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"Internet Provides Filmmakers
With New Frontier, Audience
-By Brian Bedsworth
Assistant Arts & Entertainment Editor
The mournful, melodramatic background
.music lets you know this is serious stuff.
On the screen, the image switches back and
forth between stark battle scenes, with men falling
uleft and right, and a woman reading a letter, pre
sumably about the soldier she loves.
The voice of the letter’s writer reads: “Your hus
band was a fine soldier and a very courageous
man. He fought with both valor and honor. No
■> doubt by now, you have received full information
about the untimely loss of his cock and balls,
which are currently missing in action.” And so
) begins “Saving Ryan’s Privates.”
Director Craig Moss’ eight-minute epic about a
WWII special mission for the rescue of Private
JRyan’s genitalia is at the forefront of a growing
.Internet trend: online movies.
“Ryan’s Privates” is the top-viewed movie at
Atom Films (www.atomfilms.com), one of the most
popular sites catering to the growing demand for
short bursts of online entertainment.
The site, along with others like The Sync
i(www.thesync.com) and Urban Entertainment
.(www.urbanentertainment.com), provides a mix of
animated, experimental, comedy, drama and stu
ident films. Most are less than 15 minutes, the per-
Ject length to accommodate short online attention
spans.
Another favorite among Atom users is “Capitol
e'lll,” an interactive, hip-hop animation piece fea
turing collage images of A1 Gore and George W.
Bush rapping. Users can scratch turntables and
play snippets of presidential soundbytes while the
-two candidates tear up the mic.
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COURTESY of atomfilms.com
‘4 British daymation character "Angry Kid" (top) acts snotty. Al Gore shows off his mad rhyming skills in the animated short
r | "Capitol III." Both films can be found at www.atomfilms.com, a site that figures largely in the e-movie revolution. Atom Films, and other companies
like it, provide an outlet for short and independent films to be seen online by larger audiences.
On these sites, “You can find creative material
that’s not on network television, not in the multi
plex,” said Anne Bergman, a Los Angeles writer
who has written extensively about digital film
making for Variety and the Los Angeles Times.
The new, adventurous nature of the Internet
lends itself to creative experimentation she said.
New technology, like the 360 degree camera, is
constantly expanding creative possibility of
Internet films.
And even better, most of these sites are free.
“(The e-movie sites are) pretty much the same
concept as Napster,” Bergman said. “The online
community in general, we just really like sharing.”
With a fast connection the films are easy to
download, and most sites have a “send this to a
friend” feature.
Now in addition to all the MP3s, chain letters
and stupid jokes people send to their friends,
movies may be cluttering your inbox.
Though sites like these might be a fun way to
procrastinate or kill a few hours, it is filmmakers,
much more than audiences, who are excited about
the new film frontier.
Bergman said most filmmakers showing their
work on these sites are students or people working
on a tight budget. Until recently, the best they
could hope for were featured spots in a few good
independent film festivals.
“But now, you have the opportunity to show
your work to thousands of people,” she said.
And short films are generally much cheaper
and easier to make than full-length features.
“We’re talking, you’re asking your friends to
hold the camera and lights in place,” Bergman
said.
It is this ease of production and the exponen-
COURTESY OF ATOMFILMS.COM
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tially increased distribution possibility that is lur
ing thousands of filmmakers to th'e Web.
Since its 1998 launch, Atom Films has received
more than 40,000 submissions of short films and
animation, said a representative for the site.
“Basically, (the films) are sort of calling cards
for people who want to make it in the film indus
try,” Bergman said. “The goal is that someone in
the Hollywood film industry will notice.”
And several people in Hollywood have.
IFILM’s “405” humorously depicts an airlin
er crash-landing on Interstate 40.5, the busiest
freeway in Los Angeles. Creators Bmce Branit
and Jeremy Hunt produced the short on their
home computers in about three months. The film
won them widespread acclaim, even from L.A.
Mayor Richard Riordan.
And Barbara Schock’s “My Mother Dreams
the Satan’s Disciples in New York,” featured on
Atomfilms, won the 2000 Oscar for Best Live
Action Short.
See E-MOVIES, Page 7
Zoom Culture Brings E-movie Craze Home
By Jeremy Hertz
Assistant Arts & Entertainment Editor
Among the many approaches to cre
ating and marketing e-movies, one com
pany stands out with an innovative
approach geared entirely toward the
college-age audience. The name is
Zoom Culture, and their national head
quarters are located in Chapel Hill.
