From The Mad Genius Who Is...

Donald F. Glut come these wild wonderful pulp films courtesy Tempe DVD.
















COUNTESS DRACULA'S ORGY OF BLOOD (DVD)
UPC #827912081114 / $19.99 SRP
Order Date: September 11, 2009 / Street Date: October 13, 2009

What does a vampire do when he can only drink blood that first passes through another vampire's veins? Lord Ruthven revives his lesbian sister in this horror-erotic sequel to Frontline Entertainment's cult hit THE EROTIC RITES OF COUNTESS DRACULA! Remastered edition with a coffin-load of new DVD extras, featuring international horror icon Paul Naschy in his first American movie!


THE MUMMY'S KISS: 2nd DYNASTY (DVD)
UPC #827912081121 / $19.99 SRP
Order Date: September 11, 2009 / Street Date: October 13, 2009

Eternal youth can be a curse as well as a blessing. That's what an aging beauty discovers after making a pact with an Egyptian goddess involving a revived Mummy and the stolen kas of three sensuous female victims in this horrific sequel to Frontline Entertainment's cult hit THE MUMMY'S KISS! Newly remastered with additional bonus features!

D2R ???

Lines are drawn in the sand... Forces put on the alert.

It's Redbox v. Fox !

Redbox, the company that rents DVDs through kiosks for $1 a day, has had a polarizing effect on the movie industry.

The latest salvo in this brawl happened yesterday when Redbox filed suit against 20th Century Fox in response to the studio’s recent attempt to prevent new release movies from reaching Redbox’s kiosks. Last week, Fox imposed a window with its wholesalers that prevented the sale of discs to Redbox during the first 30 days of a title’s release. This isn’t the first attempted studio shutout that Redbox has had to deal with. In October of last year, Redbox filed a similar suit against Universal Studios Home Entertainment over its attempt at creating a 45-day window between a title’s release and when it was available on Redbox.

Why the ruckus? Some studios believe that the $1 rental price destroys the value of a film and hurts revenue from DVD rentals and sales. Why pay $4.50 to rent a movie when you can grab it at the grocery store for just a buck?

[Who are the idiots out there paying $4.50 for a rental? Seriously, I want to kick them]

But not every studio is fighting Redbox. Disney supplies it with new release titles, and both Sony and Lions Gate recently signed distribution deals with the company. According to an SEC filing from Redbox, the Sony agreement was valued at $460 million over the next five years, and Lions Gate said that its deal would generate $200 million to $300 million over the next five years.

The studios’ moves both for and against Redbox illustrate just how powerful the company has become. Redbox will have 22,000 kiosks across the continental U.S. by the end of this year, and generated $389 million in revenue last year. USA Today writes:

Redbox pays about $18 for a DVD and rents it about 15 times at an average of $2 per transaction. The company sells half of the used DVDs back to wholesalers for as much as $4 per disc, and sells about 3 percent directly to consumers for about $7. It destroys most of the rest.

Redbox has grown so powerful that Netflix considers the company its biggest competitor.

------------------------------------------

Scenario:

I have the job of being the first Direct-2-Redbox supplier. I supply them with a movie guaranteed to rent - a pulp movie - at $18 a disc? For at least a 22,000 disc order? Domestic only?

$396,000 - gross profit.

$150,000 - production costs

$10,000 - marketing design and promotion (domestic only)

$22,000 - authoring, replication and shipping of discs.

$10,000 - legal and incidentals

-------------------------------

$104,000 profit for N. American DVD rights. (+/- $30,000 based on order, price per unit)

Still have all international rights to sell. Still have TV, and VOD rights to sell. And after the discs are destroyed at the end of the agreement - you retain rights to fulfill orders direct from a website.

And then of course, there's still merchandising.

Now if I set up an operation where I'm doing this 4x year....well, you do the math.

------------------------------------

I'm not saying it will work every time. There will be some movies that will be dogs. Some that will do well domestically, but crap out in the international market or vice versa. This is the model we were discussing here.

The more you do. The better, more efficient you become. The better, more responsive to your audience you are. A bunch of eggs, different baskets. Fewer worries if you break an egg.

Now get out there and make your own media.

Now They're MockBusting TV Shows and Pulps!

Our friends at The Asylum just released the trailer for their latest epic THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT based on the public domain novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

(You can read or listen to more of his works here)

However to cover their bases they are positioning the trailer to appeal to fans of a certain TV show that will conclude in 2010.

