MoC Facebook & Twitter

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John Edmond
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#326 Post by John Edmond » Tue Apr 10, 2012 10:20 am

peerpee wrote: TWO-LANE BLACKTOP - 12,889 (it was at 30,000 the other day)
REPO MAN - consistently around the 2,000 mark
PUNISHMENT PARK - 9,327
TOUCH OF EVIL - 3,043
SILENT RUNNING - 4,934
Genuinely surprised by that showing. I'd have guessed Two-Lane Blacktop to be the leader of that pack. To be beaten by Punishment Park? What fanbase am I missing?

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Jean-Luc Garbo
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#327 Post by Jean-Luc Garbo » Tue Apr 10, 2012 10:38 am

That's so sad about the Pialat and Franju releases as they're absolute treasures. I have my own little Pialat research library just from the booklets! (Shout out to Marja Warehime's excellent little book on the man.)

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RossyG
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#328 Post by RossyG » Tue Apr 10, 2012 10:40 am

As luck would have it, a friend has been given a £6,000 tax rebate (going back eight years from his job at an art-house cinema) and has asked me for recommendations for BDs. I'd already said Repo Man and Punishment Park. I shall add Two-Lane Blacktop and the two Antonioni's. I'll try Coeur Fidele, too.

Actually, I still need to buy Coeur Fidele myself, so that'll be two more. :D

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domino harvey
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#329 Post by domino harvey » Tue Apr 10, 2012 10:45 am

Maybe Two-Lane Blacktop is too "American"? It would be interesting how many of those orders were imports

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bigP
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#330 Post by bigP » Tue Apr 10, 2012 10:48 am

MichaelB wrote:
Calvin wrote:The BFI's Great White Silence looks to have done rather well - #1,094 nearly 10 months after release.
I suspect that's had a bit of a surge recently, what with the Scott centenary in March and all the accompanying publicity - let's face it, if you want actual footage of the Scott expedition, it's your only option.
That'll also be my mum shovelling the coal on that particular boat. I lent it to her last month, and you'd think she'd never seen a film before. All her friends now have copies and she's banging on about it over the internet. I'll have to lend her Coeur Fidele when I next see her.

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MichaelB
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#331 Post by MichaelB » Tue Apr 10, 2012 10:53 am

bigP wrote:That'll also be my mum shovelling the coal on that particular boat. I lent it to her last month, and you'd think she'd never seen a film before. All her friends now have copies and she's banging on about it over the internet. I'll have to lend her Coeur Fidele when I next see her.
I suspect the Scott exhibition at the Natural History Museum (which opened three months ago) helped too - I spotted plenty of copies in the souvenir shop, and there was quite a bit of footage on large TV screens in the exhibition itself, alongside Herbert Ponting's original camera.

So it's not at all hard to imagine people spotting that, going "Wow, I didn't know they'd actually filmed the expedition!" and either buying a copy there and then or ordering it from Amazon shortly afterwards.

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RossyG
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#332 Post by RossyG » Tue Apr 10, 2012 11:00 am

domino harvey wrote:Maybe Two-Lane Blacktop is too "American"?
One look at what's showing at any British multiplex at any given time will demonstrate that being films being American is not a problem here. We don't even think of them as foreign. :)

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neilist
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#333 Post by neilist » Tue Apr 10, 2012 11:08 am

MichaelB wrote:I suspect the Scott exhibition at the Natural History Museum (which opened three months ago) helped too - I spotted plenty of copies in the souvenir shop, and there was quite a bit of footage on large TV screens in the exhibition itself, alongside Herbert Ponting's original camera.
On a similar theme, the Tate Modern has a large exhibition on Edvard Munch later this year. MoC should definitely get their release of the Watkins film in the gift shop there and hopefully get a good number of sales of that through there?

peerpee
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#334 Post by peerpee » Tue Apr 10, 2012 11:10 am

Yup, Eureka are on that one. Ta.

