DVD Diffs *spoiler alert* S3.2 "May"

Speaking of DVD’s (we were, weren’t we?). videoflicks.ca has the complete second series in a collectors pack for $115.33 Canadian. Thats a steal, particularly for you American folks.

Camelyn
Who laboriously bought each DVD release of series 2, and is mildly miffed.

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Originally posted by Camelyn:
Camelyn
Who laboriously bought each DVD release of series 2, and is mildly miffed.

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All I can say is that the box set idea wasn’t mine. I’ve not been a fan of it since it was proposed, especially seeing as how the sales people had the bright idea of putting it together *after* all the DVDs were released. It was done at the suggestion of a number of Acorn’s retail customers (Borders, etc.) who wanted a “gift pack” to be available as well as the individual discs.

It was initially supposed to contain a 38-page booklet/episode guide, but Salter thought that this constituted merchandise rather than promotional material (never mind that it wouldn’t have been made available separately, that it was only 38 pages, that it devoted barely any more information on the episodes than what was featured on the backs of the video boxes…my belief is that after they failed to follow through on anything that would have made Valdron’s book happen, the notion of *any* printed material sent them into spasms of fear that someone was muscling in on any potential merchandising license), and refused to allow it to see print. Never mind, of course, that the very nature of the booklet was to encourage people to buy the other DVD releases as they came out, thereby *making* Salter money. Of course, I worked on the thing furiously under ridiculously tight deadlines, having to turn in copy on S4 episodes to the designers as they were broadcast (and winging it as far as “Dutch Treat” goes, since I missed that episode completely) since Salter couldn’t send me advance screeners of any S4 episodes (they didn’t seem to raise the question of the merchandising aspect of my writing this thing when I asked for the screeners).

Sorry, got into rant mode.

Anyway, yeah, there’s a S2 box set out. Will there be a S3 box? Heck, I haven’t heard one way or the other, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

–Aleck

quote[quote] we would still all be watching bad copies bought on ebay [/quote]

Maybes thats what you would do, but I wouldnt stand to pay money for crappy VHS copies. I would end up downloading the VCDs and take pictures of myself watching the VCDs to Salter with though bubbles edited in saying “wheres the DVDs?”.

I did the same thing to BBC Video when I asked for The Young Ones DVDs, and hey its about to be released.

Man when is the maketing bomb going to go off in their tiny little head? Buncha morons
at Salter. Guess they dont like making money.

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Originally posted by thefrey:
My timing must have been just right. Three weeks later they announced the up comming release of S2. I could have hit just right as I said… or they could have decided to release the DVD availability info early to take the bottom out of the boot leg market….

What am I saying… that couldn’t be it…. that would take marketing savy. Forget I mentioned it. [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

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Actually, you hit it just right. We’d been in negotiations with them for a pretty good while before Salter announced the DVD releases. I just wasn’t allowed to say anything about it until afterwards.

–Aleck

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Originally posted by Camelyn:
Warning: potentially ignorant question for Aleck.
Salter Street is now owned by Alliance Atlantis. Do they not have any say in the marketing of Lexx? Does Salter still have all the rights to Lexx, or does Alliance just not give a horses patoot?

Colour me curious
Camelyn

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I’m not clear as to the question, but let me give it a shot. Salter, I believe, retains some autonomy under the ownership of Alliance Atlantis. While AA does own the programs under the Salter name, and they have a vested interest in the marketing of said programs, they aren’t micro-managing the day-to-day workings of Salter. The people we had trouble with weren’t from AA’s legal department, they were from Salter’s, and were in H’fax. I think that AA leaves a fair amount of trust in the decision-making of Salter when it comes to marketing the programs that they’ve established. We do have to run legal stuff with the DVDs by Alliance Atlantis, but most of the decision-making and approval goes through the folks in the Halifax offices. What happened, I believe, is that when the book deal with Valdron fell through, Salter panicked and wanted a seperate license for anything *resembling* a book. And if they decide that something falls under the “merchandise” heading rather than “promotional,” it’s their decision (though this distinction, I’ll add, was not made clear to us in any of the contracts signed, and the precise thing we’d prepared for the [i]LEXX[/i] sets was identical to any number of booklets we’d done for other programs, and we’d never had any suggestion that this was out of line), and if they say that what we have is a book rather than a promotional DVD insert, well, they can call it a book if they want. It’s their intellectual property we’re using here, and they have the rights to make whatever distinction they wish. Alliance, probably wisely, doesn’t enter into the picture unless it gets past the approval of Salter and then *they* decide not to approve it. It’s like the situation with Wilco’s last album, [i]Yankee Hotel Foxtrot[/i]. Reprise, their record label, decided that the album was too strange and uncommercial to release, and Wilco were booted from the label. They took the album to Bar/None records, who were happy as clams to put it out. Both labels are owned by AOL/Time/Warner. The parent company probably didn’t pay any attention to anything that went on, and trusted the decision-making of the respective label heads.

–Aleck