Site Aims to Be an 'Incubator' for Animation Talent.THE stampede stam·pede n. 1. A sudden frenzied rush of panic-stricken animals. 2. A sudden headlong rush or flight of a crowd of people. 3. of top Hollywood talent to the Internet in the last several weeks has been a jaw-dropping event, considering the wide berth most industry stars have given the Web. Tim Burton and the "South Park" creators signed deals with Shockwave.com to develop short cartoons. Robin Williams is producing a talk show for Audible.com. Larry David, co-creator of "Seinfeld," and top producers from "The Simpsons" and "The X-Files" have popped up in the halls of newly formed Icebox.com in Santa Monica Santa Monica (săn`tə mŏn`ĭkə), city (1990 pop. 86,905), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on Santa Monica Bay; inc. 1886. Tourism and retailing are important, and the city has motion-picture, biotechnology, and software industries. . As Internet entertainment enters the era of big personalities, countless wannabees who believed they could scrabble Scrabble Game in which two to four players compete in forming words with lettered wooden tiles on a 225-square board. Words spelled out by letters on the tiles interlock like words in a crossword puzzle. Words are scored by adding up the point values of their letters. their way to the top via cyberspace Coined by William Gibson in his 1984 novel "Neuromancer," it is a futuristic computer network that people use by plugging their minds into it! The term now refers to the Internet or to the online or digital world in general. See Internet and virtual reality. Contrast with meatspace. are seeing their chances start to fade. But Icebox.com doesn't want to see the industry evolve in that direction. Created by the former head of the new-technology division at Beverly Hills Beverly Hills, city (1990 pop. 31,971), Los Angeles co., S Calif., completely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles; inc. 1914. The largely residential city is home to many motion-picture and television personalities. talent agency International Creative Management along with some leading television producers, Icebox.com has a business plan designed to discover and nurture new talent, in addition to working with established stars. "Our mandate is to go out, find, and work with best talent out there," said Chief Executive Steve Stanford. "We want to work with both the Who's Who Who’s Who biographical dictionary of notable living people. [Am. Hist.: Hart, 922] See : Fame in the industry and the guy who turns out to be the next Mike Judge still working out of a garage." Launching next month, Icebox is developing eight new animated shows from some of the industry's most innovative, established talents to be aired in ultra-short (two- to five-minute) episodes. Given the success of animated shorts crossing into the mainstream -- such as "The Simpsons," which started out as short segments on "The Tracy Ullman Show" -- the Icebox team wants to foster new properties that are more creative for having been developed outside of the traditional Hollywood box. Icebox wants to lure visitors primarily through the work of the industry greats, then direct traffic to the animated shorts by unknown artists. Stanford describes the space for unknowns as a "free for all," with audience reaction the sole arbiter of success. "The opportunity to discover new talent is immense," Stanford said. "We're very much an incubator incubator, apparatus for the maintenance of controlled conditions in which eggs can be hatched artificially. Incubator houses with double walls of mud, a fireroom, and several compartments each holding about 6,000 hens' eggs were developed in ancient times; the for talent, which doesn't happen much in this town." |
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