GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Serenity2: Change the Paradigm NOW

POSTED BY: AAHHAAA
UPDATED: Sunday, January 8, 2006 18:07
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Monday, January 2, 2006 5:13 AM

AAHHAAA


There is a lot of talk here based on the premise that DVD sales will somehow bring about Serenity 2, or a new series, or both.

I think this needs to be re-thunk.

Serenity is a superbly crafted low budget film. But Hollywood (unlike the UK, Vancouver, etc) doesn't like low budget films to start with. It upsets their entire 'industry' irrationale.

The next phase is happening already- at the local vid store, Serenity has been out of stock since it came out. No other recent New Release has done that.

The next development is crucial, because Joss, Nathan & all will really want their next projects to be seen as fully successful within the industry. This can happen with Serenity 2, with intelligent support. Serenity did a great job of re-capping Firefly, but the next story is vital, it has to extend the story, so that is up to Joss.

The question of Serenity will come up when Serenity airs on mainstream broadcast or cable... which won't be long. A groundswell is set to happen then.

But what should we do then?


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Monday, January 2, 2006 6:15 AM

FERT1


Quote:

Originally posted by aahhaaa:
The next phase is happening already- at the local vid store, Serenity has been out of stock since it came out. No other recent New Release has done that.



I wonder how widespread that is. Where I live, it hasn't been the case. My husband got a copy of The Incredibles for Christmas, but it wasn't the Widescreen version, which is our usual preference. So I went shopping to exchange it. Every place I went was almost completely sold out of DVD's from the Christmas rush, but sadly, all had copies of Serenity still sitting on the shelves. I hit several stores, and saw the same thing everywhere I went. So sales have not done as well in some parts of the country. I live in the very conservative south - Greenville, SC area.

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Monday, January 2, 2006 6:48 AM

CHRISPV


Well, part of the thing you have to take into account is the kind of audience that Serenity focuses on: the sci-fi crowd. Granted, there are always exceptions of course. This group spends alot of time online and quite probably preferred to order off Amazon or somesuch. I severely annoyed a friend by just buying Serenity at a store, while he was still waiting on his pre-order from Amazon. A good chunk of the core audience probably circumvented the retailers. Seeing excess copies in stores isn't necessarily that horrible a development.

I just recommend hope and optimism. Convert folks, keep the faith, and support the 'verse wherever you can. I personally just splurged on the RPG myself. If the books/comics sales are good, then that'll send a message just like DVD sales will.

Also, when Serenity arrives on TV, I'd suggest resisting the "massive party" urge. More folks watch at home, on seperate sets, and the ratings will look higher. Artificial inflation, perhaps, but hey, Fox fought dirty too.

Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal, Fox!

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Monday, January 2, 2006 7:15 AM

ECGORDON

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity.


Quote:

Originally posted by ChrisPV:
Also, when Serenity arrives on TV, I'd suggest resisting the "massive party" urge. More folks watch at home, on seperate sets, and the ratings will look higher.


Only if those sets are in Nielson family homes. Nothing I watch has any effect on the ratings whatsoever.




wo men ren ran zai fei xing.

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Monday, January 2, 2006 7:24 AM

THESENTINEL


Thanks for setting him straight Egg...Wouldn't it be scary if Big Brother was really that cool.

Hmmm...Looks like Doss is playing Call of Duty again. Must need a sequel. SCARY!

Adam

http://www.myspace.com/mksentinel

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Monday, January 2, 2006 7:27 AM

GIRLASKEW


I'm in Greenville, too. It depends on where ya go. Wal-Mart was really low on supply, at least my Wal-Mart was.
I still think word of mouth is the way to go here. I am aways surprised at people I run into that are totally unaware of this excellent bit of more-or-less Sci-Fi. My only hope is the cable channels market better then the studios do.

Some people juggle geese!- Hoban Washburn

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Monday, January 2, 2006 7:28 AM

CBY


Quote:

Originally posted by ecgordon:
Nielson family homes.



Just as a matter of translation: Is this what you call the families that have a special receiver to acquire the ratings?

°°°°°°°°°°°°
http://www.byond-trax.com - my selfmade ambient/lounge/chillout music

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Monday, January 2, 2006 7:46 AM

FERT1


Quote:

Originally posted by Girlaskew:
I'm in Greenville, too. It depends on where ya go. Wal-Mart was really low on supply, at least my Wal-Mart was.
I still think word of mouth is the way to go here. I am aways surprised at people I run into that are totally unaware of this excellent bit of more-or-less Sci-Fi. My only hope is the cable channels market better then the studios do.

Some people juggle geese!- Hoban Washburn



Another Greenvillian, cool! I have to admit, I was one of the people who pre-ordered from Amazon.com, we got it the 21st though, which is probably sooner than I would have made it out to the store anyway.

