Names veteran video designer Harry Marks creative director

When the American Film Institute-Apple Computer Center for Film and Videomakers first opened its doors last May, few thought that it would have such an impact. But because the level of change and upheaval in the film and video world is as great as, or greaterthan what we have already experienced in publishing, an organization dedicated to teaching the new tools and new technologies to the entertainment industry, based in Hollywood, and considered “the nation’s trust for the art of the movie,” would naturally be a big success.

Its high-profile position in the movie industry has also created a lot of interest from outside southern California. In order to express effectively its goal of marrying Silicon Valley to Hollywood, AFI signed Harry Marks as its creative director. He will be creating demonstrations and presentations about the center, as well as interactive products with the digital tools.

Initial funding for the Center came in the form of a $1 million equipment donation from Apple Computer, followed by hardware and software donations from 93 companies valued at more than $950,000 in hardware alone, according to Nick DeMartino, director of the Center.

Twice the space — and central air. The Computer Center has already doubled the amount of space originally allocated by AFI in order to handle not only the equipment, but also the number of classes that are offered, many of them “hands-on.” With all those processors churning all day long, AFI has also had to allocate funding to install a central air conditioning system.

This coming semester, the AFI-Apple Computer Center will offer more than 70 classes geared toward video and film industry professionals, including special weekly “salons” designed to keep pace with the alarmingly dramatic advances in the digital media arena.

Classes are taught by experienced film directors, editors, musicians, writers, animators and multimedia producers, as well as product and company representatives. The AFI classroom is often the first place to see new products or test new “beta” software and hardware.

“People in Hollywood, who might not have any reason to think about computers, all of a sudden felt the ground shake beneath them, and realized that [QuickTime] was not just a cute way to make little movies but the real integration of digital technology with movie making,” says DeMartino. “The train has left the station, folks, and if you didn’t get a ticket you’re going to be in trouble.”

A mutually beneficial relationship. Philanthropy aside, the sponsoring companies were able to reach a market that until recently has been largely untouched by computer and multimedia technology. This quickly became a mutually beneficial relationship.

The close relationship between the vendors and the AFI creative community has already paid off for at least one company. Virtus Corporation representatives showed a group of Hollywood set designers its flagship Virtus WalkThrough product, which allows the user to create and then navigate through a three-dimensional structure. The designers were so enthralled, and had so many ideas about how to apply WalkThrough to their business, that the Virtus folks incorporated their suggestions into a new product designed specifically for theatrical set design. In addition, David Smith, founder and chairman of Virtus, will teach a class this semester at the Center.

An eye to the future. Many of the Digital Media constituency have visited AFI with an eye to the future of entertainment. Baby Bells, cable companies, information providers and publishers have all come looking for the answer to that elusive question: What is the new product that will drive consumers to spend money on new technology? The Center needed someone with a creative vision to demonstrate effectively not only the new technologies, but the ramifications of the technology. The center turned to Marks, a 26-year veteran of network television design, who has created countless corporate logos and on-air promotion and identification pieces.

Marks’s charter is to create the “public face” for the Center. To this end, he is designing self-running multimedia demos, including a massive overview presentation of all of the software available and applicable to the entertainment industry. Such a presentation could ultimately “be run without me, could be run with everything they need to say without any ‘oops.’” He will also design publications, books and other multimedia projects, with an eye toward creating products that may generate revenue for the center.

He has already started on a multimedia adaptation of the AFI film Hollywood Mavericks. Mavericks is a ninety-minute film about the maverick film directors — those people who have bucked the system in order to follow through on a creative vision. The bulk of the movie consists of interviews with these directors and clips from their classic movies. It was produced by AFI in 1990, and hasn’t had a lot of exposure; AFI primarily releases its films at festivals and in competitions, but rarely for broad theatrical release. (AFI produced another film, Visions of Light, about the great cinematographers, which follows a similar format.)

Sitting next to the film on the shelves at AFI, however, are the 19–20 hours of interviews that were shot to make the movie. Marks would like to see an interactive title that allows access to all of this footage, perhaps packaged with the video tape of the original film. (For a discussion of new packaging ideas, see sidebar, p. 17.) AFI, as a nonprofit organization within the film industry, enjoys a “most favored nation” relationship with most of the movie studios when it comes to the issue of rights. It has negotiated, prior to the release, for the rights to all of the clips in the aforementioned movies, as well as a recent HBO special, also on directors.

“I don’t have to wait.” For Marks, Apple’s QuickTime and Adobe’s Premiere editing software have provided the basic tools for completely changing the way films are produced. People have been story boarding, or previsualizing, movies on the Macintosh for a number of years, but as QuickTime develops, allowing bigger video windows and better resolution, more directors will be creating movies directly on their desktops. “The bottom line is that for the first time, everything is under my control. If I want to try an idea, I don’t have to wait,” Marks said.

“I do demos for people every day. I want the response to be ‘Wow!’” The AFI-Apple Computer Center’s public face couldn’t be in better hands.

David Baron