These days it’s par for the course for a feature film to have an accompanying website.

Standard Internet offerings include a movie trailer and perhaps a clip or two, a story synopsis, cast and crew bios, and a photo gallery. Downloadable computer desktop wallpaper and screensavers, using images from the film, are also common.

While some of the films on display at TIFF2006 adhere to this formula, others are incorporating more innovative web approaches to supplement the big-screen experience.

Many of the features at TIFF2006 don’t have a companion website of any kind. This can be partially chalked up to the fact that nearly one-third of this year’s films will have their world premieres at the fest, and may launch websites later on. And some have only temporary websites in place.

Such is the case with the Canadian production Everything’s Gone Green, a comedy with an original script by Douglas Coupland (see story, p. T9) that will be making its world premiere at TIFF.

The film’s current webpage (www.everythingsgonegreen.com) was launched back in March to provide information to the industry. Radke Films’ Chris Nanos, one of the film’s producers, says they are working with the distributor, ThinkFilm, on a new consumer-oriented website that will soon go live in preparation for the film’s theatrical release in late September.

The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, the Canada/Denmark copro from Igloolik Isuma Productions that opens the fest, offers much of the usual fare on its website (www.isuma.ca), including cast and crew interviews. Where the Journals site breaks from the norm, however, is in its ‘live from the set’ section, which captures, in text and video, candid moments from the shoot, and provides a unique view into the production’s progression and the challenges the filmmakers faced in their Arctic environment.

The site also has lesson plans for schoolteachers that contain content related to the film’s story and the Inuit world and style of filmmaking. The aim here is to offer ‘an educational experience of Inuit culture from the perspective of within the culture, and not through the eyes of outsiders,’ says Journals co-director Norman Cohn.

He says that he and directing and producing partner Zacharias Kunuk ‘see ourselves as multimedia artists… we’re really electronic filmmakers.’ He points to the fact that they shot the film in the 24p HD format. ‘The Internet becomes just a natural extension of being an electronic filmmaker… Our subject is the past, but our art form is the future.’

A sampling of other TIFF films with websites often reveals little beyond a basic, ‘just-the-facts’ approach, regardless of their country of origin.

Some films have multiple sites, and the content can vary widely from one to another.

Such is the case with Catch a Fire, a U.K./U.S./South Africa copro that offers sites from both prodco Working Title Films and distributor Focus Features. The prodco site (www.workingtitlefilms.com/film.php?filmID=94) provides much of the standard info, plus a production diary, interviews and more – yet lacks a trailer for the Apartheid-era drama. By contrast, the distributor site (www.focusfeatures.com) offers only a story synopsis (different from the prodco’s), while the official site (www.catchafiremovie.com) provides a trailer and yet another different synopsis.

Fox Searchlight’s website for the wedding mockumentary Confetti (www2.foxsearchlight.com/confetti/), goes way beyond the norm, with links to several quirky extras, including the Wedding-O-Matic wedding theme planner, the do-it-yourself facelift program, and the truly bizarre ‘nudist trampolining’ game. Each of these is implemented in a separate site that points back to the official movie site, and the trampoline game allows players to invite friends to play in a form of ‘viral marketing’ for the movie.

Even more innovative – and extensive – is the site for György Pálfi’s Taxidermia (www.taxidermia.hu/indexen), a multi-generational Hungarian drama making its North American premiere. Content includes information about plastination (a method of preserving every tissue of a human body in its original form), pig killing, eating contests, the Hungarian revolution, propaganda, an illustrated history of pornography and much more.

But will such online efforts reap dividends? For devout festival-goers and mainstream moviegoers, the presence or absence of an official website for a film – or the extent of its content and creativity – may not matter at all.

Neil Sedgwick, an investment officer with Royal Bank Business Banking, takes a week’s vacation every year to see 30 to 40 films at TIFF. Sedgwick dismisses official movie sites as ‘propaganda,’ explaining, ‘I don’t care how the movie’s made – I just care if it’s good or bad.’

When he does turn to the Internet to help determine which films to see, he goes to the popular Rotten Tomatoes (www.rottentomatoes.com) and Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) sites, where he can obtain unbiased opinions and ratings on films.

Industry associations, meanwhile, are looking at multiplatforms with interest. The CFTPA is conducting a study of how its members use new media as a supplement to the theatrical experience. The study shows that the CFTPA’s members recognize the need to explore alternate platforms, and that they expect to do much more in this regard in the next couple of years.

Over at the Directors Guild of Canada, Pamela Brand, national executive director and CEO, views the potential additive experience as very positive.

‘It draws [viewers] into the experience of filmmaking,’ she says. ‘[It] allows them to participate in the filmmakers’ challenges and experiences, engages them in the movie, and encourages them to see more movies. The more of this the better.’

For both the CFTPA and DGC, the main concern lies in protecting the rights of their members and establishing terms of trade with respect to new media. While a presence on alternate platforms may lead to a wider audience, Brand says ‘this can’t come at the expense of our members’ rights.’

Radke Films’ Nanos, meanwhile, is a believer in using the Internet to gain exposure ‘not only for domestic purposes, but also for international purposes.’ He’d like to see the Canadian film industry work together, in cooperation with appropriate trade commissions, to create ‘an access point for international distributors and buyers to see what’s coming out of Canada.’