Category: Film

Kick-Ass needs it’s Ass-Kicked over marketing..

Posted by Martyn Drake – March 11, 2010

As I continue to watch the marketing campaign for Kick-Ass unfold, I wonder what exactly is going through the minds of the marketing folk responsible for bringing this film to the attention of the public. Firstly there are the web sites. The official site, kickass-themovie.com is being run by Lionsgate and is reasonably decent in execution other than for the lack of original content.

Kick-Ass’ campaign seems to centre around the major social networking sites. Updates are posted via Facebook which then filter out to a Twitter feed. Unfortunately the team responsible for managing these social networking sites seem to either be very new to this sort of thing, or are somewhat clueless. They’re clearly favouring Facebook (a company with perhaps more privacy concerns than MySpace these days, particularly with regards to the allegations that one of the founders has been illegally accessing the accounts of rivals and journalists (according to various sources, but I’m quoting the Daily Mail here for convenience)). There’s no engagement from the marketing team on Twitter at all. It’s merely being used as a news feed.

Until a few weeks a go, the UK web site was undecided as to which domain name to use. I registered several back in 2008 to avoid domain squatters from taking them. I pointed them at the official site and had the attitude that if they were wanted, MARV could have them for nothing (despite being told by various people that I should sell it to them given that Kick-Ass was too generic a term to be considered IP/trademarked) or I’d just let the domains expire this year. Eventually I was approached directly by MARV via Universal as to the domain they wanted. They would have got it without any further fuss if I hadn’t found out about the whole Universal/LOVEFiLM thing, but thankfully MARV through their web design shop secured the one THEY wanted before it went to another cybersquatter (the one that Universal wanted went to an individual/cybersquatter in less than a few hours after I had deleted the domain through Nominet[*]).

Then there are the competitions[**]. Lionsgate offer the chance to win tickets to the world premiere. The competition has strict rules and regs and the rules are clearly laid out on their web site. The European side is a little less organised. There is a competition to win tickets to the European premiere, but there are no rules or regs which is problematic if not for the British Advertising, Sale Promotion and Direct Marketing code of conduct. After all, this is a promotion and applies to a UK run business. They could have at least stuck up the official rules on their UK web site and linked to it. This would avoid any potential arguments from breaking out for those entering the competition, especially if complainant attempts to sue. As social networking sites become the starting point for many marketing campaigns, companies behind official Twitter and Facebook feeds need to be transparent as to what’s on offer and must still comply with the relevant advertising codes.

Despite two years of development, the whole marketing side to this film seems very much all over the shop and very last minute, and that’s a shame. MARV make exceedingly well made and highly enjoyable films but the marketing side is seriously letting them down (ironic given that one of the MARV team originally comes from Matthew Freud Communications, a huge and successful PR firm and for whom I’ve enjoyed their hospitality at one point).

[*] www.kick-assthemovie.co.uk now redirects to www.kickass-themovie.com which makes me think this is a fan who is being decent enough to redirect the domain, or The Music Lab/individual concerned is a partner of Lionsgate or somehow affiliated with the film or PR firm(s).

[**] They’ve now got T&Cs and competition rules up on the UK web site.  Now nobody can dispute anything should anybody become disgruntled about the drawing, and all falls well within the various advertising practices relating to competitions.  Still, it’s a bugger that it’s a Facebook only competition – Twitterers are left out in the cold without submitting personal data to Facebook.  But it’s a start, and that’s what’s important.

The Oscars: My predictions..

Posted by Martyn Drake – March 6, 2010

Avatar will probably win best picture, if not, it’ll be The Hurt Locker. Kathryn Bigelow will win Best Director. Either In the Loop or Inglourious Basterds will win Best Screenplay. I love both films (In the Loop is one of the best British comedies I’ve seen in a long time, and Inglourious Basterds is Quentin Tarantino’s best screenplay to date).

Avatar MUST win Best Visual Effects, otherwise something has seriously gone wrong somewhere. Up will win Best Animated Feature. The Young Victoria will most likely pick up Best Make-Up. As for the rest, I’m undecided as yet. I strongly suspect Colin Firth will pick up an award for A Single Man, mirroring the BAFTA success.

My fingers are crossed for everyone, although as I always say – you enter the film industry to win awards and not films… Erm .. I might have got that bit the wrong way around..

Film studios forming online distribution alliance?

Posted by Martyn Drake – March 5, 2010

I was intrigued by this article from Ars.Technica about Apple’s potential plans to introduce “cloud” storage to the iTunes ecosystem.

