From Fortune (print and online editions: http://www.shift.com)
June 26, 2000: Tech Report 2000
 

Cool Companies:

  [NIBBLEBOX]
new-media entertainment studio
nibblebox.com
founded: 2000
employees: 20
hq: new york and los angeles
random factoid: the company actually pays college students (up to $2,500!) to screw around with cameras

Before Nibblebox, the closest most college kids got to fame was a lead role in the school production of Glengarry Glen Ross. Now, students everywhere can fantasize about turning their drunken comedy routines and inside stoner jokes into online programming - financed and helped along by famous directors.

Nibblebox is the brainchild of a thirtysomething trio of friends who met each other while going to college at Brown: Hollywood director Doug Liman (Swingersand Go), former HBO producer David Bartis and tech consultant Liz Hamburg (she ran Vimpel, the first cellphone company in Russia).


Here's how their venture works: Students submit ideas for online projects (scripts, pilots, random thoughts) to the company's website. Nibblebox's development team plucks out the most promising and works with students via email and phone to fine-tune their ideas. The chosen ones are given the funds to shoot (or reshoot) their project, and the equipment to do it. They're also assigned to an industry mentor for inspiration and guidance. (Besides the three cofounders, mentors include Steven Soderbergh, Wim Wenders and Clueless director Amy Hecklerling.)

Despite the big names involved, Nibblebox's corporate policy is decidedly open-door. Member students are welcome to drop by, grab a slice of pizza, shoot the breeze with the staff or edit their films on the office equipment. "My office looks like the kids' dorms," says Liman. "I'm a snacker, so there’s all sorts of gross, old food everywhere. And you can't see the walls, because there are funny things I've found that are taped to them."


Ten experimental projects are currently in the works. Among them is a piece by a University of Texas student, interning with the state department, who shoots Columbian drug raids from a helicopter using a 360-degree CycloVision camera; and the interactive sitcom "Virtual Rob", written by three roommates at USC. (When the user clicks on objects in the room, Virtual Rob goofs around in his dorm room.)


On its own dime, Nibblebox flew 200 students to New York in late March to attend a symposium held at Hunter College. Students came from as far away as Kansas and California to pitch new project ideas and critique Nibblebox's beta site, which launched the same day.


Afterward, they partied at Liman's rooftop pad. "It was alcohol-free," says Bartis, "but Doug and I were laughing because we later found a lot of empty beer cans they'd snuck in."


Next, Nibblebox plans to establish a "boot camp" in Los Angeles - a kind of multimedia summer camp. "We're looking for a big space where we can just put some AstroTurf down," says Bartis, "throw the kids in a room and just let them go."    --L.A.