B5:TLT Actual DISCUSSION Thread

[Joseph DeMartino]

Dec 30th TLT Update from JMS

From: jmsa...@aol.com - view profile
Date: Sat, Dec 30 2006 8:40 pm
Email: jmsa...@aol.com
Groups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
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Ranger Elenopa wrote:
> Hi JMS,

> I was just thinking, we hadn't heard anything for a while about 'The
> Lost Tales' (like when we can buy it!).


> As it is just about new year, can you tell us anything?



Not much to say at the moment. The studios shut down two weeks ago,
everybody's on hiatus. The post production process continues apace,
with animatics having come down before the break for approval so they
can start the heavy rendering. I came up with an opening set-piece
which is now being storyboarded out, and we have someone now designing
a new title sequence as well. We'll just keep doing this until
February/March, when we do the final mix, with the release date slated
for the week of July 27th.

jms

 

[GaribaldisHair]

Re: Actual B5:TLT News

So ... not quite quarter 2 of 2007.

Hope it doesn't slip back any further. I just want to see it already!

 

[KoshN]

Re: Dec 30th TLT Update from JMS

From: jmsa...@aol.com - view profile
Date: Sat, Dec 30 2006 8:40 pm
Email: jmsa...@aol.com
Groups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

... with the release date slated for the week of July 27th.

jms

So, 3rd Quarter 2007.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Re: Actual B5:TLT News

So ... not quite quarter 2 of 2007.

Hope it doesn't slip back any further. I just want to see it already!

Well, 2nd quarter was never more than a provisional target date, set before shooting on the film had even started. I don't know why people treat such things as if they were carved in stone and talk about things being "delayed" when they were never firmly scheduled.

Regards,

Joe

 

[vacantlook]

Re: Actual B5:TLT News

...I don't know why people treat such things as if they were carved in stone and talk about things being "delayed" when they were never firmly scheduled....

People are just eager; nothing wrong with that.

 

[Recoil]

Re: Actual B5:TLT News

Sweet.

So whats the longer term plan? Wait until the first DVD is released and see how it sells, before they decide if they are going to do the next set?

 

[RMcD]

Re: Actual B5:TLT News

What I really want to know is when we get to see some footage from it - trailers, featurettes, making ofs, a glimpse of B5's new look etc etc. Anything to pass the time between now and then. Hopefully WB is on the case (presumably they realise it's quite critical for them to build up public awareness between now and the release, as it's going straight to DVD and risks passing some would-be buyers by). Did I read somewhere that something might appear in January?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Re: Actual B5:TLT News

So whats the longer term plan? Wait until the first DVD is released and see how it sells, before they decide if they are going to do the next set?

That would seem the sensible thing to do, and follows the pattern they set with the original DVDs. But JMS probably can't confirm or deny that, or discuss any alternatives due to industry protocol or contractual reasons, and he's the only person "inside" the production who is talking to the fans on the web. So nobody here is in a position to answer your question.

It is possible that WB will make (or has already made) a TV deal for the first Tales, based on anything from the locked cut that exists now to the fully-finished with FX and score version that will be available in a few months. If that's the case they may go into production on disc 2 before disc 1 is released - but really, at this point there are too many variables and unknowns to make even an educated guess.

Hard as it may seem, we're just going to have to wait and see.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Recoil]

Re: Actual B5:TLT News

Cool, just curious.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Re: Actual B5:TLT News

What I really want to know is when we get to see some footage from it - trailers, featurettes, making ofs, a glimpse of B5's new look etc etc.

Probably not terribly long before the discs ship. You don't market a (maybe) $5 million dollar direct-to-DVD movie the way you market Spiderman 3 with teaser trailers and reoprts from the set and putting the cast on TV talk shows starting a year ahead of time. Don't forget, WB calculated a break-even point for this disc based on the sales of the original series, Crusade, the movie set and the Rangers pilot disc. Their market research people are telling them that "x" percentage of the folks who bought the series are likely to buy this disc.

That means the target audience for B5:TLT disc one is us. And we're already talking about it. Why spend money drumming up interest among people who were interested before the cameras rolled?

And why spend money now trying to entice non-fans to check it out now, when they won't be able to buy the disc until next July? I'd expect to see the first public advertising aimed at the general pulbic around May or June.

Did I read somewhere that something might appear in January?

Yes, you did.

