Twilight Time Discussion Thread

[krasnoludek]

Originally Posted by Dex Robinson

An even quicker expedient for Christmas is just swap it into a case for one of his own Blu-rays that doesn't get watched very often.

I've done that on a few occasions where I got a damaged case.

I grab some crappy old BD I bought five years ago (and I rarely, if ever, rewatch) and swap it's good case for the damaged case.

Thanks, Dex and Puppetmaster. I didn't even think of that, but of course that's a simple solution.

[jstxanothrxstory]

Best Buy also sells blu-ray cases.

[rdodolak]

Another Nick Redman interview but this time from The Overlook.

http://www.overlookmoviestore.com/20...s-nick-redman/

[NoirFan]

A quote from that article, in response to a question about new commentaries and the licensing of additional extras:

Originally Posted by Nick Redman

Having done many, many commentaries for the studios over the years, I was missing the fun of doing them, so yes, more commentaries in the offing…we are also licensing a lot more supplements from the studios and elsewhere to go on some of our upcoming titles…

[PuppetMasterBlu]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

Another Nick Redman interview but this time from The Overlook.

http://www.overlookmoviestore.com/20...s-nick-redman/

Best part of that interview:Have there been any problems bringing any of the titles to market? I imagine there are all manner of issues that can blight a release at the production stage?

We’ve been lucky in the sense that we’ve had no calamities at the production stage…I suppose the worst thing that happened was a consumer backlash over the colour timing on the remake of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD…this was beyond our control as it was a new transfer sanctioned by the studio and filmmakers, but it was different enough to upset some hardcore fans of the film who were used to seeing it on VHS and cable in an overly contrast boosted fashion making the film much “lighter” than it actually was in theaters…

[Crom1]

Originally Posted by PuppetMasterBlu

Best part of that interview:Have there been any problems bringing any of the titles to market? I imagine there are all manner of issues that can blight a release at the production stage?

We’ve been lucky in the sense that we’ve had no calamities at the production stage…I suppose the worst thing that happened was a consumer backlash over the colour timing on the remake of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD…this was beyond our control as it was a new transfer sanctioned by the studio and filmmakers, but it was different enough to upset some hardcore fans of the film who were used to seeing it on VHS and cable in an overly contrast boosted fashion making the film much “lighter” than it actually was in theaters…

Good old TT, blaming the fans on TT's NOTLD colour timing mess. Also making it seem like NOTLD was tinted blue in the theatres, but just saying it was darker. Damage control/revisionist history again.

Here's to hoping nobody licenses any good titles to TT.

[Rich Pure Doom]

Originally Posted by PuppetMasterBlu

Best part of that interview:Have there been any problems bringing any of the titles to market? I imagine there are all manner of issues that can blight a release at the production stage?

We’ve been lucky in the sense that we’ve had no calamities at the production stage…I suppose the worst thing that happened was a consumer backlash over the colour timing on the remake of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD…this was beyond our control as it was a new transfer sanctioned by the studio and filmmakers, but it was different enough to upset some hardcore fans of the film who were used to seeing it on VHS and cable in an overly contrast boosted fashion making the film much “lighter” than it actually was in theaters…

What a joke. This company is garbage.

[Ill_Be_Back]

Originally Posted by PuppetMasterBlu

Best part of that interview:Have there been any problems bringing any of the titles to market? I imagine there are all manner of issues that can blight a release at the production stage?

We’ve been lucky in the sense that we’ve had no calamities at the production stage…I suppose the worst thing that happened was a consumer backlash over the colour timing on the remake of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD…this was beyond our control as it was a new transfer sanctioned by the studio and filmmakers, but it was different enough to upset some hardcore fans of the film who were used to seeing it on VHS and cable in an overly contrast boosted fashion making the film much “lighter” than it actually was in theaters…

Hardcore fans? My friend who didn't even see the film before thought the Blue tint was a bit strange, they are just covering themselves. I guess what is done is done.

[octagon]

It's kind of fun watching the stories subtly evolve over the years...


Nick Redman Home Theater Forum Interview Dec 2011

So we said to Fox Video, look, we are going to completely eradicate all of that because we are dealing with one distributor only, Screen Archives Entertainment, with whom we have been working the last 20 years with soundtracks. They understand this business completely inside and out. They are the Number One purveyor of soundtracks in the nation. And, we will limit our runs to 3000 units-the same number that we chose for our soundtracks back in the 90s. It seemed to me that there would be 3000 people in North America who would be interested in catalogue titles, particularly those that haven’t been available on DVD at all before. So that's really how the Twilight Time idea and business model began.

