Pacific Arts Corporation
Encyclopedia
The Pacific Arts Corporation, Inc. is a company formed by Michael Nesmith
circa 1974 to manage and develop media projects, including the medium and the content. The company is associated with a "drawing" dove logo.
in 1974. The first product released under the Pacific Arts Records label was in September 1974 of Nesmith's own concept album, The Prison
.
Between 1974 and 1981, Pacific Arts Records created a large library of various musical artists and built its own independent record distribution system. It was during this time that Nesmith began to develop music videos, the concept for MTV, and ideas for a non-theatrical home video business.
In 1981, Pacific Arts Records changed its name to The Pacific Arts Corporation, Inc. PAC was then structured to oversee various anticipated subsidiaries for managing different types of media which included Pacific Arts Records. There have been several Pacific Arts subsidiaries over the years, including Pacific Arts Productions, Inc., Pacific Arts Pictures (merged out), Pacific Arts Publishing (merged out), and Pacific Arts Audio Inc. (dissolved). On the release of The Garden
in 1994, Nesmith alludes to the growing number of Pacific Arts subsisdies when he introduced the company, Rio Records, which was a subsidy of ONE OF THE NESMITH ENTERPRISES. Pacific Arts Corporation is presently the managing partner of Videoranch LLC which was established in 2007 as a Delaware LLC. Videoranch LLC is the operating entity for Videoranch.com and Videoranch3d.com.
Following the creation of PAC in 1981, Pacific Arts Video, a subsidiary of PAC, released the home video, Elephant Parts
, a long-form video featuring various comedy skits and music videos. Elephant Parts was an early home video available to consumers and would win the first Grammy Award
for a Music Video.
, Pacific Arts focused its attention on producing full-length motion pictures. Pacific Arts first major motion picture produced was the 1984 film, Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann. Pacific Arts used the subsidiary, Zoomo Productions, Ltd., for Timerider. Zoomo Productions is still an active company within California and one of the many subisides that is registered with Nesmith's accountant, Howard Leitner.
The second movie produced by Pacific Arts was the 1984 film Repo Man. For the film, Michael Nesmith
is listed as the executive producer under the production company, Edge City Productions. Edge City Productions was only used once as a Pacific Arts subsidy. The name is derived from Tom Wolfe
's 1968 novel, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
.
The last major motion picture Pacific Arts produced was the 1988 film, Tapeheads
. Tapeheads was produced through Pacific Arts Video. Following the release of Tapeheads, Pacific Arts would turn its attention to home video and the internet.
to distribute the Pacific Arts video catalog under the PBS logo. However, in the early 1990s, Pacific Arts and PBS went through a series of serious disagreements. Lawsuits were filed: by Nesmith and Pacific Arts against PBS for breach of contract, intentional misrepresentation (fraud), intentional concealment (fraud), negligent misrepresentation, and interference with contract; and by PBS against Nesmith and Pacific Arts for lost royalties. The lawsuits escalated in 1994 and 1995 into major litigation between the parties over these rights and payments. PBS and Nesmith and Pacific Arts vigorously prosecuted these multi-million dollar counter-suits.
The six plaintiffs included PBS, including WGBH in Boston; WNET in New York; American Documentaries and Radio Pioneers Film Project (production companies owned by producer Ken Burns); and the Children's Television Workshop. They sought approximately $5 million in disputed royalties, advances, guarantees and license fees for programs and the use of the PBS logo from the defendants Pacific Arts and Nesmith.
Due to the cost of the litigation, Pacific Arts was forced to cease distribution operations, and suspended the use of the PBS logo on the Pacific Arts videos.. Though Pacific Arts distribution system had ceased operating, the various plaintiffs were counting on capturing a personal financial guarantee Nesmith had made to PBS in the original PBS deal in 1990.
The cases went to jury trial in Federal Court in Los Angeles in February of 1999.
By the end of the trial, the judge and jury were leaning toward Nesmith's (Pacific Arts) counterclaims. Henry Gradstein, lead attorney for Nesmith, contended in a brief that the company's video rights were worth enough for it to have paid off any proper debts to the producers. But, he said, PBS had concocted a "dastardly scheme, which was played out with military precision, to strip Pacific Arts of its assets by inducing Pacific Arts not to file bankruptcy, by lulling it into a sense of security while it organized a mass termination of Pacific Arts' licenses."
