Concept to Reality: The Series?
A lot of what I am going to mention here I am sure I have written about before, but I want to start with the state of DVD. There was a day when the extra features on big movies were looked forward to almost as much as the DVD release of the movie itself. Recent releases such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and the extended edition of King Kong show that it still occasionally happens, but on the whole, most DVD releases have been very disappointing. A good example would be Superman Returns.
I love the film. Seen it three times, but the extra features, though there be hours of them, it seems, leave something huge to be desired. That is post production. As soon as prinicpal photography with the main actors stops, so too do the extra features. Aside from a super quick blip on how they revived Marlon Brando to play Jur-El, there is not one frame of anything to do with editing, the score, and certainly not CG visual FX. If they're saving it for an uber-release later, I wouldn't complain, but the disc seems so complete aside from that little oversight, that I can't imagine another version coming.
I first saw the potential, and still believe it to be one of the best examples of what a DVD should be, when I watched Contact. Those extra features were so amazing I took the disc to work the next day and showed the team I was working with at the studio saying, 'This is what we should be doing." Those were the days when DVD's inspired. They put power into the hands of the viewer. They brought us a little closer to our dreams as creators.
So what does any of this have to do with a Concept to Reality series? Well, we don't really have a flourishing OVA (Original Video Animation) market in America. You see, in Japan, a smaller studio can create a series one 30 minute episode at a time and release it on DVD that way, sometimes for as much as $40 or more per disc, and the series can pay for itself as it goes along. Some series which started this way, like Tenchi Muyo have gone on to become huge franchises. When they tried to release Blue Submarine NO. 6 this way in America, it did sell well, but fans and critics were in an uproar about the pricing structure and getting on a 30 minute episode on one disc.
Today the market may be a bit more open. An indie title like Kakurenbo: HIde and Seek was released as a single 25 minute episode, or short film, with 50 minutes of extra features on DVD for $20 and is doing quite well for itself. The same goes for Voices of a Distant Star, both put out by major labels. This is really the same strategy by which Anime: Concept to Reality was put out by TOKYOPOP, but more importantly, it is also what I did on my own when I released Understanding Chaos and subsequently, Shadowskin on DVD.
Back then it may have been as tough a sell as Blue Submarine No. 6, but today the market may be more lenient to such a concept, and in a world of direct downloads and instant gratification, they may just embrace it. What this means is that it may open the door for us as creators, who desire to longer form series work, to have a strategy by which we can support the release of our series and sustain it over time. That strategy being to release a 30 to 45 minute episode and include with it a healthy dose of extra features to round a package of nearly 2 hours of viewing. These extra features wouldn't be the fluff of Superman Returns,, but straight to the point teaching. The extra features become a series unto themselves teaching your craft to your fan base, who likely has similar desires to create their stories. So why do this?
If you do this, you don't have to worry about being fit for TV. You don't have to wrry about commercial breaks. You don't have to worry about the exact to-the-second length of the video or every scene. You don't have to worry about ratings boards or trying to keep it PG-13. You only have to worry about you and your viewers, and creating something they will love and love to keep seeing again and again as the series unfolds. You can keep your vision pure and make what you truly desire without any commitee saying what will and what won't work. You can even involve your fans in the process. Have contests, let them vote on the outcome of something in the story. My point is the sky is the limit. Or well.. if you're doing digital downloads, then your bandwidth.
I love the film. Seen it three times, but the extra features, though there be hours of them, it seems, leave something huge to be desired. That is post production. As soon as prinicpal photography with the main actors stops, so too do the extra features. Aside from a super quick blip on how they revived Marlon Brando to play Jur-El, there is not one frame of anything to do with editing, the score, and certainly not CG visual FX. If they're saving it for an uber-release later, I wouldn't complain, but the disc seems so complete aside from that little oversight, that I can't imagine another version coming.
I first saw the potential, and still believe it to be one of the best examples of what a DVD should be, when I watched Contact. Those extra features were so amazing I took the disc to work the next day and showed the team I was working with at the studio saying, 'This is what we should be doing." Those were the days when DVD's inspired. They put power into the hands of the viewer. They brought us a little closer to our dreams as creators.
