Friday, March 29, 2013

A INTERESTING ARTICLE ABOUT MARKETING, SPOILERS AND THE INTERNET


From HitFix.com's Drew McWeeny column "Motion Captured":
I've seen the screen capture on the front page of sites, and it's been impossible to miss. And because Marvel included it in a TV commercial, it feels like all bets are off. No one considers that a spoiler anymore.

I can tell you that in my own house, if I were to tell my wife any story element of "Iron Man 3," I would be severely punished for my transgression. She would not be pleased. Despite living with me, she pretty much walks into any movie completely cold at this point. She doesn't do spoilers. And over the last few years, she finally decided that she really doesn't even want to see trailers. If I can't describe a movie to her in two sentences that she seems interested by, she's not going to see it.

I've heard the arguments by people like Robert Zemeckis that you have to do that now or audiences won't go, but that runs so counter to everything I've heard from people in real life that I'm wondering if there's any intersect between the conventional industry thinking and what audiences actually want. I have to include myself in the "part of the problem" column, and I have been thinking about it recently. Like everyone publishing online, I live and die based on traffic, and traffic is generated in a number of ways. It would be disingenuous to pretend that we do not depend on a certain amount of traffic generated by content that other people source and link to. Publishing something unique, something that people are curious about, is a part of this business, and I think there is a balance that I continue to try to define between feeding the curiosity of the audience and respecting the process by the filmmakers.
Here's where the confusion and the struggle gets weird. Let's take a Robert Zemeckis film, for example. When I covered movies like "What Lies Beneath" or "Cast Away," I did not reveal plot details while they were in production. I did discuss things that were not public knowledge based on my own reporting at the time, but I did my best not to give too much away. In both cases, I would argue that the trailers that the films cut revealed more than I ever would have. They did it with a disregard that I almost found shocking. These days, I see trailers routinely use images from the last act of the film, and sometimes the final images of the movies, and those images are part of the marketing, sometimes from the very first teaser trailer on. That seems like madness to me.

This article is a must read and its something I've been talking about for a long time. It's good to see this pop up on the other side of the spectrum as well. 

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

NEW ROBOTECH MINATURES TO BE PRODUCED BY NINJA DIVISION


            

At the GAMA Trade Show last week, Ninja Division showcased their new line of Robotech miniatures for attendees. The video is a must see!

TALKING ABOUT PIRACY AT THE SUMMIT ON ANIME IN NORTH AMERICA


             Photo from the SANA webpage.


Fire Up the Quattro has post a brief report about the discussion of streaming, downloading and piracy at SANA.
 Funimation appears to be doing what they can to keep again in the game with offering their own streaming, collectors DVD sets and BluRay and keeping ahead in the game. But I think it’s important as anime fans we really be conscious of the numbers involved and the economics because:
If licensers lose money, and cannot buy titles, it means less anime in America, and will affect anime production in Japan because studios also don’t get the income of selling these titles for US distributing  Meaning less anime FOR ANYONE.
While we have become the instant gratification generation with so much available to give us things in minutes, we also need to remember as much as this is a hobby, we are also consumers of a product and if we pirate that product, in the end everyone ends up losing.



Tuesday, March 26, 2013

DENVER POST ARTICLE ON THE SUMMIT ON ANIME IN NORTH AMERICA


 Sarah Sullivan, left, and Christopher Bevins of FUNimation speak during the Summit on Anime in North America on March 23 at Denver Airport Marriott at Gateway Park. Photo by Joe Nguyen, YourHub

The Denver Post has a great article on the Summit on Anime in North America (SANA) and here is an excerpt.

From “Robotech” to “Naruto,” Japanese animation — or anime — has grown from a small niche market to a multibillion-dollar industry in the United States.
Experts gathered in Aurora to speak about the genre’s rise in popularity in the U.S. at the Summit on Anime in North America on March 23 at the Denver Airport Marriott at Gateway Park.
“What makes anime so special in America?” said Jeremy Pieta, co-secretary of Rocky Mountain Anime Association (RMAA). “There’s not a whole lot of academic discussion about it.”
The event, co-sponsored by RMAA and the Consulate-General of Japan in Denver, explored anime’s history in the U.S., particularly the 1980s boom that launched its success.
Anime showed that cartoons were not just for kids, something that had been lacking since “The Flintstones,” said Kevin McKeever, vice president of marketing for Harmony Gold, the company that brought “Robotech” to America.