After three days of deliberation, the jury agreed with Gradstein and found PBS liable for breach of contract, intentional misrepresentation (fraud), intentional concealment (fraud), negligent misrepresentation, and interference with contract. The court awarded Pacific Arts $14,625,000 for loss of its rights library, plus $29,250,000 in punitive damages. The jury awarded $3 million to Nesmith personally, including $2 million in punitive damages for a total award to Nesmith and Pacific Arts of $48,875,000.00. The jury resolved the outstanding license fee issues by ordering Pacific Arts and Nesmith to pay approximately $1.2 million to American Documentaries for The Civil War, about $230,000 to WGBH, and $150,000 to WNET.
The decision never went to an appeals court and the final amount paid to Pacific Arts and Nesmith was an undisclosed sum agreed to in an out of court settlement.
In 2004, Nesmith developed a process for seamlessly embedding live video in virtual worlds and a companion production technique that allowed live performers to interact in real time with a virtual audience. Nesmith has two patents pending for these processes which were filed in 2007 .
Videoranch3D began a series of trial productions in 2006 which consisted mostly of live music concerts. In addition there have been and are ongoing seminars, book signings and professional musician clinics.
As of the Summer of 2009 Pacific Arts had produced over 130 live performances in the virtual world of Videoranch3D.
In June 2009, Pacific Arts began a serialized release of Nesmith's second novel, The American Gene. A free sample and the first chapter were released for preview and a purchased download, respectively. Plans call for the release of one chapter of the book online per week for sixteen weeks. After its release Nesmith holds a "live reading" of each chapter of the book in the Videoranch3D virtual world.
Pacific Arts' catalog (both music and videos) for UK and Europe were licensed to Demon Music Group
.
In January of 2007 Pacific Arts built a special production stage in Sand City California for producing live performances and delivering them into virtual worlds. The live performances are delivered over the internet and seamlessly embedded into a fully multiplexed 3D environment. The first of these environments is Videoranch3D.
In February, 2009, Videoranch released a 6-minute song entitled "Helen's Eternal Birthday". The single track was released exclusively through Videoranch as a test of its download sales. Following the test the Videoranch download sales site was made operational with most of the Videoranch software catalog available for purchase and download delivery. In 2010, a first revision to "Helen’s Eternal Birthday" resulted in it being re-titled as "January." Nesmith has suggested that he will continue to release songs on the Video Ranch website in various states of completion while updating those songs as he feels compelled, thus making the listener a part of each musical journey. This sense of audience inclusion in an entertainment enterprise is a recurring theme in Nesmith’s current career phase, the roots of which may be found in “The Prison” in which the audience reads a companion book while listening to the album to provide a unique listening experience for each audience member.
In June 2009, Videoranch began selling a serialized version of Nesmith's novel, "The America Gene", beginning one chapter at a time. The 16-chapter novel has been released in its entirety and is available for purchase at the Videoranch online store. Unlike the Pacific Arts release of Nesmith's first book, "The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora", which was released as a printed novel, "The American Gene" is only available electronically.
Michael Nesmith
Robert Michael Nesmith is an American musician, songwriter, actor, producer, novelist, businessman, and philanthropist, best known as a member of the musical group The Monkees and star of the TV series of the same name...
circa 1974 to manage and develop media projects, including the medium and the content. The company is associated with a "drawing" dove logo.
History
Pacific Arts Corporation has its beginnings in the creation of Pacific Arts Records, a California corporation, by Michael NesmithMichael Nesmith
Robert Michael Nesmith is an American musician, songwriter, actor, producer, novelist, businessman, and philanthropist, best known as a member of the musical group The Monkees and star of the TV series of the same name...
in 1974. The first product released under the Pacific Arts Records label was in September 1974 of Nesmith's own concept album, The Prison
The Prison - A Book With A Soundtrack
The Prison - A Book With A Soundtrack is Michael Nesmith's seventh solo album of his post-Monkees career and his first to be released under his own record label, Pacific Arts. It includes a novella meant to be read while listening to the album as its "soundtrack". In 1994 Nesmith recorded a...
.
Between 1974 and 1981, Pacific Arts Records created a large library of various musical artists and built its own independent record distribution system. It was during this time that Nesmith began to develop music videos, the concept for MTV, and ideas for a non-theatrical home video business.
