Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection

[matrixschmatrix]

Oh, thanks, sorry I missed that. I had been holding off, as Borowczyk was (I thought) totally unfamiliar to me, but I'd forgotten he was the other guy behind Les Astronautes- that and my love of participating in stuff is gong to wind up putting me over the edge here, I think.

[swo17]

I think I remember reading somewhere that Marker was only credited as a co-director on that to make it more marketable, but that it's entirely (or almost entirely) Borowczyk's work.

[MichaelB]

Yes, that's correct - although Marker was certainly a friend of both the Borowczyks, and indeed cast Ligia in La Jetée a few years later.

And yes, £99.99 is still the provisional RRP, but we won't know for certain until we know exactly how many discs we're dealing with.

The provisional bit budget suggests four BDs and seven DVDs, but that was based on the assumption that Goto would only be in SD, which is almost certainly not going to be the case now (let's face it, with 36 days and just £1,439 to go, that particular restoration is now 99.9% certain to go ahead).

[knives]

Oh, thanks, sorry I missed that. I had been holding off, as Borowczyk was (I thought) totally unfamiliar to me, but I'd forgotten he was the other guy behind Les Astronautes- that and my love of participating in stuff is gong to wind up putting me over the edge here, I think.

If just for the shorts I imagine most will love this package. I can see and even understand people disliking the features, but the shorts (I've seen) are so consistently inventive and gorgeous that it borders on impossible not to enjoy them. When it winds up in this set I'm sure it will look significantly better, but I highly recommend watching Game of Angels which is just as good as movies get.

[MichaelB]

Boro's Dictionary reaches the letter D...

(E, unsurprisingly, will be for Erotic.)

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Advance apologies for what might be a dumb question but does Kickstarter cut off when the goal has been reached or does it continue to accumulate and if so what incentive is there to keep pledging, other than non-altruistic ownership of the cut-price box of course?

[MichaelB]

It continues until the cut-off date (January 11 or thereabouts). The incentive to keep pledging is the possibility that we might be able to license and/or restore more films and therefore deliver more than the five features and fourteen shorts already guaranteed.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

I realise the potential of additional material but principally from this forum's discussion and I am really rooting for it to go through the roof and give you all the opportunity to throw out the net again, but slightly concerned that other people might take their foot off the pedal if they think it's already home and dry as well as the fact it doesn't seem clear that this potential exists on the pledge manifesto page.

[knives]

Though getting 19 films in itself is reason enough to pledge.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Though getting 19 films in itself is reason enough to pledge.

I was trying to draw a distinction between pledging and buying. I am well in already but maybe you didn't see my post above yours

[knives]

Yes, I had started posting when you did too it seems.

[MichaelB]

There will undoubtedly be a further update stressing these points when the target is reached.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

No doubt. Told you it was a dumb question

[antnield]

A new update:

As the halfway point of our campaign approaches, we have almost reached the target of £20 000. With thirty days to go and our funding target almost met, it looks very likely that we will exceed the figure required for this restoration to go ahead.

We just want to say that any money raised in excess of the minimum figure will only be spent on the transfer and restoration of further Borowczyk titles.


In addition to the nine short films from the 1960s (which have already been restored), we have acquired the rights to a handful of Borowczyk's other shorts which would benefit from new transfers.

In other news, last week we visited the Annecy Animation Museum in France, which holds the largest single collection of Borowczyk's artwork. The original pieces of art that Borowczyk used to make his films (particularly the animations) have served as an invaluable reference point for the restorations carried out so far. Also featured in the Annecy collection are several props from Goto, most notably the famous triptych, which can be seen in the classroom scene at the beginning of the film. In addition, Annecy also possess a remarkable collection of behind the scenes photographs shot during the making of Goto, which we will feature as part of this release.

Once again, a big thank you to everyone who has pledged so far - we are all itching to work on the restoration of Goto in the new year!

p.s. We are currently up to 'D' in Boro's Dictionary - find out what 'E' is on Friday:

http://borowczykcollection.blogspot.co.uk/

[Lino]

It alone drove me to a search for the Loki film, which I eventually found over at YouTube (albeit sans english subs, which nonetheless didn't stop me from enjoying the marvellous visuals on display and beguiling soundtrack by the no less beguiling talents of Wojciech Kilar) and consequently held my hands in prayer for a dreamed Second Run release (definitely their cup of tea).

