Publicly-traded, New York-headquartered Paradise Music & Entertainment (NASDAQ: PDSE) has launched Paradise Digital Productions (PDP), a bicoastal division that will produce and develop content for the Internet. PDP works would comprise everything from serial Web programs to live multi-camera events broadcast over the Internet.
PDP’s president is Matt Rader, an entertainment executive who was most recently senior VP at Los Angeles-based Destiny Productions, a feature and television development company that is owned by director Jesse Dylan. Dylan became Paradise Music & Entertainment’s CEO after the company announced a letter of intent to purchase bicoastal commercial production house Straw Dogs from him and executive producer Craig Rodgers (SHOOT, 5/7/99, p. 1). Paradise’s acquisition of Straw Dogs was recently completed (SHOOT, 1/17, p. 7).
Elisabeth Caren has also joined PDP as its director of development. She last held that same role at Beverly Hills-based First Light, a production company headed by feature director Kathryn Bigelow. And Debra L. Gainor, a production supervisor on films including Panic and Happy, Texas, has been named PDP’s head of physical production. In addition to producing commercials, Gainor has produced content for Digital Entertainment Network, an online entertainment site (www. den.net).
Mark Pollard, Paradise’s VP/director of new business, described PDP as an arm that would utilize Paradise’s talent and resources to step into the burgeoning Internet arena. Paradise’s holdings include concert film and music video production house Picture Vision, Nashville; spot music house Rave Music, New York (which also maintains alchemy, a New York-based commercial music division); music artists management company All Access Entertainment Management Group, New York; independent record label PUSH Records, New York; and Los Angeles-based Vapour, an autonomous post division launched by editor T.G. Herrington.
"We’re trying to be in the position so that we can capitalize on convergent media as it blossoms," said Pollard. "There’s a lot of Internet production going on, and as the broadband revolution starts to come home to roost, there are going to be more opportunities in this area."
open forum
Rodgers said that PDP would give Paradise talent a new forum to explore: "I think that one of the things we’re looking for in being a multi-tiered entertainment company is numerous creative opportunities for the talent, and certainly digital Internet content is one of those opportunities." PDP would utilize Straw Dogs’ creative resources, which Rodgers described as "a catchall for the [company’s] collective creative consciousness." He added that while Straw Dogs directors wouldn’t necessarily direct Internet programs, they would be involved collaboratively with broadband projects.
Rader said that PDP would not maintain its own directorial roster, but rather work on an informal basis with talent at Paradise and outside of the company.
"The whole idea of the digital revolution is that it lets people do what they want to do," Rader said. "Given that the costs are reduced, the creative possibilities are endless." Because of the Web’s flexibility, Rader said he would consider a wide range of programming proposals, which could eventually be produced using a streamlined production regimen. Rader explained that the business model for such speculative productions would be to complete a pilot and sell it to Internet entertainment sites.
In ’99, Paradise established a relationship with bicoastal/international Partizan, providing office space in Los Angeles and New York as well as backroom operational support (SHOOT, 9/10/99, p. 1). Rader said that he planned to talk with Partizan personnel about potential PDP projects.
PDP’s trial run came in late December, when the division produced five six-minute episodes of Jonni Nitro, a Web serial blending live action and animation, for Marina del Rey, Calif.-based Eruptor Entertainment. Paradise owns an eight percent stake in Eruptor, which operates a Web site targeted at "Generation Y" males (www. eruptor.com). The Jonni Nitro episodes, which feature actress Olivia d’Abo, were directed by Marc Silvestri, an animator/comic book artist who is CEO/ founder of Top Cow Productions, Santa Monica. PDP is currently in discussions to produce future episodes of the serial.
PDP also has been commissioned by online network WireBreak (www.wirebreak.com) to produce 20 four- to six-minute installments of WireBreaking Point, a weekly Web serial. Rader noted that he was in discussions with other companies to produce online programming.
PDP’s establishment comes at a time when many companies are placing their bets that as bandwidth increases, there will be a vast market for content developed specifically for the Internet. As if the signs weren’t already apparent, the recent pairing of America Online, Dulles, Va., and New York-based Time Warner affirms that the major media players will be developing and producing programming for the Internet. Even before its parent company was acquired by AOL, Burbank, Calif.-based Warner Brothers Pictures had launched Entertaindom (www.entertaindom.com), a site featuring content specifically for the Internet.
Other Net-exclusive programming sites include POP.com, a partnership between DreamWorks SKG, Playa Vista, Calif., and Imagine Entertainment, Beverly Hills; Digital Entertainment Network; Pseudo.com; and Shockwave.com, a site that will feature original content created by South Park co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