I agree word of mouth seems to be what is bringing people aboard. My hubbie and I have made quite a number of converts, just by showing friends episodes off our DVD set. Once they're good and hooked, I tell them it's their duty to go convert others. Gee, I almost make it sound like a religion. Ick! You know what I mean though. We joke that we're like drug dealers, creating more junkies "We'll let you watch the first episode for free." LOL!

I'm not trying to be negative, I was just curious if what I saw here locally was typical or not. Just curious, which Walmart do you shop at? Woodruff Road? I shop at the one on Wade Hampton in Taylors. I had basically hit Walmart on Wade Hampton, K-Mart on Wade Hampton and Hollywood Video on Pelham. All seemed to have lots of copies of Serenity.

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Monday, January 2, 2006 7:47 AM

AAHHAAA


Odd thought- how much of Joss himself did he write into Mal? I'm seeing all sorts of Fox 'inevitable betrayal' & other parallels in the episodes now that I'm looking for them...

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Monday, January 2, 2006 7:00 PM

CHRISPV


:sheepish:

Sorry, folks. Misinterpreted the Nielsen things. Should've done more research. Color me stupid.

As penance, I will now go out and play with my rain stick.

Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal, Fox!

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Monday, January 2, 2006 7:18 PM

AAHHAAA


Chris- actually tho, you raised a good point. How do we get episodes of Firefly (but not Serenity?) to all the folks who have those Neilsen boxes? :]

Its not over til we say its over... John Belusi

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Monday, January 2, 2006 7:28 PM

CHRISPV


In all seriousness, I have learned from my ignorance and done some checking. The Nielsen families are asked not to reveal themselves so that some group of fanatical fans of some cancelled show can unfairly skew the sample. According to the Nielsen Media Research Office's website (holy cow, that sounded way too much like my last term paper; I've spent too much time in college)

"There are 5,000 households in the national People Meter sample, approximately 20,000 households in the local metered market samples, approximately 1,000 metered homes for our national and local Hispanic measurement, and nearly 1.6 million diaries are edited each year."

I figure that comes to about two million people, give or take, who determine what gets shown and what doesn't.

Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal, Fox!

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Monday, January 2, 2006 7:44 PM

AAHHAAA


ooo kay... we got 77,000 browncoats...

(carry the zero)

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Monday, January 2, 2006 7:55 PM

CHRISPV


We've got 77,000 Browncoats, and a whole lot more casual fans. I still say the problem that Firefly had back in the day was Fox marketing, pure and simple. We needed time to grow.

Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal, Fox!

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Tuesday, January 3, 2006 5:25 PM

GIRLASKEW


We must live near to each other. I frequent your local Taylors Wal-Mart. I have not looked recently, but Christmas Eve-Eve, they were low. I guess everything was low that night. Full shelves at Wally-world depends on when you go. I donno. I don't dare brave Woodruff road. ICK, indeed.
As for other local Browncoats, there is a clerk at Suncoast in the Haywood mall that I accidently discovered and Richard, of Richard's comics on Laurens Rd is a big fan with some cast autographed pictures on the wall for sale.

Your post didnt seem negative, the lot of us are here and posting because we have some sort of faith that this is not over. Even if we don't believe in much else.



Some people juggle geese!- Hoban Washburn

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Tuesday, January 3, 2006 6:54 PM

FERT1


I'm glad I didn't sound too negative. Yep, we basically live in Taylors off Wade Hampton. I second the comment about Woodruff Road. I especially avoid it during the holidays. Whereabouts is Richard's Comics on Laurens? What end of Laurens? I know for a fact that there are fair number of fans in our area, mostly because we converted them. LOL! Seriously, I can think of 7 people off the top of my head that we've turned on to Firefly, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some. So we're doing our part to spread the word.

We have other friends that found it on their own too. So it's been pretty popular in our group of friends, one of which is running an online role-playing game set in the Firefly verse. Our little circle of friends are all techno-geeks for the most part, and I mean that in a good way. I notice that with Firefly, people either hate it or love it so much they're practically rabid about it. So have you introduced it to all your friends yet? We still have a few hold outs, but I'm still nagging them to check it out.

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Saturday, January 7, 2006 6:03 AM

GIRLASKEW


I have not turned many, mostly because I don't know many people. I have not developed much of a social circle in this town. I have a couple of people I am working on, however.

That's cool that you are running an RPG. We are more pop-culture geeks then tech geeks. Our computer is a dinosaur and we use dial-up. I understand if you don't want to reply.
At least it's not AOL. Could be worse.

Some people juggle geese!- Hoban Washburn

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Saturday, January 7, 2006 6:24 AM

PDCHARLES

What happened? He see your face?


I live in Wilmington, NC.
I have seen Serenity "half-stocked" about everywhere I go here.

