Aero Film alumni team on new bicoastal venture
Rocket Film has opened its doors in New York and Los Angeles.
Founded by Aero Film alumni Sara Eolin, who will serve as managing director, and filmmakers Klaus Obermeyer and Ken Arlidge, Rocket Film houses both traditional and non-traditional production services with a focus on broadcast commercials, short and long form documentaries, digital content creation, as well as 360 VR projects.
According to Eolin, Rocket Film fulfills a greater need to develop more authentic, meaningful business partner relationships. “Many of our executive team and roster have diverse backgrounds, allowing us to deeply understand both the production and agency side of the business. This fore-knowledge of a partner’s priorities and best practices creates a trusted shorthand, which is crucial in bringing a project in on time and on budget.”
Joining Eolin, Obermeyer and Arlidge on the Rocket Film leadership team are fellow Aero vets, executive producer Cory Noonan and EP/head of production Marla Whittaker, veteran sr. director/copywriter and producer, respectively. On the sales side, Rocket will be repped on the West Coast and in Detroit by Brad Grubaugh and Sophie Moore of Good Rebel, and on the East Coast by head of sales Susanne Kelly, another Aero alum who brings a decade’s worth of sales experience to the fold.
With projects spanning a variety of verticals and genres, from fashion/beauty to automotive to comedy, Rocket Film’s wide scope of work is supported by a roster of established filmmakers who each lend their distinctive talents and imprint to the company. Along with Obermeyer and Arlidge, Rocket’s directorial lineup includes Alex Grossman, who recently won multiple Gold and Silver Lions at Cannes for his French Film Alliance campaign, award-winning short film, documentary and commercial director Dara Bratt (In Vivid Detail, The Singing Abortionist), photo-real animation specialist Sam O’Hare (The Sandpit), famed TV and film director/editor David Rogers (The Office, The Mindy Project), and genre-defying storyteller Trevor McMahan, who’s brought his unique sensibilities to campaigns for Visa, Huawei, McDonald’s and more.
“We find people that are great at their specialties and aren’t competing with each other,” Eolin said. “It’s the people that make the company and what carries through, so we focused on building an incredibly diverse roster that’s still growing.”
Rocket Film’s emphasis on its people and culture isn’t just reflected in its band of directors, but in the company as a whole, where personality, proactivity and camaraderie are vital in maintaining successful client relations. “Our ethos is around housing people you want to work with, be friends with and creating a familial vibe,” Eolin explained. “We’re doers and we try to make the process as easy as possible for clients, bringing solutions, not problems. We’re honest, we go above and beyond and we have empathy for clients coming not just from the agency side, but with all our production expertise.”
As Rocket Film launches, the production company and its directors are already busy with agency collaborations as Trevor McMahan is working with Ogilvy’s David on an upcoming fall campaign, Arlidge has teamed up with Townhouse/Grey, and Alex Grossman is partnering on a project with Seattle-based shop, Copacino+Fujikado.
From Restoring To Hopefully Preserving Multi-Camera Categories At The Emmys
When Gary Baum, ASC won his fourth career Emmy Award earlier this month, it was especially gratifying in that the honor came in a category--Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Half-Hour Series--that had been restored thanks in part to a grass-roots initiative among cinematographers to drum up entries. Last year the category fell by the wayside when not enough multi-camera entries materialized.
In his acceptance speech, Baum appealed to the Television Academy to keep multi-camera categories alive. He later noted to SHOOT that editors also got their multi-camera recognition back in the Emmy competition this year. Baum hopes that after resurrecting multi-camera categories in 2024, such recognition will be preserved for 2025 and beyond.
A major factor in the decline of multi-camera submissions in 2023 was the move of certain childrenโs and family programming from the primetime Emmy competition to the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciencesโ (NATAS) Emmy ceremony. For DPs this meant that multi-camera programs last year were reduced to vying for just one primetime nomination slot in the more general Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (Half-Hour) category. It turned out that this single slot was filled in โ23 by a Baum-lensed episode of How I Met Your Father (Hulu).
Fast forward to this yearโs competition and Baum won for another installment of How I Met Your Father--โOkay Fine, Itโs A Hurricane,โ which turned out to be the series finale. Two of Baumโs Emmy wins over the years have been for How I Met Your Father, and thereโs a certain symmetry to them. His initial win for How I Met Your Father was for the pilot in 2022. So he won Emmys for the very first and last... Read More