ffp is a boundary pushing pyrotechnic and special effects design company. With offices in Los Angeles, Berlin and London the team have over 20 years of experience with the world’s most discerning clients. The company’s roots go back more than 30 years in Germany and ffp has built its reputation on high-end special effects. Since establishing its US operations in 2014, the team expanded their existing great relationship with the Look Solutions GmbH, finding that Look Solutions USA delivers exactly the fog and haze needed for a wide range of environments, The team regularly use many of Look Solutions machines, from the Tiny Fog range to the mighty Orkas. Director, Nicolai Sabottka, explains why Look Solutions is such a great fit for the company and its clients.
“Ninety five percent of our projects are full service; we provide the effects, the crew and deliver logistically,” he says. “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.”
Originally from Germany, Sabottka says that German engineering was how ffp started. “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 U.S. 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 now has a large team delivering productions around the world each year, including work for German industrial metal band Rammstein. Sabottka has a long-standing creative relationship with the band, designing their iconic fire effects. Keen to keep pushing boundaries, Sabottka and Basak Ozer, SFX Designer, alongside the wider team have also developed a striking atmospheric effect that showcased 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 most senior special effects designers and currently crew chief for the Morgan Wallen 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 — a show that looked deceptively simple, but was technically one of the most complex
During the design process, Basak 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, designing special effects for high profile artists such as Lady Gaga. He also used Look Solutions Cryo Foggers, with Gaga’s 2022 World tour, The Chromatica Ball using 12 Cryo Fog machines. The reliability of Look Solutions fluid delivers the consistent results that his high profile and ambitious projects require.
“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, SFX 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.”
True creativity requires a strong and reliable tool-kit. For the team, Look Solutions products are part of that kit, providing the perfect backdrop to showcase the breathtaking effects that ffp is world renowned for.
As Damien Kivlehan, another of ffp’s senior SFX crew chiefs and designers, concludes creating memorable effects like these must have safety at their core. Including Look Solutions products in their inventory ensures that every aspect of the final design is fully accountable, while purchasing from Look Solutions USA ensures excellent customer service and support.
"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 give us reliable fluids, a proven track record, and strong support in North America. That makes them a partner we can trust on demanding projects."
