Palomar Pictures has entered into an affiliation with IFILM, an online site showcasing filmmakers’ work. Both companies are based in Los Angeles.
Per the arrangement, IFILM will host Palomar Showcase, a co-branded Web page that will feature short films, commercials, music videos, editorial commentary and original interactive programming supplied by Palomar’s talent pool. It will be accessible directly through IFILM and through a Palomar-specific URL. The site is slated to launch this fall.
IFILM’s director of programming Jessie Jacobs said the alliance was beneficial to IFILM in that the company is always seeking to find and foster new filmmaking talent. In addition to the Palomar directorial roster, Jacobs said that IFILM is also interested in providing an online forum for the talent at Slo Graffiti, a division of Palomar that represents artists from a variety of disciplines for commercial work. Among these are installation artist Jenny Holzer, installation artist/director Doug Aitken, and feature directors John Dahl (The Last Seduction), Jean-Pierre Jeunet (City of Lost Children) and Luc Besson (The Fifth Element).
"From the business-to-business side," said Jacobs, "Palomar can build an online showcase for their talent to present their work. Whether it’s an ad agency or a development executive, they can direct people to the Showcase page and say, ‘Look at his work, what he’s done in the past and what he’s experimenting with now.’ It’s much more efficient."
From the consumer side, Palomar has many commercial and music video directors who are looking to get into short film or feature work, said Jacobs. He added, "This is a way for them to, at least, experiment with that online and get feedback from it very quickly-rather than taking the big step of doing a huge production and trying to develop it offline. One of the things that’s worked for us is to know right away what works and what doesn’t. That’s one of the real highlights and benefits of the Web, and one of the things that Palomar was specifically attracted to."
Palomar CEO/chairman Joni Sighvatsson said, "This deal connects us with the future. Our directors are, and have always been, doing other things [besides spots and videos]. Thanks to companies like IFILM, the short film format has been revived because there’s now a new mechanism for viewing it; I think that’s extremely important. This enables Palomar to do what they’re doing and showcase it in a wholly different world. We’re also taking the commercials and music videos and reformatting them to fit the new delivery medium."
Slo Graffiti executive producer Laura Howard, who helped engineer the IFILM deal, said, "I think IFILM came to us because they wanted us to curate something for them that could be a marquee for creative taste. I think they were particularly drawn to some of the artists I’m working with at Slo Graffiti, who are doing really experimental installation work, video and film."
IFILM will feature Palomar content prominently on its site and potentially through its other channels, such as TiVo, a subscription-based programming service. In April, IFILM teamed with TiVo to provide television access to movies previously available only on the Web. Per the deal, TiVo’s system will be sold with a collection of IFILM movies already downloaded into its system.
In fact, one of IFILM’s first shorts downloaded onto TiVo was Oregon, written and directed by Slo Graffiti’s Rafael Fernandez. According to Jacobs, it was one of the highest-rated shorts to appear on IFILM.
Palomar also stands to benefit from IFILM’s recent partnership with movie theater chain AMC Entertainment to launch a monthly film festival, IFILM@ AMC Series, enabling IFILM’s original short films to qualify for Oscar consideration. The alliance was inspired by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science’s ruling that online screenings could not take place before theatrical screenings if a film is to be eligible for Academy consideration. To that end, the short film The Praying Mantis directed by Palomar’s Pep Bosch was selected as one of three films to kick off the IFILM@AMC Series, which will premiere in Burbank, Calif.-based AMC theatres in mid-August.
Launched in Oct. ’98, the IFILM network includes IFILM. com, a leading film portal and directory which allows filmmakers to showcase their work, and IFILMpro.com, an industry-exclusive destination containing proprietary tracking boards, exclusive news and information, and screenings showcasing work for undiscovered talent around the world.
IFILM also owns and operates the Hollywood Creative Directory, a listing of agents, managers and actors; Lone Eagle Publishing, a publisher of how-to industry trade books and contact directories; and ScriptShark, a script-reading site allowing writers to submit work and receive critiques. Other properties include TV Tracker as well as Development Source, which are subscription-based services that track the development of TV shows and movies, respectively.
Palomar is one of the latest spot and music video companies seeking to diversify onto the Internet. Others include bicoastal/international Propaganda Films, which struck up a co-production and licensing distribution deal with Seattle-headquartered Atom Films (SHOOT, 3/31, p. 7) and bicoastal HSI Productions, which recently launched Kayoss, a satellite company that will produce original Internet content (SHOOT, 7/14/00).
