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BAD TIMES FOR ONAR FILMS
Topic Started: Oct 19 2007, 01:20 AM (1,541 Views)
Jared
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Have you seen this recent post from Bill's blog?
Hopefully he won't mind if I post in here almost in it's entirety.

"So, TARZAN ISTANBUL'DA DVD is finally out. "So what?" must have been the first response of "fans", provided they even knew about it.
It came out last Friday, October 12th and since then I was forced to re-think about Onar's future.
To cut a long story short, sales dropped even more.
I managed to sell a few copies the first day of release and since then, ZERO, NIX, NADA, CAPUT, etc.
My older releases used to have a particular dynamics. I kept selling a few items every day for about a month and then things slowed down.
Now, I sold a few dvd's for 1 day and then everything stopped.
Even worse, half my wholesale clients quit buying from me and the few that remained just ordered 3-5 dvd's for the sake of appearances.
Ok, I still have 1 good and faithful wholesale client and thanks to him I'm still in business.
So, now it's as good a time as ever to face the reality and fight with it.
Although over the past months I've been trying to improve my products in every possible way and although I dropped the prices by 2-3 euro and although lots of people admit and appreciate it, the result is nevertheless negative and leathal.
It's obvious that there are not 1200 fans of this genre on earth who can support me.
So, I must address to the correct number of fans that is not even 500.
Now, my idea is this:
I will quit pressing 1200 pieces.
I will be pressing a SUPER-MEGA-LIMITED edition of 500 copies.
However, since my costs will remain the same (COPYRIGHTS- AUTHORING- SUBS- FACTORY etc) I will have to raise the price.
But since I will stick to only one wholesale customer who will buy a small quantity and since I will have to sell the rest alone I will be able to keep prices at a reasonable level.
Normally, since all costs will be the same while the copies will go down to 500, the prices would have to go more than double.
But now, I figure I will be able to retail them at only 23-25 euro, while my faithful retailer will probably offer them at a similar price.
Now if you have heard of a more limited edition at a cheaper price, go ahead and post it here!
As for my previous plan of releasing 1 dvd per month I guess it will have to be modified according to people's response.
For the moment, I'll still try to release CASUS KIRAN in November, on 1200 copies.
But after that, right now I don't know which film I must release, or when."

I'm at a loss as to what to say. The situation seems to be made even worse by the Metin's illness, which I'm sure has contributed to Bill's obvious foul mood and pessimistic outlook.
We can only hope that Onar can struggle forward and continue to put out these amazing DVDs, which are some of my personal all-time favorites.
Worldweird Cinema
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videohunter
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that's terrible to hear as BILL has always been a class act, and a great seller, i wish him the best.....





ALL DVD companies r suffering, buisness for everyone isn't what it was ,say 4-5 years ago...., with torrent downloads and the like, also the inde companies r takin a hit because big budget companies r retailing thier DVDs for 10 dollars, the inde companies can't stay afloat at those rates, they can't afford to sell to wholesalers that cheap with all the production costs associated.........it's a shame , but the days of actually holding viewing media in hand, is soon goining to be obsolete on the retail level........ :(
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Jack J
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I had already read his post at his blog and yes; it's terrible! Trying to promote yourself when you are a one man business is really hard. And sending free copies out to potential retailers gets to be a bitch cos so many stores just don't care. I experienced this when I did my fanzine. So many stores couldn't give a rat's ass.

And Videhunter, I agree. Download is the future. UNFORTUNATELY!!! I must admit I never saw the appeal in burning your own copy of an album or a film and printing your own cover. To me that is stupid! How anyone would want some homemade crap instead of a good release is beyond me! I don't get it and I don't understand why so few people buy stuff like the Onar and Casa Negra stuff. When you read message boards and film magazines it seems like world-weird films is so 'cool' and the 'in' thing to collect. And in reality it's just talk talk talk. Not a whole lot of people actually buy these things and support the companies that put them out. That's also why it bugs me when you see fans who collect these films but only/or mostly collect DVD-Rs! DVD-Rs are fine when we are dealing with stuff that has disappeared from the marked, when all there was in the first place was a VHS that came out twenty years ago (probably in Greece). But I fail to understand why some collectors collect easy-to-get films on DVD-R. It's killing small companies (and yes, I realise we've had this conversation in here before... but I still don't get it). Honestly, a collection of Fulci's zombie films on DVD-R is nothing but shite if you ask me. Worth nothing.

And seeing how Bill may have to print only 500 copies of his future DVDs is just ridiculous. There must be 1200 fans of these films world wide!!


Jack
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stephen grimes
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Jack J
Oct 19 2007, 12:50 PM
DVD-Rs are fine when we are dealing with stuff that has disappeared from the marked, when all there was in the first place was a VHS that came out twenty years ago (probably in Greece). But I fail to understand why some collectors collect easy-to-get films on DVD-R. It's killing small companies (and yes, I realise we've had this conversation in here before... but I still don't get it).

Totally agree Jack.
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Jack J
Oct 19 2007, 11:50 AM
Download is the future. UNFORTUNATELY!!! I must admit I never saw the appeal in burning your own copy of an album or a film and printing your own cover. To me that is stupid!

I feel sorry for some people who call themselves collectors and only have downloaded shit in their hard discs. I am sure each one of us in here has a real collection, not just downloaded data in a hard drive.
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cinehound
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I hate to download movies and the sites that work this way.

There are some independent directors/producers who provide free download of their films in their sites, this is something else...

I wish the best for Bill & Onar and I'll always support him. We try to find explanations...but I think...maybe the true collectors of "mondo macabro" - or I should say "worldweird"? :D - films out there are in fact only A FEW???

I wonder... :unsure:

Of course these days most people haven't enough money to spend, situation is bad, even labels like CasaNegra are thinking to close, what chances has a small label from Greece?
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driller1
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will u be releasing "lion man" in the future
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Sure hope Casus Kiran gets out before X-mas..
I really want to believe that Bill will prevail in the end, hope sales start to pick up when the releases get even MORE exclusive.
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Jared
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Oy vey. More bad news from Bill. But also some really exciting news. A real mixed bag.
http://onarfilms.blogspot.com/2009/10/to-b...-not-to-be.html
Worldweird Cinema
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ChevyReeves
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Bill what is the cost of releasing an Onar DVD?? I could be interested in helping you with financing but have no idea abut DVD releasing apart from not expecting to make money lol.
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