Visual effects supervisor Māris Āboliņš: the best work is the kind viewers never notice
Māris Āboliņš, a film visual effects supervisor and leader of the industrial music band Cyberpunk, describes his path from Jūrmala punk bands to cinema. His music video Brāļu dziesma has won awards at foreign festivals.
Latvian film visual effects supervisor (VFX supervisor) and musician Māris Āboliņš has told the weekend supplement of the daily Diena how he moved from punk bands in Jūrmala into the film industry, and why his goal is to remain unnoticed by viewers. He is currently working in Lithuania on the historical film "To Catch A Hawk" (in Lithuanian, Sugauti Vanagą).
From punk rock to cinema
Āboliņš began making music almost thirty years ago in Jūrmala. He played in the bands Skaven (1996–1997) and Pret tārpērci (1998–1999), later turned to electronic music and became the leader of the industrial band Cyberpunk. He created a computer-graphics visual style for his music and distributed it on video discs he recorded himself. The clip reached an employee of the advertising studio Film Angels Studio, and Māris and his friend Andris were invited to work there. They were later brought onto the film "Rīgas sargi" by Andrejs Ēķis.
His work can be seen in "Rīgas sargi" (2007), "Rūdolfa mantojums" (2010), "Sapņu komanda 1935" (2012), "Baltu ciltis" (2018), "Dvēseļu putenis" (2019) and "Tīklā. TTT leģendas dzimšana" (2025).
Work on set
Āboliņš stresses that special effects are what is created on the set, such as smoke or explosions, while his profession is managing visual effects work. He says it is important to plan computer graphics early and to keep them out of the foreground where possible. He links poor results to bad planning and a tendency to cut costs.
Music and latest successes
The video for his bardic song "Brāļu dziesma" won the Vienna Independent Film Festival award for best music video, as well as best director and best actor awards at the Europe Music Video Awards in Slovakia. The clip has also been screened in Norway, Sweden, Spain, England, the Netherlands and Ukraine. It premiered in Riga at the end of last week and is available on YouTube. This year he plans to submit it for the Zelta mikrofons music award as well. A presentation concert for a Cyberpunk retrospective album is planned for the end of the year within the Sturm industrial music event series.