Smart planning:

Dinosaurs

Public domain properties

Marketing resembling a certain ABC TV show

Low budget

MEGACONDA - BEHIND THE SCENES (AND CAMERA)

Many people ask me a lot of the technical stuff about building a SciFi Channel movie (answer: Don't write one. The Channel is dead) including asking me about cameras and so forth. While I have a general producer's knowledge (just enough to make me dangerous and know whether or not I'm getting a bargain) here's an article by D2DVD mogul Fred Olen Ray (HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW HOOKERS, CYCLONE, LOST EMPIRE and a dozen or so BIKINI movies) that will answer many of your questions better than I can:

In May of 2009, we began shooting Megaconda, another giant monster movie aimed squarely at the straight-to-DVD and television market.

My oldest son, Chris, would again direct, this time from a screenplay by SciFi Channel veteran Steve Latshaw (Stan Lee's Lightspeed, Curse of the Komodo). Under the SAG low-budget agreement we added TV’s Greg Evigan (BJ And the Bear, My Two Dads) and Stella Stevens (The Nutty Professor, The Poseidan Adventure) to the cast for star power.

We decided to shoot the entire feature in HD and felt that we needed a better camera that went beyond the limitations of an HDV camcorder like the HVR-V1U, but something a lot less pricey than hiring the Sony F900 Cine Alta we were normally using for our television work.

While the show was to be a very low-budget affair I wanted a better image quality than we had had on Reptisaurus and it still had to be affordable.

We also wanted to buy instead of rent.

From left, director Christopher Douglas-Olen Ray and DoP Matt Freund with their EX1 rig while shooting Megaconda, featuring an onboard Ikan monitor, Cavision matte box and Hoodman viewfinder shade.

Enter the Sony XDCAM PMW-EX1.

----------------------------

Fred goes into greater detail in the article and it's one of those you want to bookmark, as he touches on issues that rarely enter the mind of the low budget filmmaker when it comes to delivering a movie - QC issues, production workflow, etc... Fred knows his stuff.

Yes, I'm Watching...

Thanks to the fine folks at TNT and E1 Entertainment I have been plowing through a stack of screeners for some fine television, some not so fine television, and a movie that...well, didn't measure up to the high standards of exploitation we hold near and dear.

So, in order of no significance whatsoever:

THE CLOSER - loved the opening of the new season. I remember when the show started and I was not so smitten as to tune in every week and see Kyra Sedgwick do her southern accent. But, like kudzu I suppose, she's grown on me with that southern charm and righteous indignation over injustice. While not appointment television (is there such a dinosaur anymore?) THE CLOSER will hit my DVD player or laptop at some point.

HAWTHORNE - uneven at best. While Jada Pinkett Smith can be charming and engaging, the whole show (the pilot) seemed to forget one crucial factor: "If this main character is putting her life back together after losing her husband, shouldn't we see more of him to understand the bond that's been severed?" I just couldn't buy into it all. I hope the second episode raises the bar considerably and really makes us feel for these people. Speaking of which...

RAISING THE BAR - into its second season now (?) and it has started to find its groove. Like CLOSER I will wait and bank some episodes before watching further. This is much better than the first pilot which looked (frankly) cheap.

THE HUNGER (SEASON 1) - E1 has reissued this Showtime series, but has cheaped out by not adding anything new to the mix. Great locations, actors and a few stories by the sharp-toothed bastard himself, Harlan Ellison. It is a show that follows the other anthology show formulas before it (TWILIGHT ZONE, NIGHT GALLERY, THE HITCHER) but with an emphasis on the weird, dark and sexy. I'm glad they were able to finally collect all the episodes (something I wanted to do when I was a t York, but was shot down because "people don't want to watch big packages of TV shows at once." This was, of course, before TV DVD took off and righteously put two slugs into that theory). The packaging is good and really reflects the nature of the show. Netflix it.

SAVING GRACE - not a big Holly Hunter fan, but this show grows on you too, as I can relate to some of the characters and their idioms. The screener didn't help change my opinion as it was poorly mastered and didn't play after the first episode, though the menu says there's three epeisodes on the disc. Oh well.

SOME WEDDING REALITY SHOW ON TNT - I watched two minutes of this (whatever it's really called) and nearly broke my DVD player in my haste to throw the disc against the wall. Hate is too weak a word for this waste of money and effort.

