I found this older article noting that the Tartan USA line was distributed by Genius/Weinstein. Was this still the case recently? Probably no connection to today's news, but one wonders . . .
http://www.geniusproducts.com/PressR...?releaseid=157


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Appears so.

I don't know for certain, but I'd say judging by their lack of new most-wanted title output, and their constant re-issuing of titles can only mean that they're not doing as well as they were. I loved BU a few years ago. I still think they put out superior DVDs, but the output has been severely lacking as of late.

Too bad about Tartan but, like another poster said, a lot of titles came out and not many had great buzz.

I did not post here to argue that there is a mass trend of smaller distribs going belly-up. Rather what I wanted to point out to you is that these are businesses that aren't immune to current developments within our economy. Now, for every distrib you listed above there is another that is either struggling or on the way out (SKDDVD, Wolfe Video, Picture This Ent, etc). For a number of reasons I believe that in the next year to 18 months you will see a sizable restructuring of the DVD market.

Peep, if you are asking for an article I am afraid I don't have one.

Pro-B

pro-B - Based on your observations, do you believe there will a move to further consolidate or will an outright disappearance of the niche labels be a real possibility?

Does anyone have a list of their releases? Or at least their Asia Extreme titles? Their website and Myspace hasn't been updated in a while so it's kind of a pain to figure out what was and wasn't released in the last few months. I had been collecting all of their Asia Extreme and other horror titles over the last few years and I think I have the majority of them. I guess now's the time to really get on after the rest of them. It's a shame they're going. The small niche companies like Tartan, Noshame, and Panik House are the primary companies I buy from and more and more of them are disappearing, and I really don't see 95% of their products ever making it to Blu-Ray.

I didn't want to derail the thread. I was hoping there might be another topic elsewhere where BU was discussed.

i wonder, if dragon dynasty was around in 04, do you all think that they would have distributed 'oldboy' and maybe even have given it a decent theatrical release.

Doesn't seem like OLD BOY would have fit with their almost exclusively martial-arts-related catalogue. Probably a little too thematically dark for them, as well. Plus it had three strong commentary tracks crafted for the Korean release, so less need for experts over here to chime in . . . ;)



If some of these films barely sold on DVD, what company's going to want to risk these bastard stepchildren on Blu-Ray? Perhaps a few premium titles can be cherry-picked from defunct catalogues, but there's an awful lot of "so-so" titles in the Tartan library, not to mention the libraries of many other companies name-checked in this thread; titles that most likely wouldn't benefit from a Hi-Def upgrade in any way other than resolution.

Are their titles going out of print?

I would feel very uncomfortable if we mentioned names but there are at least two distribs that I know currently face a tremendous uphill battle. The sales numbers are simply not there. I've reviewed their titles on a regular basis here at TALK (you know that I almost never review product from big labels) and they are simply not doing well.

I think that depending on how the economy moves forward some will either severely limit their operations or follow up Tartan.

Pro-B

is it really just an economic thing? ive suspected failings in the promotion of these niche companies releases for several years, long before there was a general sense of economic woe in various countries.

I can also remember mentioning that there was a potential mismatch in how aware people seemed to suddenly be of what were once much harder to find out about and see and how frequently they purchased all but the most popular of them in any supportable quantities. ultimately I sensed when (if) companies failed, that the buck would be passed and little said of how much hard work fans needed to put in to become initially aware and attempt to spread the word on these releases in compensation of a system youd expect to be able to such work itself. this, when, in patches, there were also examples of good PR from companies too... I still spend many more hours in preparation of my choices than in watching them if I buy them.

I'm just not convinced its clearly an "out of their control" situation.

I mentioned earlier that it was a number of reasons that will likely cause some of the smaller players to close shops. Clearly some, as you point out, have failed to market their product and their business as they should have. But really, what it all comes down to is that sales have been progressively getting smaller and smaller. And with a market where the margins are already so small that you really have to watch what you release I think that it will be incredibly difficult for some to become more flexible...and survive.

You probably know that I was incredibly vocal in supporting No Shame as I thought that they captured a niche no other English-friendly distrib had targeted and last year it was very hard for me to see them go away (I am also fond of PictureThis, I love their DVD releases). Some of these smaller distribs are one, maybe two, -man-shows and I know/knew a lot of these people by name, we often exchanged info about titles, releases, etc. As I said, no one is lying or exaggerating with the current picture. This is simply a very difficult time for a lot of people in the business.

