Orbit Entertainment Group-the Hollywood-based parent to commercial production house Orbit Productions and feature company Orbit Pictures, both also in Hollywood-has teamed with multimedia specialist Jeremy White to launch endtheory, a division focused on interactive media, primarily the Internet. The new venture is based in Seattle, where White maintains his own company, Blueshirt. According to Orbit Entertainment Group co-CEO Dror Soref, the long-range plan is to phase out Blueshirt, which eventually will be succeeded by endtheory.
Soref said that endtheory is the conduit through which Orbit Productions’ spot directors will be able to work on interactive projects, accessing streaming tools and other resources assembled by White, who began working in the field six years ago. Soref added that Culver City, Calif.-based feature studio Phoenix Pictures has already entered the interactive arena via Orbit Entertainment and endtheory. Orbit Entertainment and Phoenix Pictures formed a strategic alliance earlier this year (SHOOT, 1/21/00).
Endtheory is currently finishing an interactive streaming video promotion for the Phoenix-produced feature The 6th Day, a Sony Pictures release directed by Roger Spottiswoode (who’s repped for commercials by Orbit Productions) and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The streaming video promotion, for which White serves as lead designer, will be used for direct marketing to an estimated one million people.
White said that he entered into a relationship with Orbit Entertainment Group because of its creative assets, including its directorial roster and link with Phoenix. He added that the Group offers him the wherewithal to increase the scale of his interactive business, in terms of both technical ability and reach into other markets, such as advertising and feature filmmaking. Blueshirt has been handling a broad range of multimedia tasks, including 2-D and 3-D design and animation, digital video editing and compres-
sion, stand-alone interactive multimedia and consulting for such clients as Dell Computer Corp., Microsoft, nVidia Corp., Diamond Multimedia, TeraLogic and Kswiss.
Over the years, White has developed proprietary graphic and design tools for film directors that facilitate the creation of filmed content for multi-platform interactive use. Endtheory will provide clients with interactive interfacing for these various digital media platforms. The division will operate as an end-to-end service provider that can design, produce/shoot film, upload content to a server, and offer site maintenance. For those clients that already have some Web presence and/or media content, endtheory can provide additional components to an existing package.
"The company provides the latest in interactive technology for various devices," related White. "We specialize not just in digital media content, but in content that is interactive. What we do is give viewers the ability to respond to images in an immediate, emotional way."
White contended that "when you watch a commercial with our service, you can immediately click on an object and link to additional information or directly to the company’s e-commerce area and buy the product. And it’s not just a tool for e-commerce. People can pause a documentary while a speaker is talking, click directly over that person’s face, jump to a brief or extended biography of that person, and then click back to resume watching their program. The potential to clients is enormous, especially because of the increased marketing opportunity that interactive media presents. It’s the most entertaining and effective way to engage existing and new customers."
Lee Nelson, Orbit Entertainment co-CEO/executive producer, said, "Endtheory represents the next logical growth step for us." Arnie Messer, president/ COO of Phoenix Pictures, noted that "Phoenix is still producing films for movie theatres, but interactivity is the next platform for marketing pictures through ads and promos. When you look at enhanced DVD and the myriad other applications that call upon interactive technologies, you realize the potential for endtheory’s growth …"
Another dimension that endtheory brings to the deal is its strategic alliance with San Francisco-headquartered Veon, a firm involved in software development for broadband video technology. Veon has proprietary tools for broadband video streaming and for using video hyperlinks and auto-tracking to link content to e-commerce. Veon shares its latest technologies with endtheory for beta testing.
Additionally, White said he is currently talking to a high-profile 3-D chip manufacturer about utilizing proprietary hardware acceleration for media playback of content in immersive 3-D environments where viewers navigate a 3-D world on their desktops, whether in or out of a Web browser. Acceleration is the process by which 3-D images are downloaded and rendered.
White first entered the 2-D/ 3-D design and multimedia arena in 1994. The next year he received a Student Emmy in photography, editing and computer graphics for the documentary State of Discontent. White spent several years in the Bay Area doing multimedia and Web-related work before relocating to Seattle, where he founded Blueshirt in ’98.
Endtheory becomes Orbit Entertainment’s third division; the other two being the aforementioned Orbit Pictures and Orbit Productions. Orbit Pictures is currently in pre-pro on its first feature film produced through the deal with Phoenix. Tentatively titled Basic, the Sony Pictures release will be directed by Lee Tamahori and starts shooting in January 2001, with a budget of $30 million to $50 million. Soref, Nelson and Orbit Pictures VP Kevin Moreton will produce.
Orbit Productions’ lineup of directors repped for spots comprises Soref, Spottiswoode, Carroll Ballard, Agust Baldursson, Don Barnard and Danny Weisberg.
