Metro Pulse/Movie Guru/Online films

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Can online films bring about a new age of cinema? Well...

by Coury Turczyn

What if there were no shallow, greedy, cocaine-snorting studio executives controlling Hollywood? What if there were no constraints on creative expression, no need to bow to the almighty box office numbers? What if any schmoe who knows how to put together a movie could get it released?

Why, what a paradise that would be. No longer would we have to suffer Hollywood's insulting spew of Tom Green comedies, Warren Beatty vanity projects, and Merchant/ Ivory adaptations of Henry James novels. Instead, we would have unlimited cinematic choices. Film geniuses who previously would've withered in obscurity, ignored by profit-hungry corporations, would now blossom, bringing bold new visions to the screen. And we, the people, would support these brave artists with our praise and admiration. Those pathetic studio execs and their sad little focus groups would fall away before a new era of cinematic enlightenment and unparalleled creative expression. Glory be!

Well, here we are, living in just such a utopia—and things really don't seem all that different. But the fact remains that the Internet has actually delivered on one of its multitudinous promises, albeit still primitively: delivery of all sorts of movies direct to your computer. Multimedia software and ISP-connection technology has advanced to the point where watching movies on your desktop is somewhat tolerable. But the real advance is in what's being shown; while there are some websites (such as movieflix.com) that will pipe old Bruce Lee flicks to your monitor, others are specializing in movies you can't rent at your local video store. Yes, the dream has become reality: Every schmoe who's ever made a movie in his backyard has put it online for your personal viewing. Any filmmaker can now have an audience.

Have we really attained a new democratic ideal in filmmaking and film watching? Yes we have...though nothing shown online will ever put an end to Sylvester Stallone comeback attempts at movie theaters. While there is indeed an infinite variety of films available online, there's also a great tide of crap to swim through before finding true gems. Here are a few surfing tips.

The first bona fide "breakthrough" online film is probably George Lucas in Love, created by USC film school grads Joe Nussbaum and Joseph Levy. Viewable at mediatrip.com, the short film portrays a young George Lucas encountering people who eerily foreshadow certain characters in a yet-to-be-written sci-fi saga. Using the very same wipes and fades employed by the real Mr. Lucas in Star Wars, Nussbaum and Levy provide an entertaining goof for the geek faithful (one so popular that it's been released on DVD).

Speaking of which, said geeks have been working around the clock devising their own Star Wars sequels...and sometimes one-upping the alpha geek himself with short films that are more interesting than the unfortunate Phantom Menace. Foremost among them is Duality (at theforce.net), shot by Mark Thomas and Dave Macomber entirely against a bluescreen—using no sets or locations. The plot does away with all those distracting Gungan sidekicks and boils down the Star Wars experience to its very essence: cool spaceships and light saber battles. George should take note.

One of the benefits of living in a digital age is that just about anyone can achieve such technical prowess on their own home computers, whereas special effects were once a shadowy vocation of a secret brotherhood. Another good example of this is 405 (at ifilm.com), which shows a DC-10 jet making an unscheduled landing on Los Angeles' 405 freeway, where it encounters a grandma doing 40 mph. Although creators Bruce Branit and Jeremy Hunt are visual effects professionals, they made 405 in their spare time on consumer equipment. And it looks damn good.

Another benefit of the digital age is being able to see newly famous actors struggle in their early parts. How about Will & Grace's flamboyantly gay Sean Hayes playing a very straight grocery checker with a New England accent who lusts for Amy Smart in A&P? Or Survivor 2's evil Jerri in an 83-minute epic about porn enticingly titled Triple-X? Just think: Before the Internet, there was little chance you'd ever be able to see either of these works. And now you can for free, at ifilm.com. And they're not bad, either.

Of course, this freewheeling world of creative expression couldn't go on for long without being tainted by rapacious corporate entities. While some have already gone down with the dot.com ship (most famously, the movie website pop.com, backed with great hype by Imagine Entertainment, DreamWorks Pictures, and Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures), others... dammit... have created some interesting stuff. Top billing goes to BMW's bmwfilms.com, which has gathered the hippest of hip filmmakers to shoot cool chase scenes. Executive produced by David "Fight Club" Fincher, The Hire is a film series starring Croupier's dashing Clive Owen as "The Driver," a fellow who must deliver his clients past lots of machine gun fire in various BMW vehicles. Blatant advertising, eh? Well, if it only weren't for the fact that Ang Lee, John Frankenheimer, Wong Kar-Wai, Guy Ritchie, and Alejandro González Iñárritu are directing the shorts. Art and commerce have been fused again, just the way Hollywood likes it. Sigh.

This has been really only a scant peek at the online movie world; for a longer look, log on to Internet-movie websites like ifilm.com, atomfilms.com, afifilm.com, bijoucafe.com, mediatrip.com, etc. Most of these online movies may only be of interest to film buffs and alternative weekly film critics, but by getting some global attention, they may someday allow the filmmakers to bring their ideas to brick-and-mortar movie theaters. And that would qualify as a genuine cyber revolution.

(A few pointers for watching online movies... First step: Get DSL or a cable modem, because a standard dial-up connection will only result in movie-viewing misery. Second step: Install Quicktime, Windows Media Player, and Realplayer software. Third step: Buy a magnifying glass, because the "movie screen" will still only be about 2 inches wide.)