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Rev. Syung Myung Me
revme
13 June 2005 @ 11:54 pm
The TROOTCOTTOUN DVD  
This is the project alluded to -- and something that's been Too Long Of Coming. But I _finally_ took advantage of having an Actually Good Computer and FINALLY put together a brand new DVD of my two short films, Trootcottoun and Un Chien De Dieu.

Trootcottoun looks better than it ever has -- the audio is much better, and all other screened copies were a few generations down -- this is taken direct from the Digi-8 master, transferred in via firewire! Un Chien De Dieu is taken from the (as far as I know) only existing copy -- a VHS tape copied from a 3/4" tape. In addition, both of these have commentary tracks!

This disc contains:
  • Trootcottoun (Remastered, New Mono Mix)
  • Un Chien De Dieu
  • Commentary tracks on both Trootcottoun and Un Chien De Dieu
  • Stereo versions of both Opening and Closing Themes to Trootcottoun
  • The TODCRA Productions Radio Documentary (featuring Douglas J. Unmediated)
  • Production And Bonus Art
  • An Easter Egg


I've just looked at my test one, and it looks great! I was really pretty impressed with the way it looked. Trootcottoun isn't blurry and jittery anymore! Un Chien De Dieu isn't on a VHS tape!

The films:

Trootcottoun is a fake documentary about a small fishing village in the UK. Written, shot and edited over 3 weeks. Narrated by Douglas J. Unmediated (Anna Tyseng). The Director of Photography was Rian Bosak. (approximately 17 minutes)

Un Chien De Dieu is a parody of a scene in Un Chien andalou, though I had merely read a bunch about Un Chien andalou at the time and hadn't actually seen it. Co-directed with Anna Tyseng; story with Jeremiah Aulwurm.(approximately 4 minutes)

Bonus features:

The Trootcottoun opening and closing themes were both written and produced by me; Guitar on "She's So Small" (closing theme) by John Keeley. (Approximiately 1 minute and 3 minutes, respectively.)

The TODCRA Productions Radio Documentary is a fake documentary on the band TODCRA Productions. Features many unreleased songs by TODCRA Productions. Aired as part of the Untitled TODCRA Productions Project radio series. Narrated by Douglas J. Unmediated as well. Produced by me, featuring Anna Tyseng and Jeremiah Aulwurm. (30 minutes.)

Easter Egg:

That would be telling.

Anyway, I'm selling these for $12, which includes shipping in the US ($18 to outside of the US). The discs are Region 0, NTSC (meaning they should play on pretty much any player.) They're burned as DVD-Rs. (Feel free to ask any questions!)

To purchase them -- send me $12 (or $18) via PayPal at revme = at = comcast = dot = net (only in actual email address form). If you don't want to use Paypal, that's totally cool -- just email me at the same address and I'll tell you how to send me a check/money-order. (I suppose a money order would be preferable of the two, but Paypal seems easiest.) I'm sending them First Class Mail, but if you want Priority Mail, let me know -- that'd be $15 as well, but First Class works well and seems to get things there relatively quickly (so you might as well save yourself the 3 bucks, I'd say).

Thanks!

An Addition: Feel free to send me reviews/comments/etc. and I'll post those on this page as well.
Also, a quick note: The audio on Trootcottoun is not perfect -- but it is the best it's been. (When I shot it, at PLU we had one or two really lousy microphones -- one of them ended up recording Very Quietly in One Channel Only. And, of course, this is the one I inadvertently used on the one person who could only be there for one day of shooting before she left the country. So, her stuff is kind of hissy -- before, it was just in one channel, but now it's in both (hooray), but it's still hissy (boo!). But, well, that's just the way things go. However, it's way, way better sounding than it was. (I just wanted to mention that in case people like, got it and were all "What's this stuff! There's sometimes noise on the audio track! I thought this was supposed to be cleaned up!". However, the picture is way, way, way better. I'm not kidding/using hyperbole when I say it's the best it's ever looked. I think people who've seen the screening and tape copies can vouch for me on that one.)

Also, to clarify, I haven't done any Lucas-style modifications to Trootcottoun -- just straight A/V Clean-Up stuff. So, no CG aliens here!
 
