Tustin Company Agrees to Represent Firm Making High-Definition Films : ADVERTISING / MARKETING

Tustin-based Cameron/South Coast Group Inc. has just been signed to provide investor relations and counseling services to Showscan Film Corp.

Culver City-based Showscan Film is a fledgling public firm that makes high-definition films using the movie technology. Its process, called Showscan, was created by Douglas Turnbull, the special effects whiz behind “2001: A Space Odyssey” and the first “Star Trek” series, among other science-fiction epics.

Showscan changes the speed at which film is shot. It is a patented, high-definition filmmaking process that photographs movies on 65-millimeter film at 60 frames per second--rather than the conventional 35-millimeter film at 24 frames per second.

The result is movies that just about everyone agrees are much brighter, clearer and more realistic than what is now playing at the local theater.

But whether the Showscan technology becomes any more than the latest expensive gimmick remains to be seen.

Showscan movies cost a least $2 million to $3 million more per film to produce. And the effect is best in a specially equipped theater--which costs up to $300,000 to convert.

That leaves Showscan with a Catch-22. Producers must pay more to shoot more footage in Showscan, but there are very few theaters (only one in the United States) to screen them. And theater owners have to pay to install Showscan equipment even though there are no Showscan full-length movies to screen.

Showscan Film, meanwhile, has branched out into mock amusement park rides, using motion simulators akin to Disneyland’s Star Tours attraction. Showscan vice president David Nassif boasts of contracts for 20 simulator systems but acknowledges that some of those are subject to cancellation.

The firm, controlled by a group of executives who formerly owned the Plitt theater chain, had a $2.9-million loss for the last fiscal year ended March 31.

The eight-person Cameron/South Coast office will work with Showscan Film “to expand the financial market’s awareness and understanding” of the publicly traded company, Joseph Allen, president of CSCG, announced this week.

Under the two-year contract, valued by Allen “in the $100,000 range,” Cameron/South Coast will develop and manage programs for Showscan to communicate with shareholders, investors, financial analysts and brokers.

Cameron/South Coast, which specializes in financial and investor relations and crisis communications, is optimistic. “Without national and international network of resources, we are well positioned” to boost Showscan, said Rene H. Caron, vice president of CSCG.