Scream Factory Blu-ray Discussion Thread

[LordCrumb]

Originally Posted by jaws3dfan

Just finished watching The Island and although it was very slow atleast it was boring. I did like that Michael Cain was in a Zanuck/Brown movie based on a Peter Benchley novel years before He did Jaws The Revenge. Also early in the movie there is a truck that has "Gotham" written on the side of it, nice little Dark Night moment.

LOL

So it being boring, made up for the fact it was slow? hmmm.....

[jaws3dfan]

I was trying to be funny, guess I failed.

[dvdmrp]

Some people on AV Maniacs brought up a good point.
Would Shout be against a Kickstarter fund to remaster some of the films that need it? A program like that could show which titles are in demand etc..plus it would let people like me put our money where our mouth is. Granted I can't donate thousands..but if it takes people donating a small stipend to help Shout pay for the costs..I would be in. I admire Shout for what they have done so far...some great work. But yes, the MGM catalog is a mess with many films in unacceptable old video masters. Shout lost money on the Corman set so I imagine they are leery to spend money on more of the rarer cult titles.
Heck if I won the lotto tomorrow, I would use some of the money to help fund some of the films in dire need of restoration.

Plus I did not mean earlier to speak of bad business ideas. I truly don't know how much the licensing fees cost for the films etc. Plus I don't know the type of revenue Shout needs to keep the program going. I know some films will bring back more money than others, and I'd imagine that these aren't hot sellers as many catalog titles aren't. I simply didn't know how much Shout would need per title to make a profit above breaking even. I simply gestured that if they charged more, it might be more feasible to spend money on the remastering.

In my math, not considering the licensing fees and profit. If the set sold..let's say 1000 copies total and Shout charged 30.00 that would be 30,000 gained. That wouldn't be much profit. I imagine that Shout knows that these won't make a huge profit, but my estimate of 1000 titles I think is low. I would hope that these titles would at least sell 4000 copies. Now if they charged 30 dollars for the set that would net 120,000. I would hope that the licensing for those four titles wouldn't cost more than that.

Once again, I don't work in the home video business so I don't know all of the logistics so please don't berate me for trying to figure it out.

[neoz]

I'm all for supporting Kickstarter on some things. I made the same comment about this in the Season 3 ST:TNG thread and it went crazy. Not in a bad way but in a way that opened but to some meaning discussions about fan based funding.

I see it as good and bad thing. Good because it would show Scream that there is a lot of fans for a certain title. Bad because Scream might just start doing this all the time and won't take the risk to license something themselves thus putting it all on the shoulders of the consumer to fund it. Kind of a double edge sword situation here.

[frogmeat69]

Paying to have it re mastered, then paying again to buy it? No thanks. The $20-25 I pay for the flix I want is enough for me already. To make money in a business you have to take risks, spending a bunch on a re master is Shout's risk to make me want to pay the money to buy, and they are doing good so far because they have a bunch of my money.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by dvdmrp

Some people on AV Maniacs brought up a good point.
Would Shout be against a Kickstarter fund to remaster some of the films that need it? A program like that could show which titles are in demand etc..plus it would let people like me put our money where our mouth is. Granted I can't donate thousands..but if it takes people donating a small stipend to help Shout pay for the costs..I would be in. I admire Shout for what they have done so far...some great work. But yes, the MGM catalog is a mess with many films in unacceptable old video masters. Shout lost money on the Corman set so I imagine they are leery to spend money on more of the rarer cult titles.

While the sentiments are a bit naive--many of the broadcast masters in MGM's Warner-Archive vault are unsuitable for anything except DVD, especially if they have the "Mastered from the best sources available to us" disclaimer--it does bring up a question addressed earlier:

There was the usual talk on HTF about Scream maybe getting the Amityville sequels, and in the case of "3D", would that mean, heheh...?
Bob Furmanek, resident but painfully pessimistic professional authority on vintage 3D restoration, responded:

Not to throw any cold water on this, but to be realistic.
Don't expect Shout to spend any money on prepping a 3-D release, unless the studio has already done the work and it's ready to go.
Unfortunately, none of the MGM/UA titles have been done. They don't want to spend the money.

And while it's true that MGM doesn't have the resources to get into its own 80's 3D restoration, and Shout only has limited restoration resources of its own to spend on one-film prints without outside help...if there's any Kickstarting to be done, wouldn't this be an area to experiment with?
One of the main fears that studios have about getting into the Blu3D market is that they can't get a concrete definition for the audience for it, and don't want to risk mass-market sales. If Kickstarted funds (assuming we're talking about early pledged copies for contributors, not "charity") could set up Blu3D restoration independent of the studios, wouldn't that at least define the customers ready for the product? It might still be a niche, but at least a paying niche, and a visible/vocal one at that.

