Monday, March 31, 1997
WEB SITE:
Hollywood Stock Exchange opens up production to usersBy Vanessa
VanderZanden
Daily Bruin Contributor
Every year, thousands of film scripts float across the desks of
Hollywood bigwigs. These company moguls often eschew creativity,
producing instead poorly conceived sequels and re-creations of
tacky foreign flicks in an attempt to turn a profit. But now,
through the help of the Internet, moviegoers around the world can
make a stand for quality.
"The concept is to democratize the filmmaking process," explains
producer Leanna Creel of the Hollywood Stock Exchange, a new
interactive Web site. "Why should it just be the studio executives
who get to decide what movies we watch? How do they know what we
want to see? And they think that we have no say, and we’re
ultimately the ones that pay to see movies anyway."
Operating with this mind set, the Hollywood Stock Exchange Web
site plans to provide a forum for people across the world to invest
in upcoming movies of their choice. By reviewing synopses of
possible scripts over the Internet, everyone from 12-year-old boys
in Nebraska to grandmothers in Spain can help decide on upcoming
film projects. By investing even as little as $50 in the movie,
these financial backers can follow a film’s progress from
production to postproduction, voting on issues as well-informed
shareholders through the keypads of their bedroom PC.
"Right now, just going to a movie or renting the video is
entertainment," Creel says. "We’re backing that up so that
production and postproduction are all part of the entertainment. So
for $50, you get a year’s worth of entertainment, tracking all of
the events behind the scenes."
All too familiar with the stage side of Hollywood, Creel Â
who once donned the role of Tori in television’s "Saved By the
Bell" and starred with her two identical triplet sisters in "Parent
Trap Three" Â is excited by her position in the producer’s
chair.
Having just completed her formal education last spring as a
graduate from the UCLA film school’s independent production
program, she hopes to infuse others with her energy for
movie-making.
"Eventually, I envision chat rooms where a star like Nick Cage,
who maybe isn’t getting a shot from studios because maybe he wants
to do something edgy and dark, could tell players his ideas,
letting them ask him questions before they decide whether or not to
invest," Creel suggests. "So it’s a way of having access to
filmmakers."
Hoping to become known as a friend to independent film projects,
the Hollywood Stock Exchange may eventually be made available to
outside producers, directors and actors as an instrumental tool.
However, this service would have to cost more since, in the end,
the entire industry operates around money. Yet, the site would cut
on overhead and distribution costs that big studios are apt to
charge.
"Everyone has a great script and a great project but you need
money, and it’s getting harder and harder to compete with the big
guys," Creel says. "But we’re creating a way to market our product
and create the money, even if it’s just the extra money which helps
to borrow the rest from the bank. We’ll be able to give young
filmmakers a chance to have a shot at it."
Soon, the site may even incorporate the production of television
shows and books into its program. Anything seems possible within
this playpen of financial fund-raising. Hoping to appeal to
investors’ sense of monetary excitement, HSX president and CEO Max
Keiser, plans to bridge the gap between audience member and film
backer.
"Entertainment has always been thrust upon you," Keiser says.
"Now it’s completely ethereal. It has a value, but you’re trading
on what you think it’s going to be worth, and you’re getting
entertained, even if the movie is never released. People don’t
usually think of finances as being entertaining."
However, having spent eight successful years trading stocks on
Wall Street, Keiser has always found fun in economic gambling. When
he and associate Michael Burns, now the company’s chairman, moved
out to Hollywood, they failed to see the same zest involved in
amassing money for films.
They put their creative minds together and designed the
framework for the computer game side of the HSX.
"It’s a free game where players trade movies and their stars
like they’re stocks and bonds on a fictitious exchange," Creel
explains. "When you sign up, you get $2 million of Hollywood Stock
Exchange money. You can buy stock for movies soon to come out or
others already in theaters. The prices of the movies are ultimately
what the worldwide box office grosses."
Operating like the New York Stock Exchange, players can chart
their progress multiple times throughout the course of a day.
Prizes are given to the "wealthiest" participant at the end of
each quarter and other set time periods, with winnings ranging from
a week- long trip to Antigua at the swanky St. James Club to film
scripts and hats. This on-running game incorporates cartoon
characters and insider film information to hook its 20,000 players
from 30 countries.
"All of the assistants at all of the agencies and studios play
it constantly," Creel claims. "But, we had a contest a while back
where a housewife in Vermont won. So, basically, anybody can pick
the hits as well as the big studio moguls."
One such hit that HSX has been counting on is the film "Atomic
Highway." This Jason London movie about 20-somethings in Los
Angeles is the company’s first major project.
Hoping to test the waters of the film production side to the
computer game, Keiser and crew have used HSX as a clever marketing
tool.
"You can buy and sell ‘Atomic Highway’ in the computer game
portion, and then you can link to the ‘Atomic Highway’ Web page,"
explains Creel. "We’ll put on behind-the-scenes footage and we’ll
update press and players on what’s happening with the film. So it’s
a way of people being plugged into a film company."
"In this way," adds Keiser, "the Internet is a place for ideas
to take shape without going through a political Cuisinart."