ELSEWHERE - a low budget indie movie that forgot that. What I mean by that is an "indie movie" is supposed to provide audiences with something they can't get elesewhere. ELSEWHERE IS supposed to be a thriller, but it forgot to be thrilling. This was a movie that played it too safe with the premise and will probably play on Lifetime at some point. I knew who did it right after he was introduced. No twists that you couldn't see a mile away. No turns, no threats (except once! I will give it that). I was extremely disappointed because I wanted this one to go for the throat and couldn't even gofor the kneecaps. Skip it.

I have TNT's DARK BLUE sitting on my desk and I'm anxious to sink my teeth into something akin to THE SHIELD. This is the impression I get from the key art so here's hoping.

Who Else in This Burg Just Completed a Feature Film Script?

Yeah baby!

What?!

That many...?

Bastards...

Warner Archive DVD's

Warner Bros. has launched their "Warner Archive" series of DVD-on-Demand releases that ushers in a new era of DVD distribution for the studios. There are several things that will be of interest and education for those out there looking at this model (whether via Createspace or other):

1) This is a perfect example of the value of a library of content. While these title may not sell all the time in wide release, they are what we call "evergreens." That means there are minimal sales over a longer period of time.

2) This ushers in a possible new era of acquisition by the studios for lower-budgeted product they can sell in the rental arena (BB, Netflix, other) and then through this D-O-D model. You could actually get your movie distributed by Warners, which if they promote properly and effectively (something they are slowly learning) could yield some good profit for you. It also opens up the idea of more in-house D2DVD productions which could be sold via this method. Imagine a line of $1m movies (something Sony is doing with ANGEL OF DEATH) promoted, marketed and sold online and internationally.

[And let's put it out there - if they could ever get their relationship with DC Comics flowing smoothly they could have an interesting line of movies featuring 2nd tier characters in the lineup...but that would take a lot of marketing, coordination and egoless cooperation. It would also mean building that area of the business over time]

3) It allows us to finally get cool movies we haven't seen in years - like this. We could also start to see things like packages of TV pilots put together in TV DVD packages.

4) This could be VERY competitive for the indie distributors out there. Warner Bros. has a lot of leverage with their product.

But as the name says, they are only releasing "Archive" material. I would hope that Paramount, Lionsgate, Universal and others would follow suit so we could start seeing some of the Republic serials available again.

Pirates! From a Superhero Comic ! Aarrrrgh!

From the upcoming Watchmen movie.

Private Benjamin by any Other Name...

would star Jessica Simpson.

I hate the Photoshop job they did on her eyes. Premiering on DVD.

It will (take my) make money.

Harvey and Bob Adding New Dimension to Their Business

From Variety here:


In a time of industry retrenchment, the Weinstein Co.’s Dimension Films is investing in the vid biz, greenlighting a batch of 18 direct-to-video pics for 2009 release.

The pics, budgeted at $3 million to $6 million apiece, are expected to begin shooting soon in several biz-friendly locales, among them Louisiana, Michigan, New Mexico and Canada. All fall under the Dimension Extreme label and will go through homevid distrib Genius Products.

Shooting will wrap by year’s end on most projects, though a few may stretch into the first quarter. DVD releases in 2009 are planned for all 18, the company said.

TWC co-chairman Bob Weinstein said the films, mostly sequels, prequels, remakes or spinoffs of TWC/Dimension titles, could debut in a particular ancillary arena -- DVD, VOD, TV or the Web -- depending on a closer look as they near release.

Under the Genius pact, the films also will have an exclusive rental berth in Blockbuster stores.

“There are so many non-theatrical platforms to watch movies from nowadays, I think it’s important to appeal to all moviegoing experiences,” Weinstein said. “Having learned how profitable a video library is and having already found great success launching franchises on video, this was a natural and obvious progression.”

What's the pulp formula for movie-making profitability again, kids?

Inexpensive entertainments marketed and distributed inexpensively for the masses.

Messrs. Weinstein get an "A."

These Guys...

Make me laugh every time they do one of these DVD Showdowns.

H/T to The Film School Rejects.

The Lunatics are Running The Asylum...

Of course, I mean this Asylum...

Dailies

Let Me Be Direct...

The whole industry is in a buzz about the web:

"How do we monetize it?"
"How do we produce something for so little money?"
"Where do we screen it? How?"

And quite rightly, they should be in a BIT of a buzz about it because these things should be discussed, dissected and researched. Everyone is searching for the one magic formula - the silver bullet - that will lead to success in this arena. To be honest I don't think there is one silver bullet, I think there are about 99 steel-jacketed ones.

