Corbin Bernsen, best known for his Emmy and Golden Globe nominated role as Arnie Becker on the long running primetime series “LA Law”, has not only moved on to a new role in front of the camera, he has a new role behind the camera as well.

Since September 2004 he has had a recurring role as New York prosecuting attorney John Durant on the popular daytime drama “General Hospital”, but his production company - Public Media Works – has also been keeping him very busy. Public Media Works is currently in the production phase of it’s first feature film “Carpool Guy”, whose cast is made up primarily of actors from daytime soaps including Anthony Geary (Luke Spencer, General Hospital) and Bernsen’s mother Jeanne Cooper (Katherine Chancellor, The Young and the Restless). In this first part of our interview with Bernsen, he speaks about the development of what he hopes to be a totally interactive working film studio over the internet, and his plans to simulate the process in other areas of the industry.

“The idea for Public Media Works came about from many different areas. The key to this was that I wanted very much to produce movies, direct movies, be a part of movies, create, just get into the movie making experience, but I wanted to do something different than the way things were normally done. I just wanted to… not to just be different… I thought there were other ways to do independent films, lower budget films, there were other ways of going about it. This was sort of all through and during “LA Law”, and post-“LA Law”… that this was starting to be developed.”

“A lot of things happened over the course of time. I saw a huge desire for people worldwide who wanted to understand the process, to be part of the process. Weather they wanted to be actors, writers, directors, or they just wanted to know how it’s done. Purely by observation, I said … I could make a movie, given this whole new internet thing that was going on (10-12 years ago) I wonder if I can reach out to a very specific fan base, and make movies for them. So I know who my customer is. Can I make a movie that at least I know I’ve got a concrete fan base? A fan base that with this internet I can reach, I can educate them about the project, I can make them part of the project and let people be a part of the process and know that I have a customer for myself.”

”Mom (Jeanne Cooper, “The Young and the Restless”) said, ‘There is no better fan base than the soap opera fan base.’

And ya know, Wow! There are a bunch of wonderful actors there. There are wonderful actors there who I bet would love to be part of making a motion picture if it didn’t interfere with their lives. And that is really how it all started. Then I started thinking, what other fan bases are there for our model? There are people who are Star Trek fans, there are horror fans, there’s western fans. The beauty of the internet is that you can reach people and say ‘Hey, we’re making a movie for YOU specifically’. Now if other people want to come to the party, they’re gonna find it’s a great party. And the project’s going to be fun and the movie’s not necessarily a horror movie, not going to be a western, it’s not necessarily a Star Trek movie. But will they find something appealing? Will the core fan base find something appealing? And the others - who are not part of the core fan base - will they find it appealing?”

“As with the movie “Carpool Guy”, it’s a wonderful movie. I’ve had people look at it and them say nothing but great things, it’s a great movie. That’s really what it is, it really came about my observation of people wanting to be involved and the internet component coming together. And saying, well wait a minute, I can use the internet component to reach that fan base. I can probably cut cost in the production because I know who I’m going to. I know it’s a good business model. I know who I’m going to.”

“One more thing came together too… and this is not to say that all our movies are going straight to DVD... there used to be the old thing about ‘straight to video’. The new thing about DVD’s that they’re sort of becoming collectable. And because people have home theaters now, I can make the argument that I can make these make these movies in Dolby 5.1, give them great images, shoot it in an aspect ratio that fits the plasma and whatever TV’s, basically widescreen if you will, to put it in layman’s terms. Now you buy a movie for $19-$20 and get six or seven people watch it in the comfort of your own home with your surround sound and all that - It’s a wonderful experience. It’s no longer I don’t think that ‘straight to video’ means where you’re looking at a crummy little TV in your living room with one monotone speaker. You can go straight to DVD and get great presentation AND behind the scenes stuff and other stuff that fans are probably interested in.”