In 1981, Pacific Arts Records changed its name to The Pacific Arts Corporation, Inc. PAC was then structured to oversee various anticipated subsidiaries for managing different types of media which included Pacific Arts Records. There have been several Pacific Arts subsidiaries over the years, including Pacific Arts Productions, Inc., Pacific Arts Pictures (merged out), Pacific Arts Publishing (merged out), and Pacific Arts Audio Inc. (dissolved). On the release of The Garden
The Garden (Michael Nesmith album)
The Garden is Michael Nesmith's 11th full studio album and was released in 1994. The Garden is a companion release to Nesmith's 1974 album/book, The Prison. Both The Garden and The Prison are written to have the music complement a novel included in the release...
in 1994, Nesmith alludes to the growing number of Pacific Arts subsisdies when he introduced the company, Rio Records, which was a subsidy of ONE OF THE NESMITH ENTERPRISES. Pacific Arts Corporation is presently the managing partner of Videoranch LLC which was established in 2007 as a Delaware LLC. Videoranch LLC is the operating entity for Videoranch.com and Videoranch3d.com.
Following the creation of PAC in 1981, Pacific Arts Video, a subsidiary of PAC, released the home video, Elephant Parts
Elephant Parts
Elephant Parts is a collection of comedy and music videos made in 1981 by Michael Nesmith, former member of the Monkees. Nesmith produced the video through his company Pacific Arts, using money he inherited from his mother, the inventor of Liquid Paper...
, a long-form video featuring various comedy skits and music videos. Elephant Parts was an early home video available to consumers and would win the first Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for a Music Video.
Movie production
Following the success of Elephant PartsElephant Parts
Elephant Parts is a collection of comedy and music videos made in 1981 by Michael Nesmith, former member of the Monkees. Nesmith produced the video through his company Pacific Arts, using money he inherited from his mother, the inventor of Liquid Paper...
, Pacific Arts focused its attention on producing full-length motion pictures. Pacific Arts first major motion picture produced was the 1984 film, Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann. Pacific Arts used the subsidiary, Zoomo Productions, Ltd., for Timerider. Zoomo Productions is still an active company within California and one of the many subisides that is registered with Nesmith's accountant, Howard Leitner.
The second movie produced by Pacific Arts was the 1984 film Repo Man. For the film, Michael Nesmith
Michael Nesmith
Robert Michael Nesmith is an American musician, songwriter, actor, producer, novelist, businessman, and philanthropist, best known as a member of the musical group The Monkees and star of the TV series of the same name...
is listed as the executive producer under the production company, Edge City Productions. Edge City Productions was only used once as a Pacific Arts subsidy. The name is derived from Tom Wolfe
Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly "Tom" Wolfe, Jr. is a best-selling American author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s.-Early life and education:...
's 1968 novel, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is a work of literary journalism by Tom Wolfe, published in 1968. Using techniques from the genre of hysterical realism and pioneering new journalism, the "nonfiction novel" tells the story of Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters...
.
The last major motion picture Pacific Arts produced was the 1988 film, Tapeheads
Tapeheads
Tapeheads is a 1988 comedy film directed by Bill Fishman. The film stars John Cusack, Tim Robbins, Sam Moore, and Junior Walker. The movie was produced by Michael Nesmith, who is seen briefly in the film as a bottled water delivery man.-Plot:...
. Tapeheads was produced through Pacific Arts Video. Following the release of Tapeheads, Pacific Arts would turn its attention to home video and the internet.
Video distribution
Throughout the 1980's Pacific Arts had acquired the largest catalog of non-theatrical video titles in the world and set up its own independent distribution system.PAC/PBS lawsuit
In 1990, Pacific Arts secured a contract with PBSPublic Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
to distribute the Pacific Arts video catalog under the PBS logo. However, in the early 1990s, Pacific Arts and PBS went through a series of serious disagreements. Lawsuits were filed: by Nesmith and Pacific Arts against PBS for breach of contract, intentional misrepresentation (fraud), intentional concealment (fraud), negligent misrepresentation, and interference with contract; and by PBS against Nesmith and Pacific Arts for lost royalties. The lawsuits escalated in 1994 and 1995 into major litigation between the parties over these rights and payments. PBS and Nesmith and Pacific Arts vigorously prosecuted these multi-million dollar counter-suits.
The six plaintiffs included PBS, including WGBH in Boston; WNET in New York; American Documentaries and Radio Pioneers Film Project (production companies owned by producer Ken Burns); and the Children's Television Workshop. They sought approximately $5 million in disputed royalties, advances, guarantees and license fees for programs and the use of the PBS logo from the defendants Pacific Arts and Nesmith.
Due to the cost of the litigation, Pacific Arts was forced to cease distribution operations, and suspended the use of the PBS logo on the Pacific Arts videos.. Though Pacific Arts distribution system had ceased operating, the various plaintiffs were counting on capturing a personal financial guarantee Nesmith had made to PBS in the original PBS deal in 1990.
The cases went to jury trial in Federal Court in Los Angeles in February of 1999.
