WEB DIRECTORS, A NEW BREED OF CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS
There is a new breed of talent that can salvage the Internet. They are the new Web Directors, the online version of what has made film, television and print advertising and entertainment so successful. This is the time to propel them, generating a new platform and possible association for creative professionals engrossed with, and eager to learn more about, Internet capabilities.
Up
until now, the Internet has been governed by highly technological minds
who have little or no creative background. The failure of the internet
lies on its reliance on computer guys who promised the world and couldn
t deliver, says a Microsoft executive. The result has been bland and
ineffective online advertising, failing entertainment portals, and
overall disillusionment with online marketing tools. In revering
technology, creativity has been overlooked. Creative geniuses who have
propelled and captured audiences through traditional media have also
been ignored. There is an immediate need for the introduction of a new
profession, one that will bring specialized and artistic talent to the
forefront of the Internet. These are the Web Directors. They are the
future of the Internet, emblematic of the perfect marriage between
knowledge of traditional production and creative processes (in TV,
film, and animation), knowledge of graphic design, and an understanding
of multimedia technologies, interactivity, and internet technologies.
Web
Directors are not your typical web designers. With backgrounds in film,
television, animation and advertising, they maintain the highest level
of design and artistic integrity while developing (or working in
conjunction with) technical expertise beyond that of conventional web
programmers. Structuring production and client/agency relations with
the same model as the big TV production houses, Web Directors go
through similar creative processes by writing scripts, preparing
storyboards and drawing from a large pool of talent to crew up for each
job.
Nikolai Mentchoukov (President/Web Director) and
Alan James Edwards (CEO/Web Director) are the co-founders of Integral
Pictures, a rich media production studio based in New York City that
cultivates the expansion of this new field, providing their clients
with the missing element for their marketing strategies. The problem
says Mentchoukov, is that people still treat the Internet as ancillary
to other industries and are not treating it as a unique and powerful
mass media. The Internet has it s own set of limitations and
advantages, and until those are addressed specifically, advertising and
entertainment will not be successful. The sizes of the banner or static
images are not necessarily the obstacles to success, it is the people
behind the creative who make it or break it. If we recognize the Web as
its own separate medium and the unique people whose specialized skills
and creativity should serve and structure it, online products will be
much more effective.
Integral hopes and would be
privileged to represent a set of Web Directors that clients/agencies
can peruse the same way they examine and choose directors for their TV
spots. Each Web Director s work has different strengths, look and feel,
and once chosen they helm a web production collaborating with technical
experts, programmers, voice-over artists, and sound editors. In
addition, Integral has all necessary technologies and a proved
infrastructure to optimally implement a Web Director s vision with no
download time, even over slow modems and with a TV-like quality.
Interactive marketing should be treated with the same scrutiny as
traditional media advertising so that a campaign can be as forceful
creatively across ALL media.
Before the Internet bust,
according to USA Today, in 1999, Internet advertising revenues were
$5.3 billion and were expected to reach $45.5 billion by the year 2005.
If online success can once again be proven, the potential revenues
could soar even higher than previously expected and demand for Web
Directors would only increase.
For more information, conatct:
Nicole Sors
Integral Pictures, Inc.
Tribeca Film Center
375 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10013
212 941 3807
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