Firefly by subscription?

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UPDATED: Tuesday, February 25, 2003 21:08
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SIGNYM

Tuesday, January 14, 2003 9:35 PM

How 'bout:

ON this website, run a "Best fanfic" and "Best script" contest. Announce to all writers and wannabes out there. The criteria is that they winning entry must be truest to Joss' vision. Of course, ppl unfamiliar with the story should have a sample SCRIPT and EPISODE available. The entries can be voted on by readers. The prize? Something meaningful: a chance to watch filming, or have the idea worked into an actual filmed script, or publication into a magazine of note. This might pique writers.

What about the software end of it? Pobably some people at slashdot might like to try their hand in a contest: best rpg, or best computer animation.

Besides writers and software geeks, there seem to be an unusual number of activists and social theorists here. They'd probably like to get a chance to vote on "best script", for example, so a notice to folks who normally are planning the next anti-war demonstration might be a good thing.

And then, there may be people (as individuals or groups) who would really like to try out a new business model. Maybe they could get a crack at developing a new market.

LOSTANGEL

Tuesday, January 14, 2003 9:58 PM

Hey, let's not forget the mystery guy : jeremyn@mac.com

At Fireflysupport he was mentioned again, and it sounds like he's getting closer to pitching something.

______________________
Lost Angel

WASH: Psychic, though? That sounds like something out of science fiction.
ZOE: We live in a space ship, dear.
WASH: So?

MRGREEN

Tuesday, January 14, 2003 10:52 PM

Here's another thought... how much money does ME make? They have 2 hit shows, they much make some bank... I wonder if Joss has given any thought to try to independantly produce the show, on a subscription basis. Now, following that line, what about selling shares? not in ME, persay, but creating an enterprise specifically for distributing FF. ME would own 51% of it, and the remaining 49% could be sold to interested parties. Share holders would still be required to pay for subscriptions, but would get dividends if the venture ever started to turn a profit. That could be a way to raise some capital to get things rolling.

on a seperate tangent, how about Troma? They're the guys who did the Toxic Avenger movies, and also the first Matt Parker/Trey Stone movie, Cannibal the Musical. They've been doing independant (low budget) movies for YEARS, and seem to enjoy being outside the mainsteam media. I wonder if they would be interested in doing a direct to DVD series. Or maybe just partenering with ME to get the capital and equipment together. Could be worth looking into, imho.

Rob

ALICIA

Tuesday, January 14, 2003 11:16 PM

About the price - Not that many people buy Buffy DVDs because they CAN get it from the television and tape. If the only way to see Firefly is by buying a DVD then I would think you'd sell a lot more (once people know about it, of course).

Hmmm...at $12 per movie (two of us) and a season's worth is about 11 movies...that's $132. So, I'd at LEAST pay that! Plus I KNOW I'll love Firefly and the popcorn is cheaper at home.

Wow....more Firefly....yeah....I'd pay $200 for a season.

SIGNYM

Tuesday, January 14, 2003 11:54 PM

I like the PBS-idea. Getting PBS to air the show and give away DVDs is great publicity. NPR-affiliates might also like some DVDs for giveaway too.

One question: does ME own the copyrights? Or does Fox?

Hey, we got lots of ideas here. How do we start???

SUCCATASH

Wednesday, January 15, 2003 4:42 AM

Money talks, so here's what needs to happen.

We need a trustworthy person or business to collect pre-orders for the DVD's. Actually take our credit card numbers, which would get authorized but not charged until the DVD's were shipped.

What if people pre-ordered 3 or 4 million dollars worth?

I realize this is very unlikely. With so much credit card fraud and identity theft, no one is going to want to give up their financial information for a non-existant DVD --unless the "money collector" was very, very, very reputable.

But what if it was a company like Amazon.com? I know you can pre-order items on their site, for DVD's that aren't made yet.

For example, the movie Orgazmo is not available in America on DVD, but on Amazon.com you can "vote" for it by pre-ordering.

