AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND — Post production veteran Katie Hinsen is bringing a fresh perspective to Auckland’s industry. After leaving Wellington’s Park Road Post for New York City just over six years ago, Hinsen has returned to the region, bringing with her a technical and operations background, along with credits on over 80 major productions.
Started by James Brookes and James Gardner in 2008, Department of Post (www.departmentofpost.com) provides offline, online, color, audio and deliverables services to film and television productions, both local and international. Hinsen will serve as the studio’s head of operations.
Over her 20-year career, Hinsen has worked as an engineer, editor, VFX artist, stereoscopic 3D artist, colorist and finishing artist. Her credits include commercials, documentaries, television programming, music videos, shorts and feature films, with time at Park Road Post Production, Goldcrest, and Panavision’s Light Iron.
Hinsen has throughout her career been involved in both production and R&D of new digital acquisition and distribution formats, including stereoscopic/autostereoscopic 3D, Red, HFR, HDR, 4K+ and DCP. She is considered both a world expert in a number of technologies, including High Dynamic Range and High Resolution 4K-8K workflows, and celebrated as a major thought leader in the post production industry, writing, advising and speaking at industry conferences. When looking back at New Zealand’s screen production industry, it became apparent that there was a great opportunity for growth in Auckland.
“I was looking for a company that had the forward-thinking agility to be able to grow in a rapidly-changing industry,” she explains. “New Zealand punches well above its weight in talent and innovation, and now is the time to use this to expand our wider post production ecosystem.
“Department of Post is a company that has shown rapid growth and great success by taking risks, thinking outside the box, and collaborating across town, across country and across the world. That’s a model I can work with, to help bring and retain more high-end work to Auckland’s post community. We’ve got an increasing number of large-scale productions choosing to shoot here, I want to give them a competitive reason to stay here through Post.“