“We’re creating a global media com
pany - really a global media experience
- for the college student and young
Just Like Going to Cannes
For online film fun from documentary to animation, head to these sites.
■ IFILM.COM ■ DEN.NET ■ PLANETOUT.COM/PNO/
■ ATOMFILMS.COM ■ BULLSEYEART.COM ■ PSEUDO.COM
■ ZOOMCULTURE.COM ■ AIRWORLD.NET ■ ANTEYE.COM
■ PITCHTV.COM ■ OTHERCINEMA.COM ■ BROADCAST.COM
■ RESFEST.COM ■ FILMFILM.COM ■ EVEO.COM
■ SIGHTSOUND.COM ■ ON2.COM ■ CULTUREJAM.COM
■ NEWVENUE.COM ■ ALWAYSI.COM ■ ODDCAST.COM
■ SLAMDANCE.COM ■ REELSHORT.COM ■ CRUSHEDPLANET.COM
■ SHORTBUZZ.COM ■. IFILM.COM ■ GEOCITIES.COM/VIDEO
•■MEDIATRIP.COM HbAVY.COM CLIPS_2OOO
adult,” said Alex Paulson, business
development manager.
The local company provides students
with the means to create their own
online content - something that sepa
rates Zoom Culture from other e-movie
distributors.
This content includes a bevy of gen
res, including short documentaries, cov
erage of events both local and of nation
al interest, concerts, sporting events and
skit comedy.
“Some of our students even produce,
It's a Cheer-amid! Kirsten Dunst stars as the
captain of a cheer-stealing squad in the
surprisingly witty "Bring It On."
-pagt 7
PAGE 5
direct and create their own programs
that have a specific theme, whether it’s
documenting the life of a college stu
dent or focused on a specific topic such
as politics,” said Keith Henstreet,
regional director of content acquisition
for the eastern United States.
Paulson said Forrester Research esti
mated 92 percent of Internet house
holds will produce their own rich or
streaming media within the next five
years. Streaming media is the format
Zoom Culture uses to deliver content to
users. “From where we are now to 92%
... this is a huge, emerging industry,” he
said.
Henstreet said, “Because Chapel Hill
is our headquarters, we want to get as
many UNC students involved in this
program as possible.”
The content is posted on the compa
ny’s site, www.zoomculture.com, and is
syndicated to other Web sites.
Currently, the finished Web site is
not online. Henstreet said the company
hopes to have their finished Web site
available by the end of September.
Until then, the Web address contains
a preview site. Visitors can watch short
films on first-look pages with labels such
as “Outdoors,” “Music” and “Disc
Golf.”.
Henstreet explained Zoom Culture’s
program for allowing students to create
content.
“We have a nationwide network of
•what we call Zoom Directors,” he said.
“They’re college students on different
campuses around the country who cre
ate the video programming that’s on
our site and may potentially be syndi
cated to hundreds of other sites, and
potentially cable.”
Zoom Culture currendy recruits on
50 campuses across the United States,
including UNC, Duke University and
the University of Michigan.
The company plans to eventually
hold video production workshops on
UNC’s campus.
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Interested contributors to the, site
must apply to the Zoom Director pro
gram. Anyone can apply, Paulson said,
and most applicants receive an initial
interview, where they pitch five ideas
for pieces they’d like to shoot. These
can be anything from a single film to a
series.
“It’s really their opportunity to show
case their creative side,” Paulson said.
Once selected, zoom director hope
fuls must complete an exam at Z-school,
the company’s online media production
school.
They then receive a digital camera
and other filming equipment and begin
filming their visions.
Edwin Godwin, a UNC senior from
Greenville, used Zoom Culture equip
ment to film a road trip he took from
North Carolina to New Hampshire this
summer.
Kayaking and hiking footage from
his adventure is available online on
Zoom Culture’s outdoors page, which
Godwin also edits.
“I’m proud of the intro to the page,”
Godwin said. “It’s a bunch of random
stuff that I filmed and me playing gui
tar.”
Because the company uses a stream
ing video format, which doesn’t allow
movie clips to be downloaded, most
clips must finish around three minutes,
Godwin said.
“The nature of streaming video on
the Internet dictates that the clips have
to be short,” he said. “It’s a big-time fac
tor as far as developing theme.”
That’s not deterring him from ambi
tious projects, though. “I’m going on the
Appalachian Trail next year, and I’m
planning on making a documentary
about that.”
Students interested in the Zoom
Directors program should contact
Henstreet at keith@zoomculture.com.
The Arts & Entertainment Editor can
be reached at artsdesk§unc.edu.