Film Color Giant Now Seeks Image As Tech Pioneer

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It may seem out of character for a Hollywood fixture, but Technicolor next month will launch a social network.

The network, called Creative District, is based in Burbank and aims to help filmmakers find crew members.

Technicolor, known since “The Wizard of Oz” for color processing film, has watched that core business fade as the industry transitioned to digital filmmaking. However, the company has been broadening its spectrum by financing and incubating tech startups in Los Angeles.

Next month, the company, which has its North American headquarters in Hollywood, will launch a Burbank-based social network for independent filmmakers. The idea is to facilitate gigs for creative people who often rely on their personal connections or scan social networks and classified sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Craigslist to find work.

It’s one of many recent tech launches from Technicolor. Other efforts include an Internet-connected TV set-top box, which has made inroads in Europe and Asia, according to the company. Last year, it launched an Instagram-competitor app, Ultravisual, along with movie download service M-Go in a joint venture with Glendale animation studio DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.

“We can’t sit on our backsides and wait for things to happen,” said Vince Pizzica, senior vice president of partnerships and ventures at Technicolor. “The venture business is evolving, so we want to tap into that change and participate.”

Seeking collaborators

Micki Krimmel, general manager of Creative District, said the service is different from Facebook and the other sites since it is focused only on staffing movie projects, and will be full of prospective collaborators.

“It’s all well and good to use Facebook, but you’re limited to your social network,” she said. “The defining feature for (Creative District) is that when you add your project, you’re inviting people to join the network. You say, ‘These are the great people working for me.’”

The Creative District site has been quietly under development by seven employees at Technicolor’s Burbank office. Last month, the startup sent people to the Sundance Film Festival to begin spreading the word. Krimmel said the site has signed up about 1,000 members so far.

The site currently showcases a handful of in-development projects. Posted on the pages are trailers and help-wanted notices from filmmakers, advertising their need for a trailer editor, for example, or a digital colorist.

Creative District officially will launch next month, when people will be able to build their profiles and check out others, Krimmel said.

The site is targeted to independent filmmakers working with microbudgets. The goal is to become another link in the low-cost, do-it-yourself chain that indie films can take, from financing on Kickstarter to self-distribution on YouTube. Eventually, it could even expand to use by studios.

But there’s no guarantee of longevity for Creative District. As Technicolor builds its portfolio of startups, the company has already proved it’s willing to let unviable ideas fall by the wayside.

Last year, the company shut down Color Assist, a startup it launched in 2012 that made and sold color grading software, which is used in postproduction to adjust colors, after it didn’t get the following Technicolor had expected.

“We weren’t seeing the market traction with Color Assist,” said Al Guerrero, senior vice president of business strategy and operations at Technicolor’s digital productions division in Burbank. “We’re really trying to make a dent in this digital world.”

Processing remake

Technicolor has been working to remake itself for a number of years. The company was a major processor of 35 mm film reels for the studios, but that L.A.-centered business has faded toward extinction as movie distributors and theaters go digital.

Technicolor remains a huge servicer of the local film industry, providing postproduction services such as visual effects, and sound and color editing. But about five years ago, the company began looking for ways to innovate further.

Some new lines of business, such as building set-top boxes, are cost-intensive. But Pizzica noted that Creative District is an example of a far leaner operation that doesn’t require huge amounts of capital.

Technicolor, based in Paris, has global operations. It employs about 1,750 in the L.A. area. In 2012, the company had revenue equivalent to $4.8 billion but lost $30 million.

It’s unclear whether Creative District will ever be much of a money-maker for Technicolor. At the outset, the service will not charge users, though a premium model could generate revenue in the future. Krimmel said another option is to create a job listings board, where studios would pay to list openings.

For now, popularizing the service is the first priority. To help with that, Creative District launched a grant program that doles out $5,000 to one filmmaker a month who applies through the site.

Arin Crumley, a New York-based director known as a pioneer of self-distributing full-length feature films through YouTube, was an early recipient of the grant. He said the money was important, since he has for years been funding much of his currently untitled project out of his own pocket and a $4,000 crowdfunding campaign.

He also used Creative District to find a collaborator – a colorist who is working for experience only, no pay – through the site.

“I’ve always felt a lack, in the work that I do, for tools that help that happen,” Crumley said. “I can only email so many people.”

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