Sandpiper Pictures

[dr. wai]

Over in the thread about the worst blu-ray labels, Sandpaper is being brought up a lot and I don't see why. Sure, Sandpaper doesn't do new transfers, they use what the studios give them, and they don't do special features, but that doesn't matter to me. I just want the movies in HD and Sandpaper is doing that in spades. They are giving us Zapped, Meteor Man, and Sometimes They Come Back when no one else is. They also gave Warriors of Virtue, which is a favorite of mine, so they get a pass from me.

I guess people would rather not have a film in HD than to buy one from Sandpaper. I'm sorry but that is a bit extreme.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by dr. wai

Over in the thread about the worst blu-ray labels, Sandpaper is being brought up a lot and I don't see why. Sure, Sandpaper doesn't do new transfers, they use what the studios give them, and they don't do special features, but that doesn't matter to me. I just want the movies in HD and Sandpaper is doing that in spades. They are giving us Zapped, Meteor Man, and Sometimes They Come Back when no one else is. They also gave Warriors of Virtue, which is a favorite of mine, so they get a pass from me.

I guess people would rather not have a film in HD than to buy one from Sandpaper. I'm sorry but that is a bit extreme.

Sandpaper

Kind of an apt typo given how much the label rubs people the wrong way. Here are some things that bother me about them as a label:

1.) They have zero online presence. Nothing. They are a complete shadow company. So, say you want support with a release, who do you reach out to? You can't. No website, no social media, nothing.

2.) They put little to no effort into their releases. 99% of their releases are just completely bare bones, and often have dated masters.

3.) While I can't fault them for licensing films, they acquire a number of films that other labels would have done a lot more with had they acquired them. The silver lining here is that MGM splits format rights, so we've still been able to get 4K releases for a number of Sandpiper releases including the Sleepaway Camp sequels from Shout Factory, Dirty Work from Vinegar Syndrome, and others.

The downside here is that it leaves Blu-ray only people with an old dated master since Scream are not allowed to do a Blu-ray of their new 4K masters as the usually do.

I don't think I'd consider them the "worst" label because of any of this, just a frustrating one. It's a good thing to see some stuff that are OOP come back into print, but it's also unfortunate to know that something like Blacula and many others they have rights to, may not see a better release because they grabbed the rights, and won't do anything beyond a barebones release of it.