Creative @ the Speed of Light.

Web heavies weigh in on TV production distribution

With all the current buzz surrounding viewer divergence and the "brain drain" from television to new media, one small company (nine employees strong) is swimming upstream. Founders Scott Zakarin and Rich Tackenberg have rounded up production talent Peter Jaysen and distributing veteran Ted Chalmers to beat a different path. "The difference is, we're bringing the dot com with us [ldots] We definitely do not watch TV or movies, or sell movies, the same way we ever would had we not done what we did online for years," Tackenberg enunciated. Together, the gang of four have created a family-oriented, producer-friendly and creative-savvy company.

Zakarin and Tackenberg are old hands at producing I-ntertainment, having worked together on various Internet ventures for the past five-and-a-half-years. Although both are New York natives who attended Binghamton University (at different times), the two met in L.A. They reamed up on the creation of the The Spot, the 1995 Webby-winner (the Internet's version of the Oscar), and also toiled together on AOL's foray into web entertainment -- Entertainment Asylum -- along with the former head of Production at NBC, the late Brandon Tartikoff.

Zakarin insisted there is little difference in originating entertainment for the two mediums (television and the Internet): "It's all creating a relationship with your audience. When you're in the TV or film industry, you're trying to cement that relationship but you have to wait a long time to find our what the audience wants before you can respond. But doing it online, you have a day-today relationship. What we're trying to do now is apply that to traditional mediums." Tackenberg added, "It's funny because a lot of entertainment companies are traditionally closed up. They do market research, but that's nor the same thing. This isn't market research, this is market involvement."

Visiting either of the team's websites, www.crlight.com or www.creative lightworldwide.com, brings to life the cohesion "Zack and Tack" have with their community. They post daily messages, nor only keeping one another apprised as to the action percolating in the entertainment field, but also of one another's lives. Last month, Zakarin posted a description of his son Caleb's first movie experience (Zakarin and his wife, Debra, treated him to Stuart Little). Although Tackenberg quipped, "You know Scott doesn't really have a son -- that was all a publicity stunt, cruising through Creative's site belies its intimate web community.

Creative Light's twin company, Creative Light Worldwide, promises indie producers access to the major television conventions and markets. Worldwide officially debuted at MIPCOM last year. "The plan has been to establish the brand [and] I think we've done a pretty good job establishing that by attending the markets so far," Chalmers, head of Distribution, commented. Currently, Creative is enjoying most of their distribution success in Europe, both East and West, followed by Japan and the Asian territories.

The newly branded production house kicked off its distribution arm last year on April Fools' Day, although its acquisition pace has been no joke. "We have to date 23 films and projects," noted Chalmers. "One of those is a TV special, but the rest are all feature films." Most of those films were acquired outside of Creative Light; however, it includes Cinderella's Daughter, the production company's first in-house family telefilm starring Shirley Jones and Joe Landau. The distribution startup has plans for an additional 10-15 acquisitions per year.

Distributing films internationally is nor the only function Worldwide serves. Chalmers pointed out: "We have a domestic arm that is debuting its own video label in May with Sammyville and theatrically we are putting out The HiLine, which stars Rachel Leigh Cook [She's All That]." Creative's new movie has already secured honors at the Sundance Film Festival and the Austin Film Festival.

Creative is also heavily negotiating Internet rights. "It's more and more becoming an issue to the producers," explained Chalmers. Although he added, "We are nor in the business of selling Internet rights at this point. The Internet will become a form of delivery for feature films and television so we have to control those [rights], but the technology is just not there right now to do anything with it." But don't think that means Creative is standing pat concerning its Internet presence. With all the web experience currently in-house, Creative plans to push the outside of the envelope regarding Net opportunities.

One such opportunity may be in showcasing Creative's catalog online, making film synopses and trailers readily available to potential buyers. As for selling directly over the Internet, Chalmers cautioned, "I don't think anything is going to replace the face-to-face [negotiations] -- all that has to be done in some kind of real-time situation. Besides, people like to know who they're dealing with."

Worldwide's website posts free advice for potential filmmakers, such as: "The quickest way to generate income on a film is to take the project to a foreign sales market like AFM and Cannes;" "When making artistic decisions, keep in mind that black-and-white movies do not sell overseas;" and "A U.S. theatrical release will make it next to impossible to make a French television deal due to their quota system."

Current projects at Creative include the sitcom pilot, Rewired, which Tackenberg is writing for NBC's consideration, and at NATPE the team unrolled plans for a compilation of Sid Caesar's live-broadcast-and-neverbefore-rerun Your Show of Shows (1950-1954) and Caesar's Hour (1954-1959). The video and DVD rollour will include full episodes as well as interviews with some of the period's ace comic writers.

Creative highlights its vertical integration, from its businessman perspective, and its close-knit independent culture, from the outlook of not only the nine who work there but also their numerous clients. The Creative team each lunch together daily, a ritual to which they frequently invite others (both Stan Lee of Marvel Comics and Sid Caesar have broken bread with them). "We do it because we all love each other and we sir around and make fun of each other. That's the creative atmosphere that's been fostered," Zakarin said.

The tight-knit Creative Light group consider themselves on the forefront of entertainment, combining elements of the new and soon-to-be-old mediums. "We want to reinvent entertainment, that's sort of our mantra," claimed Tackenberg. "On the other hand, if you know somebody who wants their bar mitzvah videoed, we can do that too."