Fairly soon, probably starting late January, the director's blogs will start showing up on the net. I can't tell you how much I hate being in front of the camera.

I suspect these will be a bit like Bryan Singer's video blogs for Superman Returns or Peter Jackson's Kong production diaries (except that those ran while the films were still in the middle of their much-longer shooting and production schedules.)

In addition, JMS has said that they're going to be shooting some kind of extra materials, perhaps interviews and/or promos, in February. There is also a New York Convention of some sort scheduled for February, and Jan asked JMS if he'd be bringing any TLT goodies to that, but he hasn't answered. Also quite early on JMS said that Warner Bros. had agreed to put together a preview reel that could be shown at Comic Con in San Diego next July, but at this point it looks like that could be after the DVDs go on sale, so that could end up being more of a commercial than a "sneak peak".

WB will also be reopening the official B5 website and presumably the forum (which was shut-down, but not deleted, back in May) In fact, they've started the process. I can login with my old user name and password again, but I can't yet post anything.

So it looks like they will be doing some things fairly soon to spread the "word of net" to the faithful, but it will probably be awhile before they do any general advertising. Also, you have to remember that the FX, compositing and score are the last things finished on a film, so there won't be a lot of really cool footage directly from the film to put up on the 'web or show anywhere else for awhile. I'm sure there are some fully-rendered CGI test that could be intercut with live action to a temp track of existing Chris Franke music, but that won't be the same thing. (Also given the extensive use of virtual sets, even a lot of the live action scenes probably aren't "finished" at this point, because the sets haven't been added. )

Regards,

Joe

 

[KoshN]

Re: Actual B5:TLT News

Probably not terribly long before the discs ship. You don't market a (maybe) $5 million dollar direct-to-DVD movie the way you market Spiderman 3 with teaser trailers and reports from the set and putting the cast on TV talk shows starting a year ahead of time. Don't forget, WB calculated a break-even point for this disc based on the sales of the original series, Crusade, the movie set and the Rangers pilot disc. Their market research people are telling them that "x" percentage of the folks who bought the series are likely to buy this disc.

Was anything ever leaked on how well the B5 Season Sets, B5 Movie Set, Crusade Set, or the Rangers pilot DVDs have sold so far? I mean fairly recently (i.e. 2nd or 3rd Qtr 2006).

That means the target audience for B5:TLT disc one is us. And we're already talking about it. Why spend money drumming up interest among people who were interested before the cameras rolled?

I just hope that this isn't a stealth release (like Del Rey pretty much did with the B5 trilogies), and that they (WB) spend some money on teasers and put them on TV where the general public is likely to see them. I hope some of that advertising is on the big three, CBS, NBC and ABC.

And why spend money now trying to entice non-fans to check it out now, when they won't be able to buy the disc until next July? I'd expect to see the first public advertising aimed at the general pulbic around May or June.

Wonder where they'll air the first public advertising aimed at the general pulbic, The Sci-Fi Channel, USA and NBC (to get one of the big three), FOX and maybe The CW (but not TNT)?

In addition, JMS has said that they're going to be shooting some kind of extra materials, perhaps interviews and/or promos, in February. There is also a New York Convention of some sort scheduled for February, and Jan asked JMS if he'd be bringing any TLT goodies to that, but he hasn't answered. Also quite early on JMS said that Warner Bros. had agreed to put together a preview reel that could be shown at Comic Con in San Diego next July, but at this point it looks like that could be after the DVDs go on sale, so that could end up being more of a commercial than a "sneak peak".
.....
So it looks like they will be doing some things fairly soon to spread the "word of net" to the faithful, but it will probably be awhile before they do any general advertising.

Would it make sense to have a sticky thread about that, here, devoted solely to stuff that WB is doing to spread the word? I mean sort of a one way News thread, that could only posted to by Moderators, that wouldn't get buried in this, currently up to 43 pages, Actual B5:TLT News thread? That way, we could have pointers to actual promos, both online and on TV, and it could remain a short and controlled thread that is easy to keep up with.

Also, you have to remember that the FX, compositing and score are the last things finished on a film, so there won't be a lot of really cool footage directly from the film to put up on the 'web or show anywhere else for awhile. I'm sure there are some fully-rendered CGI test that could be intercut with live action to a temp track of existing Chris Franke music, but that won't be the same thing.

Better than nothing.