[rickah88]

Originally Posted by dvdmrp

Some people on AV Maniacs brought up a good point.
Would Shout be against a Kickstarter fund to remaster some of the films that need it? A program like that could show which titles are in demand etc..plus it would let people like me put our money where our mouth is. Granted I can't donate thousands..but if it takes people donating a small stipend to help Shout pay for the costs..I would be in. I admire Shout for what they have done so far...some great work. But yes, the MGM catalog is a mess with many films in unacceptable old video masters. Shout lost money on the Corman set so I imagine they are leery to spend money on more of the rarer cult titles.
Heck if I won the lotto tomorrow, I would use some of the money to help fund some of the films in dire need of restoration.

Plus I did not mean earlier to speak of bad business ideas. I truly don't know how much the licensing fees cost for the films etc. Plus I don't know the type of revenue Shout needs to keep the program going. I know some films will bring back more money than others, and I'd imagine that these aren't hot sellers as many catalog titles aren't. I simply didn't know how much Shout would need per title to make a profit above breaking even. I simply gestured that if they charged more, it might be more feasible to spend money on the remastering.

In my math, not considering the licensing fees and profit. If the set sold..let's say 1000 copies total and Shout charged 30.00 that would be 30,000 gained. That wouldn't be much profit. I imagine that Shout knows that these won't make a huge profit, but my estimate of 1000 titles I think is low. I would hope that these titles would at least sell 4000 copies. Now if they charged 30 dollars for the set that would net 120,000. I would hope that the licensing for those four titles wouldn't cost more than that.

Once again, I don't work in the home video business so I don't know all of the logistics so please don't berate me for trying to figure it out.

I think Kickstarter is a great idea, and would like to see it used a lot more for BDs. Heck just look what it did for the Veronica Mars movie, and a slew of video games.
People always talk about "voting with their wallets"....well this is a true measure of that vote. Bring it on!

[dvdmrp]

I agree that a Kickstarter for 3D BLU would be a great way to test out a kickstarter with a studio. Many have requested more 3d blu but as you said, they do not know if the market is there to recoup the sales. Based on many comments, there seems to be a decent demand for classic 3d titles but yes I have heard it said many times that they cost an arm and a leg to get the elements ready for 3d blu.

I think this is a great idea and more than likely the only way we would get some of the other 3D movies on Blu, especially the ones owned by studios that have not touched them or have no money to work on that.

This may even be a good idea for the other titles with Warner. I know deep down they'd probably love to restore all of their 3D owned titles, but once again, besides the well known ones...many of them are just unknown to a lot of people besides the film lovers such as us. We should ask WARNER if they would be willing to do a 3D Blu restoration fund.

Also I had no idea how the whole Kickstarter thing worked...yes I'd much rather have my money go as a down payment for the movie and not a donation. I didn't mean to sound naive...just unfamiliar with the process. I just heard someone briefly mention it and it sounded like a plausible idea. Once again, IDK if the studios would do it or can do it. Who knows if it causes some legal loophole. Legality seems to be a major issue with movies and home video etc, but if something like this IS a viable option that the studios can do..I'd be all for it. Maybe as an incentive the people who donated could get a unique slipcover, or a poster kind of what Shout now does with pre-orders on its own site..something along that line as a small incentive token.

What's great about the Kickstarter thing is if I am correct your money is not taken unless the goal is made. So if for some reason my idea turns out to suck and they don't reach the goal..the people's money is not just handed over to Shout or any other company.

I really do think this sounds like a plausible idea and one that we should honestly ask Cliff or even the WAC about.

-Mark

[Seymour]

Hey, I'll throw some cash in if it means getting Hospital Massacre on blu-ray. While we're at it, someone should start a Fright Night Part II fund (so Shout can acquire it).

[deepbreathsanddeath]

What's up with importcds not letting us Pre-order the upcoming scream factory titles? I want to Pre-order them already.

[NoirFan]

Originally Posted by Bob Furmanek

Not to throw any cold water on this, but to be realistic.
Don't expect Shout to spend any money on prepping a 3-D release, unless the studio has already done the work and it's ready to go.
Unfortunately, none of the MGM/UA titles have been done. They don't want to spend the money.

All of this should be pretty obvious, did people seriously assume that Shout would have the money to create a 3-D version?

Originally Posted by deepbreathsanddeath

What's up with importcds not letting us Pre-order the upcoming scream factory titles? I want to Pre-order them already.

As always, pre-orders only become available from Import CDs a month before release.

[grrrarg]

Originally Posted by deepbreathsanddeath

What's up with importcds not letting us Pre-order the upcoming scream factory titles? I want to Pre-order them already.