As the article suggests, Apple may either allow iTunes customers to store backups of their purchased music, movies and TV shows so that they can recover them should their computers and own backups fail (after all, while the cost of storage is coming down all the time, there are few households with decent fault tolerant SANs), or to stream the content direct to the desktop, iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. I’d go for the former – one can recover purchased Apps from the iTunes Store but not music, films or TV shows. This necessitates that one has a bloody good backup plan in case of failure. I myself backup to blank Blu-Ray media, external hard drives, and online backup services such as SquirrelSave (UK) and Backblaze (US).

However, the article suggests that as far back as 2008 (it may be nearly two years ago, but that’s an age in the digital era), the major film studios (NBC Universal, Warner Bros., Sony, Paramount and Fox) got together to flesh out something called the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (or DECE for short). This is a system that intends to implement some form of universal DRM that would allow any device to play digital content such as video or audio. Thus iPhones, Android devices, Chrome OS netbooks, etc. could all play the same content across all these platforms, yet the content provider keep a tight leash over when the content is played – and by whom. The studios would be free to negotiate their own price points, terms of access, etc – something that they’re currently restricted by when using a third-party CDN such as iTunes.

I’m not certain DECE will be a success. It would require a complete industry acceptance of the system. Look what happened with HD DVD and Blu-Ray: studios such as Warner Bros., Paramount, and NBC Universal all initially supported and backed HD DVD over Blu-Ray. Fox was one of the few studios not to. Arguments over the technical details soon started to cause drifts and eventually the format lost out to Blu-Ray. The same could go the same way of DECE unless EVERYBODY agrees on how it is to work.

In short: Hollywood is unable to get together to agree on anything. It’s history of petty squabbles, fierce competition and greed has resulted in a horrible experiences for the consumer who ends up paying the price because nobody seems to be able to agree to anything. Will DECE produce something viable? Might do, but given the dominance of Apple and iTunes – it may be too little, too late.

Tesco to become a film studio? Crickey!

Posted by Martyn Drake – March 3, 2010

I’ve known about this for a while, but I’ll put this up here for those that didn’t read my Friends of English Magic blog (now defunct). Tescos are to bankroll a series of movies, in association with US/UK based development firm, Amber Entertainment, the results of which will initially be exclusive to all Tesco stores on DVD (and possibly Blu-Ray I presume).

Good idea? Bad idea? I think it’s a bad idea. Amber will really need to up the ante with regards to changing the public’s mind about the quality of straight-to-DVD films. The general public assumes (and for the most part, quite rightly) that straight-to-DVD movies are of low grade quality. I’ve seen a few turkeys in my time (especially the Starship Troopers sequels – they’re so bad, they’re funny). What happens when the initial exclusivity ends? Can LOVEFiLM get a look in for rentals (which is ironic given that Tesco’s DVD rental service *IS* LOVEFiLM)? Will they go to cinema (otherwise why spend lots of money of high-end camera kit for low-res TV entertainment – dig out that Super8 camera or that battered VHS-C camcorder and be done with it!).

I also shudder at the prospect that the same people responsible for bringing the appalling Golden Compass to the big screen are going to try again with another Philip Pullman adaptation. That poor sod must be a glutton for punishment!

Quite frankly, if I was a book author and was approached by Tesco/Amber to have my work turned into a film for DVD purposes only, I’d run away screaming. Apart from Lord of the Rings, Amber’s former executives are not exactly well known for producing hit after hit. A few development projects from hell include: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (rights were announced in 2004, it’s 2010 and the script has undergone various re-writes by two screenwriters and still nothing), and The Man on Platform Five by Robert Llewellyn (six screenwriters have attempted this and the project appears to be officially dead). There was also Inkheart which DID make it the screen, but flopped at the box office (although I rather liked it myself). As did The Golden Compass (liked the book, detested the film).

I believe Tesco are being terribly misguided about all of this. I think that it *may* have a very marginal success for *some* titles, but it’ll flop spectacularly like Hugh Hefner without Viagra for most of the others and eventually Tesco will walk away licking it’s wounds. I’d like to be wrong, of course, since I’m all for independents raising funds for producing movies – but I’m just not sure that exclusive supermarket distribution is the way forward.

I wonder, if other supermarkets got in on the act, how those films would turn out. Kwik-Save presents A Toothbrush With Death! Lidl presents Con-Air Freshener! Morrisons’ presents Pie Another Day. You get the idea.

Glorious Inglourious Basterds; Universal; LOVEFiLM

Posted by Martyn Drake – March 3, 2010

I caved in.