(Also given the extensive use of virtual sets, even a lot of the live action scenes probably aren't "finished" at this point, because the sets haven't been added. )

Some behind the scenes pictures of the actors in costume, on the constructed sets, would be nice.

Man, am I ever chomping at the bit.

 

[A_M_Swallow]

Re: Actual B5:TLT News

That means the target audience for B5:TLT disc one is us. And we're already talking about it. Why spend money drumming up interest among people who were interested before the cameras rolled?

And why spend money now trying to entice non-fans to check it out now, when they won't be able to buy the disc until next July? I'd expect to see the first public advertising aimed at the general pulbic around May or June.

There is one other audience that Warner Brothers have to worry about - the buying departments of shops like Walmart and Blockbuster. Something new like Direct to DVD is high risk for them. These people are like theatre managers, they cannot make the film a blockbuster but they can kill the DVD sales.

I do not know if Hollywood has ever done it but there are continuing rumours that some manufactures of consumer goods have run tv adverts just to get these guys to stock the goods.

 

[Shabaz]

Re: Actual B5:TLT News

Was anything ever leaked on how well the B5 Season Sets, B5 Movie Set, Crusade Set, or the Rangers pilot DVDs have sold so far? I mean fairly recently (i.e. 2nd or 3rd Qtr 2006).

Well, through a fault of whoever wrote up the TLT press release, we know the DVDs did 44 million last year (most likely last financial year):

Babylon 5 is a top selling franchise on DVD to date with over $44
million in consumer sales.

It's an oopsie...they went off the last recorded year's sales figures,
not the cumulative.

jms*
*directing his little brain out up in BC

And there is of course the oft cited 500 million number, which JMS cited for the first time in September 2004, and is the number without Season 5 or Crusade or LotR sales included, since those were not out on DVD at that point.

The DVDs grossed roughly half a BILLION
dollars (and that was just after they put out S5, without all of the S5
sales in).

That's the best we have in terms of DVD sales numbers. Something above 544 million USD, at least.

I suspect these will be a bit like Bryan Singer's video blogs for Superman Returns or Peter Jackson's Kong production diaries (except that those ran while the films were still in the middle of their much-longer shooting and production schedules.)

Well, you don't have to suspect, since he outright said it would be kind of like those Kong things in response to a question.

> Also, these "director's blogs"; these would be video production
> diaries, like they had on kongisking.net during King Kong production?
> Those sound fun, and with JMS in them, I'm sure they will steal the
> hearts of many internet denizens. <g>

Yeah, my mug in front of the camera a la Jackson. Like THAT'S gonna
sell copies. People will be bringing these things back in droves, just
to appease the horrified children....

jms

Ok, so he makes it sound more like the children scaring stuff from the actual Kong movie rather then its behind the scenes stuff, but still.

In addition, JMS has said that they're going to be shooting some kind of extra materials, perhaps interviews and/or promos, in February.

The way he worded that, it didn't really sound like he was talking about those type of extras when he mentioned the things to be shot in February. "Original short pieces" doesn't really sound like interviews to me, and it would have to be a pretty elaborate promo to qualify for that definition, I think. But it's pretty vague, and I'm not really sure either exactly what he is planning to do.

What he said:

A number of behind-the-scenes pieces were shot for inclusion on the DVD, as well as a number of original short pieces that will be filmed in February which feature glimpses into the future of Babylon 5 and her characters.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Re: Actual B5:TLT News

Was anything ever leaked on how well the B5 Season Sets, B5 Movie Set, Crusade Set, or the Rangers pilot DVDs have sold so far? I mean fairly recently (i.e. 2nd or 3rd Qtr 2006)

JMS has said that the $44 million figure mentioned in the WB press release represented last year's sales, not cumulative sales since the initial release. Apart from the oft-quoted half million dollars in gross sales (a figure that is already a couple of years old) I'm not aware of any specifics being mentioned.

I hope some of that advertising is on the big three, CBS, NBC and ABC.