Importcds only allows pre-orders starting 30 days before street date.

Then, as I found out with Timerider, if they don't get stock and ship your order within 30 days they cancel that part of your order and don't tell you right away.

They didn't get stock on Timerider til a week after street date and then my order sat there for several days as 'in stock ships within 24 hours' before I emailed them and they let me know they canceled it but I could re-order. So I just paid $2.50 more and ordered it from amazon with prime since I wanted to watch it right away and not wait the 10 more days it takes me to get stuff from Importcds (ps, it is a great disc!).

[Member-222782]

Originally Posted by grrrarg

Importcds only allows pre-orders starting 30 days before street date.

Then, as I found out with Timerider, if they don't get stock and ship your order within 30 days they cancel that part of your order and don't tell you right away.

They didn't get stock on Timerider til a week after street date and then my order sat there for several days as 'in stock ships within 24 hours' before I emailed them and they let me know they canceled it but I could re-order. So I just paid $2.50 more and ordered it from amazon with prime since I wanted to watch it right away and not wait the 10 more days it takes me to get stuff from Importcds (ps, it is a great disc!).

This is a seriously screwed-up way of doing things. I would be pissed as heck if they put me through this. People are OK with this??

[NoirFan]

Originally Posted by cine74

People are OK with this??

Their system is terrible, but I've only had one order cancelled, and they do sell Olive discs for $5 less than Amazon does, so I just grit my teeth and accept their hassles. Ultimately, they're saving me hundreds of dollars every year, so I've learned to deal with the hiccups, which can usually be solved with a quick email.

[psychocinderellax]

The FOG artwork should be ready by tomorrow, my god I can not wait. I want to see it. They don't usually make any big announcements on weekends, so i hope we will see it sometime next week.

[BouCoupDinkyDau]

Originally Posted by frogmeat69

Paying to have it re mastered, then paying again to buy it? No thanks. The $20-25 I pay for the flix I want is enough for me already. To make money in a business you have to take risks, spending a bunch on a re master is Shout's risk to make me want to pay the money to buy, and they are doing good so far because they have a bunch of my money.

Word.

[HorrorBlu]

Originally Posted by grrrarg

Importcds only allows pre-orders starting 30 days before street date.

Then, as I found out with Timerider, if they don't get stock and ship your order within 30 days they cancel that part of your order and don't tell you right away.

They auto-cancel in 21 days, not 30.

Pre-orders go up 28 days before.

[dvdmrp]

Originally Posted by BouCoupDinkyDau

Word.

I didn't mean that we should just hand them money as a donation. What I meant was that with a Kickstarter...paying would give you an incentive..like a pre-order for the movie....a poster...a LE slipcover etc. Things like that. I have done some research and it seems that Kickstarter has helped a lot of independent film and game projects get off of the ground. i truly think that something like that could really help in the home video market bring lesser tier titles out.

[dvdmrp]

Originally Posted by Nailwraps

That's not it. It's because those full screen transfers are the only masters MGM has (which is quite a shock really). There's no ruling out if we can contribute in for example giving a 35mm print of Arena to Shout!, right? Which speaking of, I hope the full frame transfer they got for that is not the PAL master the aired on THIS TV.

Do you have a 35mm print of Arena? You may want to let Shout know. Perhaps it would be cheaper for them to make a master from that print? I know that going to the OCN costs a decent buck. That would make a the best master, but making a widescreen master from a print would still look good. This is what a lot of the smaller labels like Scorpion and Code Red do as in many cases that is all that exists. Personally I am fine if a print is scratched or dinged in spots. I don't require every film to have a meticulous full restoration. All I really care about this day in age is OAR. I don't need everything on blu. With many movies..i'm content with an OAR dvd.

[shredking9000]

Originally Posted by dsman71

Is anyone else getting the SciFi 4 movie set from Scream ?
So Arrow is releasing Pit and the Pendulum ? Very interesting
With Arrow I really have to like a film enough to get a USA and import Blu Ray release which I did with Deep Red, and they have both Squirm and Invasion of the Body Snatchers coming from what I gathered...with them I wait to for reviews on the transfers.
I had thought about getting that Arrow edition of Dawn of the Dead set but the Anchor Bay version to me still is the Holy Grail ...
I am getting Black Sabbath from them since no one else has put it on Blu Ray and Arrow looks to be the edition to get....and Baron Blood I will get as well...lots of extras and great packaging

Been trying to stay clear of buying anymore DVDs, but I don't think that I'll be able to resist the SciFi four pack. It seems doubtful that any of the movies in the set will ever be released on blu, so I might as well get them while I can for cheap.