This week, visual effects and finishing studio VOLT enjoys its official launch with the completion of a new campaign for Best Buy. The brainchild of award-winning Smoke artist Steve Medin and Executive Producer Charlie Lach, VOLT has been operating in beta mode to develop a truly nimble creative solutions company which is uniquely positioned to collaborate with agency, editorial and even other visual effects companies.
“This is the natural next step for us, an opportunity to really direct our future while being a resource and partner to our clients. I would say lean and mean, but that sounds too harsh,” says Medin, laughing. “People are surprised by how much our team can produce, so maybe ‘small but mighty’ is more fitting.”

Rob Van, EP of Los Angeles-based BUTCHER and former agency producer at Fallon, is Steve Medin’s longtime client. He notes: “I have full trust and confidence that Steve can respond quickly and make the right decisions to provide what I need. I am always excited to collaborate with him and the team at VOLT.”

Co-Founder Steve Medin built his reputation as a digital artist during his tenures at Crash & Sue’s and Pixel Farm, working on projects for such clients as Target, Payless, Best Buy and Porsche. Medin first met EP Charlie Lach at City Post in 1993 and the duo reconnected at Crash & Sue’s, where Lach served as the company’s president for eight years. They joined forces last year and began developing what is now VOLT, bringing the next generation talent of Chris Chiabotti. They also forged relationships with Design/Animation company Gasket and Music & Sound entity BWN, VOLT’s neighbors in the 1885 era Lumber Exchange Building in downtown Minneapolis. The VOLT environment – “a refuge for clients” – features a big rec room with a full cadre games and a grand wood-burning fireplace.

Best Buy “Take it to the Limit” featuring Devon Hester is a prime example of VOLT’s methodology: VOLT teamed with Gasket to provide a full array of intensive visual effects. BWN created sound design and mixed the project while the production process was taking place, with all three companies collaborating seamlessly.

The tech talk: VOLT has Smoke 2K on Linux with full surround sound monitoring, Avid Adrenaline HD running on MacPro with Dual Quad-core processors (available for 4-wall rental), Final Cut Pro HD on MacPro with dual Quad-core processors Additional graphics workstations with full Apple Studio and Adobe CS software suites and HD Mastering to HDCam SR 4:4:4 or standard HDCam, SD to Digital BetaCam, plus DV/DVCam/HDV. It also offers full DVD authoring and replication capabilities plus encoded media compression and delivery.

To learn more about the company, please visit www.voltstudios.tv.