By the end of the trial, the judge and jury were leaning toward Nesmith's (Pacific Arts) counterclaims. Henry Gradstein, lead attorney for Nesmith, contended in a brief that the company's video rights were worth enough for it to have paid off any proper debts to the producers. But, he said, PBS had concocted a "dastardly scheme, which was played out with military precision, to strip Pacific Arts of its assets by inducing Pacific Arts not to file bankruptcy, by lulling it into a sense of security while it organized a mass termination of Pacific Arts' licenses."
After three days of deliberation, the jury agreed with Gradstein and found PBS liable for breach of contract, intentional misrepresentation (fraud), intentional concealment (fraud), negligent misrepresentation, and interference with contract. The court awarded Pacific Arts $14,625,000 for loss of its rights library, plus $29,250,000 in punitive damages. The jury awarded $3 million to Nesmith personally, including $2 million in punitive damages for a total award to Nesmith and Pacific Arts of $48,875,000.00. The jury resolved the outstanding license fee issues by ordering Pacific Arts and Nesmith to pay approximately $1.2 million to American Documentaries for The Civil War, about $230,000 to WGBH, and $150,000 to WNET.
The decision never went to an appeals court and the final amount paid to Pacific Arts and Nesmith was an undisclosed sum agreed to in an out of court settlement.
Videoranch and Videoranch3D
In 1995, Pacific Arts opened Videoranch, which hosted several multimedia projects, including video and audio clips from various albums and video productions it owned or licensed. In 1998, Videoranch began the second-phase of multimedia via the internet by launching Videoranch 3D (VR3D), a 3-D virtual world as a test bed for technologies which could deliver live content into virtual environments. VR3D is a virtual world that is presently the most active of the Pacific Arts enterprises.In 2004, Nesmith developed a process for seamlessly embedding live video in virtual worlds and a companion production technique that allowed live performers to interact in real time with a virtual audience. Nesmith has two patents pending for these processes which were filed in 2007 .
Videoranch3D began a series of trial productions in 2006 which consisted mostly of live music concerts. In addition there have been and are ongoing seminars, book signings and professional musician clinics.
As of the Summer of 2009 Pacific Arts had produced over 130 live performances in the virtual world of Videoranch3D.
Publishing
To continue developing the multimedia platform, Pacific Arts published the audio book of Nesmith's first novel, The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora. The book was published and distributed by St. Martin's Press. The unabridged reading of the novel was released on a six-CD set by Pacific Arts and was sublicensed for direct download to Audible.com.In June 2009, Pacific Arts began a serialized release of Nesmith's second novel, The American Gene. A free sample and the first chapter were released for preview and a purchased download, respectively. Plans call for the release of one chapter of the book online per week for sixteen weeks. After its release Nesmith holds a "live reading" of each chapter of the book in the Videoranch3D virtual world.
Recent history
Re-releases of the Michael NesmithMichael Nesmith
Robert Michael Nesmith is an American musician, songwriter, actor, producer, novelist, businessman, and philanthropist, best known as a member of the musical group The Monkees and star of the TV series of the same name...
Pacific Arts' catalog (both music and videos) for UK and Europe were licensed to Demon Music Group
Demon Music Group
Demon Records is a United Kingdom record label founded in 1980 by former United Artists A&R executive Andrew Lauder and Jake Riviera who had previously started Stiff Records...
.
In January of 2007 Pacific Arts built a special production stage in Sand City California for producing live performances and delivering them into virtual worlds. The live performances are delivered over the internet and seamlessly embedded into a fully multiplexed 3D environment. The first of these environments is Videoranch3D.
In February, 2009, Videoranch released a 6-minute song entitled "Helen's Eternal Birthday". The single track was released exclusively through Videoranch as a test of its download sales. Following the test the Videoranch download sales site was made operational with most of the Videoranch software catalog available for purchase and download delivery. In 2010, a first revision to "Helen’s Eternal Birthday" resulted in it being re-titled as "January." Nesmith has suggested that he will continue to release songs on the Video Ranch website in various states of completion while updating those songs as he feels compelled, thus making the listener a part of each musical journey. This sense of audience inclusion in an entertainment enterprise is a recurring theme in Nesmith’s current career phase, the roots of which may be found in “The Prison” in which the audience reads a companion book while listening to the album to provide a unique listening experience for each audience member.
In June 2009, Videoranch began selling a serialized version of Nesmith's novel, "The America Gene", beginning one chapter at a time. The 16-chapter novel has been released in its entirety and is available for purchase at the Videoranch online store. Unlike the Pacific Arts release of Nesmith's first book, "The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora", which was released as a printed novel, "The American Gene" is only available electronically.