I recently watched Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds via iTunes and I have to say I loved it. Loved it to bits. A film that’s only 30% in English (the remaining 70% in German, French and a smattering of Italian). It’s smart, funny, and is wonderfully tragic. Not nearly as gory or even as violent as I was expecting, but still very Tarantino-esque all the same. As with other Tarantino films, the soundtrack is absolutely bloody marvellous and I already have it on my Spotify playlist.

It’s a pity, then, that this is a film that’s distributed by Universal Pictures. This means I couldn’t rent it on DVD or Blu-Ray through LOVEFiLM because of disagreements (and while I fully support LOVEFiLM, I just wished they would be a bit more open about this issue). As I’ve said in a previous post, the issue at hand is that Universal want a greater cut of the rental market fees. Blockbuster, as far as I know, are the ONLY physical media company in the UK to have agreed to this new arrangement. This gives them exclusivity, and makes consumers lives a bit more awkward.

There is iTunes, but as I’ve said previously, Universal walked out on Apple as Universal wanted to charge more money for rentals and film sales. They eventually returned, having gotten their way, but the price paid is that we have to pay more money. A pain in the arse because Universal probably haven’t paid Apple that much to distribute their films – certainly, it’s much cheaper for Universal to provide their films through iTunes, a ready-made cross-platform Internet distribution system for home entertainment systems (computer or Apple TV) or mobile devices (iPod/iPhone), then having to come up with their own distribution mechanism. In terms of quality, the UK movie store does not have HD rentals or sales for films. Unlike the US store. We’re missing out again, folks. I’ve also noted that the colour reproduction and artefacting of the film due to the official transcoding is close to being a little unreasonable for a higher priced rental. I may well complain to Apple about it. In fact, I will.

The situation between Universal and the rest of world is barely acceptable at the moment. I’ve decided that I will see Kick-Ass at the local cinema, if only because the people behind it are good people and I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt they may not have known the situation between Universal and LOVEFiLM (Stardust did exceptionally well on the rental market, and Kick-Ass should do the same – but given that LOVEFiLM operates a bigger rental market in the UK than Blockbuster, MARV could stand to lose money on this). If Universal continue to be arseholes, they’re going to lose money. I hope so – their pursuit of more profit is hurting the consumer who merely wants to watch good quality films and programming.

Dear Ambassadors Cinemas, Woking..

Posted by Martyn Drake – March 1, 2010

It’s not terribly nice to see adverts relating to contraceptives and alcohol before a 12 rated film – especially a film which refers to child rape and murder (The Lovely Bones). Felt it was very inappropriate. Not usually a prude, but I’ll make an exception in that case. Unfortunately The Lovely Bones was a load of old trollop and absolutely awful on so many levels, but that’s not your fault (there’ll be another blog post pleading with Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens to start writing original material again and lay off the adaptations).

Secondly: love going to the cinema, but why can we not have a better loyalty rewards scheme? The one we’re got at the moment restricts viewing times for the free screening which is awkward and requires NINE trips just to get that. How about a monthly pass, operated similarly to other cinema chains, which would for a fixed price. allow unlimited trips to the cinema each month? Would prefer that rather than a loyalty card to be honest.

Thirdly: please provide better, more comfortable seats or at least put in superior/more comfortable seats for additional cost (again, similar to other cinema chains). The past few things have ran well over two hours and after that time my lower back is really beginning to ache. Those seats need better lower back support.

Universal Pictures: bullying the market yet again..

Posted by Martyn Drake – February 12, 2010

Update: I’ve started a thread about it here. Some interesting replies.

I learned yesterday (despite this being announced last November) that Universal Pictures are bullying DVD and Blu-Ray rental firms like Blockbuster and LOVEFiLM into new terms for rental of their movies. In short, titles I’d like to rent from LOVEFiLM cannot be rented and I must either buy a copy of the DVD or Blu-Ray or watch it in the cinema. This is not LOVEFiLM’s fault, and I applaud them for not caving into their demands (whereas Blockbusters have, and corporate whoring such as this is absolutely deplorable and I object most strongly to any form of exclusivity of film titles – which is also why I’m against the recent announcement that Tescos are bank rolling movies for Amber Entertainment so that they can create straight-to-DVD titles to be sold exclusively through Tesco stores). I was rather looking forward to seeing Inglourious Basterds and BSG: The Plan – but no, Universal have said no to that. I bet Kick-Ass won’t be available either.

We must not forget that Universal walked out on iTunes for a short period as they were unhappy with the costs that Apple were charging their customers. Universal wanted a higher price put on their films. Apple tried to reason with them, and it failed. They eventually came back, but the result is that NBC Universal films and TV shows cost a significant amount higher than what they are on physical media. For example, to buy all four seasons of Battlestar Galactica in HD on iTunes would cost £175 whereas the Blu-Ray edition costs £101. You don’t get any of the special features on the Blu-Ray, and you’d be responsible for backing up all the media files with no option of re-downloading from iTunes should your backups fail.

