Good morning everybody, and welcome back to the disc Connected. We are here
with Jonathan from Fun City Editions. Good morning, Jonathan, how are we
doing well. Good to meet you, Ryan, and thanks for having me
on. Same to you. We have talked about Fun City Editions countless times.
I am always singing the praises of this label, and it is one
of It is one of the handful of labels that I seem to identify as
having an actual, identifiable voice, and a lot of labels are a little
all over the place. So one of the things that really excites me about
Fun City is when it was first announced. And actually if you go to
all of the uh the the listings on vinegar cynem right now, it lists
that these are for Maverick Repertory Cinema that can best be described as works outside
of their time or sorry, works that exist outside of their time. Can
you share what that means with everybody to you? Sure? Well, First
of all, thanks you know, for you know, for for saying all
that. No nobody's I don't know that anyone's put it exactly like that before.
As far as our label having you know, such a definable voice to
use, so that's yeah, that's really cool and still kind of blows my
mind that that anyone would would see that or or would you know, would
would get it, so to speak, because we're not because we're not you
know, as easily identifiable as a genre type of label or you know,
doing something that's well just more definable because our films, those films that exist
outside of their time. I mean, it is it is a it is
a pretty uh there, you know, it's it that doesn't that doesn't quite
that doesn't quite tell you what we do, like like if we if we
said horror or something like that, so you know, but there's obviously plenty
of other labels that that are doing that and and do that well. So
really it kind of, I guess goes back to the types of films I
think that I that really have excited me or that I've always been excited to
discover, which is films that that aren't that aren't easily that don't fit into
an easy category, that that were trumple you know, that maybe had trouble
uh hooking on with an audience when they first came out for one reason or
another, maybe because they sort of rest in you know, more than one
place that people had a hard time maybe making sense of, Like I mean,
like a good example is for one of our early which would be one
of our early titles was I Start Counting, which is, you know,
a good example of a of like a tweener kind of movie in that it's
sort of it's part partially a thriller, partially and partially a coming of age
story. And that when you have things like that where it's like, what
is this movie? You know, is it this or that? You know,
when there's tonal shifts or there's or there are those or or it kind
of belongs to multiple categories, that something that a lot of times people aren't
that, you know, a general wider audience isn't into that. So yeah,
some movies that exist outside of their time. Is just the way of
it's just a cute way of saying this movie was too was a little was
a little too we or a little too ahead of its time or a little
bit you know, just too far left field to be accepted by you know,
by by the widest audience possible. But but then because of that,
now years decades later, those a lot of those films are still sort of
untapped or haven't really been haven't really been you know, released in the way
that we're doing them. And that's another thing that we, you know,
strive to do a lot of times is release things that haven't been released yet,
just because we've seen so many movies that you can double and triple dip
on, and uh, you know, it's just more fun to it's more
fun to work on something that hasn't been that hasn't been done yet, and
that hasn't really had a lot of discussion around it. You know, you
can kind of make the discussion, make the conversation, and you're not and
then you're also not. I you know, I don't I don't want to
be trying to stack up against something that's you know, another label that's already
done some something great for a particular film. You know. It's just it's
just more fulfilling to do it for something that hasn't had it yet. And
that's that's one of the things that's excited me about this is all of these
they seem to be able to generate the first round of hype for some of
these films, and I think that the Internet age is really going to give
things like this that second breath they really need. And I inevitably, when
you do something like I do, I get literally, probably every single day,
somebody messaging me, hey, I like these few films, what's something
I would like? And I think back in the day when you were relying
on like TV guide excerpts and really quick snippets at the end of a you
know, Ciskel and Ebert segment, maybe a lot of these you can't explain
in you know, twenty five words. And now when you can literally be
speaking on the internet or gushing to somebody in private message or how one of
these just really grabbed onto you, that's when something like this is gonna get
legs and maybe get a real fan base. And there are certain things.
