Third Window Films Discussion Thread

[Faustus]

Originally Posted by thirdwindowfilms

Just need a photo of the disc, and don’t have time to wait for it to be posted to Japan

If it's just for reference purposes, there's this:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/~4EAA...Km/s-l1600.jpg

No good for an actual scan, though.

Edit: R1 version, sorry.

[Arrowheadrevisited]

Originally Posted by thirdwindowfilms

Just need a photo of the disc, and don’t have time to wait for it to be posted to Japan

Alternative here:

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by Arrowheadrevisited

Alternative here:

Perfect, thank you!!!

[Yurakucho]

Just scanned my copy. I scanned the wrong side initially, so if you want the disc I have that too. https://ibb.co/4F5qmYB

[greenrose]

Originally Posted by thirdwindowfilms

I wish. Tried to get it but they were asking ludicrous money for it

That's a shame. Hopefully, they will change their tune.

[Yami]

Originally Posted by greenrose

Word on the street is that more Sogo Ishii movies are coming out on blu ray. Labyrinth of Dreams being the next one.

I'm not sure what the source of this was - clearly it's not too reliable! - but hopefully there is more Ishii coming, if not Labyrinth of Dreams. We know that August in the Water is unlikely in the short term but any of his more recent work e.g. Flower of Shanidar, That's It!, Self-Revolutionary Cinematic Struggle, The Box Man, would be cool to see

[Daedolon]

I didn't realize it's 2024 already. Can't wait for Vital!

[Yurakucho]

Is the Yosui Inoue song in this video actually used in any Shinji Somai films?

https://youtube.com/watch?v=LPI__QUVNZ4&si=zzgXY9X5nJxLTZnx

[Yami]

Originally Posted by Yurakucho

Is the Yosui Inoue song in this video actually used in any Shinji Somai films?

It's performed by the lead actress in Tokyo Heaven

[Huseyin]

Originally Posted by thirdwindowfilms

Chime will be available worldwide to buy soon directly from its production company Roadstead - http://roadstead.io/chime/
It's a DVT platform, so the film won't be available to screen at any more festivals, in theatres or on physical media.

The other 2 Kurosawa films out this year, Serpent's Path and Cloud will probably play Cannes and Venice, so I'd imagine a bigger distributor than I will take them on.

I will have 1 Kurosawa film out later this year, but like the other one I released recently, it's an older and more obscure work, so I'd imagine it's not the type of Kurosawa that most people are asking for.

Yikes I saw they are selling it for £77 for a digital copy

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by Huseyin

Yikes I saw they are selling it for £77 for a digital copy

I bought a copy and will be able to rent it out after May 13, so will make it affordable after then

[theosh]

Originally Posted by thirdwindowfilms

I bought a copy and will be able to rent it out after May 13, so will make it affordable after then

So, is it any good? I’m a massive Kurosawa fan, but fear I may never get a chance to see this one.

[Rutger Lundgren]

Originally Posted by theosh

So, is it any good? I’m a massive Kurosawa fan, but fear I may never get a chance to see this one.

I'm sure that I will, but unless they change their minds, probably not in a legal way. I'm sorry, but there's no chance in hell I'm ever supporting anything to do with NFTs. Artificial manufacturing of scarcity for digital goods? Just say no.

[ZombAid]

Originally Posted by theosh

So, is it any good? I’m a massive Kurosawa fan, but fear I may never get a chance to see this one.

It is. I saw it at the Berlinale and it has a similar vibe to his earlier works. (Cure, Pulse)
The sense of dread this movie invokes is second to none.

I have a short review on Letterboxd.
If you search for my name, you'll find it.
(Links from Letterboxd aren't really wanted here...)

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by theosh

So, is it any good? I’m a massive Kurosawa fan, but fear I may never get a chance to see this one.

After May 13th you'll have the chance as people who bought a copy (like myself) will be able to rent it out. So you'll be able to rent it at a reasonable price. Won't be available in any other format

[bleedandtrim]

Originally Posted by thirdwindowfilms

After May 13th you'll have the chance as people who bought a copy (like myself) will be able to rent it out. So you'll be able to rent it at a reasonable price. Won't be available in any other format

So we'd be renting it from you directly? How does that even work?

[Cinematt]

Originally Posted by bleedandtrim

So we'd be renting it from you directly? How does that even work?

