Heckler Opens Amsterdam Studio as Charu Menon Leads European Expansion

Boutique VFX and post production studio Heckler has launched a new base in Amsterdam, with managing director Charu Menon to lead the company’s first European offering.

The Amsterdam studio will service clients across the continent, joining Heckler’s existing offices in Sydney, Singapore and Shanghai. For Charu, who relocated to the Netherlands earlier this summer, the move is both strategic and personal. “What better way to counter the industry’s AI anxiety than starting another studio with real humans in it,” she says.

The launch arrives at a time of upheaval in European post production, with the recent closure of Glassworks in both Amsterdam and London and collapse of larger players like The Mill. Charu says those shifts have created opportunities for smaller, agile studios. “It feels like the rise of the independents, while a lot of the bigger post houses are not doing that well.”

In fact, Lily Li – formerly CEO of The Mill in Shanghai – has taken over as managing director of Heckler Singapore, ensuring continuity in Asia while Charu builds the European arm.

Heckler Amsterdam is already in production on a project with London-based animation director Claire Pinegar, while also pitching for UK work. Sharing her short-term ambitions, Charu says the studio will launch with a team of around seven to eight people across production, animation, design and VFX, supported by Heckler’s wider network in Sydney, Singapore and Shanghai for large-scale projects.

The company already has a strong European track record, having delivered several campaigns with Partizan Paris and a Fanta campaign with Simon & Paul in Germany. Charu also points to a recent Philips spot, ‘Rush Hour’, produced out of Singapore through MullenLowe. “It was essentially a stunt film, like a ‘Bourne Identity’-style action piece, with a guy running through the streets of Bangkok, toppling over fruit carts and cars… all the while he’s shaving as he goes – no cuts or bruises, because Philips,” she explains. Directed by Paul Middleditch, the project became a toolkit of 800 outputs and gave Charu early experience with Netherlands-based clients.

Charu is keen to emphasise that growth won’t dilute the company’s identity. "Heckler has always been about people and artistry," she says. "Our studios in different markets have always operated with a healthy degree of autonomy, which makes each studio uniquely local and authentic.

"We are a challenger brand - an underdog consistently punching above our weight. Hardworking, grounded and Aussie in spirit. Amsterdam feels right as our next home." 

Plans are already in place to establish a bricks-and-mortar space in Amsterdam within months, starting with a couple of offline, grade or online suites — the same model Heckler used when it launched in Singapore. For larger projects, the company will continue to use a follow-the-sun workflow across its three other studios.

With Sydney servicing AUNZ, Singapore handling Asia and Amsterdam now dedicated to Europe, Charu believes Heckler is well positioned to compete in a market increasingly defined by independents. “We’ll be a different outfit," she concludes.