I mean, I wasn't really going to go to individual titles, but like
Walking the Edge, it seems to have grabbed on to so many people,
and it's got big names in it. So it's one of those things that's
kind of surprising that it didn't have a huge presence then, but it's got
power. Yeah. Yeah, well, well they're cult they're cult names those
right, everything's relative there. Yeah, but yeah, well that's a movie
that that yeah, it for us, that's probably the closest that we've come
to a title that. Oh that that was a title that easily you could
have seen been a vinegar syndrome title or something like that. It's more it
is a more straight up genre revenge movie, but at the same time it
does have this really interesting character arc. You know, it's also it is
also you know, ends up being a movie about about a guy who's you
know, who's thrown into this situation. But it's sort of what kind of
you know, what what what precipitates his you know, his his growth,
his his his arc, and it's like an arc and an actor and a
quality of performance and equality of of I guess writing character development that you just
don't usually see and I guess, you know, in a movie like that,
And that's what people respond to because Bob, because Bob Forster was like,
you know, such an incredible actor and a guy who you know,
of course, at that point he was not in the great you know,
it wasn't a he wasn't at the peak of his career in terms of success,
but you know, he did this part and and you know, infused
it, injected it with a level of quality that you didn't normally in a
you know, in a in a quote unquote grindhouse film like that. So
yeah, that that is so yeah, so it is. It still does
sort of fall into what I was saying before about these movies being more than
one thing at the same time, and it always and it is fulfilling when
people do see that, because not everyone does, but I'll read the reviews,
say like on a letterbox or something, which I think is a good
gauge for seeing that, you know, sort of up to the minute audience
engagement with these films, especially because they're small. The films. I'm a
lot of these films have such few views before we you know, before we
release the Blu ray, so it's always interesting just to see the numbers and
the review the ratings sort of go up when the Blu Ray comes out.
So anyway, I just use that as you know, walking the edge when
I read a review on there, for instance, where someone does get that
where they're sort of like, yeah, it's a revenge thriller, but really
it's really about this guy, you know, getting off the ground and kind
of getting a shit together, and it's a character it is. It does.
It is sort of in line with a lot of the the the really
great character based stories of the American cinema from the seventies, you know,
the previous decade where it was it was a lot of good you know,
there were a lot of good character stories. It seems to be one of
those titles you can review shortly but then but add the like but also not
really because there's so many quirks in it, and a lot of these they
feel that way. I mean, even something like Jeremy. For the people
that really got this early on when it was released from you guys, it
it didn't seem to have a lot of hype, but then when people started
watching it, just watching people's feedback steam roll was such a really cool thing
to see. And I don't know if you felt that, but a lot
of those those groups that I follow, it really happened like that. It
was word of mouth caught fire on Jeremy. Yeah, no, absolutely,
that that was That's probably I've said it before, but like that was a
movie that was maybe the closest to my heart of everything that we've released.
It was a movie that I've loved for many, many, many years,
and but I you know, I always knew that it was kind of like
one of those movies that a few people knew about. It was like it
was the movie, it was that movie or one of those movies that the
people who know about it loved that movie, but it was it was definitely
under the radar, and it wasn't at this point. I mean, it
was a popular movie when it came out, but it was an example of
a movie that wasn't really quote unquote fashionable, you know, in the in
the subsequent years, like all these other things. Even though it's a New
York movie, there's so many, you know, so many other movies around
it. I felt like, yeah, people were, people liked, but
this was one of those movies that kind of got left behind. So it
was very special just to see that. You know, it's almost fifty years
old, but there is a universal quality to it in terms of what the
characters going through and people. That was what was funny to see was there
would be like people whose profile I'd see on letterbox and they're like all into
like gore and slasher movies, and like really like straight up there's no there's
you know, there's no if says or butts, like they're they're they're not
people you'd think would be into something like Jeremy and they're like, oh my
god, this movie, this is this is about me, you know,
or you know, I cried, like I never cried in a movie at
a movie before. So yeah, no, that wasn't That was incredibly fulfilling.
And also just because like the actors were because we had the actors on
the on the disc and had an interview, you know, we had the
interviews with the two main stars. So the fact that they were around to
see it, to to sort of enjoy the movie and their performances getting a
new look and almost getting treated like because there's so many people just had never
heard of the movie before and it's a fifty you know, like I say,
it's almost fifty years old. So yeah, just this just the fact
that we had them involved and they were able to kind of uh you know,
get a little taste of that is was was really cool. I know,
they really appreciated, you know, getting dimensions like you know, when
like when Quentin talked about them on the Pure Cinema podcast, like stuff like
that. I mean, I mean that blew me away, right, But
yeah, I like shared that with with Glennis O'Connor, you know, and
she she just loved that, Like they're they're talking, they're talking about me
on on you know, on a podcast now fifty years later and it's Quentin
Tarantino. So you know, you can't do much better than that, especially
with the you know, audience we're trying to grow. So one of the
things that I've gotten a lot of feedback on lately with a lot of OCN
titles, people are appreciating that we are getting a not really a surplus,
but more of these smaller labels are picking up that we love booklets and you've
been doing a lot of them since the beginning, and Jeremy is one of
the better ones. I think that it really gives just an additional side to
what you can absorb through a product like this, and it's it's so nice
to be able to have, you know, after the movie and you absorb
it for a little while, pick that up and then really dive into that
and just get an overall like like putting a bow on it at the end.
