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 ­ 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" ­ 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."