DVD Publisher Profile
DRAFT 6/9/2003
One of the most exciting and successful DVD companies around today is EMA Multimedia, founded in 1992 by CEO Michael Pace. Located in Los Angeles California. EMA owns a piece of DVD history in that they designed and produced the lion?s share of titles for the March 1997 international debut of DVD. Impressively, EMA?s DVD title development clients have included Columbia TriStar (SONY), HBO Home Vide, New Line Cinema, Universal Home Video, Fox Home Video, MGM Home Video and Warner Home Video.
EMA, Entertainment, Marketing and Advertising, has worked on hundreds of DVD releases, including such titles as OZ, Real Women Have Curves, Hysterical Blindness,
EMA also has a long track record of living up to the company slogan: The easiest way to predict the future is to invent it.? EMA developed custom interactive interface design and navigation programming for such titles as Tomorrow Never Dies, Romeo and Juliet and The Full Monty. Some of EMA?s DVD firsts include introducing motion graphics in the menu for The Player and the precedence setting (multiple-award winning) animated DVD menu for Spawn ? which set the industry standard for all DVD to follow.
Pace has an extensive background in feature film advertising and marketing for such prestigious companies as Carloco Pictures, Walt Disney, TriStar Pictues, Columbia Pictures, Warner Bros., Orion Pictures and others. Prior to starting EMA, Pace signed on with Aspect Ratio, an elite movie marketing creative team, where he was able to enhance his knowledge of digital technology, paving the way for the formation of his own multimedia advertising agency.
EMA has been at the forefront of DVD technology since its introduction and consistently wins industry praise for its innovative interface designs. Recent awards include VSDA, IRMA, OVDA and a DVD Peoples Choice Award. EMA provides a unique dual function for its clients by providing advertising and sales promotion services and the development of interactive DVD titles.
Seeking a ?same place to work? and an environment allowing total creative freedom, Pace started EMA in the second bedroom of hi apartment. He prides himself on the continued realization of that original goal. ?EMA?s working environment today, he says, ?promotes freedom of the creative process, allowing compelling and innovative designs to be developed. Pushing the envelope with client products within the confines of the DVD technology is what we all strive to do.
Pace demonstrates great sensitivity to the needs of his creative staff, and this is clearly a major reason for EMA?s fantastic success. In a professional world of change, volatility and uncertainty, EMA has provided a stable operating platform for its employees. Many come right out of college, some from other organizations. Pace describes DVD design as the blending of technical prowess with artistic skills, creating a kind of ?lunatic fringe? the edge from which independent spirit thrives and innovation is born.
Corporately, Pace believes EMA?s most significant accomplishment to date was their early involvement in launching the DVD market with Warner Bros. From a product-line point of view, Pace asserts that the Four-Disc VD series featuring HBO?s From the Earth to the Moon, is still ?the must-have DVD collection.? This award ?winning, 12-hour mini-series was developed by EMA and designed for both the MAC and the PC, with such special features as 3D Models of the Ships, a Virtual Tour of the Solar System, Apollo Mission Objectives, Kennedy?s full speech, The ROM Side of the Moon as well as many others.
What turns Michael Pace on personally? He says he loves the independence and the creative freedom the studios give him to do his craft. What about the technology? ?DVD is the best of everything, it?s design, it?s interactive, and it?s movies?all rolled into one,? he exclaims. ?The growth of the DVD industry had been phenomenal. I?m very pleased with the way it is going. It is basically a natural evolution of the video business.?
Understanding the potential of DVD, Pace was a very early advocate for the development of DVD hybrid discs whose Web connectivity will provide enhanced use enjoyment and many new business possibilities. He firmly believes that all DVD movies should contain DVD-ROM features. Failure to include such hybrid features, he asserts, ?really negates the life span of the product.? EMA recently partnered with HyperLOCK Technologies to develop HyperDVD Web-enabled titles that will reap the benefits of the pay-per-view interactivity.
Pace could be described as a kind of hybrid himself, as he is equally active and successful in both the creative and business sides of his company. When pressed, if forced to choose one or the other to spur EMA?s future growth even more, he confesses he would opt to wear the creative hat rather than perform a pure management function.
Pace is also a patented inventor, having developed DTC: Digital Trading Cards? a computer-based ?storage collection and retrieval system and method which is being developed internally as well as having peaked the interest of comic genius Stan Lee and his first new venture outside of Marval Comics called, Stan Lee Media, Inc. In terms of future technology developments, Pace looks forward to the proliferation of set top boxes with DVD drives and to designing full-featured interactive content for such platforms. Current DVD projects at EMA include HBO?s_______________________ _____________________________________________________________________
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Clearly, EMA is a unique company leading the edge of the DVD technology. With an excellent reputation among the studios, and widely known as the ?Ferrari? of DVD designers, EMA consistently brings compelling designs into the digital world. EMA has the foundation for an exciting digital future, and with the combination of an unusually
Creative team and enlightened leadership, they will continue to play a major role n the overall success of the DVD industry.