I always love doing that and I just want to say thank you.
Oh well, well, well you're welcome, but thank you also for actually
reading the booklet. And you know that appreciating that it's there or knowing that
it's there. Cause yeah, I mean you you know, you see like
a lot of labels don't don't do booklets, and right, definitely, I
definitely had some advice advising against it early on, you know, or like
you don't need to do that, But yeah, I definitely felt well that
First of all, the Jeremy booklet is the essay was by Bill Ackerman,
who's a friend of mine and he's collaborated with us I think a number of
times where he will be in the future, and he is well he and
I he's one of the few people who I knew who knew this movie and
enjoyed this movie before. So that was a movie that wasn't as easy to
find people to do supplement or because it's not a movie where everyone's like,
oh me, me, I'll do it. You know. You know you
talked about Jeremy being really close to you. I'm curious for a lot of
people, and I think I know the answer to this, but most people
when they are trying to get into partner labels through vinegar syndrome, they don't
understand just how small some of these outfits are so the way this has a
unified voice, it seems like this is all Jonathan. Is this entire thing
curated by you specifically? You know? Yeah, well I am the one,
you know, I'm the one full time person here. Yeah, it's
a one man band, but I mean it would be disingenuous for me to
say that, like I don't have I don't do Obviously, every release has
different collaborators, and then there's also of course all my partners at OCN and
Vinegar Syndrome who are with me on every release. And but yeah, as
far as the curating goes, yes, it's primarily yeah, it's me,
but you know, obviously sometimes I don't know about something and someone might suggest
something to me and then it ends up being something that I'm like, oh
yeah, wow, that's great, Yeah we should do it. So yeah,
certainly for the most part though, yes, it's just a you know,
one one man show. That's awesome. And like I said, you
can tell it seems every single choice has seemed very personal. And you brought
up Vinegar Syndrome. So one of the things that I was going to ask
about is you were you were literally one of the first like O g Partner
Labels. How how did that come about for you back then? Well,
it's I've known uh, quite a few of the people over there for years
as you know, acquaintances or you know, half a degree of separation and
you know, just mutual uh mutual mutual friend and colleague of mine, who's
a who has who's done distribution on his own before and he he has he's
sort of acts as a broker with studios, uh. And there's people there's
you know, a lot of there are a number of people like that in
the industry who are sort of like you don't have who have relationships with with
people, you know, various studios, you know, reps, people who
represent libraries and stuff like that. So a friend of a you know,
a friend of ours mine and vinegar syndrome who's also just personal friend, you
know, who put together a deal with MGM, and I was, you
know, it was something where I had I had started this label or I
had formed the business, I had the business foundation for the label for several
years, and I just you know, hadn't done anything with it yet,
and it was just sort of like, hey, would you like to you
know, piggyback on this on this deal, you know, with Vinegar Syndrome,
and we just you know, went from there. And it wasn't really
at the at the beginning, it really wasn't a formulated plan to be a
partner label that didn't even really exist. I mean, AGFA was around.
I don't remember even when they I don't know if if if if my dealings
predated AGFA becoming a partner label. But then by but by the time the
these movies started, this deal came together, uh, it was you know,
and it was time to release them. It was, oh, yeah,
you're going to be a partner label. So I just come along for
that. I was just along for the ride. And yes, at the
beginning it was AGFA, and it was then it was fun City Editions,
and then from there it's just gotten. You know, it's crazy, like
there's I don't I totally lost track of how many partner labels there are at
this point. It's pretty crazy. Yeah, it's pretty overwhelming. But the
funny thing is like at the beginning, since there wasn't really this whole little
cottage industry over there wasn't this there wasn't this whole separate machinery that was established
yet people didn't really there wasn't really the partner label thing. There was AGFA,
and there was you know, Vinegar Syndrome, and then you know,
and then they're assorted sub labels. So people assuming that the Fun City was
like a new Vinegar Syndrome offshoot, and sometimes that's still how we are referred
to. I don't think that happens with the other partner labels that came later.
Now people don't think, oh, it's all just you know, they're
all they're all part of the Vineger Syndrome. They're all curated by Obviously,
people don't think that now because there's they're so varied and they're just doing so
many different things, all these different labels. So and I think a part
of that is because a lot of us that do this, we've had to
hammer home this is a completely different label and just spill it out for them.
And now that there's I mean, I think the last time I counted,
there's like twenty one partner labels or something. Oh, I think I
thought it was even more, but it might be. No. But at
the beginning it was funny. It was kind of annoying, but it was
funny at the same time, because people would say, oh, they're not
any there. It's like they would treat it was almost like a conspiracy,
the conspiracy theories. Oh it's a it's a new it's a new etiquette.
