The Arrow Thread

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

I'm finding it hard to believe that people are stating that £70 for 6 extras-laden films and a two hundred page book is expensive...

I think we as consumers have become blinded (and spoiled) thanks to the copious amounts and regularity of deals and promotions on offer to us.

[J Harker]

Ironically i wouldn't consider it so expensive if it wasn't limited which would mean i wouldn't have to buy it sooner rather than later or lose out.

[Michael Brooke]

Originally Posted by J Harker

Right then let's start at the begining. I think the Gothic Tales set is expensive. Whether it be £60 from a retailer or £70 from Arrow themselves. How much does this set roughly cost to produce i wonder? I know i bet Michael Brooke would be the guy to ask! ☺

I'm afraid I can't give you the full budget for reasons of commercial confidentiality - as a freelancer with no contractual ties to Arrow, they could dump me in a millisecond and not even the most ferocious industrial tribunal would be able to do anything about it!

But obviously you have to factor in multiple licensing costs for existing materials (inc. translation and timing of subtitles for The Two Faces of Peter Lorre, which is making its English-friendly debut), plus the cost of creating brand new stuff from scratch, such as:

- an original commentary for The Haunted Palace;
- four original interviews with Tomb of Ligeia crew members;
- two hefty (fractionally under 30 mins apiece) Kim Newman pieces on Poe and Lovecraft;
- Anne Billson's Cats in Horror Films piece;
- multiple essays for the book;
- four original pieces of artwork (plus the artwork for the box as a whole).
- additional packaging for the box over and above the normal Amaray sleeves.

In other words, this is clearly a much more expensive proposition than just pulling the MGM masters off the shelf and slapping them onto the discs.

But even if you pay the full £69.99 (which of course most people aren't doing), that works out at £11.66 per disc - and while you might well be able to pick up the individual discs for less than that in some sale next year, it's still an entirely realistic price when set against the Blu-ray market as a whole.

[J Harker]

While i completely appreciate you wouldn't be able to give actual costings. I was merely hoping for some ballpark figures to give some perpective on something I'm clueless about.

[J Harker]

And while i appreciate that we are talking £11.66 a disc but surely arrow should be taking into account a lot have already bought two of those discs at between £15 and £20 a pop depending on version and retailer.

[will graham]

I don't mind Limited Editions providing that they're not too limited.

But what ticks me off with the gothic box tales set is that 2 of those films were released less than 6 months ago. Does anyone here really think that Arrow only came up with the boxset idea within the last couple of months?
They clearly knew that some people were going to double dip.

[Michael Brooke]

Originally Posted by J Harker

While i completely appreciate you wouldn't be able to give actual costings. I was merely hoping for some ballpark figures to give some perpective on something I'm clueless about.

The trouble is, this is a "how long is a piece of string?" question - and it also takes into account things like pricing and marketing, which have nothing to do with me: my job is to receive a budget from Arrow and spend it as efficiently as possible.

With regard to existing extras, the price is set by the rightsholder, and usually open to negotiation - in general you'd be talking three or low four figures for an existing commentary, documentary or short film. (The BBC once asked me for £10K for a 25-minute documentary, but that would have blown my entire extras budget and then some, so I went down a different route instead.)

If individual extras are created from scratch, costs are similar: three or low four figures per item, depending on the ingredients. The presenter can make a hefty difference here - a big name like Kim Newman will obviously cost more than someone less renowned, although he was such an obvious choice for the Poe and Lovecraft overviews that I was happy to stump up his fee. (And delighted with the results: he was an absolute pleasure to edit.)

A full-scale restoration from scratch will generally cost £10-15K and upwards, depending on the condition of the film elements. But it's hard to tell upfront what the final cost will be, which is why for security we budgeted £20K for the Kickstarter target for Goto, Isle of Love, taking Kickstarter fees and contingency costs into account. But in the end the latter weren't necessary, so when we ended up with £26K we ultimately had a fair bit more than just £6K surplus. Which is why we were able not only to do HD scans of the five shorts that we said we'd try to scan, but we were able to throw in a few more - the short version of The Beast, the on-set footage, the three commercials, the alternative cut of A Private Collection and so on.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by sjconstable

Digital downloads are right up your alley then.

Why?

I love collecting films. I have thousands. I want to continue collecting films. Why do i need booklets and extras for that?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by bizarre_eye@Cult Labs

I'm finding it hard to believe that people are stating that £70 for 6 extras-laden films and a two hundred page book is expensive...

I think we as consumers have become blinded (and spoiled) thanks to the copious amounts and regularity of deals and promotions on offer to us.

I don't think it's expensive personally. However i do appreciate where JH is coming from especially if he's already bought two of those films from Arrow as individual releases.

If it was me i'd just wait for the individual releases which Michael said would appear next year.

Being hypocritical here i know, but there is a recently released BFI set of tv sci-fi which is going for £50 or £60 - i can't remember which. That is expensive as a blind buy.

The good thing regarding the Corman films is the fact they have been out on dvd for ages and have regular tv showings, giving people the chance to have a look at them and see if they are for them so to speak.

[Michael Brooke]

Originally Posted by will graham

But what ticks me off with the gothic box tales set is that 2 of those films were released less than 6 months ago.

The Pit and the Pendulum did indeed come out fractionally under six months ago, but The Fall of the House of Usher came out in August 2013.

Does anyone here really think that Arrow only came up with the boxset idea within the last couple of months?.

The last three months, to be strictly accurate.

Although a couple of individual titles had already started development, the box set was indeed only proposed in August, when it was clear from sales of the Phibes titles, The Pit and the Pendulum and Theatre of Blood that there was considerable interest in more Vincent Price films, and that a Christmas box set might be a very good idea. And since Arrow could get hold of six out of the seven Price-starring Corman/Poe films, this seemed like the obvious route, as they could weave the Poe theme throughout the entire package (with a quick Lovecraftian detour on The Haunted Palace).

Although certainly tight, this wasn't as impossibly extreme a schedule as it looks - with two producers involved (both of whom were already very clued-up indeed about these films and potential angles to cover) and two existing discs already, it essentially boiled down to one title per producer per month (September/October), plus a bit of extra work on the packaging and the book.