This year Ausfilm Platinum member KOJO will mark 25 years of post-production and visual effects in the screen industry – servicing studios, producers and filmmakers from all around the world. Starting in 1998, KOJO’s first feature film project was Snow Falling on Cedars for Australian Director Scott Hicks and Universal Studios.
Since then KOJO has established itself as one of Australia’s most trusted studios having worked on over one hundred projects including Talk To Me, Of An Age, You’ll Never Find Me, Firebite, Master Gardener, Wolf Creek, Hotel Mumbai, The Babadook, Storm Boy, Jungle, I Am Mother, No Reservations, The Lucky One and Mortal Kombat.
“Our journey into longform post-production and visual effects started with an opportunity to provide editorial services on Scott Hicks’ Snow Falling On Cedars, his feature film right after the breakout global success of Shine,” said Managing Director Dale Roberts.
“At the time we were mainly doing commercials so this was a whole new world in terms of scale, complexity and production timelines. It was a major leap into working between different countries, time zones, laboratories and international workflows. There was a huge amount of trust placed in us by Scott and Universal, something after all these years we are still incredibly grateful for.”
KOJO then expanded its long form service offering to clients in Australia, USA and Europe in feature films, TV series and documentaries. Focusing on providing a holistic solution of services, KOJO placed the creativity and the filmmaker at the core of its studio workflow.
KOJO’s Executive Director of Post-Production and VFX, Marty Pepper, has led the creative and technical direction of KOJO since joining as a partner in 2000, personally working on every single credit over the past 25 years. Being an owner-led facility Marty set about honing his skills right from the start across the dual worlds of colour and visual effects. This unique setup allowed Marty to conceptualise and construct a colour palette for each project’s distinct world, whilst ensuring the VFX are thoughtfully designed and seamlessly integrated within the same environment.
“I’m incredibly grateful and proud of the work we have achieved over such a long period of time.” Marty explains. “Technology, both software and hardware, is constantly evolving. What I’m most proud of is the culture, skills and work ethic that we’ve built with our team. We are deeply involved in creating the work, from pre-production through to final delivery.”
“Our clients say they keep coming back to us because of how much enthusiasm, passion and craft we bring to their projects and the bond we build together as filmmakers.”
Marty Pepper, Executive Director of Post-Production and VFX
KOJO has proudly collaborated with a diverse range of producers, directors, studios and showrunners, on projects of varying scale. As well as partnering with major studios/streamers like Warner Bros., Universal, Netflix, and Sony, KOJO has also made substantial investments in fostering foundational relationships with first-time and emerging directors and creators.
“Remarkable filmmakers, Greg McLean, Anthony Maras, Jennifer Kent, and the Philippou brothers, Michael and Danny, made their first films through KOJO’s studio, and each of them has forged an enduring relationship with Marty and our post and VFX team.”
Dale Roberts, Managing Director
Over the past 25 years KOJO has built a collaborative and inclusive approach to the filmmaking process that runs through the studios’ workflow across Australia. With almost half of the projects being from the US market, KOJO’s daily workflow includes complex pipelines. A project may be shot in Europe, edited and post produced in Australia with delivery back to the US. Since the major disruption of COVID many studios have now expanded the work they send to international vendors.
In addition to VFX work, KOJO now remotely works across data, editorial, colour, sound and international delivery – with a workflow built to maximise the competitive currency savings, Federal and State rebates and the highly skilled crew.
KOJO now offers a complete lens-to-screen solution across picture post and visual effects with full service studios in Adelaide and Melbourne along with production offices in Sydney, Brisbane, Hobart and Perth.
“Over the past 25 years we have been fortunate to be part of some iconic and award winning projects.” says Marty. “Amongst all the highs and lows we still love what we do and are constantly energised by the incredible creative talent we work with everyday from all parts of the world.”
If you want to know more about KOJO Studios post production and VFX services please contact Lauren at [email protected]