It's just the same thing as etiquette. They just changed the name that Fun
City Editions. So, because we obviously have some things, there's some there,
there's some connective tissue between a lot of the stuff that we've done and
and what etiquette, what they were doing were trying to do with etiquette,
and already, I mean, you have more than tripled the amount of things
they put out over etiquette, and there's still more coming. You got a
title that was just announced for this month. You want to give us some
not insider knowledge necessarily, but some feelings on The Coca Cola Kid. Yeah,
sure. So The Coca Cola Kid is a is a good example of
a movie that a lot of people of a certain age remember from when it
came out, because it actually did have a pretty wide release at the time
in nineteen eighty five. You know, it was you know, it wasn't
a huge success box office wise, but for someone like me that was had
HBO and I watched a lot of stuff at the time that I don't even
remember that I didn't remember until I saw it as an adult that was an
R rated film, because I just remember watching it as a kid and I
liked it. And I mean obviously like wow, so much of this went
right over my head. I don't know, but I remember I liked it.
But anyway, my point is it was a movie that people saw on
video and saw on you know, on cable, but then it kind of
it kind of went away for a while. It did have a DVD about
twenty years ago from MGM, and but it's like, you know, even
though it's a even though the film has is by a by a you know,
recognized au tour Doujon Macaveev, it kind of did. It is kind
of like an outlier movie for him. And then it's sort of like a
more for it's a weird movie for most filmmakers, and for him it's a
mainstream movie and it has you know, Eric Roberts and Gretiskaki and you know,
but these are actors that they're they're their peak years are sort of in
the past for the most part, although of course Eric Roberts is doing like
eight hundred movies, you know, well, not eight hundred movies a year,
but I think that's what he's up to on IMDb at this point.
Is I know, he's on Righteous Gemstone, so he's having a you know,
he's having a moment. But my point is like his time as like
a leading man was you know, obviously a long time ago, back when
when Coca Cola Kid was made, so yeah, and it hadn't come out
on Blu Ray, it hadn't been restored, it hadn't been updated for the
you know, for the HD era, so so you know, it just
seemed like a title that was even though the MGM catalog has been so so
deeply mined by so many boutique labels over the last ten years or whatever,
the Coca Cola Kid was one of those that somewhat surprisingly had not been And
as I said before, as I just said before, it it is kind
of a weird movie. And I and I say that in a in a
most positive sense in that it's again a movie that has it has a lot
of things that sort of on the surface are kind of mainstream, kind of
has a mainstream you know, kind of a classic screwball kind of set up
but then of course it has so many odd ball things inject you know,
injected throughout it that sort of would make people scratch their heads like, okay,
I got all this stuff, but then what the fuck is this?
Like you know, like you know, like it just sort of like and
that's kind of why it's again a fun movie to do, because it is
gonna split. It is going to split people, and it split Peur back
back then when it came out too, because because it's doing you know,
it's doing more multiple things at once. And it's also it does this is
a movie that even though it has an American star, it was made in
Australia. It has a European filmmaker, so it's an international you know,
mix of people making this movie. And it's so it's not like and like
I said, it has some Hollywood elements, but then it also has art
house elements. And it has some stuff that's sort of you know, very
sort of goofy obvious surface level humor, but then stuff that's that's sort of
cutting deeper and is more you know, is on a is sort of on
a more you know, on another level, and and and a little and
and it's gonna so it's gonna be a little bit. Yeah, it's gonna
some people are gonna be like, yeah, pass, and then other people
are gonna say this is brilliant. I think it's It's definitely one of those
there's no middle ground, you know. I have a discord community through this
channel, and one of the people that is involved in the discord, uh,
he was elated just the fact that we are getting a I can never
say that. The director's last name, right, Dujon Makayeev Is that correct?
Mak Okay, there we go. Uh, And he is just immensely
excited that we're getting titles like that, and that has seemed to come up
for a few of these I mean, you've got that name that a lot
of people are attached to. Michael Ritchie Lynn Ramsey was probably the biggest one
that everybody's like, oh my gosh, this partner was putting out this title
right right. This seems just great for a label like this to be able
to attract those people that are looking for some of these underseen titles from some
of these directors. Yeah sure, yeah, well yeah, you're you're yeah,
they're all they're all directors that sort of have a little bit of an
a tour kind of reputation or quality and and yeah, so it's surprising when
things like Smile hadn't come out yet or you know again hadn't come out,
hadn't come out on you know, hadn't been updated since the DVD era.
