Norske filmklassikere: Crowd funded releases of Norwegian films on Blu-ray

[magnusbe]

With Christer Falck as a main driving force there will launch a new crowdfunding project for releasing Norwegian films on Blu-ray. The main focus will be on films that have not been in on DVD previously, but also OOP or very bad DVD releases may be part of the project.
The Facebook page of the project is here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/norskefilmklassikere

The project is in cooperation with Platekompaniet, the major retailer of physical media in Norway. Platekompaniet has previously collaborated with the National Library on a smaller series of re-releases.

Christer Falck runs three similar crowdfunding projects:
Norske albumklassikere på CD - music albums previously unreleased on CD
Norske albumklassikere på LP - music albums previously unreleased on LP
Norske albumklassikere på bok - books about classic music albums

There have been over 500 CDs, 120 LPs and 70 books released so far.

The films will be released on Blu-ray, with English and Norwegian subtitles. Bonus materials will not be a major part of the project, probably only repeats of what has previously been released if any.

As of now they are asking for what people want, and suggestions for packaging and such.

For the crowdfunding part I think it is likely that it will be difficult for non-Norwegian residents to take part, it has been that way with CDs and LPs. Loads of the sales have gone overseas, though.

[magnusbe]

Three of those who join the Facebook-group this week will win the 20 first crowdfunded Blu-rays.
https://www.platekompaniet.no/norske...re-konkurranse

Disclaimer: I think this will only apply to people living in Norway.

[magnusbe]

It seems the first film will De dødes tjern (Lake of the Dead). It has not previously been on BD in Norway, there is only a US release.

It says Dolby Digital Mono as audio track, but I think this is just due to the designers copying info from the DVD.

This is not the final cover, but shows how the design will be. The colour scheme will match the decade the film is from, so every decade will have its own colour.

There will most likely not be any extras that have not been on previous DVDs.

Crowdfunding will begin in 7-14 days.



Blu-ray.com review and info:

[magnusbe]

Originally Posted by magnusbe

It says Dolby Digital Mono as audio track, but I think this is just due to the designers copying info from the DVD.

Confirmed it will be DTS Master Audio HD.

[magnusbe]

Colour codes for decades. 1930s will be 1900-1930.

[magnusbe]

It seems the price will be 249 NOK per release, plus 39 NOK in postage (domestic). The goal amount will be 50 000 NOK, so 200 pre-purchases. The period of crowd funding will be 30 days.

The crowd funding will take place on this site:
https://bidra.no/film

[magnusbe]

Seems the images I used from Facebook doesn't work, drat.

Crowd funding will begin on October 5th with De dødes tjern (Lake of the Dead). The next days a total of 10 titles will be launched for crowd funding.

1. De dødes tjern (1958)
2. One from the 1970s
3. One from the 1980s
4. One from the 1930s
5. One from the 1980s
6. One from the 1970s
7. One from the 1940s
8. One from the 2000s
9. One from the 1950s
10. One from the 1990s

[magnusbe]

Crowd funding for De dødes tjern is now live.
https://bidra.no/prosjekt/bd-de-d%C3...a-fa917f6e6326

[magnusbe]

The release was financed within one hour and is now at 220 % of the initial goal.

[magnusbe]

The next blu-ray release to be crowdfunded is the children's movie Knutsen & Ludvigsen (1974).
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151232/
https://bidra.no/prosjekt/bluray-knu...udvigsen-1974/

[magnusbe]

Knutsen & Ludvigsen reached 100 %!

[magnusbe]

Next film out will be the dystopian Sweetwater from 1988.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096202/
https://bidra.no/prosjekt/bluray-swe...4-4b9f175727be

[McCrutchy]

Can you back the campaigns internationally? For example, could I receive the Blu-rays in the USA?

[magnusbe]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

Can you back the campaigns internationally? For example, could I receive the Blu-rays in the USA?

Sadly, at the moment the crowd funding site is open only for Norwegians. The films will have English subtitles and English information on the cover.

After the blu-rays are published they will of course be available to buy. HOWEVER, Platekompaniet does not ship abroad. I think work is being done to find distributors abroad and also to cooperate with web stores in Norway that ship abroad.

I hope these kinks get hammered out, the ambition of the project is to eventually get ALL Norwegian films on Blu-ray.

I post here because I think it is an awesome project, and might inspire others to do something similar. I also hope people who import discs for sale etc might see this and strike a deal with the publishers in Norway.

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by magnusbe

Sadly, at the moment the crowd funding site is open only for Norwegians. The films will have English subtitles and English information on the cover.