20 comments | Leave a comment
 
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Richard J. Anderson[info]darkrow on June 14th, 2005 06:56 am (UTC)
OOH! OOH! I WANT!
Rev. Syung Myung Me[info]revme on June 14th, 2005 06:58 am (UTC)
...wow, that was fast!

(Anyway, I'm thinking Paypal would probably work pretty well -- there's no "adult content" or anything on there -- the most that happens is I say "Damn" once on the commentary, so I don't think they'd spaz out. If not, though, probably a check/money order would work out OK. But yes!)

Thank you!
Dave[info]dezro on June 14th, 2005 08:12 am (UTC)
I'm ordering RIGHT NOW. Screw more information, the Paypal is IN.

Well, the email address I'm using is not mine, but I am totally Mr. Groundwaters for purposes of purchasing with Paypals. Shared account for eBays and what nots.

PLURALS.
Rev. Syung Myung Me[info]revme on June 14th, 2005 08:14 am (UTC)
Keen, thanks! I just got the reciept thingy! Anyway, I'll get that out to you with a quickness! I'm still finishing up the packaging (but I'll have them ready in the next couple days! I'm tryin' to make it kinda neatish. At least, for a self-burned thing, anyway!

So, yes, thanks!
ailas[info]aila76 on June 14th, 2005 08:42 am (UTC)
I want the region 4 only version... but I'm strange that way :)
Rev. Syung Myung Me[info]revme on June 14th, 2005 05:44 pm (UTC)
Then you'll have to buy me DVD Studio Pro! I'm just using iDVD, which is relatively barebones. (Like, sadly, I can't make menus wholly from scratch; I've got to use the layouts, but I can sort of tweak it into thinking I'm using said layouts, even though I'm ignoring what I want to and everything.)
Dave[info]dezro on June 14th, 2005 05:20 pm (UTC)
Almost forgot to ask!

The radio documentary: Is it just the audio or did you jazz it up with moving pictures?
Rev. Syung Myung Me[info]revme on June 14th, 2005 05:43 pm (UTC)
Well, it's got one non-moving picture; it's basically on the disc as a Slideshow, but I put one image into each, because I've seen DVD slideshows before that aren't professional that have an annoying dropout whenever the slide changes. So I figured that I could risk it and see if it'd spazz out at me, or I could just cut out the middleman and only have there be one slide, so no changes, no potiential dropouts! But yeah -- it's basically just the audio, though.
B Strand[info]strand on June 14th, 2005 06:35 pm (UTC)
Sounds awesome, but 12$ is a bit pricey... Well, I'm a tightwad, I'll admit it. I definitely understand the need to actually make a bit of moolah on this. I think you could actually sell more in the 5 to 8 buck range. Well, I guess when I actually have some income, I'll probably send a few bucks your way for this.
Rev. Syung Myung Me[info]revme on June 14th, 2005 06:42 pm (UTC)
Well, I worked it out, and I'm actually not making very much on this. If I sold it in the 5-8 buck range, I'd actually be losing money, which would suck (especially since I'm currently out of work and all). And that's just on raw materials, not including Time Of Burning/Production/Etc. (Which is already valued really low in the whole Calculus Of The Price.) I could probably get away with the 5-8 buck range if they were being professionally produced (since in bulk, material prices go way, way down), but I'm currently doing them as I need to, so... yeah. Oh well!
B Strand[info]strand on June 14th, 2005 06:53 pm (UTC)
How much are blank DVDs? Packaging?
Rev. Syung Myung Me[info]revme on June 14th, 2005 07:06 pm (UTC)
From a IM comment I made, discussing with [info]toddler_hiway your post:

I am trying to figure out a way to basically tell him it's None Of His Business without coming off like I'm a guy who's lying about not making anything. Because I figured it out and each DVD costs me ~7 bucks. And I'm charging them for 12, which is a 5 buck profit, but it also takes me an hour or two to burn each one. Not to mention the time it takes to put everything together.
B Strand[info]strand on June 14th, 2005 07:52 pm (UTC)
Sorry... I didn't mean to step on your toes about this. I absolutely believe in the right to actually profit from your art. I just know that I can get DVD-Rs in Kaifeng for four quai, or about fifty cents apiece. Of course, I can also buy counterfeit DVDs for about a buck, and an expensive meal for two might go into the fifteen dollar range. (Well, there was one night where we had all you can eat sushi and all you can drink beer in Beijing... I think that came to about 35$US (300 quai) for the two of us). My entire scale of economics is pretty skewed because of the fact that I'm in a country where everything is so deflated.