Once again, film studios are becoming far too greedy, and they clearly do not trust the consumers who buy their products. I’m also immensely hacked off with Universal Music after they practically accused all iPod owners of being thieves. Therefore the whole Universal stable is worth avoiding like the plague. I will not support their films or products until they start getting around that negation table and become a lot more reasonable. I will continue to support and subscribe to LOVEFiLM for whom I feel have done the right thing. They cannot and must not be bullied or threatened into deals that are unfair and unjust.

In other news, I hear that Warners Music is looking to get out of Spotify and other free streaming services. If this happens (and especially with Spotify Premium), then I’ll boycott Warners too.

I’ve already just made my stand against Universal and I hope they choke on it.

Do Androids dream of electric sheep in Dolby 3D? No. They’re banned from the cinema..

Posted by Martyn Drake – February 11, 2010

If humanity ever reaches the point in which we live side-by-side with artificial intelligent androids who may, or may not, look like us, then I wonder what the future will bring them in terms of rights.

I tell you one thing for certain, though – they’d never be able to visit a cinema or theatre – they’d be banned for being recording equipment and thus liable to pirate films for fun, profit, or just to piss off their owners. This will make the CEO of a mega corporation very upset as he’ll not be able to visit the cinema with his family and PA android who he relies on for everything. And the PA android would have so looked forward to seeing Avatar 4D: Na’vi versus Smurfs.

It actually makes me think about potential artificial implants, limbs or organs. For example, if you’re fitted with an artificial eye that sends electronic signals through a processor directly into the brain – could a film studio stop you from visiting the cinema because you’d be capable of recording the film into whatever device you can plug yourself into, and then watch later (or pirate the bugger out of spite)?

I’m curious to see, as artificial intelligence, robotics and genetic engineering develop, just how rights for both devices and humans change. Will freedom improve, or be hindered?

Technology/Post-Production company Thomson files for bankruptcy protection!

Posted by Martyn Drake – December 17, 2009

For six years between 2002 and 2008 I worked for The Moving Picture Company as a production systems engineer.  MPC specialises in high end digital visual effects for film, television, pop promos and commercials, and has won many industry awards for it’s work.

Thus I am shocked to learn that the company which owns it, Thomson SA, have just filed for bankruptcy protection against it’s $3.8 billion of debt.  Prior to Thomson buying MPC, it was owned by Carlton Communications.  Thomson also owns amongst it’s broad portfolio, Technicolor, Grass Valley (famed for it’s telecine kit), a share of the MP3 patent, and Alcatel (who manufacturer ADSL modems and other telecommunications equipment).

I’m hoping that Thomson will pull through this successfully as they are simply too large and important a company in the industries they operate to fail.  If nothing else, perhaps they should consider selling their share of the MP3 patent..

Milking a film for all it’s worth..

Posted by Martyn Drake – December 7, 2009

Okay, this is my lunch time rant, and it’s rather a long one.

I’m getting a little fed up over the number of times I have to buy or rent THE SAME film because somebody thought it would be good idea to produce a trillion special editions, with new features and a multitude of different edits,  just so that the people behind them can rake in even more money in royalties.  No harm in that, though.  People make films to be both artistic and to money and they’re not charities after all.  Capitalism at work.  No problems there.  Fine.  But it is  getting to the point that films are being released and re-released so frequently I’m beginning to lose track as to which version I’ve got,  what I’ve watched, and what I need to watch!

I was having a wander around HMV first thing this morning before heading into work.  I went in to buy Jennifer an early Christmas present and ended up taking a look at what else they had on offer.  As I have a rather extensive collection of DVDs, I found found that I couldn’t remember particular titles I own have special features or not.  So I’m looking at the Princess Bride (an excellent film, although the book is even better!) on offer for £5 and I’m thinking, “I have this – but do I have the audio commentaries?”.

I then went looking for the Time Bandits DVD and Blu-Ray.  I seem to recall that ages ago I rented a copy and found it had an audio commentary from Terry Gilliam.  Fantastic.  Except the version now on sale does not seem to offer an audio commentary, nor does the Blu-Ray.  Where is this fabled version?  I managed to find a 25th Anniversary edition online, and that’s probably the one that I rented.  God knows what’s happened to the retail copies of this film.