And even that DVD from MGM from the early really early days of DVD was
just like a really poor, outdated you know master. I mean it was
I don't even know if it was anamorphic. So you know, yeah,
it's always surprising because people will people know those filmmakers and think of them as
as important filmmakers. They're not, you know, they're they're they're certainly not
anonymous like you know it was. Obviously, we have some films where no,
you know, where the director is not as well known and it doesn't
doesn't have a following. You know, nobody's been excited that we put out
a Norbert and Myzell film, you know, with Walking the Edge. But
but no disrespect, but yeah, when you have when you can, when
you can release a movie by Lynn Ramsey that nobody else has has has done
on on you know, on Blu Ray, you know, and you know
kind of give it, give it a little you know, polish it off.
You know, it's certainly very it's very attractive, and it's very exciting
and and and it gets more people's eyes. You always get more eyes on
the label when it's like someone like someone like that, because because we're still
so new, and what we're doing is obviously niche and I mean not only
what are our catalog is, but just the world we're in in general is
very nat So whenever you can, so whenever you can, you know,
put something out there that that has the potential like get a whole new audience
or you know, get get some new audience. That's always a good thing
because then they then they look back at the then they go to you.
They're like, oh, how did I not hear about these guys? And
they look back and see what else you've done? And you know, so
it hopefully maybe gives it gives a little bit of a little juice to some
of the earlier titles too. We at this at this channel, everything we
always talk about is physical media. And I am always excited to see when
somebody takes design sensibilities from previous sorts of physical media and uses them in exciting
ways like you've done on something like Radio on and the way it looks,
and on top of that, just the overall packaging for all this is over
the top great. I am always singing the praises of the complete package from
fun City because not only and you just mentioned the DVD quality of some of
these, your restorations are have been over the top amazing. I'm loving the
way that these look. Oh well, thank you. I mean that that
that that, you know, both of these things, the packaging and the
restorations, a lot of that has you know, obviously helps to be aligned
with with Vineger Syndrome and OCN, you know, as as because that not
only are they you know, just a distributor of their own stuff and then
a distributor of other labels, but they're also a lab you know, so
they're they're doing and they've been doing film to digital restorations now for i mean
the life of the company at this point. So you know, so you
you know, by being a partner label, and we're pretty closely aligned partner
label, and we are one of the only not the one of the I
don't know how many there are at this point, but I feel like I
feel like we're one of the only partner labels that is really strictly working on
on films shot on film, because a lot of the other partner labels are
more are releasing more contemporary films. So anyway, so you know, we
have a sort of a different we have a different workflow. So but it
makes a lot of sense for us to be aligned with with with Venditor Syndrome
on the UCN because there's already this machinery in place and really talented people in
place that that do a lot, that are so expert and do all this
great work from the quality of the scans to the color grading and so on,
and so that's what you're seeing, is you're seeing the you know,
because I if I was by myself, you know it would be it would
have been a much bumpier, much mumpier ride and a much much uh longer
learning process learning curve. So and then on the design side, you know,
obviously obviously those those folks really kind of set the bar pretty high with
with the quality of the packaging that you've seen on the Vinegar Syndrome releases now
for years. And you know, obviously, you know, we're here to
put movies out and and you know they're there to be watched, not to
be you know, cradled and you know, looked at on your shelf.
But they look when they look good. When when they when people think they
this is going to look good on my shelf, or this is going to
feel nice to cradle. That's a good thing. That's a good book,
you know. So it's all part of the package. I mean, because
like you said, it's an it's a you know, it's it's physical media.
It's these these then these products don't they're not they're not cheap. And
there's a lot the competition out there, so I mean, there's there's a
lot of great stuff coming out. So if you can set yourself apart,
like especially when it's a movie like Jeremy and Nobody, so many I don't
say nobody, but so many people don't know this movie. Right, if
I had just released it with a vintage some vintage artwork on the cover,
I don't know if it would have had the same if it would have had
this, if it would have caught as many eyes as it did by us
having Jess Roder do that artwork, and you know, and then of course
the whole the slipcover, which you know, again the quality of the slip
cover and having the front and the back artwork and the embossing and the spot
gloss and all that stuff. Yeah, I mean that's like that was just
so much fun to do that one. And she was just you know,
she was just someone an artist that I you know, whose work I was
familiar with. That I just thought very early on that she would be perfect
for that movie. And it worked, and it worked out. And I
mean, I'm not a I'm not an artist. I'm not a designer myself,
but I but I appreciate and I always have package design and you know,
the marketing materials for movies, but also for other forms of physical media
as well. So like you saw the radio on is the cassette tape,
which is kind of kind of riffing. It is not kind of it is
riffing another one that's very well stylized. Yeah, certain thing, right,
Uh well, radio but I'm just saying that radio one was was riffing off
the Island Records cassette tape. So you know, we're mixing physical media here.