We need something like that. A simple "voting" pre-order would also be cool, but it would be much more effective if we could offer Mutant Enemy actual orders, with credit card numbers, waiting to be charged. It we could pull this off we'd win.

I already posted this on a separate thread, but I wanted to include it here as well.

LEGALBEGAL

Wednesday, January 15, 2003 2:12 PM

OK so who is goingg to turm these ideas into a feasable business plan/model and send it off to ME?

We need to start really thinking about these out the box ideas now that sci-fi has passed on the show, and it looks like that is what Joss and Company are doing.

SIGNYM

Wednesday, January 15, 2003 4:31 PM

Sounds good. Who among us has business experience?

I think we could work on two or three business plans- you know, option 1,2, and 3.

But I think we'll need to communicate less anonymously than this board- eventually, if people promise to ante up, they gotta ante up.

JAYSEDAI

Thursday, January 16, 2003 11:18 PM

Mystery person here!

I've never been called mysterious before... I think I'm flattered.

Here is my crosspost from the "official" Firefly forum:

Sorry for the delay in updating everybody, I had to go on a very unexpected out-of-town film shoot (2 hour notice!). I'm now back, here is my update:

We finished our proposal Tuesday night, and I would like to thank everybody for their enthusiasm for this idea, and I would also like you thank you all for your your input. (keep it coming!) Based on a random sampling of posts (I haven't had time to process all of the posts and emails yet), here is some interesting information about who YOU are:
Average age: 32.3
Average income: $45,877 / year
Average price wiling to pay (per episode): $9.63

Mutant Enemy received our proposal today via FedEx, and we are anxiously awaiting a reply.

reply to Aliciaone,

>Wouldn't y'all love to know how far Jeremy has gotten with this. Has he been in >contact with ME?

I have been in brief contact with ME.

>What company does he own?

Due to possibility of being under NDA in the future, I'd rather not say specifically. Generally speaking, our company is a digital media and marketing company. We have produced DVD, DVD-ROM, CD-ROM and Web sites for a variety of customers ranging from Hollywood to corporate to educational.

>Does anyone know anything!? Does >20th Century Fox really understand how >willing we are to part with our money for >this show (with current actors and >writers)?! I would love to know that they know >this.

I would love to know this too, however the more important question is HOW MANY people are willing to part with their money for this show. IMHO, I think a realistic long term goal is 250,000 subscribers. (About 5% of it's average weekly viewership - not counting the tens of thousands of TIVO viewers)

>Please come back Jeremy and tell us what's happening. The natives are getting >restless.

I will keep everybody updated as new info becomes available.

Thanks,

Jeremy

SIGNYM

Friday, January 17, 2003 4:23 AM

Hey guys, well it seems someone with an actual DVD business is stepping in to produce and (I suppose) distribute FF on DVD. It sounds like they're in negotiation with ME/Joss Whedon and that's great!

Sounds great but I hope they keep promotion in mind!

But ya know what? Even if this doesn't work out, or it works imperfectly, we can do a lot. There's no reason why we can't promote, or even produce, FF. What would it take? A plan. Someone who can produce DVDs. A distributor who'll collect the $$. Promotion. A thousand other details I don't even know about. And there's absolutely no reason in the world why we can't do this. The only reason why we don't try is because of learned helplessness. We tell ourselves "Oh it won't work" or "I don't know enough" or "It's too big and I'm too small" and we give up. Fail to put the *ss into it. Fail to get together. Look for a hero, wish, hope, but do nothing.

What do we have to lose???? Nothing, not a gorram thing. A little time, maybe some effort, possibly even a little face if things don't go smoothly but- so what???

Imagine it's 3 AM. There's nobody to tell you what to do, to sell you something or monitor your reactions, to supervise you or spin the info that you get. It's just you and your thoughts. They should be free.

Off the sopabox now.

Keep flying. Let your thoughts be free as the stars.

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