For me, this was one of the most incredible talks at this year’s FITC Amsterdam. The videos Mischa Rozema showed were in my eyes, amazing, dark and weird, yet wonderful and beautiful. But don’t let my opinion colour yours, have a look at PostPanic's video channel and Showreel 2011.

Mischa is the director at PostPanic, a company based in Amsterdam that has been doing post-production work since 1997. What makes them so special is that most of their work they get by doing un-commissioned work. And they do about 50% of that.

So how can a company still survive while doing free work? Most of the clients that see their show reel or work they've done in the past are sold on their services - instantly.

Mischa says the trick is having passion for what you do, a passion that doesn’t go away. It’s about waking up in the middle of the night with that one idea and drawing until the morning, biking (until you puke) and getting it so clear in your head that it just ‘clicks’. He says it’s a certain drive that sets you apart, and it’s this drive that is also what clients see and make them choose you.

It is really cool to see him on stage talking about how that passion and drive landed him a feature film for a really big movie company based in the states.

He has been working on the concept for the film for more than 5 years, and now that he picked a writer to work with, his concept is becoming reality. The story is about what it means to be human and is based in Mexico. Mischa showed us his moleskin book filled with concept art, photos and sketches. They also have done a ton of research; photos shot on location and found on Google Maps using street view. It reminded me a lot of the boxes filled with photos that Stanley Kubrick kept. I guess this a director’s thing.

He ends with some worked out shots of a stadium in the middle of Mexico City with tons of CG applied to it. I can’t wait to see this finished!