BUCHAREST, ROMANIA — Chainsaw Europe (www.chainsaweurope.com) recently posted a feature by Romanian filmmaker Nae Caranfil. Restul e tacere (The Rest is Silence) is the story of the making of the first Romanian feature — The War of Independence — at the beginning of the 20th Century, and had one of the largest budgets in Romanian film history at 2.6 million Euros.
The facility handled offline, online, sound design, mixing, effects, ADR and Foley for the project. Chainsaw also collaborated with its Hollywood location, sending the film there for a final Dolby mix.
The film is just the beginning of what studio co-owner John Florescu hopes will be a growing business of post for longform projects. The European location is two years old and regularly posts spots for Romanian agencies, as well as those in six other central and eastern European countries, says Florescu, who co-owns the studio with Bill DeRonde. Romania, says Florescu, "is the new Prague," but less expensive.
They've been broadening their horizons, looking at film and TV. He feels indie films open doors, since the projects do not require executive approval because the directors tend to be their own bosses.
Other upcoming films posted at Chainsaw include 20th Century Fox's The Dark is Rising, and Mirrors, starring Kiefer Sutherland.
Chainsaw is Avid based, with two Adrenalines and a Symphony for online — all running on PCs. The studio has Avid's Unity Media Network 4.0 for storage and a Pro Tools system for audio post. Graphics and VFX are also handled in-house, and the studio is currently looking to add a DS Nitris as well as another Pro Tools set-up.