Obviously they're only going to do that if they think they can increase sales so much by doing so that the added profits will more than off-set the cost of running the ads. I, for one, do not believe that enough extra people are going to buy the disc because of an advertisment on CSI or Desperate Housewives to remotely cover the cost of the ad. (Which on those shows could exceed the budget for the movie.) Be realistic. WB is not going to to blow that kind of money just to satisfy B5 fans who want to see a "prestige" ad campaign and proof that "the studios are finally taking SF seriously". They aren't going to do it, and they shouldn't. I'd much rather they run 10 ads during Battlestar Galactica than one during a primetime network show watched by millions of people who would never buy an SF DVD. The one current primetime hit that might be worth a gamble is Heroes, since that has a big comic book geek demo who might not really know from B5 (given how long its been off the air) but for whom the name Straczynski mighr ring a bell.

Wonder where they'll air the first public advertising aimed at the general pulbic, The Sci-Fi Channel, USA and NBC (to get one of the big three), FOX and maybe The CW (but not TNT)?

Again, I'm not sure that they're going to do TV advertising at all, and am also not sure how much would be aimed at "the general public" as opposed to "put out where non-B5 SF fans might see it." I'm thinking websites, magazines, maybe a bonus preview disc included with the existing B5-related DVDs. (I'd be all over that idea.)

Finally I again direct your attention to the question of WB hooking up with a TV partner. If they do that will affect the timing of the release, the advertising and the prospects of reruns of the original show returning to TV. All of that would change the entire picture as now there would be more room for cross-promotion, etc. But we are so far from all of this that speculation is really pointless, except to the degree it let's people vent.

I'll give some thought to the stick idea although it will probably have to wait until WB actually does something, which so far, they haven't.

There is one other audience that Warner Brothers have to worry about - the buying departments of shops like Walmart and Blockbuster. Something new like Direct to DVD is high risk for them.

Blockbuster is a non-issue, since B5 was always more of a sell-through than a rental item. Same with Wal-Mart, really. Because B5 fandom has, from the beginning, been so much more of a 'net based community than Trek or even X-Files fandom, I suspect it is one of the few series that sold the majority of discs via the web rather than at brick and mortar stores. As long as Amazon, DeepDiscount and SendIt.com are around, I don't think WB needs to worry about not having enough distribution channels. If Wal-Mart's own sales records show they sold enough B5 discs in the past, they'll take the title. If they don't, they might skip it - but how much does that really hurt if Wal-Mart cusotmers weren't buying very many B5 discs to begin with. It is like advertising in the right TV markets. You don't advertise to an audience that doesn't buy products like the one you're selling. And you don't lose sleep if your product isn't on the shelves in a store where people don't buy that kind of product.

Wal-Mart can't kill a video title (the way theater bookers can kill a film) because there are far more alternative ways of buying that title than there are alternative theaters (within a reasonable distance) to see a film.

In any case, from what I've seen Wal-Mart has always carried the various B5 titles. (I think I picked up my copy of the Rangers pilot there.)

Regards,

Joe

 

[Telepath]

Re: Actual B5:TLT News

Concerning the release of the first TLT disc: Does anyone know when WB is going to launch it in Europe? I would hate reading about the contents before having watched the stuff myself.

 

[GaribaldisHair]

Re: Actual B5:TLT News

Short answer = No.

 

[hypatia]

Re: Actual B5:TLT News

Concerning the release of the first TLT disc: Does anyone know when WB is going to launch it in Europe? I would hate reading about the contents before having watched the stuff myself.

Yea, we really need to stick to the Spoilers alert rule.

Safest thing is if every TLT thread is one you avoid. But then some nut will start cross-referencing it in another thread.

 

[Telepath]

Re: Actual B5:TLT News

Well, since I consider buying a new DVD player anyway, perhaps I'll get one that can make use of NTSC discs. Chances for spoiling TLT are too good otherwise

 

[hypatia]

Re: Actual B5:TLT News

Well, since I consider buying a new DVD player anyway, perhaps I'll get one that can make use of NTSC discs. Chances for spoiling TLT are too good otherwise

Oh. Then, by no means follow my advice. It does give you a great excuse to upgrade your equipment.

I may have to replace mine soon, it's getting old. But I've had massive bills lately, so I hope it can squeak out a bit longer.

But I might finally be able to see Alan Rickman's film "Closet Land".

And Blakes Seven.

Hmmmm.

Maybe I should drop my DVD player next time I'm cleaning it... from the roof. :devil:

 

[A_M_Swallow]

Re: Actual B5:TLT News

Maybe I should drop my DVD player next time I'm cleaning it... from the roof. :devil:

Have two DVD players, one for the lounge and one for the bedroom.

If you are going international the portable players with built in screens normally play all formats.