The problem has not been what to shoot, it's been, "Where do I aim?"

As I was doing my own bit of research and analysis in this area, I found what I believe is the crux of the entire matter - That acronym that will be the gauge by which we create this new media (which includes movies, short films, fiction, animation, RPGs, ARGs, music, etc...).

In the past, we've had Direct-to-Video (DtV), Direct-to-DVD (D2DVD), Video-on-Demand (VoD), Pay-per-View (PPV) and of course, Warren Ellis' Direct-to-Internet (D2I)... but really that doesn't begin to encompass all of the possibilities of the web does it?

So, I pondered awhile and rethought the approach. Again - not "what am I shooting, but what am I aiming at?" Coming at it from that reverse angle I came up with what I think encompasses the ideology and business philosophy of what is occuring in mediamaking for the web.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present...

D2A
(Direct -to-Audience)

Simple. Applicable to all media forms found on the net. Establishes the premise upon which the web is built - a direct connection between creator and audience. No middlemen. No distributors. No sub-distributors. No dilution of the message.

Knowing that you are going directly to your audience allows you to bypass those areas of the entertainment industry where your audience doesn't reside. Your audience doesn't watch tv? Okay - no tv ads or screening on television as the primary revenue source. Your audience downloads and has an interest in new music? Then Itunes it is....with attached advertising geared to that and nothing else. Ditto merchandising and promotion.

Where is your audience? Are you really reaching them?

Because directly connecting with your audience is going to make all the difference in this new media world.

What He [The Other Bill] Said...

Here.

DISContent on the Way...

Okay, so I gave WB a knee-capping for not moving quickly enough in the original web content arena, but a little bird told me that they are doing some stuff that has been completed just not widely publicized or released...fair enough.

Anyway, I forgot that studios move notoriously slow and like to thoroughly plow any and all fields of endeavor before moving onto the next big thing. They are totally unlike indies in that regard who flit to the next thing as quickly as a hummingbird to a flower.

Video Business proves this point with a nifty little article on how DVD Premieres are getting more attention from the studios...

"As the cost to produce and market theatrical films continues to rise, nearly all the majors are supplementing their theatrical releases with high-profile fare made for DVD, building on a trend of the past several years. These titles, many franchise sequels, often have much higher-profile and bigger budgets than traditional straight-to-video genre fare but are less expensive to bring to retail than major theatrical releases.

The new crop of DVD premiere “tentpoles” includes Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s Starship Troopers 3: Marauder; MGM Home Entertainment’s Stargate: Continuum, which shot at the North Pole among other locations; Warner Premiere sequels The Lost Boys: The Tribe and Another Cinderella Story; Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment’s Futurama: Bender’s Game. Previously stalled franchises are being resurrected, such as Universal’s plans to release the first new Beethoven in five years by the end of 2008.

“The direct-to-DVD movie is as old as the DVD business itself,” MGM president Eric Doctorow said. “But what has happened in the last three years is that you can’t make any old movie and throw it together and expect the consumer to buy and rent it.”

There are many reasons why they are producing all these DVD Premieres, but the primary reason is money. These movies cost far less to make and market , and yes - done effectively (premiere at Comic Con, targeted ads, etc...) they really pay off in sales numbers, partially due to the fact that each property now has its own library (see post below) . This offsets the fact that more and more people are downloading. They are easing the transition.

So here's what you can expect from the studios:

Release Date	Title (Label/Distributor)
July 29	Stargate: Continuum (MGM/Fox)
	The Lost Boys: The Tribe (Warner)
Aug. 5	Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (Sony)
Aug. 19	Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior (Universal)
Sept. 2	Bratz: Girls Really Rock (Lionsgate)
Sept. 16	Another Cinderella Story (Warner)
Oct. 28	Tinker Bell (Disney)
Nov. 4	Futurama: Bender’s Game (Fox)
Late 2008	New Beethoven installment (Universal)
	Resident Evil: Degeneration (Sony)
	The Clique (Warner)
	Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead (Fox)
2009	Behind Enemy Lines 3: Colombia (Fox)
	Legally Blonde 3 (MGM/Fox)
	Tales of the Black Freighter, related to theatrical Watchmen (Warner)
	The Hills Run Red (Warner)
	Scooby-Doo: In the Beginning (Warner)
	Space Buddies (Disney)

Jack Brooks, Monster Slayer

I was recently given the opportunity to review Anchor Bay Entertainment's JACK BROOKS, MONSTER SLAYER. This is a D2DVD release by AB starring Robert (do I really need to give you his credits?) Englund and several other unknowns both in front and behind the camera.

