LQID will be the platform of choice for this announcement:
DreamWorks, Imagine Form New Co.
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Filed at 12:17 a.m. EDT
By The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard and their big-screen associates are taking their talents to the computer screen with an online entertainment company to produce short videos for the Web.
The directors said Monday they are teaming up to form POP.com, which will broadcast live-action, animation and other short features over the Internet.
POP.com is a partnership between DreamWorks SKG, the studio founded by Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, and Imagine Entertainment, a production company started by Howard and producer Brian Grazer.
The effort is being financed by Vulcan Ventures Inc., the investment arm of billionaire Paul Allen, the Microsoft co-founder who owns a stake in DreamWorks.
Scheduled to debut next spring, POP.com's Web site will feature short video segments, including some live Internet broadcasts, mostly ranging from one to six minutes long. The material will focus heavily on comedy, though other genres will be included, the company said.
POP.com will solicit original programming from viewers, with the best of that material being aired on the Web site. Producers of the most popular outside submissions will be offered development contracts at DreamWorks and Imagine, the companies said.
``The Internet offers unlimited potential as a new entertainment arena,' Spielberg, whose movies include ``Saving Private Ryan' and ``Schindler's List,' said in a news release.
``Sounds like fun to me,' said Howard, whose films include ``Apollo 13' and ``Splash.'
``While much of what we have learned throughout our careers will apply, I am also certain that new and unusual aesthetic values will quickly evolve, shaped by the medium itself, the public and the creative collaborations which this company will encourage,' Howard said.
Amid the rush of new entertainment Web sites, the celebrity and financial power of its founders may help POP.com find an audience. The company still will have to deliver quality entertainment in a medium its founders do not have much experience in, said Mark Hardie, senior analyst for Forrester Research, an Internet research firm.
``Howard and Spielberg shoot incredibly well for the big screen, but the Web requires shooting with different cameras and they have to limit themselves to the limitations of the technology,' Hardie said. ``They've got to do the same hard work as the kids down the road with $20,000 in their pocket and a Sony camcorder. They still have to tell great stories.' |
