Rick Eldridge
C.E.O. and Co Owner
With over 30 years in the entertainment business as a musician, producer, director and entrepreneur: Rick Eldridge knows how to make projects happen. Whether sports programming, live production, animated series or feature films, Eldridge has been involved in every facet of creative development and production management in the entertainment industry. His resume is a road map to an extraordinary career that includes the best and most respected names in the industry: Universal, Disney, and ESPN, to name a few.
Eldridge is presently working on a sequel for "The Ultimate Gift" called "The Ultimate Life" as well as an animated theatrical feature of his "HERMIE" series. Currently Eldridge is President/CEO of ReelWorks Studios a multifaceted film/video post-production company in Charlotte, NC. Under the same roof is GlueWorks Creative Management, an animation company prized with numerous awards of excellence for projects such as Hermie & Friends, Gigi, The Pond and On the Farm.
Eldridge is an active member of the following boards: Officer of the board of trustees for Brevard College in Brevard, NC, Advisor board for the communications major at Queens University in Charlotte, NC, Advisor board for the film graduate program at Regent University in Virginia Beach, VA, Founding board member of Compass Film Academy in Grand Rapids, MI, Member of the board of directors for HEARTLAND Film Festival in Indianapolis, IN, Member of the board of directors for Media Fellowship International in Los Angeles, CA, Member of the counsel of elders for Forrest Hill Church in Charlotte, NC.
His creative vision has led to his involvement in numerous projects including:
* The Ultimate Gift (feature film)
* Bobby Jones – Stroke Of Genius (feature film)
* Hermie & Friends (animated series)
* Gigi (animated series)
* Struggle and Triumph (2008 Olympic feature)
* The Prize (World Cup Soccer TV special)
* The Perfect Game (feature film)
* Running The Sahara (feature documentary)
Chris Cates
C.E.O. and Co Owner
Christopher Cates began his career as a producer/writer for J. Walter Thompson in Los Angeles. Over the course of the ensuing 15 years he learned the ins and outs of production and post production working on programming for the likes of MGM, Columbia Pictures Television, Disney, ABC, NBC and CBS. Although he always found himself in management positions he had a fascination with the new technologies. "I was not an engineer but had the good fortune of working with some of the most brilliant minds in the business who regularly pushed the creative envelope and did not mind sharing their knowledge". Chris was an early adaptor for digital video effects, 2D and 3D animation, blue and green screen compositing. In 1984, as Production Manager for a Barry and Enright magazine show, Chris orchestrated one of the first blue screen "virtual sets".
In 1989 Chris left Hollywood, game shows and sitcoms for Washington DC, news and politics to head the largest full service broadcast and production facility in the region. His company provided all production, post and broadcast services for the launch of BET, Discovery Channel, GoodLife TV, The Animal Planet and several other regional cable networks. At one point Chris was managing three separate broadcast and satellite facilities while also sitting on the board of Directors of a national cable network.
In 1999 Chris moved to Charlotte, North Carolina to take over the reins of the broadcast facility that provided production, post and broadcast services for The Inspirational Network. Tasked to build the business for the facility, two years later Chris secured a contract with Fox to provide turnkey production, post and broadcast services for their recently acquired Speed Channel. Still passionate about visual effects, Chris installed the first full tracking virtual set system in the South East which was used on a show that aired live on Speed for two seasons. Recognizing some in house talent Chris also spun out a boutique motion graphics and visual effect shop called Snap5.
In 2005 Chris decided that it was time to return to his producer's roots and teamed up with Rick Eldridge. With like minds on purpose and a perfect balance of skill sets, the two have collaborated to produce four feature films, a feature length documentary, several television specials and 5 different 2D and 3D animation children's series.