To enhance DVD or not to enhance DVD? That is the question facing many film and videomakers who are weighing the costs and benefits of adding extra elements to their DVDs. A bottom line-based, cost-benefit analysis to such additions can be difficult to assess. Those companies and filmmakers that can afford to add value via enhancements see the return as a combination of providing their audience with quality work and increasing sales. Those groups that can’t afford enhancements and/or who need subsidies to do so, are also correct in assuming that the enhancements may not prove fruitful in advancing their sales in what is already a niche marketplace. Hopefully the following case studies can provide a look at the motivations, hard work and results of making enhanced DVDs.
Stories from the War on Homosexuality: The Arthur Dong Collection, Vol. 1
Arthur Dong, an award-winning filmmaker, has been making and self-distributing documentaries for more than 20 years. In 2003, he released a boxed set of three digitally re-mastered DVDs of his documentaries Coming Out Under Fire (1994), Family Fundamentals (2002) and Licensed to Kill (1997). His decision to do so came out of his deep commitment to the issues raised in the programs. Too, as a self-distributor, he notes “The long-term picture is that my films are my social security. They are evergreen and will be a way for me to care of myself in the future.”
Dong worked with a DVD producer and an assistant to add 4 hours of additional material and bonus features, including more than 2 hours of previously unreleased footage, and viewer guides for each title. The project took six months of work, two months for each title. In addition to creating the DVDs, the 45-page study guide for one film took 2 or 3 months, with the extra time coming from working with scholars and community leaders. Working with graphic artists on the design and the printing also added time and expenses. He paid people a fair wage, given his own desire to be treated fairly as an independent maker.
The verdict? Dong says it was worth it, if for no other reason than to give these films a renewed life and ultimately more staying power in the marketplace. Often used as points of departure for discussions on homosexual issues, the added materials have renewed interest in the older titles in educational and non-profit settings. The sales figures for Dong’s programs break down to 14 percent wholesale; 42 percent educational and 42 percent home video. He notes that universities have been willing to pay the full price.
The quality of Arthur Dong’s DVD works and his conscientious commitment to excellent work and respectful treatment of professional colleagues is exemplary. Dong has leveraged his fine body of documentaries and ability and talents to obtain multiple sources of support in order to create the DVDs. While the DVD release brought in new sales (including some re-sales to those who already had VHS copies of the tapes), his motivation was more driven by an impulse to share expanded knowledge about the issues raised in the film.
The Stone Reader – Three Different DVD Releases
The Stone Reader is a documentary by Mark Moscowitz in which he explores why a favorite book, The Stones of Summer, went out of print. Given the subject matter — a lost book — Moscowitz and his partner were able to get Barnes and Noble to publish the DVD with the B&N branding. Barnes and Noble had 9,000-10,000 units in stores within several weeks, several months before New Yorker Films released the two-disk set. Because Moscowitz and a partner handled the Barnes & Noble deal by themselves, they profited from 60-75 percent of the gross.
Moscowitz handled the technical side of the DVD authoring — menus, duplication and delivery — after the Barnes & Noble deal was made. Barnes & Nobel bought 12,000 units and gave store managers discretion on the pricing. While the release was a major success, many Barnes & Noble stores sold out of DVDs, and communications weren’t sharp enough to replace them as some stock sat on warehouse shelves.
The New Yorker Films deal closed around the time that the Barnes & Noble DVDs hit the shelves. Mark wanted a two-disk DVD with extra elements, which New Yorker Films resisted but ultimately agreed to, as well as to allowing Moscowitz to produce a three-disk set on his own. José Lopez of New Yorker Films agreed to run the New Yorker edition close to the Barnes & Noble release, feeling that the Barnes & Noble presence helped, not hindered, building The Stone Reader’s presence in the marketplace. The New Yorker DVDs were produced with heavy supervision by the filmmaker.
The three-disk DVD created by Moscowitz and his associates included a wealth or materials, such as interviews with the editor of The Stone Reader novel, and assorted literary reviewers and film critics. It also included two in-depth updates on Stone Reader author Dow Mossman and more lost books from the film’s theatrical tour. . The print publication took a lot of time, energy and money, and licensing clips was also a large time and money investment, with a WNET clip being the most expensive element. Moscowitz noted that it was expensive to include all the extras, but that he wanted “to do something great.”
When asked why he didn’t go with an institutional market release before going to home video, Moscowitz said that people urged him not to go home video route. For him, “The main point of the film was to get Dow [Mossman]’s book published.” This was a major ethical point for Moscowitz, who wanted to do right by the author of The Stones of Summer. This decision illustrated Moscowitz’s feeling that a maker needs to decide upon the hierarchy of what he/she wants. Is it making money, wanting the movie to be seen, your reputation or achieving a social goal?
