Today we’d like to introduce you to Federico Heller.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I started my company in 2003 in Buenos Aires, Argentina along with my brother German. At the time, I was in film school and we were doing architectural visualization and some other animation work. Now over 15 years later, the company became one of the biggest animation studios in South America also providing visual effects for movies and creative development for television and film. A few years ago, I felt the need for the company to have a stable presence in the United States since most of the projects we do are either in New York, Los Angeles and a few other important cities of the US and the world. Los Angeles felt like the perfect place to establish myself since it is home to so many creatives in so many different areas that my company relates to. From original content to film production, to post-production to advertising.
Expanding your business in many countries around South America is such a bold move. Tell us more about your journey to the US. Has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, never smooth. It would sound nice if I say smooth but it wouldn’t be honest. A creative company needs to reinvent itself constantly, as opposed to someone for example providing a product or service which remains somewhat static. We live in a day and age where things don’t remain the same for long, but that is specially true in an industry where you need to constantly stay on the edge. And there were moments when the company had a fantastic momentum and everyone was talking about us and there are moments when it is someone else’s turn to experience that. And the weird thing with exposure is that it is quite addictive, you won an award one year and the next you want to win it again or win a bigger one or earn more views, etc. We also morphed from being a company mostly specialized in providing visual work to clients to being a creative studio used to developing and funding its own ideas.
As a Latino myself I’m always having that twofold disadvantage-advantage of coming from a different background, where sometimes you might struggle to get some codes that are not natural from where you come from but also coming with the freshness of a different background and an entirely different system of conditioning than locals. Ultimately, we are all conditioned in one way or another, I believe it is usually about finding the clarity to figure out where you want to go next, and what will provide you with happiness in the short, mid and long term. And to figure that out, I have absolutely no advice to you as I’m as much as work in progress as anyone else.
We’d love to hear more about your business. What do you do? What do you specialize in? What sets you apart from competition?
We are a creative studio. We produce content in animation, live-action and nowadays virtual reality too. We like to tell stories and push the boundaries of new formats and new technology. We are quite a unique case since I’m based here but connected to a large team in South America. I believe we have a very unique way to tell stories that combines our particular heritage to the sort of cosmopolitan mindset of a modern city. The short films that we created resonated specially in the United States and the Los Angeles area in particular for having that sort of hollywoodesque approach with more of a Latino mindset. We got millions of views and also numerous offers from studios. I believe my background has taught me that it is better to expose myself and risking to getting hurt than remain in the darkness but safe. South America can be really challenging if you don’t come forward and stand up for yourself, well maybe the United States too. But I got the feeling that sometimes here thing can sort of go on autopilot for some people, where they go to college, they keep moving forward and they get a decent life. And it is funny that in some other places in the world the autopilot only goes downwards. So you gotta stand up and fight to keep it upwards. And that sort of thing becomes part of your personality for better or worse.
What were you like growing up?
I was a very artistic boy. While my Argentinian mates were all playing soccer I hated it even while I was doing a tremendous effort to be as good as them. At some point, my mom had the idea of taking me to pottery classes and although I was surrounded by old ladies (maybe they were 40 but they looked old to me at the time) I was so happy there. I stayed at that class for nine years. When I was 14, I got a camera and two years later an old macintosh performa (one of those mac before the colorful ones). I stayed hours editing and creating little effects and I haven’t stopped since then. I think that sort of cathartic process of giving shape to something artistic allowed me to express and have a voice that I couldn’t find in the other aspects of my young life. A way of creating something and shaping it your way where everything else in life was about doing things in someone else’s way. I think that’s why I found art to be an amazing source of finding my own voice.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.3dar.com
- Phone: 310 283 2837
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: 3darstudios
- Facebook: 3dar
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