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Dot (2002)
Director:
Simeon Schnapper
Brett Singer
Genre:
Comedy, Documentary
Production Company:
Sneaky Kings
For more information, head to IMDB.
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In Theatres (Almost) Everywhere
Chicago Premiere
April 30, 2004
Biograph Theatre, 2433 N. Lincoln
New York City Premiere
May 14, 2004
Crown Theatres, 1271 2nd Ave.
For more information, go to www.sneakykings.com.
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Presented by our friends over at ePrairie.com.
"We want to make the most amount of money in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of effort," boasted Mitch Vartugian, Executive Vice President of Sales for Zectek.com. If you don't recall its history, Zectek.com was conceived in August 1999 as "the solution for e-tomorrow." The three founders started the company primarily as a way to make money. As was typical of the time, they paid scant attention to developing an actual product or service. Accordingly, the company burned through $4.5 million that the founders raised from friends, family and angel investors before floundering shortly after the dot-com crash in April 2000.
Sound familiar?
Not entirely. Zectek.com is actually the amalgam of literally thousands of Internet-based companies formed during the boom and is the subject of the film "Dot," a fictional satire of life at a dot-com that will make its U.S. big-screen debut in Chicago on April 30. The film was completed in 2001 and has since appeared on cable, the festival circuit, select video stores and Amazon.com.
"Dot” will be screened in Chicago at the Biograph Theater in Lincoln Park as well as in New York and San Francisco.
"With the success of Showtime and The Movie Channel airing "Dot," we thought it was a good time to bring the film to select theaters," said co-director and executive producer Simeon Schnapper. "In the worst case, we break even. At best, we can generate some buzz and bring this thing into vogue."
Schnapper, who also plays the role of Zectek.com CEO Si Phateuxx, was the CTO and "Employee No. 1" of real-life company Starbelly.com. Online retailer Starbelly.com, which was among the most prominent Internet-based companies in Chicago to cash out, was acquired by HALO Industries for $280 million in January 2000. Not long after the crash, HALO filed for bankruptcy.
"There were plenty of stories during that time. We felt we had the expertise and the subject matter to [make the film]," said co-director and executive producer Brett Singer. "We wanted to tell it accurately based on our experiences."
R
Schnapper, who reportedly made out well after the HALO acquisition
and is now involved in real estate development in Shanghai, estimates that
production and distribution costs for the film have been approximately $150,000
to date. "I served as executive producer, which meant I had more money on my credit card at the time," Schnapper said. "Though it was a very low-budget production, we must have spent at least $10,000 at Kinko's."
Despite the limited resources, the production value of "Dot" is believed to be high. Business 2.0 magazine labeled the film "more true to life" than the film "Startup.com." Schnapper, by the way, graduated from Columbia College with a self-tailored degree in computer-controlled multimedia for the stage. He has taught improvisational comedy at Second City since he was a teenager. Singer is a screenwriter and has worked in the graphics department at Harpo Studios for the last six years as a visual effects artist and editor. He has completed three scripts and expects one to begin production this summer.
Zectek.com's office was based in Chicago's Ukranian Village (near
Ashland and Augusta) and was the actual headquarters of WanderOn.com.
Singer said they began production of "Dot" literally the day after WanderOn.com
wandered on from its digs. Without a script and on digital video,
the film was shot over the course of a dozen days that spanned consecutive
weekends. "We
had an outline on a very detailed spreadsheet but with no dialogue," Schnapper
said.
As the film was shot in November 2000, the diuretic dialogue of the new economy was still fresh on everyone's lips. For those yearning for a remediation of a bricks-and-clicks paradigm converged with a boardroom cameo appearance of the Jolly Green Giant, "Dot" might be a film for you. The only thing not truly authentic about the production of "Dot" is that, unlike a start-up, everyone involved with the film got paid what they were expecting to earn from the project, Singer said. He added: "The largest expense of the film was a bottle of Dom Perignon."
...
Written by Brad Spirrison
Review Date: April 30, 2004
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