LONDON — Rise|Visual Effects Studios (www.risefx.com) will open a brand new office in London this September. The studio, which specilizes in VFX for film and television productions, has appointed Lara Lom managing director.
“There has never been a better time than the latter half of 2020 to expand the Rise brand to Great Britain,” says Lom. “Obviously, the market has taken a hit from film shoots being put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But, at the same time, the entire film industry is looking to the visual effects companies to help them reboot the business as we know it, whilst maintaining the highest safety standards for the crews."
Swiss-born Lom has worked at numerous VFX houses in London, Boston and Berlin, gathering experience as a VFX producer on such films as Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. In her new role, she will also serve as an executive producer.
Rise was founded in Berlin back in 2007 and has more than 100 permanent staff members, along with up to 280 artists in total in Berlin, Stuttgart, Munich and Cologne. Florian Gellinger, one of the co-founders of Rise and executive producer for its four German studios says, "We are very excited about having Lara on board. She has been handling all of the local development now for almost a year and shares our passion for what we do. London was always the place we were dreaming of having a space for gathering talent and to create an environment for creative discussions. The VFX studios and facilities in London are the best in the world and we've been inspired by their work since we started Rise. We would be thrilled to be collaborating with them on some very exciting projects in the near future.“
The London office of Rise is currently under construction and is slated to open in mid to late September in Holborn. The space is being built around the idea of providing all of the core ingredients for a digital production hub: a high-end screening room, conference room, space for 50 artists and editorial, as well as an original traditional British pub. In addition to working on Marvel’s family of features, dating back to the first Captain America, Rise has also contributed to Matthew Vaughn's The King's Man, HBO's Westworld and Lovecraft Country, as well as Netflix's Stranger Things.