Short Films To Premiere On Warner Bros. Online Entertaindom

Warner Bros. has launched a program to screen short films on its Web site (warnerbros.com). Six award-winning short films made by New York University students in the Tisch School of the Arts are making their debut this week on the site. Users can watch the films, and through the click of an icon they can communicate with the filmmakers and other viewers in chat rooms, on message boards and with e-mail. The Webcasts tie into the screenings of the six films at the Directors Guild Theatre in Los Angeles and are designed to showcase short-form filmed entertainment and help budding filmmakers seek out a wider audience.""A real asset is the sense of community that we have only on the Internet,"" says Jim Moloshok, President of Warner Bros. Online. ""If you look at television, the only element of community you have is a laugh track. Weíre able to add chat rooms and message boards and home page communities, which really allows us to create a whole new dimension.""We can give them their first break,í says Moloshok referring to young filmmakers, ""and send them on their way to me first stage of their careers and possibly develop a relationship with them.""This new venture signals the first move by Warner Bros. Online to use the Web as another distribution channel. But so far the studio has announced no plans to Webcast full-length feature films. Moloshok says, ""technology must improve to avoid network congestion and other transmission obstacles."" Other issues yet to be resolved are whether to distribute movies for free or on a pay-per-view basis.The Webcasts are the first wave generated by Entertaindom, the entertainment portal site that Warner Bros. Online is set to unveil this summer. Warners is launching Entertaindom as a Web site thatís ""all things entertainment,"" and will feature co-branding partnerships with computer companies, Internet service providers and other distribution entities that use Entertaindom as their entertainment channel.Among the students whose films will be featured on this weekís Webcasts in concurrently with the screenings at the DGA Theatre are a 1999 Student Academy Award winner and a 1999 Sundance Film Festival winner.""These students are talented, yet they donít have the opportunity for a bigger venue,"" says Moloshok. ""The Internet represents a great future distribution channel for entertainment, as we can now present these films to a worldwide audience.""Moloshok concluded saying, ""Right now the Internet is a vehicle for entertainment that requires a short attention span. Plus I think you are greatly undervaluing the Internet if itís only used as another distribution channel.""