Longtime creative partners Elliot Lim and Aaron Kemnitzer have teamed to launch Bullpen, a design and animation studio with bases of operation in Brooklyn, NY, and the Northern California community of Menlo Park.
Lim and Kemnitzer open their new venture with over 25 years of combined experience in the motion design industry. After first meeting at design shop Digital Kitchen, the two became fast friends, collaborating off and on ever since. In that time, they have worked with postproduction and animation studios including Buck, Psyop, Gentlemen Scholar, Hornet, and Not to Scale leading to a string of creative successes, most notably a Lim-created animated homage inspired by HBO’s seminal series The Wire.
Lim and Kemnitzer are a directorial duo. The former had most recently been on the roster of Not to Scale while Kemnitzer had been freelancing in Chicago and New York for the past 10-plus years.
With Bullpen, Lim and Kemnitzer are looking to create a new kind of studio defined by its leaner model and hands-on approach–flexible, agile and adaptable to clients’ shifting needs. “Working in the industry, we have learned a lot about the dos and don’ts of servicing projects and clients. That’s why for everything we take on, the client is always assured that both principals of the company, Elliot and I, are fully dedicated to the project,” explained Kemnitzer. “This is unlike other studios where you might be passed to freelancers or less experienced creatives within the company. Also, our lower overhead allows us to be competitive while still remaining nimble enough to expand for bigger projects.”
This approach has already attracted such clients as HP, Amazon and Charles Schwab.
To showcase its creative range, Bullpen is releasing several new projects and animations created especially for its launch. Consisting of a mix of illustrative 2D and 3D short films–from an overweight bumble bee to a factory that produces the alphabet–each piece purposefully plays with different looks, tones and rhythms to show the breadth and impact of well-crafted design.
These shorts all culminate in a text-driven animated video in celebration of the concept of “style,” using a host of techniques to demonstrate how distinct visual elements play a vital role in conveying emotion, shifting expectations and telling a story. According to Lim, this film perfectly encapsulates Bullpen’s abilities and sensibilities. “We’re capable of a lot of different styles. We’re flexible. When you look at these brand films, you can see that diversity of techniques and our love for using style to tell a good story.”
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More