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MichaelB
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#335 Post by MichaelB » Tue Apr 10, 2012 11:19 am

neilist wrote:On a similar theme, the Tate Modern has a large exhibition on Edvard Munch later this year. MoC should definitely get their release of the Watkins film in the gift shop there and hopefully get a good number of sales of that through there?
Similarly, the timing of the release of A Bigger Splash last January wasn't a coincidence - the intention was to get copies in the Royal Academy shop from the start of what turned out to be a blockbusting David Hockney exhibition.

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Felix
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#336 Post by Felix » Tue Apr 10, 2012 1:52 pm

peerpee wrote:
TMDaines wrote:La signora shouldn't susprise anyone since the truly excellent RHV disc, which was already out for a couple of years, was English-friendly and couldn't be bettered in anyway. It was never going to be a big seller and I'm sure this cut it down even further. I eventually sidegraded for the new extra but I'm sure there is many who didn't. I love MoC but this was a pretty pointless release from that point of view!

I don't agree at all. Despite having a great source to work from, the encoding on the RHV DVD of LA SIGNORA DI TUTTI was not stellar. We improved on that, as we did with the English subtitles, and we added a 30 minute Tag Gallagher video piece. Plus the 44-page booklet was one of our best.

The RHV DVD was hard to get hold of in the UK (and expensive) and we're very glad we released it. Of course, we didn't expect it to sell gangbusters, but I think a lot of people would be pleasantly surprised if they did pick up that disc.
I'm with TMD here Peerpee. I might have upgraded if I had very deep pockets but they ain't so deep anymore so I didn't. The RHV may not be "stellar" but it was good enough for folk to rave over it here and elsewhere online at the time IIRC, davidhare for one I think. Ophuls is a relatively small name (unfortunately) outwith the circles who would be prepared to go for a good release like the RHV in the first place. Expense or not the rest of us probably went for the RHV. Had we known it would come from MoC we wouldn't have...

I have no doubt at all people will be pleasantly surprised if they pick it up and I was very, very tempted by the Gallagher essay and the booklet but that money can be spent on something I don't have already.

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knives
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#337 Post by knives » Tue Apr 10, 2012 2:06 pm

The fallacy in that thought though is the idea that even a significant portion of the buying population would be aware of the RHV. Even amongst the sort of people that would be interested in the title there must be a noticeable portion that either never bothered to pick it up or were simply not aware. There's also the element of blind buy involved and the fact that people are coming into film fandom everyday who are just discovering Ophuls and co everyday. With all those elements in consideration the release is certainly worthwhile even if it turned out to not have been successful.

Calvin
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#338 Post by Calvin » Tue Apr 10, 2012 2:31 pm

It must be difficult to decide when to 'upgrade' an title that has been already been released elsewhere. The MoC disc was the first time that La Signora Di Tutti had been released on home video in the UK and it's unarguably superior to the RHV disc. I'd think it's unlikely that it really made a difference though - how many UK residents (MoC's primary market, surely?) would have imported the RHV disc? 100, at a push? I'd hate to see a situation where MoC stayed away from titles that already had an English-friendly release, especially if they thought they could improve upon it. This could be adding extras, subtitling them or improving the encode (1080p Dust in the Wind please!).

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Felix
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#339 Post by Felix » Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:30 pm

knives wrote:The fallacy in that thought though is the idea that even a significant portion of the buying population would be aware of the RHV.
A significant portion of the buying population are not aware of Ophuls full stop.
knives wrote:Even amongst the sort of people that would be interested in the title there must be a noticeable portion that either never bothered to pick it up or were simply not aware.
I agree on the first, can't agree on the second, I am by no means as obsessive as most of the folk here but I knew and I bought it.
knives wrote:There's also the element of blind buy involved and the fact that people are coming into film fandom everyday who are just discovering Ophuls and co everyday. With all those elements in consideration the release is certainly worthwhile even if it turned out to not have been successful.
Yes, totally agree on the first and it was a few years between the releases. On the other hand, how many will be pointed towards Ophuls and if they are, towards his pre-war films, apart from maybe La Ronde. Nae idea.
On the second Eureka is a business (and one that has supported MoC very well, especially in the early days with the likes of Michael, one of the finest DVD presentations ever, IMHO, and its poor sales), and they need to strike a fine balance between worthwhile and successful and can't absorb too many mis-hits. I presume.