After the blu-rays are published they will of course be available to buy. HOWEVER, Platekompaniet does not ship abroad. I think work is being done to find distributors abroad and also to cooperate with web stores in Norway that ship abroad.

I hope these kinks get hammered out, the ambition of the project is to eventually get ALL Norwegian films on Blu-ray.

I post here because I think it is an awesome project, and might inspire others to do something similar. I also hope people who import discs for sale etc might see this and strike a deal with the publishers in Norway.

Thanks. That's a shame, but at least the discs are English-friendly. Please keep posting updates, as I know I am enjoying reading them and I hope the series is a success in Norway. Perhaps Platekompaniet will be able to devise a solution for international shipping once all the titles are funded and released.

[magnusbe]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

Thanks. That's a shame, but at least the discs are English-friendly. Please keep posting updates, as I know I am enjoying reading them and I hope the series is a success in Norway. Perhaps Platekompaniet will be able to devise a solution for international shipping once all the titles are funded and released.

Thank you for the interest, I'm pretty stoked with this project. So many Norwegian films are not being released on physical media these days, and then often just on DVD. There is still only one 4K release of a Norwegian film in Norway, even though the National Library sits on 4K scans of several films.

At the moment close to 700 have pre-ordered Lake of the Dead, and I guess that number will cross 1000 by the end of this campaign.

This will be a major push for Norwegian distributors to reassess their policy on not releasing physical media.

In this project there will now be 10 films in the first batch, one new per day for 10 days. The title is released at midnight, then crowd funding opens at 0900. For the first films the restoration and scans are already done, later on one might have to finance such work.

[magnusbe]

Sweetwater reached 100 % as well. So far this project has exceeded expectations of how quickly people would pre-order. It will be very interesting if one can keep this up for a long time. Two of these films, Knutsen & Ludvigsen and Sweetwater, have not had physical releases since VHS. They are available as VOD, but not outside Norway and only on one service.

[magnusbe]

Next film will be Den forsvundne pølsemaker (1941)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033624/
https://bidra.no/prosjekt/bluray-den...1-faa95fafda24

[hm83]

This is a great idea, and a way to get more movies released on Blu-ray. I wish we had something similar in Sweden. We do have a few labels releasing older Swedish films on Blu-ray, but the releases are far apart and a lot of times they release on DVD only.

I’ve always said that SF Studios who owns the rights to many films and have collaborations with a lot of studios should do a numbered collectors series as a subscription or partially crowd funded project. This could be a Nordic series to reach more customers. Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish films mixed with international titles that never had a Nordic Blu-ray or 4K release before.

This Norwegian project is interesting, but it is a bit unfortunate that there’s no way to take part outside of Norway. It would have been interesting to see the interest for this in the other Nordic countries, if they could take part and the releases had all the Nordic subtitles.

[magnusbe]

I would love to have a Nordic collaboration on this, but I think the logistics and rights issues would make it difficult.

What makes the Norwegian project work (hopefully, it is barely out of the starting position) is that it is a collaboration between
a) an experienced crowd funder and publisher of record and books, with a "staff" of designers, writers and others that have already collaborated on hundreds of productions
b) the only large scale film and music store left in Norway, with inventory system, packaging department, stock rooms, physical store etc. They have also done their own releases of blu-rays of Kampen om Narvik, Three Wishes for Cinderella (1973) etc.
c) The National Library scans and restores films, and have loads of ready-made 2K/4K scans that have not yet been released on DVD/BD. They have done some very good releases, but are more into archiving and restoration, not marketing and sales.

So far there is only a deal with one publisher, Norsk filmdistribusjon, and there are about 120 titles that can be released.

I think the best way forward on a Nordic scale wold be for similiar projects to start in Denmark, Sweden and Finland, and then to make an umbrella organisation. This umbrella could organise distribution and marketing in the different countries, so that the produced discs get into stores, librarires et cetera in all the countries. It could also source subtitles and so on. For Sweden, Denmark and Norway I think it would suffice with a Scandinavian language and English as subs for most people who would buy these. Finland would need Finnish subs, and the rest would need at least Swedish. For a mass market I agree you need four Nordic subtitles.

Then the problem is that Norwegian collectors will buy a fairly crap Norwegian film because of the director or the actors, or nostalgia, or (film) historic importance. Collectors in the rest of the Nordic will most likely care more about the absolute classics. So, I think De dødes tjern might sell well in the rest of the Nordics, while the other three films so far will not.

So... If a Nordic umbrella is established it might pick out projects that could be crwodfunded in the Nordics ...