But yeah, uh yeah, it's just it's it's certainly it's it's certainly
something that that I've always had an appreciation for. So it's fun to be
able to to utilize it or and and bring really cool, really talented artists
in, you know, on a and mix it up. Obviously, I
have different different looks for every movie. And speaking of mixing physical media,
Fun City also has put out not just Blu rays, but cassettes and vinyl
and uh, they have their own website that I'm gonna be linking the description
below, so make sure you check that out. They've done a couple of
pieces of merch. The the enamel pin you guys put out is really nice
in person. Have that on my wall. It is super super nice.
Is there plans for more of that coming soon? More merch, more everything,
more more vinyl, more everything. Yeah, well yeah, there's definitely.
I think there will be more vinyl, but it's always going to be
something which is a which is which is sort of secondary to write the movies.
Oh, it's a tough time for vinyl right now too. Yeah,
well it's it's sort of. It's it's not it isn't. I'm a I'm
a you can look you see behind me, the shelf full of vinyl.
I'm obviously someone that's collected records for a long time. And and I actually
I listened to them too. They don't just sit on the shelf there.
But uh, you know, but it's not necessarily what I've worked im my,
most of my work experience is in film distribution, so much more.
I have many more contacts in film than in music, and more experience in
terms of licensing films and working on films than on music. But I loved
doing Cafe Flesh, and I hope there's more, you know, more,
I hope to have more things like that once in a while, something like
that that just fits the you know, fits what we're trying to do,
and you know, we'll so we'll see. But yeah, it's it's it's
very expensive to do well to do vinyl, good quality, and and there's
just a lot of there's you know, that's not what we're here to talk
about. But I've there's been a resurgence and you know, and it just
keeps growing in terms of people collecting vinyl and you know, the records.
What's happened, of course, is the demand has has sort of surpassed the
supply in terms of in terms of the facilities that can they can produce the
format that you know, do the work. And so that's the problem is
that for a small label, uh, you kind of get pushed, you
know, if there's a if there's a big like major label reissue or something
like that, you sort of get kicked down the line at the pressing plants
because there's just not enough of them. Unfortunately, so many places shut down
sort of not that long before. Suddenly people were like records, Yeah,
it's great, this great new thing, you know, and then of course
all these pressing plants that had been dormant or had not really been used for
decades they were closed. So anyway, I don't know if you saw another
conversation for another show, well not really. I mean we talked about vinyl
on here all the time. There was a video. Yeah, Jack White
a couple months ago put out a video. I don't know if you saw
this that basically said, with all of the resurgence in vinyl and all of
the demand that's going on right now, one of these major labels, I'm
calling you out to open your own pressing plant in the United States and hire
US workers. And haven't heard anything about it. So I really wish something
like that could get something kickstarted, and he seems like the voice that could.
So time will tell, but I wish. I mean, some of
these, even like the boutique vinyl labels right now in the US, they're
from what I hear, like twelve to fourteen months out on getting stuff pressed.
So it's yeah, I mean, I can tell you that our process
on Cafe Flesh was I mean it predated the pandemic by a few months,
and then that really shut things down for a while because there was that you
know, basically like in twenty twenty for a good part of that year,
the places were just the mastering place that we were, you know, those
places were just like close closed for months, and then the pressing and then
and then we just got kicked down the line at the pressing plant because of
obviously bigger releases. You know, uh that kicked us, you know,
that kicked us down the line. So the whole process for us was well
over two years from when it when it when it began to when we had
the product out there. So yeah, that's amazing and shows just the the
absolute passion behind the scenes on a label like this. So well, also,
once we're there, you it wasn't like I could just like you know,
Abart Aboard, I was already in it. You know, it was
already processes where it started, and you know, money's already been spent,
and then it was just sort of like, ok everything was just sort of
like frozen for a while. I get that. Uh, going back to
the Blu Rays I as far as I remember, let me take a look.
Yeah, I don't think any of the partner labels has put out a
box set yet. You guys, I believe are the only ones. And
this Primetime Panic is it's pretty special. It's it's fairly unique, is there.
You know, what was the thought process behind the box set? How
did you come up with it? And is there anything because it seems to
me like not a lot of people are talking about that, and that's one
that I'd love to get a little more buzz going on. Really. Oh
okay, well I'd love to talk about it. Yeah. That was an
example of like looking at a catalog of you know, of movies, and
it was a company that has a very very wide range of types of movies.