And at the end of the day, whatever our gum-bumping here, the sales tell the tale. People haven't bought it.

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swo17
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#340 Post by swo17 » Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:41 pm

This discussion might be moved here.

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Felix
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#341 Post by Felix » Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:45 pm

Calvin wrote:The MoC disc was the first time that La Signora Di Tutti had been released on home video in the UK and it's unarguably superior to the RHV disc. I'd think it's unlikely that it really made a difference though - how many UK residents (MoC's primary market, surely?) would have imported the RHV disc? 100, at a push? I'd hate to see a situation where MoC stayed away from titles that already had an English-friendly release, especially if they thought they could improve upon it. This could be adding extras, subtitling them or improving the encode (1080p Dust in the Wind please!).
Unarguably superior? Don't know, I haven't sat and compared them, but that only works for a few people anyway, most of them here probably, or if the original release were lacking in some way. I had the beautiful French release of the Epstein but still went for the MoC because it had subs, even though I could manage, just about, with the original French.

On sales, Nick doesn't talk about numbers or markets for commercial reasons so I'll leave that to him. English is most folks second language though so anything subbed in English will sell across Europe. I should say "can," not "will".

I agree about the improvements, especially and obviously subs, extras. For me, on picture quality, the original has to be lacking distinctly to make me jump, so I didn't for Lang's Indian Tomb, though the extras almost made me, or the Mabuse titles though the shelf space would have been nice. MoC used to do the best booklets by far but unfortunately the size of the blu cases has spoilt that and they are not what they were. Based on the films I have bought of course. I would like them to steer away from English friendly releases, then I would have about 70% of their releases, rather than 50%.

I would love Hou as well but would Eureka?

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Felix
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#342 Post by Felix » Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:47 pm

swo17 wrote:This discussion might be moved here.
Apologies, strayed into this territory without intending to. I've said all I was going to, I only signed in to look at the Lists Project...

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swo17
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#343 Post by swo17 » Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:52 pm

I was actually referring to the entire discussion since I posted yesterday.

Calvin
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#344 Post by Calvin » Tue Apr 10, 2012 4:09 pm

Felix wrote:Unarguably superior?
Well, regardless of whether or not you can spot the difference in the PQ, the MoC disc has an essay by Tag Gallagher and a thicker booklet. The RHV only had an unsubbed interview and a thin booklet in Italian.
I would love Hou as well but would Eureka?
I hope so! I don't see why not, he's not going to set the world on fire sales wise but I doubt he'd be among the poorest sellers (surely?!?). Do Artificial Eye still have the rights to A City of Sadness?

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Felix
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#345 Post by Felix » Tue Apr 10, 2012 4:43 pm

Calvin wrote:
Felix wrote:Unarguably superior?
Well, regardless of whether or not you can spot the difference in the PQ, the MoC disc has an essay by Tag Gallagher and a thicker booklet. The RHV only had an unsubbed interview and a thin booklet in Italian.
I would love Hou as well but would Eureka?
I hope so! I don't see why not, he's not going to set the world on fire sales wise but I doubt he'd be among the poorest sellers (surely?!?). Do Artificial Eye still have the rights to A City of Sadness?
I stand corrected, I thought you meant the PQ alone, on the others I agree and did make the point that Tag just about swayed me and may still do so, but more likely to be in a sale.

I suspect AE have lost it, forgot they had it actually, now why can't I stumble across that video, I see every other one... I'd like to think you are right wrt Hou but I saw an interview with Tsai a while back who said that even in Taiwan The Big Three were not exactly stars.

