Movie magic: The small Belgian company making visual effects for Stromae and Aladdin

La Hulpe, on the outskirts of Brussels, is no Hollywood, but a lot of movie magic is being made here at Benuts, a small company that makes visual effects for feature films.

It all happens just off the town’s main square in a brick house that feels more like student housing than home to a rising star in Wallonia’s creative industries, best known for its recent work with Brussels musician Stromae. But don’t be fooled by the relaxed atmosphere. Graphic artists and producers are hard at work everywhere, one transforming cracked yellowed windows to grey – think Edward Hopper meets Alfred Hitchcock – as another adds a row of buildings to a skyline shot on film.

As opposed to special effects, which are common to science-fiction films, visual effects blend live-action footage with computer-generated imagery to create scenes that appear realistic but would be impossible – sometimes too dangerous – or too costly to film.

Using computer-generated technology, Benuts can make it rain or snow in any location, land a helicopter on a crowded football field and even launch a flying carpet through the skies of Baghdad, desert Stop sign included, as seen in The New Adventures of Aladdin.

“There’s a big difference between visual effects and special effects,” explains Benuts CEO Michel Denis, who is also a producer. “In visual effects, we start from what is shot on film, and then create computer-generated imagery, to add the two- or threedimensional elements in post-production the director wants.”

Tax breaks

Benuts, which employs just five people full-time but regularly works with freelancers, was founded in 2010 by Belgian investors backed by a company based in France. Together, taking advantage of the Belgian Tax Shelter (a federally funded tax incentive scheme open to Belgian audiovisual productions and international co-productions that meet certain criteria), they could offer a complete and competitive solution for visual effects, computer graphics and motion design for feature films, TV series and commercials.

Wallonia also has its own support and promotion fund for audiovisual works in Wallonia. After starting with offices in both Charleroi and Brussels, Benuts moved everyone to La Hulpe, which is still an easy commute from the capital.

Why the name Benuts? “It wasn’t my idea,” admits Denis, who has been with the company from the start, “but ‘to be nuts’ means to be crazy as well as enthusiastic and passionate about something. That’s very fitting for this profession.”

Everyone on the team clearly is passionate about what they do. “Since I started working here a year ago, I’ve never watched a film the same way as I did before,” says line producer Virginie Breydel de Groeninghe. “I’m always amazed at the visual effects, especially in movies like Star Wars.”

Benuts works almost exclusively on feature films by French or Belgian directors. One of its first projects was CloClo, Florent Emilio Siri’s 2012 biopic of Claude François, the late French pop star best known for co-composing Comme d’Habitude, the melody later used in Frank Sinatra’s My Way.

Portfolio

Other early credits include La fée, a 2011 French-Belgian comedy directed by and starring Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon that picked up several prizes at Belgium’s 2012 Magritte Awards, and Un plan parfait, a 2012 action adventure comedy starring Dany Boon and Diane Kruger. Belgian film credits include Vincent Lannoo’s Au nom du fils and Les rayures du zèbre directed by Benoît Mariage, along with L’économie du couple, the latest by Uccle-born Joachim Lafosse scheduled for release this year. It’s also done work for the small screen, like the opening titles for La Trève, a new TV police series for RTBF.

Benuts has also made a big splash in the music world, through several collaborations with Belgian pop star Stromae, starting with a YouTube ‘lesson’ on the song Humain à l’eau in 2012. Several months later, Stromae enlisted Benuts to work on the visuals for his Racine Carrée concert tour, including projections for a giant video wall, and for the music video of Quand c’est? a haunting song about cancer. The video, in which spidery cells invade an abandoned concert hall, has had more than 20 million views on YouTube and was named best clip in Belgium’s D6bels Music Awards, the Music Industries Association Awards and the One Screen Film Festival in New York.

While Benuts would relish working with Stromae again, films remain the company’s focus. It’s increasingly branching out into English-language productions, such as the British science-fiction thriller High-Rise and What Happened to Monday?, a film for which Benuts made actors Glenn Close and Noomi Rapace look 15 years younger via a three-dimensional, moveable digital mask placed over the face. “That’s not possible with make-up,” says Denis.

In the future, Benuts hopes for more work from England and from Canada, which is eligible for the Belgian Tax Shelter, with plans to participate in an upcoming AWEX-sponsored mission to Toronto and Montreal to hunt for partners and projects. “We have a lot of graphic artists who work here who stay for one or two years and then go to England or Canada to work on blockbusters like The Avengers or the latest James Bond film,” says Denis. “If we can get just one sequence for that type of project, that would be the way to grow.”

www.benuts.be

This article first appeared in WAB (Wallonia and Brussels) magazine