A lot of the stuff that was not for us at all. Right,
a lot of a lot of you know, nineties direct video stuff that
I'm even though I was there in the nineties, I didn't know what it
was. But there's a lot of stuff that Vinegerson Drome for instance, or
some other labels have have a license from this catalog. But for us,
I saw the these TV movies from you know, from the sort of golden
age of TV movies from the seventies and eighties, and they were a lot
of them had been newly, newly restored and from the best film elements from
the from the camera negative And I said, oh, well, these are
interesting. I couldn't do them by them. I don't think you couldn't,
you know. It was it was an example of there's certain things where for
to be a standalone title would be a bit of a bridge too far right,
But if you could, if you could say, creatively package a few
titles, you know, it makes sense to do box set. So that's
why we did that. And I said, you know, so these all
came from people. People will say why didn't you do this TV movie and
that TV movie, and you know, on and on, and it's like,
well, they're you know, the TV movie has to be owned by
someone that we can that we have a relationship or we can have a relationship
with and you can't just mix and match, like say, like a box
set of like movies from all different owners. Either. It's more complicated because
you have royalty splits and things like that, so you know you can't and
also sometimes you just have stipulations that you can't package a movie and a multi
pack set either. Anyway, we didn't have those stipulations with these movies,
and they all came from the same catalog, and I just looked at a
bunch of them and I realized that the three we chose for that box set,
I could see at least a little a little connection between those films.
Those titles. By the way, there are people, so people are actually
going to see this. It's not it's not just absolutely okay, great,
I would have cleaned up my background a little bit more. You're good do
that anyway. So, so those three movies are all produced by the same
the same producers, and they were all restored recently, so it's just sort
of they just sort of fit together. And then we just had to try
to come up with an alliterative catching idle, and you know, of course
something these are not horror movies. Uh not, panic is really kind of
like over selling it and whatnot. And I well, no, they're all
they all are sort of scare films. They all have aspects to those films
which are sort of ripped from the headlines and which have the idea they're they're
also they were all sort of pitched at at parents. They were all sort
of pitched at, you know, concerned parents, like these are these are
and that's a lot of TV movies. You know, they're they're they're they're
sort of heightened heightened reality. They're they're they're you know, they're the scenarios
are, like I said, ripped from the headlines a lot. They're sort
of based on stuff that people were talking about, are scared about at the
time, are concerned about, and that's why people get and so like when
people criticize Dreams Don't Die, it's like as being like, you know,
a corny like you know, having this like moral sort of moralizing element to
it. It's like, well, that was just that's how it got made.
That's why it got made. That was the reality of TV movies,
you know, that was that was what that was sort of what the market
dictated so it's kind of cool that the other cool stuff in that movie,
the graffiti and the grungy New York, was able to slip in there.
Okay, you know, but and you know, that was port of my
hesitancy on the first time I was looking at some of these movies was well,
because I had seen Dreams Don't Die when I was a kid, like
on late night TV, because it did get rerun a lot throughout the eighties
and nineties, and I was like drawn to it because I was like,
oh, it's like a really hid the graffiti and it kind of reminded me
a little of The Warriors, and it was New York of that same same
time period, you know, with the you know showing the subways with the
graffiti and everything, and you know it pregentrified Outer brew in New York.
But yeah, I looked at it again, you know, and I thought,
I don't know, I don't know, it might be a little too
you know, Like I said that the sort of graffiti is bad, you
know, don't do it. I wasn't sure. I was, you know,
totally with it. But then I said, but it but his,
it's that's just the his. That's just how this stuff happened at the time,
so you kind of have to. That's that's why we have the extra
features. That's why we try to have historic historic historic historian commentaries or essays
and booklets and things like that, which is historicize the piece, to contextualize
it, because context is everything you need. I really feel like, especially
with all the films we have, there's things that are quote unquote problematic.
Now you know part parts of these movies that were made because because of when
they were made, they were just made in a different time. And you
know, very often when you see things streaming, there's no context, so
people, you know, might stumble upon something like dreams don't die, and
if they have no idea that if they're younger and they just completely are they
didn't if they weren't alive or sentient during the time when the when a movie
like that was made, they're not going to know like, hey, yeah,
I know there, I know it's outdated. You know it's outdated.