I was visiting NYC the day Serenity was released and of course the Virgin Megastore in Times Square was flooded with fans for all types of releases. Trust me I didn't tackle that.

But on an encouraging note, I went the day before to buy the Firefly series for my brother and they were sold out. That is where I came up with an idea.

A few days later when I returned, I purchased eight Serenity movies and kept one and wrapped the rest for Friends and Fam for Xmas. 4 of the seven I sent out were to non sci-fi fans. 3 of the four raved about it and these people don't even like star wars. ...and that is how I drew them in. "I said and do you want more?" like a corner pusher. I then explained the story of the show and how it wrongfully cancelled and they could buy the series on DVD.

Money talks.... become a salesperson.

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Saturday, January 7, 2006 12:19 PM

FERT1


I'm not actually running a Firefly RPG, a friend of mine is running it. I'm just playing in it. You said you hadn't developed much of a social circle here. Are you new in town?

Hey, we had dial-up and even AOL (AO-Hell) at one time. I have to say, I like cable much better. Although even that can act up at times.

Where on Laurens Road is Richard's Comics? I was curious.

I see we also have a NC person on the list. We went to the Serenity screening in Charlotte, NC that was back in June. I was amazed that I was actually able to get tickets.

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Saturday, January 7, 2006 12:39 PM

LITTLECROW


You'll know when Serenity/Firefly has made it when you start seeing Halloween costumes for the characters in the stores in the fall...

How do you go about getting those into production, anyway?

I still run into tons of people who have never even HEARD of Serenity, or don't remember what the trailer was about. I think the key is to keep the energy flowing by keeping up the advertising campaign - as pointed out, be a salesman. My Serenity button is on my jacket. I get asked about it sometimes, which is the perfect segue for a pitch. The more t-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers, etc. that people see, the more they're going to ask about it. Continue being big fans as time goes on, so more people get intrigued now that the movie is out on DVD and can be rented. Don't let the excitement die, just because a sequel may not be in the works right now.

Um, anyhoo - I think I'm done preaching to the choir, this being my first post and all!

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Saturday, January 7, 2006 1:11 PM

FOLLOWMAL



Welcome LittleCrow!

You brought up something I had not thought about, nor bought yet.

I've bought DVD's and the series DVD's and shared them, but I haven't bought anything external that I wear or have on my car that will start a conversation. I am gonna remedy that Monday. That will help with recruiting!

Glad you are with us!

Gotta get me some of those shiny Firefly dogtags too!



"Just don't... fiddle with it." Simon

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Saturday, January 7, 2006 2:32 PM

UNSARDONIC


Quote:

Originally posted by FollowMal:
[B I haven't bought anything external that I wear or have on my car that will start a conversation. I am gonna remedy that Monday.



You might try this place (it's from a fireflyfans.net browncoat lass):

http://www.cafepress.com/ShinySerenity

I'm particularly fond of the license plate frame

mumble, mumble, mutter, cringe "or your friends will think you're stupid, inbred stacks of meat."

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Sunday, January 8, 2006 5:31 PM

GIRLASKEW


I'm not all that new in town. I have lived here for a couple of years with my husband, but I have had a hard time meeting people who I have things in common with. Having my son a year ago did not help my social circle. My husband works nights, so it's more that I don't get out much.

Richard's comics is, let's see...if you are on Laurens and Haywood, it's a right, I believe. Heading towards Stone, away from the Petsmart and the former Best Buy building. It's past Earshot also on the left. It shares a strip mall with a mortgage or a tax place, and is next door to a skateboarding place, so there's usually kids grinding the the parking lot. I hope that helps. He's a cool guy, ordered the Serenity comics we were missing for us and charged us cover price for the popular Mal cover. My husbad spends alot of money there.

Some people juggle geese!- Hoban Washburn

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Sunday, January 8, 2006 6:07 PM

NINAH148


I think this is changing, but unfortunately it is still the case that studio execs are very far removed from DVD sales, and movies that come back strong on DVD are often overlooked for future financing. The exception would be something like Austin Powers...movies before that, like "Office Space," that slowly built a cult DVD following were very slow to reach the attention of people who actually greenlight and finance films. I think it's great that Serenity *and* Firefly seem to be doing fabulously in online sales, and the more we can talk about that and build online "buzz" (e.g., not just on fansites but in general) the better it'll be for future projects. My fiance blogged about Serenity and Firefly on his movie-themed blog (brief plug, www.daviddylanthomas.com/blog), and if sales of the DVDs keep up this theme might start popping up in other places. Probably wouldn't hurt if you know someone who has a blog, website, or such, to see if they want to mention it again. Pimpin' ain't easy, but it can be effective! In the meantime, be hopeful that new high profile Joss projects, like the WW movie, will raise his visibility, increase public interest in his past projects, and give him more Hollywood whuffie that he can bring to bear on future projects in the 'verse.

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