Exploring latest films on the Net

Look at the bottom of every movie ad or wait to catch a briefflash of letters at the end of a movie TV commercial. You'll see it:the unmistakable alphabet soup of an Internet address.

World Wide Web sites have become the trendiest marketing toolsfor Hollywood studios. Devised as splashy play areas, the Web sitesgive background information about movies, offer behind-the-scenesphotos, detail the cast and crew and even provide previews.

The Hollywood Web sites are so inventive that they have becomesome of the most popular places to visit on the Internet.Just before the opening of "Space Jam," the Web site (http:; ;www.spacejam.com) for this Warner Bros. film was flooded with Netsurfers trying to play the online games and view pictures of MichaelJordan. The "Star Trek: First Contact" site (http:; ;www.firstcontact.com) went up on the Web during the summer, buildinga huge audience of Trekkers who played Trek role-playing games andcounted down to the November opening of the film.The "101 Dalmatians" Web site (http:; ; www.disney.com; 101; )with cute little puppy pictures for kids, boasts 1 million "hits"(accesses from other computers) a day - a phenomenal number for anyInternet site.No one knows whether the Web sites actually bring audiences tothe movies or if they just entertain those who'd be seeing the moviesanyway. But anecdotal evidence shows that movie Web pages bring thekind of word-of-mouth publicity that traditional advertising can'tbuy."I see (Web pages) as having a direct one-on-one relationshipwith the consumer," said Brett Dicker, senior vice president ofpromotions for Walt Disney Pictures. "We get a lot of e-mail, andwith (traditional) mass marketing you don't get to respond."At "101 Dalmatians," Disney's big Web site of the moment, e-mailis tumbling in. The response has proved that many Web sites can befamily spots, where mom or dad plop junior on their lap to watch theantics of Cruella De Vil and the frisky spotted puppies.Movie Web sites also are important for serious film fans; manyof whom log onto the sites months before a film opens."The movie sites allow us to tell a longer story than we can (onthe screen)," said Don Buckley, vice president for advertising andpublicity at Warner Bros. Pictures. By telling the background storyfor the movie, which is often cut from the finished projects, theWeb site fills fans in on the histories of certain characters andevents that took place before the time frame of the actual script.Cinema lovers can keep tabs on the director and crew and readbiographies of the cast members. In the case of "First Contact,"earnest Trekkers (legendary for their ability to memorize minutia)could be debriefed on specifics of the November battle with the evilBorg race.The new "Evita" Web site (http:www.evita-themovie.com) not onlytells the story of the new Madonna movie, but describes the truestory of Argentina's Eva Peron. There are photos and a biography ofPeron online as well as links to other home pages about her andAgentina.Giving away details about the films never seems to deter truefans. In other words, they don't mind knowing how the movie willend.Filmmakers like the Web sites, too. Joel Shumacher, whodirected "Batman Forever," worked closely with Warner Bros. Web sitedevelopers on the "Batman Forever" home page and is lendingsuggestions for the "Batman and Robin" site. The Web site allowsmany directors and creative staffers a chance to add finishingtouches on their artistic endeavors.The first movie Web site was for "Stargate." Perfectly tailoredfor the Internet audience in October of 1994, the site was aimed at alargely male, young, science fiction-oriented crowd. The site, whichis still up at the MGM-UA site (http:; ; www.mgmua.com; STARGATE),proved that the Net and Hollywood could strike up a mutuallybeneficial relationship.At first, only the splashy, special-effects-laden filmswarranted Web sites. "Independence Day" (http:; ; www.id4.com) was aNet natural, and the site, filled with games and RealAudio"broadcasts," was a runaway hit with kids.Now, however, simple dramas like "The Preacher's Wife" aregetting Web sites of their own. Sometimes sleepy little home pages -such as the one for "Leaving Las Vegas" - are jolted by an influx oftraffic after the film wins an Academy Award.These days, Web sites are developed for just about any film, andWeb developers work hard to make them as unique as possible.Warner Bros. put together its "Mars Attacks" site (http:; ;www.marsattacks.com) with an old-fashioned "War of the Worlds" look."The movie is a campy spoof of sci-fi movies of the 1950s and'60s, sort of the devil twin of `ID4' (`Independence Day')," Buckleysaid. "I wanted to use RealAudio (sound) technology to (mimic) anold movie play. It was really hard to find someone with thatold-time New York accent, but we wrote the radio play, wrote theparts, cast actors and loaded it up on the Web."The radio play is presented in streaming RealAudio, which meansthat Net heads won't have to wait for long downloads of audio files.The "Mars Attacks" site is divided into four areas: New YorkCity; Washington, D.C.; Las Vegas, and Perkinsville, Kan. (afictional town). In each area users can discover cast notes, photos,storyboards, art and photos.At each locale is a Shockwave game, which providesup-to-the-minute animation for game aficionados. In New York, thereis an alien shooting gallery, sci-fi slot machines in Las Vegas, andso on.The future looks particularly bright for Hollywood Webdevelopers, who want to incorporate as much of the theater experienceas they can onto tiny computer screens. That's because they arelooking to the time when everyone surfs the Net at home via Web TV."Right now, its a one-on-one relationship on the World WideWeb," said Dicker at Disney. "With Web TV it will get families doingthings together as opposed to individuals."Getting people to voluntarily tune in Web sites, which areessentially highly produced commercials, is the ultimate aim ofmarketers. Web TV will allow Hollywood advertisers a chance to getto a big market that's eager for their message.In the future, Web site producers hope to use more streamingvideo technology (such as VDO, which was used extensively forpolitical convention coverage last summer).Still, there a drawbacks. Not everyone has a snazzy newcomputer that can handle streaming audio, video and Shockwavetechnology. Some folks are still limping about the Internet with14.4-baud modems.Others don't have the high-resolution screens necessary to producethe detailed graphics that Web sites specialize in."We try not to make the sizes (of files) too big, and we useShockwave sparingly," said Buckley. "We try to stay between theleast common denominator and pushing the edge of the software."