STUDIOS CASTING VIDEO RELEASES AS WEB SITE STARS

DALE BUSS

Movie studios have been trumpeting major theatrical releases with web sites for some time, but now they are devoting considerable resources to web pages created to promote video releases.

Consumers, they say, are paying attention. "It definitely helps rentals," said Max Goldberg, vice president of promotions for Buena Vista Home Video, Burbank, Calif.

The range of activities stemming from video promotion on the Web is remarkable. For example, http://www.paramount.com, the web site of Paramount Home Video, Hollywood, has a feature that is linked to accounts including supermarket rental departments and video stores. Consumers can punch in their ZIP codes and the name of the selection they're searching for, and appearing on the screen will be the name and location of a store near them that carries the video, said Paramount spokeswoman Doritt Ragosine.

Paramount's "Mission Impossible" web site featured a game when the movie was released to theaters. When Paramount made the film available for rental, it changed the game on the Web. "Sometimes web sites are updated and we add something fresh and new for home-video release," Ragosine said.

The Disney Home Video web site contains information about when individual movie titles will become available to rent or buy "so [consumers] can complete their home-video collections," Goldberg said. "Consumers also can see synopses, download clips of the film, and find out about any special offers that may be available."

When Buena Vista released "Aladdin: King of Thieves" directly to home video last year, for example, the accompanying web site allowed people to download clips of the film and sound bites featuring actor Robin Williams as the Genie. It also featured interactive games with the Aladdin theme.

Buena Vista also is planning to create similar web sites for "Sleeping Beauty" and "Jungle Book" when those features are re-released on home video in the fourth quarter.

"A lot of families are accessing the Web," said Marcel Abraham, a Buena Vista spokesman. "It's really important to do things on the web site that kids and families can enjoy."

Studios also are using these sites to advertise in-store promotions. Universal Studios Home Video, Universal City, Calif., for example, recently released a collection of baseball-themed movie titles. Consumers could enter their names in a drawing to win an opportunity to attend spring training in Florida and tickets for the World Series, said Maria LaMagra, a Universal spokeswoman. A web site promoted the contest and provided background on the movies themselves.

Generally, the studios differentiate their efforts internally between theatrical-release web sites and video-release sites. Theatrical-release sites, explained Buena Vista's Goldberg, often are more elaborate, aimed at generating an effect on the popular culture at large and introducing the movie's plot and characters.

But the studios say the specific attention to video releases is paying off in thousands of hits a day on the sites. Some web site creators aren't surprised.

"I think these sites help attract kids, in part because they love to use the games," said Allison Berke, president of Bworks.com, a full-service web site design company in Great Neck, N.Y. But she added that the games and clips won't necessarily attract adults.

"The most important thing a movie site can offer is a basic review," Berke explained. "That's a big deal, as opposed to looking at film clips."

Haim Ariav, president and founder of Muffin-Head Productions, a New York-based multimedia production company, believes that the effectiveness of all movie-related web sites is still handicapped by technological limitations.

"I still don't see people going to the Web to preview a movie," he said. "They may be disappointed because it takes a long time to download the files and information."

The studios themselves say they aren't writing off traditional advertising of theatrical or video releases in favor of the Web anytime soon. "The Web is not replacing advertising or in-store promos," said Abraham, the Buena Vista spokesman. "It's just an added tool."

Said Paramount's Ragosine: "There is still a large enough portion of the population that isn't computer-savvy. People still have to go to the grocery store to buy groceries. You can't have virtual groceries -- you still need substance."