Nickd Redman KQEK Interview - taken Nov 2011

So, working in conjunction with FSM, I said to [label owner / magazine publisher Lukas Kendall] 'What if we distributed Fox CDs just through your magazine and we go to the union and we call it 'the magazine rate?' They become limited editions, 3,000 units only, they're sold as part of the subscription to your magazine.'

On that basis, Fox Music business affairs people went to the union, and the union agreed for the first time that they would allow what they then started to refer to as ‘the magazine rate’ which was effective for limited editions, and Fox started releasing a bunch of its titles through the auspices of FSM.

Now, you may have noticed recently that Lukas has decided that he was going to close down his label, and has recently been writing on his website the history of every CD that he put out. He talks about how many were pressed and how many were sold and how many are left, and that shows you that right back in the mid- to late-nineties, 3,000 units for most catalogue soundtracks was too high a number.

We decided on 3,000 because we thought 'Hell, we're talking about world-wide. Is there 3,000 people in the world that would support basically a good percentage of catalogue soundtrack releases?' and we found over the years that mostly to be untrue. Now how shocking is that? There are not 3,000 people in the world that would buy a catalogue soundtrack, or most catalogue soundtracks.

Current Nick Redmon Interview Overlook Movie Store

The 3000 unit number is mostly dead-on for the vast majority of catalogue titles, and many will struggle to sell that amount over a three-year period. We thought carefully about that number and it is solidly based on studio market research despite what the naysayers think about how many hundreds of thousands would sell if only the studio put it out at a $5 price-point yada-yada-yada

Two Years Ago: We more or less picked 3000 out of the air when we pitched the limited catalog cds back in the 90s and when the time came to start Twilight Time we decided to stick with the same number. The Devil you know and all that.

Today: The 3000 number is solidly based on painstaking studio maket research.

Prediction: within a year we're going to hear or read in an interview that Fox and Sony actually initiated all this by coming to them with the idea for 3000 unit run limited editions.

[popeflick]

Originally Posted by Crom1

Good old TT, blaming the fans on TT's NOTLD colour timing mess. Also making it seem like NOTLD was tinted blue in the theatres, but just saying it was darker. Damage control/revisionist history again.

Here's to hoping nobody licenses any good titles to TT.

Except that's not at all what he said but believe what you want.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by popeflick

Except that's not at all what he said but believe what you want.

Exactly.

People read into things what they want, particularly if they have a beef against someone/something.

Point is TT didn't do the transfer, they didn't revise the color timing themselves, so why blame them?

[klauswhereareyou]

A problem some people here may have with the transfers on Twilight Time discs is that they would like a Criterion Collection level of transparency as far as who prepared them. Yes we know TT didn't, but who exactly? Seems like it wouldn't be too hard for them to put that info somewhere in their booklets, much like Criterion does. We see where they were authored, but not who was in on it.

Obviously in the case of NOTLD, a mistake was made in the color timing on the new disc, Redman and co. didn't question because they probably had never seen the film before, and voila it made it out without the chance of a corrected version making it's way out anytime soon thanks to their 3,000 copy deal.

[Blu-ray Neo]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

Exactly.

People read into things what they want, particularly if they have a beef against someone/something.

Point is TT didn't do the transfer, they didn't revise the color timing themselves, so why blame them?

Because they're the ones that put out the product. Regardless of who did the transfer, TT's name is there on the package so they have to accept responsibility for the screw up.

If anything, the moment they noticed an issue with the transfer, they should have taken appropriate steps.

[klauswhereareyou]

I always thought the 3,000 number was picked because of the music soundtrack model that a lot of the on-line companies like Intrada, FSM, etc. used, plus the fact that originally Twilight Time was putting out old movies that really would be lucky to sell 3,000 copies (Rapture, The Roots of Heaven, Pal Joey, etc...).

Funny thing is that if some of the films that went out via TT that have not sold out yet (As Good as it Gets, Steel Magnolias, Sleepless in Seattle, Blue Lagoon) were actually being sold in stores, they actually would've sold well over 3,000 by now, and I would have to think that stuff that did sell out like Fright Night, Christine, Night of the Living Dead, and Body Double would actually be doing way over 3,000 right now.

And something like Mindwarp that is one of those treasured genre films but has zero cult appeal and most seem to think it's terrible, well that one actually probably would sell okay at 5 bucks a pop, because it looks like the type of crappy genre film that people would plop down 5 bucks if it was sitting on the shelves at Wal-Mart, but it doesn't have the cult or critical cache to command 30 bucks on-line via one or two websites.