While I was looking out for Time Bandits, I eyed up the £34 Harry Potter 1-6 Blu-Ray set (which is a bargin!).  Very little in the way of special features.  I recalled that Warner Bros. are due to release special editions of all the movies at some point (reviews are going up already) and I can’t remember when they’re due out.  That said, one advantage of  having been involved with a company who has worked on all the HP shows during my time working there is – do I really need or want these special features?  I’ve seen stuff they’ll never include on any special edition.  So perhaps I should go for that box set and not bother with the SE when they become available.   No.  I tell you what I’ll do – I’ll RENT both sets of films in the series, and I’ll save my money.

It is, of course, quite common for studios to take advantage of film fans and make them empty out their pockets.  Remember when the Lord of the Rings trilogy first came out on DVDs?  They contained the movie and a few special features included on a second disc.  New Line then released the 4 disc Special Editions which contained lots and lots and lots of special features, but not those from the original 2 disc release.  So you would have to buy both the non-special edition AND the Special Edition to get ALL the special features.  They released both editions within a very short space of each other too.  And guess what, folks?  They’re going to release the Blu-Ray editions of these films.  So one has to triple dip if you’re really into this thing.  I’d imagine the kind of people who buy ALL the Lord of the Rings DVDs and Blu-Rays have the standees, the movie companions, the bookends, the Sideshow Weta collectibles, the costumes for COSplaying, a cat called Gollum, etc.

This is the reason why I hardly ever buy DVDs and Blu-Rays these days.  Blu-Rays are still very expensive in comparison to their DVD counterparts despite the ever expanding library of Blu-Ray titles increasingly weekly, and with the prices of Blu-Ray players finally coming down to sensible prices.

These are the only a few titles on Blu-Ray I want to buy (at some point, wife permitting, etc.) – Slumdog Millionaire, Star Trek, Transformers 1 & 2, Cinema Paradiso, Amelie, Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series (£129.99 – ouch!), and that’s about it.  Everything else I’m renting.  Even though I loved Stardust, unless Paramount pull out the stops to include the features from the US DVD release and keeping the UK audio commentary from Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn, then that’ll be a rental too.

And what I’m really hating at the moment are Director’s Cuts.  When they announced the Blu-Ray edition of Watchmen, I was under the impression that the release would be the Director’s Cut and that it would feature the extra material that was being talked about (something along the lines of a good extra hour’s worth of material or something).  No.  That’s being released independently on Blu-Ray and DVD fairly soon.  What gets me about Director’s Cuts is if  a director doesn’t originally release the version of his film that he is satisfied with, why the hell should I, as a film fan, pay either him or the studio MORE money because somebody couldn’t make up their bloody mind during the edit in the first place?  Fairly understandable if the studio has insisted on cuts – this is out of the director’s control – but when a director changes his or her mind later on.  Arggh!

I can see that all this double, triple and quadruple dipping is going to get so out of control that the right-to-buy a copy of a film will eventually dimish and consumers turning to the rental market – or video on demand with content updates.  Mind you, all this dipping is resulting in a profitable second hand market for old DVDs and, to a lesser extent, Blu-Rays.  We’ve picked up some bargins because people have either bought the special edition, or have gone to the Blu-Ray edition of their favourite film.

My dear fellow LOVEFiLM subscribers..

Posted by Martyn Drake – December 3, 2009

I would be very grateful if you didn’t treat Blu-Ray and DVD disks as strange silvery identity discs from the future (or more specifically, a really bad 50’s B movie!)

What do I mean by this?  Well, the shear number of discs (especially Blu-Ray) that I receive from LOVEFiLM that come with fingerprints is enough for me to start up my own criminal forensic and ID lab.  The result of grubby paws manhandling these discs has the effect of making the movies I watch stutter and, on more occasions that I would like, completely stop.  I then have to get out the old cleaning cloth out and give the disc a good rub in the hope that all that grease and muck will come off so that my (well, my employer’s) not-exactly-cheap Blu-Ray reader/writer can continue reading the disc.

Sometimes a disc is so badly scratched I wonder if the previous subscriber has been using it for darts or frizbee practice.  Or if their cats have vented their own opinions on the film that you’ve recently watched.

So, my fellow LOVEFiLMers, let’s make our combined movie watching experience as pleasent as possible so that we can ALL enjoy our rentals and not have well-known (and up and coming) actors start shuddering like badly manufactured clockwork toys.  Imagine if BAFTA sent out used screeners in which a performance is being judged?  I doubt people like Daniel Craig would get much praise if he, as Bond, started developing a really nasty stutter during an interogation scene.

That, and I’m blooming fed up of sending back bad discs having really looked forward to watching a particular title.

10,000BC? More like a damp squid..

Posted by Martyn Drake – June 23, 2009

A test post, unfortunately.  But I do dislike 10,000BC the movie.  Hate it in fact.