On the surface JBMS is a terrific premise for a movie - an average Joe, a plumber by trade, is trying to deal with life's little problems like the fact he is in dire need of some anger management. Jack (Trevor Matthews - also the producer) gets angry at everyone, but buries his rage until it explodes forth by punch or crunch.


All of this relates to a childhood trauma Jack has where he witnessed his family's murder (okay, slaughter) by a bloodthirsty creature of the night. Jack is told there's, "no such thing as monsters," until of course, he encounters the supernatural yet again, and finally has a worthy target for his pent up rage.

JBMS has all the earmarks of a first-time feature filmmaker group with a great premise, but no experience or craft to back it up. The exception being the wonderfully goofy Special FX that include a "Big Daddy Roth" inspired Englund puppet and plenty of tentacle softcore porn. This movie makes a lot of promises, but fails to deliver in nearly every case - why?

Because I don't think that the filmmakers (writer, director, cast) knew what sort of movie they were making. There are a few moments that are "inspired" but they are surrounded by so many moments that are cliche', poorly staged padding to the movie, or just downright wrong.

One problem I had with the movie was the fact that the hero cursed all the time. It made him unlikeable and really foul. How are we supposed to root for our hero to overcome his problems and win the day when we really don't like his foul mouth?

The whole subplot / flashback could have been used in a much better way to reflect the emotional subtext of Jack's crisis. Instead the idea of a monster's heart just sort of lies there and doesn't add to the movie.

There are moments where the filmmakers were obviously influenced by movies like EVIL DEAD, RE-ANIMATOR etc...movies that have both the funny and the horror. But JBMS doesn't have any of the energy of those movies. It's like the idea of "almost funny" - it's either funny or its not.

In this regard, JBMS -- which is supposed to be both funny and horrific -- is neither.

Batman: Gotham Knight

Wow... get it now.

Edit to rant: A lot has been made lately about how DC has been dropping the ball when it comes to making good movies from their properties, but these D2DVD movies - Superman: Doomsday, Justice League: The Final Frontier and now this - are really good. I think they have a niche here they could really exploit well. Yes, I want to see more big movies like Dark Knight, but in between, my library of movies will embrace this kind of D2DVD goodness.

See Ya on the Bounce, Trooper!

Great production value. Wonderfully fascistic political cheese, Bug FX, explosions, Starships and all...

Premiering on DVD!

Yes Trooper, this is what you're fighting for! Cool movies that premiere on DVD!

(See what citizenship gets you?)

Wait...what did you think I meant?



Click here for the official site.

This Just In...

I received a screener today for a Scifi Channel original that I am going to review for the blog and for Geekerati.

Though I wonder if they follow the Scifi Channel Structure?

I won't tell you the title, but the concept is very similar to this:

Hrrrrm...

The NY Times writes about the "interesting" approach that Warners is taking with their new movie WATCHMEN:

Faced with a decline in DVD sales, Warner Brothers, part of Time Warner, is planning an unusual effort around its upcoming adaptation of the popular graphic novel “Watchmen.” Directed by Zack Snyder and set for a March 2009 release, the big-budget movie tells the story of a group of retired superheroes who are tied to a conspiracy that could change history.

The twist is that Mr. Snyder, known for turning the Spartan comic book series “300” into a global hit movie, is also directing a separate-but-related picture that Warner plans to distribute exclusively on DVD.

The second film, tentatively called “Tales of the Black Freighter,” follows a side “Watchmen” storyline about a shipwreck and will arrive in stores five days after the main movie rolls out in theaters. The DVD will also include a documentary-style film called “Under the Hood” that will delve into the characters’ backstories.

And then there's some comics guys who just don't get how cool this is, and how we as a comic-reading audience need things like this to happen if comics are to survive.

So let me dissect this a bit:

1. Comic book movie coming out theatrically.
2. D2DVD tie-in movie coming out 5 days later to expand and fulfill the entire story of Watchmen.
3. Doc-style movie providing even more background for the movie.

I personally have always thought that Watchmen shouldn't have been a movie project as there was too much scope in the storytelling - too many parallel stories going on. I've been on the side of an HBO mini-series. This approach by Warners is trying to encompass the entire "Watchmen Universe" and tell the whole story but in separate formats (but still following the elements found in the book).

How is this a bad thing again?