“We thought we would tackle the soap fan base first if you will. There was a notion of ‘What should we do?’ We tried to look for a romantic comedy and not make it goofy and too sweet and too corny. The actors want to do something different…but I also didn’t want to alienate the fan base either and make it so differently removed it so far from what the people are. Long story short, one of my business partners Shaun Edwardes and I came up with the story for Carpool Guy, and another one of my business partners Mike Wittlin said, ‘Look, I love this movie. Lets sponsor it, lets get it done, let’s get it all up and get the funding together very quickly.’ It’s close enough in the genre, but it won’t alienate the fan base. It’s a story, it’s a couple story, it’s not like a puppet show with a mind twister going backwards trying to figure it all out, it’s just a darn good movie. It’s comedy, but it’s a social comedy, and I just think that it’s with all the characters in it, we have wonderful actors who will just do stuff that I think the fans will appreciate us sort of going out on this kind of limb.”

“There is a wonderful book I love, which I had the rights to years ago. It would be a wonderful project for Tamara Braun, who plays my daughter on the show [General Hospital].

“Down the line, eventually, absolutely. I’d like people to be a little more educated in what we do. There will be some sort of guidelines. I want our fans to be a little more educated, but absolutely… actors, writers, etc., we’re gonna have the gonna have a place on the website there that we’ll open up that will allow submissions and we’ll have our own sort of casting office if you will.”

“If you look at what our website and what it is already and what it’s coming into … at this point novelty and it’s going to be fun, but we hope in time - my goal for it – is that it becomes a real place of business, a real place of learning, a real place of being participating, and not just this sort of bogus, sort of ‘novelty’ item. I’d love to think that there’s somebody out there who’s an extreme soap fan has got a wonderful script that would be wonderful for soap stars to do, I’d love that… and discover an new actor or actress out there would be great to work into and help develop somebody’s career.”

“Mike Wittlin, one of my partners, has done a wonderful job in getting as much of the website there as he can and bring as much content from the movie there. What happened is the movie came together so quickly that there is only one of me and only so much attention. It’s what I wanted to be - a virtual studio – have the production stages (which are different movies, TV shows), and have the other components – the kiosk, the store, and the screening room – that’s all my design, if you will. The physical design we looked at different things, what would work, what we liked, and we put together a lot of thoughts about it and put that together. It’s a lot of content. It’s a very, very, very, very tricky site to develop because it’s really... How do you represent a working studio? It’s the model of a working studio. It will get more robust down the line and it will work together.”

“Because the website was sort of “unfinished” I made a decision to open up the gates - we got to get in, we gotta go. Recently, I actually had a registration up front and I wanted to know who everybody was who was coming in the gate. Then I thought, you know what, if somebody wants to get in and get more involved, we’ll get that information later. Right now I want it to be what I wanted it to be five years ago, which is - unlike any other studio in this town - the gates are open. You can walk in. You don’t even have to check in. You can go in. Now, to drill down a little deeper and really get involved, I’ll have to know who you are so I can thank you, so I can you reward you for your time there. But, if you want to, just snoop around, and browse, and buy, and look and explore.”

“I wanted it to be just a free gate where you could come in. If you want to vote on things down the line or if you want to purchase things, we’ll have to know who you are. It’s only been in the last three or four days that we’ve taken down the registration. I just didn’t want the first thing you do is have to fill out a form. It’s an ongoing process.”

In addition to movies, Bernsen hopes to also hopes to use the same interactive concept for music, television, theater, and even games. “As long as there is participation - that’s really our thing – interactivity and participation… as well as the development and marketing and exhibition,” he explains. “If we discover a band, for instance, and I want to put them into the Public Media Works virtual recording studio, I want fans to decide which track ‘I think this should be first on the album, that should be second on the album’, ‘I really like mix one better than mix two’. Let them be a part of the process.” “the fan base is there, hopefully they’re having a rewarding experience, and on our end, we’re getting a lot of information.”

The first production from Public Media Works is the full-length motion picture “Carpool Guy”, which is currently shooting in Los Angeles. There are several films in the horizon for Public Media Works including “Over the Hedge”, and a holiday themed “3 Day Test”.

Please join us for part two of our interview with Corbin Bernsen where he will discuss “Carpool Guy” and what it’s like having to direct his mother.

Visit Public Media Works online at PublicMediaWorks.com. For a tutorial on how to navigate the Public Media Works webisite, click HERE.