Martin Baumgaertner founded Angle Park in December of 1989 in his college dorm room. He started the company by purchasing and modifying an early portable DAT recorder to work with a Mac-based digital audio editing system. The total investment was about $6000.00. Soon after diving into digital audio editing, he began cutting demos and remixes for local bands and several Chicago recording studios. Using this hot-wired off-the-shelf technology, he was able to compete with older, more expensive, more established tools-and their practitioners.

While it was nothing more than instinct at first, from the outset, one of Angle Park's competitive advantages has been the ability to innovate by pushing low-cost digital devices beyond their apparent limitations. In the early 1990's, these innovations were limited to audio production because computers and video systems were based on separate technologies. However, as processors and hard drives got faster every day, a digital video revolution was just beginning.

In 1993, Martin bought an early iteration of the Avid video editing system. While there were certainly perils of early adoption to be overcome, such as crashes and incompatibilities, he developed technical work-arounds and specialized techniques to finish programs "in the box" years before other companies abandoned their analog, tape-based systems. As a result, Angle Park has employed an entirely digital workflow since the mid-'90s. Armed with these powerful tools, Martin was able to experiment with short films, music videos, television pilots, and animations. The digital edge gave Angle Park the chance to produce jobs with a quality that otherwise would have been out of its reach.

In 1997, then-freelance producer Phil Cantor joined Martin as a partner, bringing ten years of music video and commercial production experience to Angle Park. While the two had dabbled in music video collaboration-they met while shooting a music video-rather than pursuing the so-called "high-end" market of commercials and music videos, they refocused the company by asserting a commitment to help corporations and other institutions develop effective audio and video communications. Drawing upon the breadth of their production experience in music videos and commercials, they set out to bring high-end production value to these clients, melding traditional techniques and digital technology.

For the first ten years, the company was focused on film and video production. Now, that role is more expansive, and includes communications consulting, writing and creative development, and interactive multimedia and web-based projects. Through it all, the company has created great projects that explain, teach, excite, motivate, and move.