Still I understand the value of creative energy. I put together a chapbook in college, which I originally sold for a buck. I was able to do this because I was using a "borrowed" copy code. (Moral justification: 25K$ a year vs a little stolen paper, the school can pay for production) After I ran out of my original printing I raised the price to two bucks, because really, no one will pay more than two bucks for amateur poetry. I wouldn't pay that much for it.

Anyhow, knowing your production is approximately 7$ anything less than 12$ does really seem to be ripping you off. Most artistic endeavours really are labors of love, and the actual amount of payoff is almost always substantially less than minimum wage.
Rev. Syung Myung Me[info]revme on June 14th, 2005 08:11 pm (UTC)
Eh, it's OK. I was just a little sensitive because it's kind of an awkward question to answer, and this is pretty much the first time I've sold anything of mine, myself, actually for a profit (the mp3.com CDs only kinda sorta count, because I did have those at the bare minimum they'd accept as a charge, which meant I still did make money off them; but, well, they were way overpriced anyway and no one bought them, especially when they raised the prices against my wishes...), so yeah... I was trying to figure out what a good price would be, and $12 sounded right. (And it is almost 2 hours of stuff -- I won't break it down, since it'd involve giving away what the easter egg is, but, yeah -- IIRC, it came out to ~114 minutes.)

But yeah -- I too know the joys of College Paying For Things Unknowingly. (Well, with the production of these, they did "pay" for the camera time, since I was able to borrow them from a library, instead of having to rent them from somewhere else... though, had I rented them, I probably would have had better quality equipment, but... )

Anyway, sorry for getting kind of defensive. And, yeah -- this is squarely in the "nobody's getting rich off this" thing, so..8) But I am trying to make the DVDs "worth it", at least as much as I can, anyway. Because I hate it when you get something and it's just a barebones kind of thing. (Hence the commentary tracks and everything -- I tried my best to fill up the DVD to capacity (and looking at the back of my copy -- it's pretty full; I might have been able to cram a little more on, but not a whole lot).) So, on one hand, it is a little expensive for a couple shorts, but hopefully there's enough material to make it worth it -- and there are more expensive-for-what-you-get-DVDs out there, so...
Dave[info]dezro on June 14th, 2005 09:20 pm (UTC)
You might want to try hitting Goodwill stores. Sometimes I'll find a sealed pack of 25 DVD+Rs for $2-5 there.
Rev. Syung Myung Me[info]revme on June 14th, 2005 09:30 pm (UTC)
Cool -- I'll keep that in mind.. I also need to double check how much Costco has them for; that's where I usually go, too, but I haven't had to get them in a while, and they don't list them online, so I couldn't price-check.
Rev. Syung Myung Me[info]revme on June 14th, 2005 09:31 pm (UTC)
(BTW, your DVD is burned; I just need to get the packaging together -- I'll email you when it goes out, but I'm thinking probably in a day or two.)
Rev. Syung Myung Me[info]revme on June 16th, 2005 05:13 am (UTC)
OK! Just wanted to let you know (and to even up the post count on here because I like even numbers of comments) that I've finished the packaging on yours and it should go out in a couple days (the roofers, unfortunately, do not want us to leave. Though that makes sense. So, it'll probably go out on Saturday, or maybe Monday. I'll email you when I ship it out, though!)
B Strand[info]strand on January 2nd, 2006 10:29 pm (UTC)
I'm going to send along a check for 12 bucks today. Cool?
Rev. Syung Myung Me[info]revme on January 2nd, 2006 10:31 pm (UTC)
Ah, sweet! I'll get your copy all burned up and put together, then! Thanks!