Hollywood and the Internet Seeking Creative Partnership

Five short films debut this week at the AMC theaters in Century City, recalling the days when Hollywood pictures were always preceded by shorts. But AMC Theaters, which is sponsoring the series, did not come up with the idea in a fit of nostalgia.

AMC arranged with iFilm, a leading directory of Internet film, a few weeks after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that any film that debuted on the Internet, instead of in a theater, could not qualify for an Oscar nomination.

Kevin Wendle, iFilm founder, worked out the deal with AMC to avoid the possibility that many of the filmmakers on his Web site would pull their movies until they were able to find theatrical distribution.

“Short filmmakers only had festivals to screen their movies. So their work was only seen by a couple hundred people,” Wendle said. “Here is an opportunity for them to get the exposure that will enable them to [qualify for] an Oscar and then get wide distribution on the Net.”

The AMC-iFilm deal is only one example of the growing relationship between the Internet and Hollywood. Industry insiders like talent agencies, managers, studios and theater owners are trying to help Hollywood translate traditional ways of doing business to the Internet.

In recent months:

* A major talent agency signed its first Internet filmmakers simply by watching a three-minute spoof about the landing of a jumbo jet on the 405 Freeway.

* Director David O. Russell (“Three Kings”) signed a deal with a Web site, AntEye.com, which will finance and distribute his documentary about boxer-stuntman Benny Hernandez.

* More and more online casting services are cropping up offering agents and managers a fully computerized way of finding roles for their clients and sending their clients’ pictures, voice-overs and video clips via the Internet.

* Yahoo!Auctions, Blockbuster video and the William Morris Agency founded a Web site called Who Wants to Be a Movie Star, on which the highest bidders won leading roles for a still-unnamed movie. Nonprofessional actors have been cast for the film, and the Web site auctions garnered about $500,000 in production funds.

The initial setup turned out to be illegal under California law, which bars trading jobs for money. Founders of the site revamped it so that surrogates bid for the acting gigs, which are given to friends or acquaintances.

* Sony Pictures launched the first Internet news junket to promote “Hollow Man,” immediately reaching Web sites as far away as China, Denmark and Australia for a fraction of the cost of a traditional news junket.

In an industry always searching for new ideas and talent, the Internet will continue to be mined for gold.

“We are not signing everything on the Web. We are actually signing very little,” said Dan Adler, head of Creative Artist Agency’s Internet department. “But partnerships are being formed that help both communities to cross-pollinate.”

Oscar Nominations Are a Way to Be Discovered

Much as it did with television 50 years ago, the academy needed to redefine its parameters with the increasing popularity of the Net. The academy sees its duty as preserving the integrity of theatrical motion pictures.

“We need to be very careful not to attempt to expand our province inappropriately,” said Bruce Davis, executive director of the academy.

“There was a point in our history where we could have said we would bring [television] into our province. The fact is that our bailiwick has always been motion pictures as a theatrical group experience,” he said.

But the quickest way some young filmmakers see to being “discovered” in Hollywood is by getting an Academy Award nomination, hence the frantic e-mails sent by Internet filmmakers commiserating over the academy’s decision in June. Many saw it as an effort to stifle young filmmakers struggling to find a venue.

Take the following e-mails on iFilmPro, a popular Internet site used by film professionals: “I don’t know why they’ve done this. Why make this division?” Or “Why are they discouraging something that has made short filmmaking interesting?”

Some Hollywood insiders were disappointed that young filmmakers would be so focused on winning an award. And many people agree that the academy must establish and abide by its rules.

“The last thing young filmmakers should be thinking about is getting an Oscar,” said screenwriter John Ridley (“Three Kings”), who is creating short animation films for the Internet.

Still, the Oscar’s allure can be powerful. Dan Settani, who wrote, directed and produced “The Night Ferris Bueller Died,” a 30-minute $35,000 film, wrote a letter to the academy pleading for a “grandfather clause.” He hopes his film and others placed on the Internet before the academy announced its decision will be eligible. It is unlikely the academy will implement that clause, according to Davis.

