Smaller suppliers wrestle with high-def
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Razor Digital jumps in, but more wait and watch
By Cindy Spielvogel -- Video Business, 9/21/2007
SEPT. 21 | As the fourth quarter approaches, more independent labels are planning to enter the high-definition arena, which to date has been largely the domain of the major studios. Many suppliers also remain on the sidelines, however, due to high-def manufacturing cost and uncertainty over which format to back.
The latest wave of suppliers entering the high-def market includes companies with recognizable film titles and special interest fare of the scenic variety, such as Imax films.
Razor Digital Entertainment will release four Imax films on Blu-ray Disc on Nov. 13 (prebook Oct. 19; $19.99 each): Africa the Serengeti, Alaska: Spirit of the Wild, Antarctica: An Adventure of a Different Nature and Australia: Land Beyond Time.
As previously announced, Anchor Bay Entertainment is entering the Blu-ray waters with such well-known horror films as Halloween, and Genius Products-distributed Tartan Video USA will get into Blu-ray with Asian horror film Oldboy.
Another supplier, Topics Entertainment, was about to begin authoring titles in Blu-ray when the announcement was made that Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation would drop their Blu-ray support and release movies exclusively for HD DVD.
“Paramount threw us for a bit of a loop,” said Greg James, Topics president. “We were going to go with Blu-ray for sure, but now we haven’t made our final decision.”
The company is still committed to releasing titles on high-def this year, but now it’s giving HD DVD a second look for a slate including the PBS titles Over Washington, Over California and Over America, which were shot in high-definition in the mid-’90s.
The company is talking to both Blu-ray replicator Sony DADC and HD DVD proponent Microsoft to see which format can be brought to market more quickly. Topics had some concern that the titles might not be replicated in time if they chose Blu-ray, because fewer replicators work with that format.
At this point, Topics is most likely to go with whichever format camp offers the company the best deal.
“We want to see who can do it cheaper,” Topics DVD manager Lindsay Collins said.
Cost considerations continue to hold back other independents.
“We master in high-definition, but since we’re a smaller studio, we’re still trying to maximize our margins with standard DVD,” said Chris Donaldson, director of marketing for Liberation Entertainment.
Rhino Home Video released some titles on HD DVD but hasn’t seen fit to add more yet. Other independents have gotten their feet wet in either or both formats with a few titles, as have some music suppliers, most notably Eagle Rock Entertainment.
David Goodman, president of DVD International, has released nine titles on HD DVD and will release those same titles on Blu-ray on Oct. 30.
“The intent was always to do both, but Blu-ray was more difficult to author and more expensive to release,” he said.
The HD DVD version of DVD International’s Digital Video Essentials, a calibration how-to the company has been distributing in various forms since the days of laserdisc, has sold more than 5,000 units, he says. The other titles have sold 1,000 to 2,000 units each, he said.
However, “we haven’t recouped our costs yet,” he noted.
DVD International also was one of the first independents in standard DVD back in the late ’90s. It was easier to get product into bricks-and-mortar stores then because there weren’t as many companies releasing titles on DVD yet, Goodman said, as not all the studios were in the market at first. Now, most of Goodman’s HD DVD sales come from online sources. He believes that’s because “most big-box-store buyers are now technicians rather than fans,” meaning they concentrate on square feet and return on investment, mainly movies. “That’s not a bad thing,” he says, “but special interest has given up floor space.”
Besides online, DVD International HD DVD titles also are doing well in the U.K., said Goodman, where they do 50% of the business they do in the U.S.
After his Blu-ray launch, Goodman said he probably will hold off on releasing more high-def titles until there’s a clear direction which way the format war is going.
“I think we’ll know by the end of the year,” he said.
The format war is bothersome to Mark Bussler, producer and director of high-def films for Inecom Entertainment. Bussler has been shooting in high-def for three years, but he sees the cost of releasing a title on Blu-ray or HD DVD as still too expensive for the possible return.
Inecom, which specializes in historical documentaries, plans to release Westinghouse, a film about the American industrialist George Westinghouse, on a high-def format next year. But Bussler doesn’t yet know if it will be on Blu-ray, HD DVD or in high-definition over the Internet.
“As a producer and a consumer, it’s frustrating,” Bussler said of the physical format war. “As a producer, you want people to see your work in the best format possible.”
But he believes the confusion over which format will last is holding people back from buying either one.
“If someone like me hasn’t gotten a high-def player yet, that’s a sign of confusion,” he said.
Consequently high-def over the Internet is beginning to look more attractive to filmmakers such as Bussler, and any form of Internet delivery looks more promising to some independents.
ThinkFilm, which hasn’t yet made the high-def format plunge because of the high cost of authoring, is making a number of Internet delivery deals. The company has deals with Movielink and CinemaNow and is about to announce deals with other major download sites.
One independent supplier who asked to remain anonymous said his company has no plans to get into either Blu-ray or HD DVD, especially with downloading looming. The only people making any money on high-def, he said, are the major retailers, and they’re only making it in co-op funds from the studios.