You know it's it's it has things that are easy to criticize from a twenty
twenty two point of view. You know, whether it's the fact that,
yeah, the main character is is the main character the main parton Agnes Graffiti
Writer is you know this, you know it's Ike Eisenman, who he's like
Lily White Disney Kid. And yes, it's easy to critique that, you
know, if it was made now and and and we have we have much
more diversity and casting and and things are much more inclusionary, and we've we've
we've evolved in that way so that it probably would not be you know,
lily white, you know, apple cheeked Eisin. He's good, he's good
in the movie. But yeah, I mean there's things about it that are
authentic, and then there's things about it which are dictated by the market at
the time. And also just like what you know, what people at the
you know at the time, what would be accepted and what what wouldn't be
and you know you just so anyway, my my point is if you have
context, then you can watch something and understand, like watch it, you
know, you you to have you you you can then have at least a
little more of an idea of what it was like to see it when it
was when it came out and when it was new. And that's the case,
Like I said, we have a lot of films which have things in
them which nowadays you can't do. You know, they show things, or
they portray things, or have plot elements or whatever that are or you know,
or they have or some of the filmmakers that are you know not uh
would be canceled now or are canceled you know. And and so but I
do I do, you know, I do subscribe to for the most part,
try to separate the art from the artists. And and and I felt
again like so for something like Vilitus, you know, I felt it was
important to have historian commentary and and and and really kind of uh not shy
away from any of the the controversy about the film or the filmmaker. And
you know, it kind of just I think, I think as long as
I mean, I think, as long as you address those things, I
mean, that's sort of that's the idea. That's the opportunity that we have
here is to is to not only not only present the film, but you
know, the film itself, but that you know, just the everything that
was happening or a lot of what was happening around it. That's what the
form. That's that's the nice thing about physical media is having that space to
have the packaging to have a booklet like you that that you know you mentioned
before that you enjoy. We'll keep doing those, and then having the commentary
and having if we can, you know, have you know, relevant valuable
video features as well interviews. And that's one thing we've dived into on this
channel quite a lot, is the archival aspect. And I I've got a
little old letterboard sign on my wall that says the Disconnected Museum and Library,
because that's why I try to do a lot of this. I want to
curate it for myself, and then on top of that, I want to
be able to look back at this in thirty years and step back into a
period of time and learn something new. And I felt that way at most
in a library. And when you are seeing some of these yes, some
of them might be problematic or not PC or however you want to attack a
lot of the imagery in some of these things. But in all reality,
if we don't archive it and you do something like sensor it or ban it,
what opportunity is there to learn from? What opportunity is there to actually
have a piece of history and grow as a person and as a society.
So completely agreed with you there. Yeah, And also I just and I
feel like it's just more. It gives you something more to talk about,
you know. But yeah, I think it's important what you said, you
know, as far as learning from these things. And that's the thing is
that we're there's many ways that were more. But then there's many ways in
which I think the cost of that that in some ways has been nuanced.
There's been there's sort of been like middle ground, and there's been gray area
that sort of has been shaved off or lost, you know in you know,
in sort of the the move or you know, the move towards a
more evolved collective mind space. And I mean and we and in many ways
and in many ways that's been achieved. But yeah, I feel like sometimes
certain things we really I see qualifying things on like when people are reviewing some
of our titles, like from the seventies, like something like Smile, you
know, and I'll see like a like a review on Letterbox and maybe who
knows, I'm citing some of these reviews by memory, and then I'm like,
oh, you know, some of the people might be it might actually
be be like disconnected viewers or subscribers. Who knows, but anyway, I
read this review on on Smile and it's like a positive review and then it
was like at the bottom trigger alert, seventeen year old Melanie Griffith, and
it's I don't know, and I and I just feel like that's the kind
of thing where I'm like, like, what what are you signifying there?
Like you know, you're, you're, you're sort of like it's it's like
a I don't know, it's it feels to me sometimes in a way like
you're you're above You're putting yourself above the film in a way like you know,
you're that, you know, we're you're more evolved and that than the
than than the people that made it in the film itself. And it's just
it's very easy to do when when you're nearly fifty years in the future for
when that movie was made, it's a very different world. And I mean,
yes, trigger alerts are probably not necessary for a lot of these movies,
but h yeah, it does take a lot of nuance. But thanks
social media for taking a lot of that gray out. Yeah. Well yeah,
it's just it's just it's a yeah, it's a it's definitely there's a
there's it does encourage people to, you know, obviously, to to to
in one way or another, tell you that they're that they're right right,
or they know better. So yep, we we've lost a lot of our
take a moment to think before we speak as a society. Unfortunately. On
that note, I wanted to thank you for your time. I know that
i'd give you about an hour and it's about to be nine o'clock here,
so thank you for everything. I appreciate the time today. It has been
absolutely a joy. I sincerely hope people check out Fun City editions, and
not only for what's coming up in the sale at the end of the month,
but for the foreseeable future, because there's no no signs of slowing and
every single release has been a winner. It might be. Thanks so much
Ryan for saying that and and you know, and for and for talking about
on the show as long as you have Champ Champion Us and uh, you
know, and I'm happy to have been able to spend some time with you
here. Thank you, sir. Tell me no