ffp Relies on Look Solutions USA for North American Atmospheric Effects

	(l-r) Christine Rogers, Paddy Hail, Naloni Hydo, Liam Luckhurst, Marley Martin, Carly Brummit, Susana Malhoa, Martin Hoop, Steffen Tammen

The pyro and special effects company, ffp, based in Los Angeles, Berlin, and London, has built its reputation on high-end projects. Since establishing its US operations in 2014, the team has expanded its existing relationship with Look Solutions GmbH. The team regularly uses many Look Solutions machines, from the Tiny Fog range to the larger Orkas.

"Ninety-five percent of our projects are full service; we provide the effects, the crew, and deliver logistically," says Nicolai Sabottka, director, ffp. "Look Solutions has every size of machine with every output you can dream of, and that makes it a very good partner for special effects companies. All special effects companies will get asked challenging questions, so you need to be able to rely on your partners to develop the right products. Look Solutions also benefits from a variety of fluids, so you're ready for every possible environment or unthinkable situation you could be in."

"We were engineering our own flame systems, and that made us well known in the special effects market," he explains. "We started to get approached by a lot of US clients and decided to branch out to Los Angeles. We brought Look Solutions machines over with us, but then we found out that they had representation on the East Coast. That's how we got in touch with Nathan [Kahn, president of Look Solutions USA], and he's always been great. We're very happy clients and carry pretty much every product!"

ffp delivers productions around the world each year, including work for the German industrial metal band Rammstein. Sabottka has a long-standing creative relationship with the band, designing its iconic fire effects. Sabottka and Basak Ozer, special effects designer, alongside the wider team, have also developed a striking atmospheric effect that showcases another dimension of ffp's special effects capabilities.

"Rammstein decided they wanted to use the world's largest wind machine during one of their shows," Sabottka notes. "So you have wind, but how do you make it visible? With 16 Orkas, strategically placed behind the wind machine, creating a gigantic stream of fog inside the stadium. I don't think anyone else in the world had done that!"

Martin Hoop is one of ffp's senior special effects designers and currently the crew chief for Morgan Wallen's worldwide tour. He oversaw the Larry Hoover Benefit Concert at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 2021, where ffp created a fog-only environment using more than 30 Look Solutions machines from the Cryo and Orka ranges.

During the design process, Ozer recalls, the creative goal was to make it feel as though the artist was walking on the moon, requiring a massive atmospheric environment rather than a standard fog effect. "No flames were used in that show, and it was one of my personal favorites," she says. "We had only two or three weeks to pull it together and used virtually every fog unit we had to achieve the look at the required scale."

Hoop adds, "With fog, weather can be your friend or your enemy, which adds another layer of complexity. And when fog is the primary effect, reliability matters -- you need gear you can trust, and that is one of the reasons Look Solutions was such an important part of this project."

With such a wide range of clients and possible projects, Hoop and his team have to be ready for anything. Renzo Cargnelutti is also a designer of special effects for ffp, working for artists like Lady Gaga. He also used Look Solutions Cryo Foggers with Gaga's 2022 world tour, The Chromatica Ball, using 12 Cryo Fog machines.

"Look Solutions is part of our greater tool kit," he continues. "Even when combined with spectacular fire effects, the fog and haze need to perform accurately and repeatedly. The Cryo Fog machines deliver the perfect backdrop to our more spectacular fire effects."

Lukas Riffel, special effects designer, often works on specialist projects requiring compact and highly targeted atmospheric effects, including the use of Power-Tiny Foggers on Travis Scott's headpiece and the shark cage effect on Drake's 2024 North American tour. Jonas Born, head of R&D, oversees each project ffp completes alongside Sabottka and Ozer, and is the technical mind behind many of ffp's proprietary machines and customized systems, including the five-finger flame effect used for Lady Gaga.

For both, the range of Look Solutions products is important in delivering consistent results across very different applications.

"Our main workhorse is the Cryo range, we use the Cryo Fogger and the Cryo Gate," Riffel explains. "If you have to fill a stadium with low fog and it's windy, there isn't a machine that can do it better than the Cryo Fogger. The pristine safety record and strong output mean we can use them with confidence every time."

As Damien Kivlehan, another of ffp's senior special effects crew chiefs and designers, concludes, creating memorable effects like these must have safety at its core. "For ffp, safety, consistency, and reliability are non-negotiable, and Look Solutions has earned its place in our toolkit by delivering on all three," he finishes. "Look Solutions USA gives us reliable fluids, a proven track record, and strong support in North America. That makes them a partner we can trust on demanding projects."