I couldn't tell from reading the platform that's selling it exactly. It says if you buy the NFT you have the right to sell it on or to rent it out, but not to do commercial screenings. The mechanism for either selling or renting wasn't clear. I'm assuming you can't just upload it to amazon and that the platform has some kind of portal for managing the rentals (because some of the revenue from that is meant to go back to the filmmakers) but then how do you stop all the people that have bought it just being in a mad competition for rental revenue on the same site? I'm certainly intrigued to find out, and I'm very happy there will be a way to watch the film for people that don't want to spend £75.

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by Cinematt

I couldn't tell from reading the platform that's selling it exactly. It says if you buy the NFT you have the right to sell it on or to rent it out, but not to do commercial screenings. The mechanism for either selling or renting wasn't clear. I'm assuming you can't just upload it to amazon and that the platform has some kind of portal for managing the rentals (because some of the revenue from that is meant to go back to the filmmakers) but then how do you stop all the people that have bought it just being in a mad competition for rental revenue on the same site? I'm certainly intrigued to find out, and I'm very happy there will be a way to watch the film for people that don't want to spend £75.

Yes, it's a little complicated, but it would seem that "commercial screenings" means screenings in cinemas. From what I can see is you can use their platform to rent it out, so that it gets streamed from their platform directly and they also take a percentage of each sale on top.
The thing about 'competition' is the same with distributors. For example, I'll release a film (let's say, DOOR) and another distributor will also do. As our markets and audience mostly won't overlap, the majority of their customers would not have known about my release and the only way they'll know that DOOR has been released is through this other distributor.
In this case, even with hundreds of people owning licenses, each person will only have a limited number of people they know to rent it out to, and those people may have never heard of the site or film otherwise, so their direct connection to the film will come from the person renting it. And once they've reached the site they've been pointed to, they'll only be able to watch the film with the code they've received from the person who pointed them in its direction.
It's an interesting model as allows for a lot of people to promote and sell the film on their behalf, with each person having their own audience that wouldn't be accessible by the site itself, no matter the amount of press they do.

[Rutger Lundgren]

Originally Posted by thirdwindowfilms

It's an interesting model as allows for a lot of people to promote and sell the film on their behalf, with each person having their own audience that wouldn't be accessible by the site itself, no matter the amount of press they do.

Which is all well and good as an additional way of distribution, but not really as the only way to see a film or own a copy of it. That still severely limits the film's reach and discoverability in other ways, so I'm not sure whom this ultimately benefits. Not the vast majority of its potential audience, and seemingly not the film or its creators either.

[thirdwindowfilms]

Originally Posted by Rutger Lundgren

Which is all well and good as an additional way of distribution, but not really as the only way to see a film or own a copy of it. That still severely limits the film's reach and discoverability in other ways, so I'm not sure whom this ultimately benefits. Not the vast majority of its potential audience, and seemingly not the film or its creators either.

I don't know why you think this way limits the film's reach.

First off, remember it's just 45 minutes long. So for film festivals, it falls out of the boundaries of both short and feature films, making it hard to program.

Theatrical screenings? How many cinemas near you will play a 45 minute film?

Bluray? How many distributors will put out a 45 minute film on bluray, and how many people will actually buy it?
So, using a 'classic model' you could sell the entire license of the film to one company in the US and they could possibly put out a bluray, Region A, which then people in Region B territory would complain about. And if it were to make it out on bluray, maybe you'd sell 1000 copies at max, but it would instantly be pirated and how would that help the film's creators?

But even if a US company bought it, they'd probably just put it on VOD and then just people in the US could see it, and would still need to pay a rental fee to watch it, which is exactly what is being offered here, except here it will be possible to rent it worldwide (after May 13).

And if a US or whatever distributor were to buy exclusive rights, then the creators would just get a small fee from that compared to a much larger amount they'd be making from this model.

Plus, in regards to 'reach', bringing back my previous point, but if 1 distributor with 5,000 followers on Twitter took it and had exclusive control, then how many people would even know about the release? With this model, you have up to 1000 people with licenses, each who would want to recoup the cost they paid for their license and therefore try to reach as many people as they could to rent it to. Maybe some would just have 10-100 contacts, but you could have people like myself who have much more, and the total number of people reached through all license holders would be exponential. And, each sale benefits the creators (including the director) in multiple ways, from the original license sale to a percentage of each rental.

Remember his last feature length film WIFE OF A SPY? How accessible has that been? That was released in a typical distribution model and look what happened with that. And that's a feature length film, not a 45 minute one.

So I think it's a pretty decent idea from the creators, considering the length of the film. Remember the director will get a share of all sales, something which won't happen with a 'classic' type of distribution model.