[popeflick]

Originally Posted by Blu-ray Neo

Because they're the ones that put out the product. Regardless of who did the transfer, TT's name is there on the package so they have to accept responsibility for the screw up.

If anything, the moment they noticed an issue with the transfer, they should have taken appropriate steps.

What was the screw up?

A bunch of fanboys of a mediocre (at BEST) film got their panties in a wad because the DP had Sony make some color timing changes.

So who's at fault? Not the distributor, and if you think so you have no idea how the business works.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by popeflick

A bunch of fanboys of a mediocre (at BEST) film got their panties in a wad because the DP had Sony make some color timing changes.

I think it's pretty clear based on the DP's own comments that he had no involvement in the changes other than someone making changes based on a prior phone conversation that took place with the DP at some point in time. The DP has claimed he didn't even see the final product so it's hard to claim that the DP had Sony make the changes. The changes lie with Sony and they're the ones that chose to make the changes and no one else.

[balthazar_bee]

Originally Posted by Blu-ray Neo

If anything, the moment they noticed an issue with the transfer, they should have taken appropriate steps.

Which, as far as we know, is exactly what happened.

Ah, what the hell. I'll play. Again.

They get the film from Sony, retimed according to the DP's specs for a stillborn Sony-direct anniversary edition. Check. (And you're kidding yourself if you think the boys at TT knew the exact circumstances at the time -- i.e. it was dictated over the phone, the DP didn't see the finished product, etc.)

They create the discs, which are otherwise quite strong. Check.

Tom Savini sees it, says it looks great. Check.

Blu-ray.com explodes with righteous fury. "Blue! By God, blue!" Check.

They offer full refunds on open merchandise. Check.

In glorious nerdlinger fashion, blu-ray.com users hold irrational grudge for years to come, despite the fact that none of them have (a) lost any money on the transaction or (b) any reason to hold Twilight Time directly responsible for the look of the film on blu-ray (which is irrelevant if we accept the first point in any case). Check.

You can argue that they had no business releasing a film that they weren't "passionate" about -- if they loved the movie the way some people do, they might've been more proactive about investigating (or simply aware of) the differences between the looks of different home video releases -- but you're flat-earth, fake-moon-landing kidding yourself if you think Sony would've issued a recall, created a new version, or even gone as far as Twilight Time with respect to refunds.

[popeflick]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

I think it's pretty clear based on the DP's own comments that he had no involvement in the changes other than someone making changes based on a prior phone conversation that took place with the DP at some point in time. The DP has claimed he didn't even see the final product so it's hard to claim that the DP had Sony make the changes. The changes lie with Sony and they're the ones that chose to make the changes and no one else.

You're being deliberately obtuse with the published story: Sony had a phone conversation with the DP specifically regarding the changes. The story also goes that he did never see it, but don't make the phone conversation sound like an "oh by the way..." casually thing, because it wasn't.

And that's besides the point: I don't believe TT deliberately misled anyone about the "official transfer" because it's clear the folks at Sony gave them "facts" regarding the changes that weren't QUITE true: ie - they probably made it sound like the DP was there to make the changes neglecting to tell them it was basically phoned in. In any event, this was NEVER TT's fault, they're left with egg on their face because of a Sony boondogle.

But hey, it's easier to hate on a company that sell films for 30 dollars, as opposed to 4 cents which is what everyone here basically wants.

[popeflick]

Originally Posted by Blu-ray Neo

If anything, the moment they noticed an issue with the transfer, they should have taken appropriate steps.

They offered a full refund, what else should they have done - delivered you tissues?

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by popeflick

You're being deliberately obtuse with the published story: Sony had a phone conversation with the DP specifically regarding the changes. The story also goes that he did never see it, but don't make the phone conversation sound like an "oh by the way..." casually thing, because it wasn't.

And that's besides the point: I don't believe TT deliberately misled anyone about the "official transfer" because it's clear the folks at Sony gave them "facts" regarding the changes that weren't QUITE true: ie - they probably made it sound clike the DP was there to make the changes neglecting to tell them it was basically phoned in. In any event, this was NEVER TT's fault, they're left with egg on their face because of a Sony boondogle.

But hey, it's easier to hate on a company that sell films for 30 dollars, as opposed to 4 cents which is what everyone here basically wants.

What's clear is the DP never approved of the changes. But what's even more clear is you think everyone is hating on TT and you need to defend them. Please show me where in my comment I was hating on the company?

What's even more absurd is that you still think that everyone who disagrees with the changes all goes back to the premise that TT doesn't sell their titles on the cheap or for "4 cents" as you say.

Originally Posted by HyperRealist

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