Pro-B

Apropos of nothing, really, I just received an email tonight advertising Magnolia's version of Bong Koon-ho's THE HOST available for download from Jaman (though not in my country yet, sadly). I know downloads aren't the be all and end all yet, nor can they ever replace the comfort of my big couch and my big TV and my big sound system, and I've "rented" a grand total of three to date (all old Shaw brothers films licenced from IVL), but I have to wonder if a lot of this niche product won't be better suited to this kind of legal downloading in the near future, since the replication and packaging costs drop significantly, and back catalogues are already available for a lot of these companies that are stuggling. Sure, a $2 or $3 rental isn't the same as a $15.99 DVD, but $2 or $3 (I think this particular site charges around $5 to own a film) might tempt more people to give some of this stuff a shot, and they won't be out too much money if a particular movie fails to live up to its poster (which was often the case with Tartan stuff). Just a thought.

noshame are probably the best example of just two or three that get things generally right in their marketing, but, youre right pro-b, these are small companies that inherantly live hand-to-mouth.

I would suspect many don't expect or understand that's ever going to be the case in the cash rich perception of the film world that we more directly live within.

still, putting aside personal taste and looking at how I personally perceive what people are more predominantly buying or reacting positively to, there would still be possible choices for licenses companies could pick up without drawing too much attention that encourages inflated license costs.

I imagine that the rejig of the market - particularly with anime - will see a continued battle to get people to realize what small business failures should already be highlighting : both in how companies work and how fans react to it by laying down their cash.

While their website hasn't been updated in a while, I'm fairly sure that the release list is complete. To the best of my knowledge, they hadn't released any titles this year at all.

A Tale of Two Sisters
Ab-normal Beauty
Acacia
Another Public Enemy
Apartment 1303
Arang
Bloody Reunion
Bloody Ties
Booth, The
Carved
Cello
Cinderella
Divergence
Doppelganger
Dorm
Election
Face
Ghost of Mae Nak
Ghost, The
H
H6: Diary of a Serial Killer
Heirloom, The
Heroic Duo
Hidden Blade, The
Koma
Lady Vengeance
Maid, The
Marebito
Memento Mori
Natural City
Oldboy
One Take Only
Perth
Phone
Pray
Red Shoes
R-Point
Shutter
Silk
Snake of June, A
Sorum
Spider Forest
Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
Triad Election
Unborn But Forgotten
Victim, The
Vital
Whispering Corridors
Wishing Stairs

I think your list is missing one title, but I am too tired to remember what it is. The cover was through a keyhole and it was the Brazilian answer to "Saw" and "Hostel", and I think it had a title like P2 or H9 or something.

EDIT: H6: Diary of a Serial Killer. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455115/

EDIT AGAIN: I guess you were talking about Asia Extreme titles. Never mind.

Edited to add it to the list.

here's the most complete list you'll probably be able to find

click here

The bummer of all this is if these smaller companies can't make money off of their niche films on regular dvds, how the hell can anyone survive putting the same material on blu-ray?

can anyone help me on this?...

should i get Mr Vengeance like right now, today?... or can i wait until June 6th?...

i'm wondering will they yank the DVD's after this announcement for legal reasons?...

You could certainly wait until the DDD sale begins. No one is going to pull off Tartan's titles immediately, or in a very near future.

Pro-B

Thanks everyone for helping with the lists. It'll come in handy as I'm finalizing my Deepdiscount wishlist now. They also some great titles not part of the Asia Extreme line, like Sheitan. Still a horrible shame they're going. It's sad to see the companies that specialize in the products that have turned me into such a rabid dvd collector on their way out. I have to say that the future of nothing but mainstream titles on Blu-Ray just is not appealing to me at all, which is why I still haven't upgraded. There's maybe one out of ten of the Hollywood releases I might care about, with maybe one out of ten of those being ones I like enough to actually care about getting in high def. And downloading can go to hell. I'm just not liking how the market is going at all.

Slop, missed your post but wanted to comment...

Actually, OldBoy-BR has been Tartan's best selling title to date, including SDVD releases.

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6553582.html

Pro-B

It'a also one of the best, and certainly the most prestigious and highly-known titles in their entire catalogue. It's hardly surprising that it got a Blu-Ray release over (nearly?) everything else. But if it sold so well, what kept them from releasing more? Surely the other titles in the OLDBOY trilogy might have been worth a look, despite them being less critically popular or financiallly lucrative all around than OLDBOY itself. A TALE OF TWO SISTERS is something of a forerunner in decent Korean horror, but no Blu there either. And the rest of their titles? Well, there's lots of just-OK stuff, but nothing that exactly cries out for hi-def treatment and a higher sticker price.