An English-subtitled version is included in Telewizja Kinopolska's three-film Horrory box set, which I see is currently going for just 59.99 złotys (that's £11.91/€14.27/$19.40 at current exchange rates) plus postage.

What are the other films in the boxset, Michael (just need a little more convincing to spend what seems like a bargain for such a treat)?

Oh, and wonderful news in the 2nd update just above! Just when everyone thought this release couldn't get any better...

[mrmarbach]

I've chipped in the £60 and may even increase it to help get more stuff in the package...

A question: how do the economics work for this? Is it basically about cash flow and having the funding for the restoration up front? Otherwise I'm a little confused how come it's costing us less than the street price and yet functioning better for the label economically. Surely the overall revenue will be less (once the first run is sold)?

Whatever the logic, I'd do this kind of thing again like a flash.

[MichaelB]

A question: how do the economics work for this? Is it basically about cash flow and having the funding for the restoration up front? Otherwise I'm a little confused how come it's costing us less than the street price and yet functioning better for the label economically. Surely the overall revenue will be less (once the first run is sold)?

It's functioning better for the label economically because they get a guaranteed cash injection upfront, which they can then use to fund the restoration - as opposed to gambling that the release will be profitable enough to fund it retrospectively (i.e. with Arrow advancing the cash from their own funds - which they've already done to a huge extent with the existing eleven restorations).

And because Arrow also knows exactly how many discounted box sets they'll need to produce, they can factor this in when setting the final RRP and size of print run.

Does that make sense?

[Max von Mayerling]

mrmarbach, thanks for asking that question, and Michael, thanks for answering - I'm always interested in hearing about the economics of restoring and distributing films.

Since I pledged a few days ago, I've become obsessed with checking the status (although, as noted, it is obviously going to go beyond the mark). I likely only know about this thanks to the forum and Michael, so thanks to all involved (those doing all the work & those taking an interest & spreading the word). This model seems like the polar opposite of how the big studios function. I assume others are watching, and it gives me hope that other projects will bear equally interesting fruit.

[mrmarbach]

Thanks for the helpful answer.

because Arrow also knows exactly how many discounted box sets they'll need to produce, they can factor this in when setting the final RRP and size of print run.

That point hadn't occurred to me.

All in all a great initiative.

[TMDaines]

And the majority of the people supporting this Kickstarter at the £60 level, probably would have been buying the boxset online for less than that anyway. Arrow stuff is always heavily discounted in a matter of months and the RRP is meaningless in that perspective. Why would you ever pay RRP for an Arrow release?

[MichaelB]

And the majority of the people supporting this Kickstarter at the £60 level, probably would have been buying the boxset online for less than that anyway. Arrow stuff is always heavily discounted in a matter of months and the RRP is meaningless in that perspective. Why would you ever pay RRP for an Arrow release?

The RRP is likely to be nearer £100 than £60. While it will obviously be discounted by the usual suspects (including Arrow themselves, no doubt), and I'm sure that it will be possible to get it for £60 or even less at some point down the line, it's wildly unlikely that you'll be able to get it for that kind of price anywhere near the release date, and of course if you go down that route you also won't have the buzz of knowing that you made a direct contribution to ensuring that more of the package will be in HD, along with all these people.

[TMDaines]

I wasn't arguing that the price was a reason not to support the project, MichaelB, merely that Arrow, given the prices of their previous releases relative to RRP, aren't really selling this at a surprisingly low price. It's the sort of price it will go for anyway. RRP is almost a complete irrelevancy to customers nowadays.

[MichaelB]

I reckon we might hit the target today:



(since the above is constantly updated, it was showing £19,835 at the time of writing - so less than three box sets to go!)

[EddieLarkin]

I think around £100 a day from now on is realistic, which'll give you an extra £3,000 to play with. No idea what that can buy you mind!

[twicebilled]

Looks like it has passed the threshold, congratulations. Looking forward to digging into this box set.