So what does any of this have to do with a Concept to Reality series? Well, we don't really have a flourishing OVA (Original Video Animation) market in America. You see, in Japan, a smaller studio can create a series one 30 minute episode at a time and release it on DVD that way, sometimes for as much as $40 or more per disc, and the series can pay for itself as it goes along. Some series which started this way, like Tenchi Muyo have gone on to become huge franchises. When they tried to release Blue Submarine NO. 6 this way in America, it did sell well, but fans and critics were in an uproar about the pricing structure and getting on a 30 minute episode on one disc.
Today the market may be a bit more open. An indie title like Kakurenbo: HIde and Seek was released as a single 25 minute episode, or short film, with 50 minutes of extra features on DVD for $20 and is doing quite well for itself. The same goes for Voices of a Distant Star, both put out by major labels. This is really the same strategy by which Anime: Concept to Reality was put out by TOKYOPOP, but more importantly, it is also what I did on my own when I released Understanding Chaos and subsequently, Shadowskin on DVD.
Back then it may have been as tough a sell as Blue Submarine No. 6, but today the market may be more lenient to such a concept, and in a world of direct downloads and instant gratification, they may just embrace it. What this means is that it may open the door for us as creators, who desire to longer form series work, to have a strategy by which we can support the release of our series and sustain it over time. That strategy being to release a 30 to 45 minute episode and include with it a healthy dose of extra features to round a package of nearly 2 hours of viewing. These extra features wouldn't be the fluff of Superman Returns,, but straight to the point teaching. The extra features become a series unto themselves teaching your craft to your fan base, who likely has similar desires to create their stories. So why do this?
DEFY ALL CONVENTIONS!
If you do this, you don't have to worry about being fit for TV. You don't have to wrry about commercial breaks. You don't have to worry about the exact to-the-second length of the video or every scene. You don't have to worry about ratings boards or trying to keep it PG-13. You only have to worry about you and your viewers, and creating something they will love and love to keep seeing again and again as the series unfolds. You can keep your vision pure and make what you truly desire without any commitee saying what will and what won't work. You can even involve your fans in the process. Have contests, let them vote on the outcome of something in the story. My point is the sky is the limit. Or well.. if you're doing digital downloads, then your bandwidth.
6 Comments:
Good points. Within my own movie I'm showing a step by gruesome step, it's almost a film in itself, it will have several hours of tutorials on how I used C4D but how someone could do the same thing in Poser, it will follow me as I go to local music venues to look for musicians, etc. Step by step. :) I hope you guys will like
I would like to see that most def.
Shawn, when will we be able to see some of your work?
soon! I finished the script, and everything is a go, just waiting for the final character designs and we have a projection time of 1 year. :)
If I can figure out how to make a website like Terrence here, I'd put up some training videos and such as well.
So how likely is that some one actually makes some profit off an indie film? Looking at a past post would you be better off making an indie game?
Now if you could make an indie online game and get a decent number of subsribers then you'd have something. I hear there are some very simplistic online games out there that still have a few thousand people paying ten bucks a month to play.
Still, I think it's a mistake that the first thing people look at when I mention what indies can do is how likely it is or often someone has made a profit on indie films. Look at the indie films in question and how much do they really have in common with what I, or many here, do?
The fact is, the largest number of indies are making films that, while they may be important and meaningful, are going to have a very tough time finding an audience, period. But the truth is, though people like to ignore it, these guys out there making low budget Don "The Dragon" Wilson karate movies or the latest T&A horror flick are actuall yindie too. Just because they aren't making the next meaningful, emotional drama, no one talks about them, but these guys consistently make a profit on jst about everything they do. UFO has consistently made a profit for over ten years on cheap sci fi and horror flicks. These guys are indie too (though less so recently in UFO's case)
The point is, it's all a matter of perspective. If you want to make an indie film and succeed, then plan on making something that can succeed and not some drama or personal story that, short of casting DeNiro, would only appeal to a small local group.
terrence,
Thanks for explaining that. I see to often many folks with talent and making short films, others say you can't make a profit off short films, but what are they making?
Personal short stories with no real market value. Sad truth is those movies are great to watch but for the most part tend not to entertain the masses.
I have stories to tell but they are with characters and big universes and not an emotional drama, just old school comic book fun.
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