“If there had been a rule, I never would have put it on the Internet,” Settani protested.

Six Home Computers and a Traffic Ticket

Settani’s sentiment is exactly what Wendle feared. His iFilm has a comprehensive film portal and directory containing links to more than 5,000 Internet films from every major broadband content provider. With the AMC deal, iFilm hopes to broaden its appeal for filmmakers.

One week after iFilm and AMC made their announcement, Creative Artists Agency signed its first Internet filmmakers. The two unknown Generation X’ers, Bruce Banit and Jeremy Hunt, were brought on board after agents saw their three-minute jumbo jet spoof. The filmmakers spent three months using six home computers and no budget (except $75 for a traffic ticket) to make their clip, which was distributed on iFilm.

“Any way that any of us can find talented people is good,” CAA’s Hadler said. “There are the traditional ways we have gotten at [talent] before. The Web is an expansion of those opportunities.”

Whether the pair can make a good feature-length film remains to be seen.

But the vast reach of the Internet is indisputable. Sony Studios saw how vast with its “Hollow Man” Internet junket in late July. Some 50 Web sites, which normally are not invited to studio publicity junkets, were allowed to participate. Those interviews and the video with the movie’s stars were up on the Net within hours, saving the studio time and money.

“The Internet is an added value,” said Chris Gibbin, founder of DNA Studio (Dedicated Net Access), the leading online marketing company, which coordinated the junket for the studio. “You are able to accommodate more people. It’s a lot easier for you to make a 20-minute appointment at your desk than fly across the country for the junket.”

Also in June, OnLine Production Services, a Canadian-based casting database founded four years ago, launched its service in L.A. Among the several Internet-accessible casting sites, OnLine claims to be the most comprehensive, with complete casting breakdowns, the only directory of Latino talent and Internet-based software that allows casting directors to find talent anywhere in the world with the push of a button.

Instead of relying on mail and courier services to deliver packets--photos, resumes and video of talent--casting agents can immediately access the service’s member list, photos, video clips and resumes.

Although the majority of casting directors, agents and agencies in Hollywood still use the traditional means of getting casting breakdowns, co-founder Susan Fox said that once people start using the technology, it is hard to turn back. On average they receive more than 60,000 agent submission packets a month.

“One day they discover this wonderful button that sorts all of their stuff. It’s a curve from there,” she said. “People have to be ready to embrace it and then they are transformed.”

‘Hollywood Is Starving for New Content’

All this activity and the academy’s ruling have legitimized the power of the Internet, said Matti Leshem, 37-year-old founder of AntEye.com, a film production and distribution outlet.

The site’s mission is to turn its viewers into creators and to demystify the filmmaking process. In April, Leshem launched an internal talent search in which six filmmakers were selected to create “pilots.” All six are all now in pre-production. Once the “pilots” are completed, Leshem will bring the material directly to studios and producers for possible development deals in television or film.

Russell’s documentary is the director’s first foray into the digital and Internet film world. He spent $25,000, used consumer-grade digital cameras and a personal computer editing system to make the film. The point of all this, Leshem said, is to prove that anyone with talent can make a feature-length film with the available technology.

“It’s incredible that they still employ the same methods of discovery and production that began 80 years ago. It’s a joke,” Leshem said. “There is this Hollywood hubris that if you haven’t come here and starved and got the right agent and then the right first-look development deal at a studio, that you haven’t made it. That’s crock. Hollywood is starving for new content. Broadband is the future.”

Broadband is already here. Bender-Spink management company began tapping into the Internet for talent nearly a year ago.

Its clients have found work in the studio system. For instance, Mike Mitchell, director of the short “Herd,” was put in contact with Disney executives, who later hired him to direct “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.” Joe Nussbaum, who directed the Internet short “George Lucas in Love,” was signed by Endeavor agency and put in contact with Paramount. He is attached to direct “How to Eat Fried Worms” for the studio.

“We want to be able to break young writers in film and TV into the Internet. And also cross the Internet people into TV and film,” co-founder J.C. Spink said. “For us it’s about a youth movement of talent.”