High Tech for Low-Budget Videos

In a place called the Creator Center, a budding video whiz might become the next Francis Ford Coppola.

Armed with the latest camcorders and computerized film editing systems, at least the video buff has a fighting chance to work cinematic magic like the famed director of “The Godfather” trilogy and “Apocalypse Now.”

A who’s-who crowd of the computing world attended a Hollywood-style bash Thursday evening to dedicate the opening of the Creator Center, a do-it-yourself multimedia production center that allows filmmakers and video editors to create near-broadcast quality screen productions or jazzy corporate presentations. Featured guest Coppola canceled at the last minute.

“It’s a brand-new concept, and we think it’s going to explode,” said Charles Cortright, president of the Graphix Zone, a computer-graphics service company in Irvine, which houses the Creator Center. “It is becoming affordable for the mass market.”

The Creator Center is aimed at promoting the spread of multimedia--the combined use of video, compact-disc sound, computer animation, text and graphics.

Some industry followers are openly skeptical over whether multimedia will catch on. But Cortright is a true believer who thinks that multimedia is becoming a bigger part of mainstream personal computing as prices keep falling and the technology advances.

“People need an opportunity to go someplace and try out the new equipment,” said Nick Arnett, president of Multimedia Computing Corp., a market research firm in Santa Clara. “We have a growing infrastructure of people who have learned how to do multimedia, but they need a place to go.”

With three studio bays and a sound room, the Creator Center packs the production power of a small film studio. Cortright said the company has invested more than $500,000 in the “desktop video” equipment in the Creator Center.

That includes both Macintosh and IBM-compatible computers, laser-disc systems, video recorders, and the necessary hardware and software that convert sound and video into data that can be understood and manipulated by a computer. The studios rent for $40 to $120 per hour, depending on whether the user needs technical advice. The rate compares to $500 per hour at editing studios, Cortright said.

Cortright and vice president Angela Aber, who have ambitions for creating a nationwide chain, have revamped the Graphix Zone several times in search of the right concept.

In 1989, they opened a desktop publishing and graphics service center as a department within the Computer City SuperCenter store in Garden Grove.

But after deciding to target high-end corporate clientele, they moved to a new site in Irvine in 1990 and began focusing on service and computer sales to corporate buyers. The company has grown to 22 employees, but Cortright would not disclose sales or profits.

Now, the Graphix Zone is home to a cornucopia of technology from digital cameras to Sony Corp. video presentation screens. It still has a service bureau where customers can get laser printouts of their computer creations, but it no longer sells computers.

The company’s revenue now comes from fees paid by computer manufacturers to show off their wares and to train about 1,500 people a month to use the computer equipment to produce complex multimedia presentations.

“We generate sales for the manufacturers by training people how to use systems the way they were meant to be used,” he said.

Cortright says he has the right concept to create a chain of Graphix Zones across the country. Aber said the company hopes to open eight Creator Centers across the country.

Besides offering the Creator Center, Graphix Zone also produces custom multimedia programs.

Last month, the company delivered a computerized training system to the U.S. Olympic Committee’s wrestling team. The interactive computer program combines graphics and text and is used by coaches to train wrestlers to perform basic moves and to examine competitors’ performances via the combined use of computer animation and video.

So far, film and video producers have expressed interest in the Creator Center, Cortright said. Knott’s Berry Farm, for instance, wants to use the center to create programs for an interactive kiosk that would use videos to guide guests around the Buena Park theme park.

Terry Rosene, president of TMR Multimedia, a video-production studio in Tustin, said he intended to use the center quite often.

“We couldn’t afford to buy all this equipment ourselves,” he said. “It will help us do corporate videos.”