Monday, March 25, 2013

PHOTOS FROM THE SUMMIT ON ANIME IN NORTH AMERICA (SANA) NOW ONLINE


Why is anime so popular in North America?

Is it the culture? Could it be the quality of animated work or the storylines? Or, perhaps it's something so intrinsic that it's unique to every person who discovers it?

The Consulate-General of Japan in Denver and the Rocky Mountain Anime Association hosted SANA try and find the reason why, with the blessings of the Japanese government. This is the first time Japan has explored this issue in North America.

For one snow packed 8-hour day, with 6 keynote speakers and 200 invitation-only guests, SANA answered that question.


Monday, March 18, 2013

"SOLVING A RIDDLE" WITH ROBOTECH COMPOSER SCOTT GLASGOW





Examiner.com has posted an interview with Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles Scott Glasgow and here is a excerpt.

Robotech: Shadow Chronicles also marked your very first soundtrack release by the great label, Varese Sarabande. How did you feel when they decided to release the music to that film?

SG: Robotech was also a big moment for me as a composer because as my childhood dream of someday having an album released by Varese Sarabande was realized! It was a huge deal for me. I still thank Robert Townson for deciding to do it. I am betting the fact that Robotech was a well known franchise had contributed to that decision. As a side note, I just finished working on arrangements for the forthcoming film “ROBOTECH: LOVE, LIVE, ALIVE” so there is more Robotech coming your way soon.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

HOW DISNEY BOUGHT LUCASFILM: THE INSIDE STORY

A must read from Bloomberg Business Week.

One weekend last October, Robert Iger, chief executive officer of Walt Disney (DIS), sat through all six Star Wars films. He’d seen them before, of course. This time, he took notes. Disney was in secret negotiations to acquire Lucasfilm, the company founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas, and Iger needed to do some due diligence.
The movies reacquainted Iger with Luke Skywalker, the questing Jedi Knight, and his nemesis Darth Vader, the Sith Lord who turns out to be (three-decade-old spoiler alert) his father. Beyond the movies, Iger needed to know Lucasfilm had a stockpile of similarly rich material—aka intellectual property—for more Star Wars installments. As any serious aficionado knows, there were always supposed to be nine. But how would Disney assess the value of an imaginary galaxy? What, for example, was its population?
As it turned out, Lucas had already done the cataloging. His company maintained a database called the Holocron, named after a crystal cube powered by the Force. The real-world Holocron lists 17,000 characters in the Star Wars universe inhabiting several thousand planets over a span of more than 20,000 years. It was quite a bit for Disney to process.


Monday, March 4, 2013

ANNCAST: THE LAST DAYS OF BANDAI USA PODCAST


Former Bandai Director of Marketing Robert Napton sits down with Anime News Network to talk about how he got into the anime industry and his time at Bandai USA.There are quite a few interesting connections to the Robotech franchise, the Macross derivatives along with a discussion of the early years of anime. 

The podcast also goes in-depth talk about the closure of Bandai Entertainment USA and the long, strange and sudden odyssey the company went through in its final years.

You can listen to the show on the Anime News Network website here, or you can  direct-download the MP3 version here.

If you are interested in what happened to Bandai USA, want to see how a person broke into the anime industry or see what forces are currently affecting the business, this is the podcast for you.  


Saturday, March 2, 2013

BLAST FROM THE PAST: COLLECTION DX REVIEW OF THE TOYNAMI BETA FIGHTER

When the Beta Fighter MPC came out a few years ago Collection DX gave the toy a humorous and  comprehensive review. The review runs about 28 mins but by the end you will be humming "Let's Get It On."

Enjoy!


                

Friday, March 1, 2013

ONE YEAR AGO TODAY AT 9:06 A.M. PDT...

The nations most powerful talk radio host reacts to the news of "that day"...


ONE YEAR AGO TODAY AT 6:33 A.M. PDT...

For some of us we will always remember when we heard the news on 'that day'...