fashion, beauty, still life, reportage, food and transportation.

PX Group has a strong focus on personal consulting and maintains high standards in retouching. It incorporates more than 40 experienced professionals and offers post production, post-on-location, typo, 3D/CGI and digital photography.

The company manages the whole workflow process from idea to final print.

Established for 20 years, recom is a high-end artwork, post production and CGI studio. Its 28 staff members are based in Stuttgart and around the world for immediate on location work. recom is due to open two new offices in London and Berlin at the beginning of 2009.

For recom's technically and artistically accomplished artists, no compositing or lighting situation is too demanding. The company concentrates its experience and knowledge in different sectors into specialised teams, such as Beauty/Fashion, Transportation/CGI and Landscape/Various. With such a workforce, recom can deliver cutting-edge results on up to 17 workstations and mobile units - no matter how big or small the job may be.

The company's artists work together with clients in front of the computer in order to use direct input for an ideal result. Each virtually generated element produced by recomCGI is fine-tuned in close synergic work at recomPOST. Clients include:

• Photographers: Alvensleben, Baldauf, Breitkopf, Lammers, Lamsweerde, Malamas, Mecke, Opitz, Pritzi, Puschmann, Sachs, Schieferecke, Schmidt, Schnabel, Schraegle, Silver, Stratmann, Trautmann...
• Agencies: BBDO, Grabarz, Heimat, JvM, Publicis, Saatchi, TBWA, Chiat Day, Team One, Y&R...
• Magazines: Elle, Entertainment Weekly, FHM, GQ, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, Numero, Park Avenue, Sleek, Tush, Vanity Fair, Vogue...
• Advertising: Adidas, AMG, Amex, Audi, Bitburger, BMW, Citroën, Credit Suisse, Daimler, Douglas, Finlandia, Honda, Huelsta, Hyundai, IBM, Jaguar, Jeep, JOOP!, Lexus, Ligne Roset, Manhattan, Marc Cain, Maserati, Milka, Nissan, Nokia, Mitsubishi, Opel, Peugeot, Porsche, Range Rover, Renault, Siemens, SonyEricsson, St. Emile, Stihl, Toni Gard, Wella...

Saddington & Baynes is widely recognised as one of the world's leading photographic retouching houses and has evolved into a full-service CGI production studio focusing on print and interactive media for the advertising industry. The evolution and adoption of CGI has presented many exciting new visual possibilities that are impractical or simply impossible to recreate by traditional means.

Some things, however, remain reassuringly constant, such as the desire to produce creative imagery of the highest calibre and the company's ability to provide innovative visual solutions for even the most demanding of briefs. As such, Saddington & Baynes enjoys a peerless reputation and is honoured to work with an impressive range of international clientele. The company's work has helped win its clients numerous awards; D&AD, Creative Circle, the Clios, and Cannes to name but a few.

To find out more, contact Chris Christodoulou +44 207 833 3032.

"Lazy, arrogant, expensive, untalented - four words one would never use to describe Taylor James. The company is, and continues to be, the best in the world." Anton Ezer - Creative Director, BBC Creative Services.

Taylor James has been at the forefront of high-end retouching for nearly a decade, working with the best photographers in the industry. The company's creative retouching department delivers consistently outstanding results to impress a top-tier client base, including BMW, Mercedes, BBC, Guinness and countless others. Quality is paramount, be it for an individual's portfolio work or for complex multi-part comps.

Over the past three years, Taylor James has applied its specialist knowledge and experience to develop into a complete production house, delivering award-winning print and interactive campaigns. Specialising in photography, CGI and post-production, involvement with clients' projects can range from providing a simple retouching service to managing full scale productions. Whatever the concept, Taylor James can deliver the creative solutions to make every idea a reality.

Vienna Paint was founded by A. Fitzner and A. Winkler in 1988, when digital post production and image manipulation were terms used only by a few visionary insiders.

20 years later Vienna Paint is the most renowned digital post production company in Austria, offering exclusive know-how combined with individual service to provide tailor-made solutions for any creative idea. With over 20 employees and some of the best retouching artists working to the highest standards, Vienna Paint has completed a great number and variety of projects with long-term clients from around the world.

The company also offers CGI capabilities and a state-of-the-art, fully equipped and staffed photostudio, allowing all-in-one solutions from the first snapshot to the last pixel. Vienna Paint offers many years of in-house and worldwide location shooting.

Over the years the company has also built up a huge photo archive with hundreds of thousands of pictures from which clients can choose all kinds of backgrounds, scenery types or details from locations all over the world.

Clients include Mercedes-Benz, Suzuki, Jägermeister, Silk Cut and Vienna International Airport.

Cologne-based Vision Unltd. Creative Worx is a full service production company specialised in combining live action with 3D animation and CGI. VUCX works for clients such as Daimler, Audi, Asics, VW, EMI, Sony, McCann Erickson, Boss and Procter & Gamble, to name just a few.

The company's 3D and CGI department recently finished CGI and 3D modelling for a TV blockbuster directed by Joseph Vilsmaier about the Gustloff drama. VUCX won gold at the Global Awards in New York, the most important international healthcare awards, with social cinema spot 'Dignity'. Directed by Michael Schorr, VUCX worked with the agency McCann Erickson Frankfurt for the project.

The company exclusively represents talent such as:

• Michael Schorr: Feature film and commercial director, winner of the 'Best Director' award at the Biennale di Venezia in 2003.
• Andreas Nilsson: Famous in the music business for visualising the music of The Knife, Moby, and Goldfrapp, he mixes 2D, 3D, stop-motion and film elements in his own unique style.
• Onni Pohl: 3D artist and director recently won the ANIMAGO award for her short film 'Morphogenesis' featured in this Spotlight.

Vinx Media Munich presents new standards in image formation.

Vinx combines knowledge of photography, retouching and 3D visualisation under one roof. Composing and image retouching are amongst the most demanding tasks in the pre-press area, and the company's high quality technical equipment and expert team guarantees excellent high-end results.

Clients' mapping data is optimised for a variety of printing and output media sources, providing an interchangeable and highly versatile complete solution.