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Felix
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#346 Post by Felix » Tue Apr 10, 2012 4:46 pm

Felix wrote:I would like them to steer away from English friendly releases, then I would have about 70% of their releases, rather than 50%.
Up to a point anyway, I did replace two R1 Antonioni's with the MoC eqivalents; they were certainly worth it.

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TMDaines
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#347 Post by TMDaines » Tue Apr 10, 2012 7:37 pm

peerpee wrote:I don't agree at all. Despite having a great source to work from, the encoding on the RHV DVD of LA SIGNORA DI TUTTI was not stellar. We improved on that, as we did with the English subtitles, and we added a 30 minute Tag Gallagher video piece. Plus the 44-page booklet was one of our best.

The RHV DVD was hard to get hold of in the UK (and expensive) and we're very glad we released it. Of course, we didn't expect it to sell gangbusters, but I think a lot of people would be pleasantly surprised if they did pick up that disc.
About the transfer: really? I've never seen a negative comment on that disc. Everyone swooned over it both here in the MoC thread and RHV thread, as well as everywhere else on the net. I don't doubt that you improved on it but I don't feel that anyone was clamouring for it.

I just feel that out of all of the titles to release - with a similar kind of market - that this was possibly one of the worst because of the quality of the disk already out there. The new extras and booklet were welcome but even in the disk's thread a lot of the comments were simply saying that this would save on importing the Italian disk or that the Italian one was already great enough anyway. I imagine there's several people here who have the RHV and not yours anyway.

Not sure where the expensive part comes from either: I got mine for less than eight euros.

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Finch
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#348 Post by Finch » Wed Apr 11, 2012 6:29 am

@Nick and Michael Kerpan: the Edinburgh Film Festival will be hosting a retrospective for Shinji Somai this June. I've never heard of the man but would he be a suitable candidate for MoC in 2013/14?

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colinr0380
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#349 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Apr 11, 2012 6:49 am

I suppose outside of buying a new copy of the same film every month (which is where I draw the line [-( ), I can at least rest easy knowing that I have done my part - though I have bought most of the films through MovieMail rather than Amazon, so I suppose I haven't made even a slightest dent in the rankings on there! Ironically enough the only film I have not picked up so far is Two Lane Blacktop so I am feeling appropriately guilty about not having gotten to it sooner!

Although it is good to see Touch of Evil under 5,000 so consistently after a number of months on release. Hopefully Lifeboat will be a one of those consistent sellers too. Maybe even Double Indemnity, though maybe that might be more of a noir-fan title?
John Edmond wrote:Genuinely surprised by that showing. I'd have guessed Two-Lane Blacktop to be the leader of that pack. To be beaten by Punishment Park? What fanbase am I missing?
Perhaps Punishment Park is tying into the current Hunger Games release!
MichaelB wrote:
bigP wrote:That'll also be my mum shovelling the coal on that particular boat. I lent it to her last month, and you'd think she'd never seen a film before. All her friends now have copies and she's banging on about it over the internet. I'll have to lend her Coeur Fidele when I next see her.
I suspect the Scott exhibition at the Natural History Museum (which opened three months ago) helped too - I spotted plenty of copies in the souvenir shop, and there was quite a bit of footage on large TV screens in the exhibition itself, alongside Herbert Ponting's original camera.

So it's not at all hard to imagine people spotting that, going "Wow, I didn't know they'd actually filmed the expedition!" and either buying a copy there and then or ordering it from Amazon shortly afterwards.
Whereabouts is South in the Amazon rankings? I know it is a DVD released an extremely long time ago, but I wonder if that is still charting relatively well?

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MichaelB
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Re: MoC Facebook & Twitter

#350 Post by MichaelB » Wed Apr 11, 2012 7:08 am

colinr0380 wrote:Whereabouts is South in the Amazon rankings? I know it is a DVD released an extremely long time ago, but I wonder if that is still charting relatively well?
Currently 9,476 - which isn't at all bad for something that came out almost exactly ten years ago. I suspect it's also benefited from the current revival of interest in Herbert Ponting's Antarctic films.

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