Online registration snares filmmakers, festivals. (Media & Technology).

New York filmmaker John Daschbach had hoped to get his digital short accepted at this year's Sundance Film Festival. He didn't make the cut.

But Daschbach, who applied to Sundance via an online service created by Los Angeles startup Without a Box Inc., did succeed in getting his film screened at the 2002 Digidance Digital Film Festival, which he hadn't even heard of before logging onto Without a Box's Web site.

"It's a great tool for filmmakers," said Daschbach. "In a way, I kind of have a love-hate relationship with (Without a Box). It's making it much easier for me to apply to festivals, but it's also making it much easier for the competition."

That lament is music to the ears of the eight founders of Without a Box, which last September launched an online festival registration service -- withoutabox.com. Since then, the company has signed up about 10 percent of the estimated 1,200 annual film festivals being staged worldwide, including Sundance, the recently completed Los Angeles Film Festival and the American Film Institute's AFI Fest 2002, slated for this fall.

While rapidly gaining acceptance among festivals and filmmakers, and attracting 10,000 subscribers, the site now shifts to a pay-service model.

Since initiating fees on April 9, Without a Box has managed to convert 1,500 subscribers. "It's a huge challenge," acknowledged David Straus, the company's chief executive, who has been working the phones to persuade subscribers to stick with the service.

Festivals pay Without a Box around $2,500 per year, depending on size and the number of submissions anticipated. The fees are expected to rise this summer when the service is upgraded to include photos, biographies and other information. Film clips are planned within a year, and ultimately the goal is to include entire films that would eliminate the need to submit videotapes to festivals.

Filmmakers pay an annual fee of $79 and fill out a single form that can be used for as many festivals as they wish. Additional films add $15 each to the annual cost. The site includes a search tool that enables filmmakers to find out what festivals they qualify for and where they have the best chance of getting a showing.

The Los Angeles Film Festival used Without a Box this year and saw submissions increase by 25 percent, to roughly 2,500. About half of the applications were done electronically.

"In the past we've had to manually enter every submission into our database. This way were able to upload the information quickly and conveniently," said Richard Raddon, the festival's director. "We pay them a small fee, but it actually saves me money."

Company officials would not say what the venture's initial funding was, but Joseph Konowiecki, an Orange County lawyer who is one of its angel investors, said Without a Box is committed to slow growth.

"We've been very frugal about the burning to make sure they have the right business model," Konowiecki said.

The company would not disclose revenues, but with 120 festival subscribers and 1,500 paying filmmakers, its current fee structure would generate around $400,000 annually.

Claiming no competitors in their space, Straus said Without a Box is on pace to become profitable later this year. Still, with a growth push planned, any profits will be reinvested into the company, he said. The company is also looking for additional investment.

Straus said the company's future lies in becoming the world's largest electronic repository of information about independent film. Under that model, Without a Box would operate as a middleman between the filmmakers and theatrical, television and Internet distributors. The first product, the festival registration system, is the revenue vehicle to fund the growth to make that possible, he said.