[78-L] So what? was Re: Warner Home Video to release Shorts via Archive Series

[Harold Aherne]

One of the stated purposes of the Warner Archive program, as I understand it, is
to release *everything* in their library--well, with a few qualifications (e.g. titles
that have problems with underlying literary or music rights, like Letty Lynton or
Night Flight, won't be available until/unless the snags are untangled. And the creation
of these DVD-Rs is predicated on having an acceptable video master prepared, so
any titles that exist only in film prints will also take some time to appear). Notice
the quote directly from George Feltenstein in the following piece (sixth paragraph):
http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/dvd/2009-03-22-classic-films-on-demand_N.htm
 
It's hard to say how market-driven the WA program actually is. Material that sells better
*might* encourage similar films to appear more quickly...or perhaps they'd get released
anyway. Since there is little to no unsold stock involved with producing on demand copies,
the financial concerns that might exist with retail releases of the MGM Our Gang series
or Vitaphone subjects doesn't really apply. It seems to me that WB is releasing these
first because of the familiar brand name, the publicity value for their program, and the likelihood that media attention to this release might encourage Warner Archive 
fence-sitters to jump off. 
 
In a quote published at http://tiny.cc/UYrde, Feltenstein says, “It’s our first of what will be very many short subject collections in our library from Warner Archive [...] We have a treasure trove of this type of short subject material. We have been beleaguered, in a good way, with consumer requests for all sorts of things.” 
 
And even if you're an Our Gang hater, I really do encourage you to look at some of the
silent entries in the series with talented kids like Mickey Daniels and Mary Kornman...
they, at least, haven't become pop-culture 
 
 
 


--- On Tue, 9/1/09, David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca> wrote:




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> Steve
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