Crossroads, bicoastal and Chicago, the longstanding company that encompasses commercials and longform through its various divisions, is on the cusp of making significant inroads into HD production via a strategic alliance with New York-based hi-def firm CineMuse. Crossroads and CineMuse began working together about a year ago.
Ted Geier, president and CEO of CineMuse, described Crossroads as being "a partner that has totally permeated our company." He credited Crossroads’ New York division, The Resistance, with helping to brand, position and market CineMuse. Nick Wollner, founding partner and principal at Crossroads, characterized The Resistance as "an idea company." The idea that CineMuse and Crossroads are teaming up on is the creation of a network of hi-def cinemas in museums and cultural centers around the country. This group of theaters will provide a platform for sponsorship and distribution of product, while stimulating a demand for HD production.
Several elements have already fallen into place, as CineMuse and Crossroads have enlisted the support of both the Pittsburgh Center for The Arts and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The Pittsburgh Center installed its permanent cinema in Oct. ’98, and is helping to bring other museums and cultural centers into the planned network of hi-def theaters. CineMuse—which has an inventory of hi-def product from such sources as The Rebo Group, New York—is also showing HD fare at venues that include the Cape Museum of Fine Art, Cape Cod, Mass., and The Beecher Center for Technology and the Arts of the Butler Museum of Art, Youngstown, Ohio.
"If you have two hundred of these theaters in place, the network would reach some fourteen million people annually," projected Wollner. "Museums and cultural institutions need to generate traffic to attract and retain grants. And there’s a real need for HD, given that museums often only display a small percentage of their collections due to space limitations. A good seventy percent of museum collections aren’t shown, creating the need for digital archives."
The CPB enters the picture, explained Geier, due to a congressional mandate that public broadcasters convert to digital television by 2003. The estimated cost of this conversion for 194 TV stations is $1.6 billion. Congress did not allocate any funds for this undertaking. Instead, public broadcasters will need to solicit funding from foundations, corporations and other donors such as "viewers like you." Geier noted that "people generally don’t like to fund technology; they like to fund programs."
Digital cinemas in cultural centers and museums could play a pivotal role in helping to persuade donors of the value in funding technology. "Many of the people who go to museums are the ones who support public broadcasting," said Geier. "Exposing them to hi-def will show them how extraordinary digital TV can be in serving the community. We will be able to develop public television in new ways—some involving interactive capabilities, others involving multichanneling. They can get a taste of what it would be like to see Nova, children’s programming and Great Performances in hi-def."
CineMuse has a recent history of collaboration with the CPB. When the CPB made a presentation to the U.S. Senate in ’98, it employed content and technology from CineMuse. Public broadcasting has since provided funding so that stations and museums can explore how they can work with CineMuse in different areas of hi-def.
Wollner and Geier said that Crossroads Communications, the New York-based division specializing in longform and corporate programming, will produce product for the planned network of cinemas. "It’s a way for us to get into HD production—an area that figures to increase in its importance for commercials," related Wollner. "Rather than wait for that to happen, we will be gaining hands-on experience in the medium through our relationship with CineMuse." Crossroads and CineMuse will likely hold an equity stake in their HD programming, according to Wollner.
CineMuse gains Crossroads’ marketing and production expertise, while Crossroads can tap into CineMuse’s extensive HD resources. Among those resources are key staffers such as VP of production and technology, Barry Minnerly, formerly of The Rebo Group. "Barry has been specializing in making HD look good for the past 10 years," noted Wollner, citing Minnerly’s work at Rebo and with Japanese broadcaster NHK.
Geier added that CineMuse has another potential support source: Robert DeNiro, who saw the company’s HD product at a museum and was impressed. DeNiro subsequently invited CineMuse to become a tenant at the TriBeca Film Center in New York. Geier hopes this will eventually translate into meaningful collaborations between CineMuse and TriBeca.
