criterionforum.org

Bürgermeister wrote:I love Second Run, but I have a very low opinion of Arrow for various reasons.
So I'm very mixed about this deal with Arrow. Something doesn't seem right about it.

I love the juxtaposition of this post with your rant at me in the MoC sub-forum. I'm elitist?!

Are you time travelling from 2010? It's difficult to split Arrow and the BFI for being the best UK labels out there over the last few years.

I freelance extensively for both companies (Second Run since 2007, Arrow since 2011), personally know all the parties concerned very well indeed, and I think it's a near-perfect example of corporate symbiosis.

The crucial point is that Second Run couldn't stand still for much longer without going out of business. The physical-media market is shrinking scarily rapidly, and being DVD-only is clearly costing them sales (how many times have you seen people say they only ever buy BDs?) - but being able to move into Blu-ray while keeping their business plan intact has been a real challenge.

For all sorts of reasons, Arrow is the most sympathetic company they could have partnered up with, as they have both the resources and (most crucially) the same sensibility. The mere fact that Second Run's first two announced BDs are films as uncompromising as Horse Money and Mysterious Object at Noon should be a clear sign that the label's acquisitions policy won't be changing - not least because it's an essential part of the label's branding.

Are Second Run going to continue be an independent entity competing with Arrow? I guess what I'm asking is, are Second Run going to become an Arrow sub-label? Would The Fireman's Ball have come under the banner of Second Run if it was a 2016/2017 release, for example, or will we still see potentially Second Run type titles under the auspices of Arrow Academy?

I'm a good example of the sort of person that Second Run will gain as a customer due to their recent business decisions. I generally only buy films on Blu-ray, and since I'm in the US, I have, up to very recently, been unaware of Second Run. They came onto my radar due to the announcement of the Horse Money Blu-ray, and then I noticed that they have quite a few films that I would like to pick up, especially if they are on BD.

So, I'm really excited about their partnership with Arrow, especially since I have just realized the benefits of the Arrow points system (picking up Hard to Be a God for $4!).

TMDaines wrote:Are Second Run going to continue be an independent entity competing with Arrow? I guess what I'm asking is, are Second Run going to become an Arrow sub-label? Would The Fireman's Ball have come under the banner of Second Run if it was a 2016/2017 release, for example, or will we still see potentially Second Run type titles under the auspices of Arrow Academy?

Yes, no, and no. This is purely a sales and marketing deal: both labels remain artistically independent.

Tampering with the Second Run brand would be a massive mistake, as it's the label's strongest asset - and there's very little overlap between the kind of things that Second Run does and the kind of things that Arrow Academy does. With only a very few exceptions (Hard to Be a God being perhaps the most extreme outlier), Arrow Academy specialises in comparatively mainstream "classic" Hollywood and European arthouse, whereas Second Run covers much wilder and far less charted shores.

In fact, for a good example of how things split even when there's a notional overlap of interests, look how the last three Czech National Film Archive restorations were divvied up - Arrow got the more obviously "commercial" likes of The Firemen's Ball and Closely Observed Trains, while Second Run took on the equally good but far lesser known All My Good Countrymen.

Bürgermeister wrote:I love Second Run, but I have a very low opinion of Arrow for various reasons.
So I'm very mixed about this deal with Arrow. Something doesn't seem right about it.

Thanks for not bothering us with your insights.
And please don't bother us with them in the future. Thanks again.

Just to clarify absolutely for any and all concerned - Second Run and Arrow remain completely independent and autonomous entities. Arrow are simply now handling the sales and distribution of Second Run titles. There's no inter-brand crossover or co-dependency. Everything remains as it was at Second Run.

What is the packaging like for the Second Run sets which collect titles which have been released individually like Polish Cinema Classics, The Czechoslovak New Wave Collection, and The Hungarian Masters Collection? Are they simply the individual DVDs with their booklets in a cardboard sleeve, slimmer DVD cases in a sleeve with a booklet compiled from the originals, some kind of digipak, or something different?

Ozu Teapot wrote:What is the packaging like for the Second Run sets which collect titles which have been released individually like Polish Cinema Classics, The Czechoslovak New Wave Collection, and The Hungarian Masters Collection? Are they simply the individual DVDs with their booklets in a cardboard sleeve, slimmer DVD cases in a sleeve with a booklet compiled from the originals, some kind of digipak, or something different?

All the ones I have are the individual DVDs with their booklets in a cardboard sleeve.

neilist wrote:All the ones I have are the individual DVDs with their booklets in a cardboard sleeve.

Ah thank you very much!

Yes, they are just thin cardboard slipboxes. I throw mine out and just keep the individual releases.

TMDaines wrote:Yes, they are just thin cardboard slipboxes. I throw mine out and just keep the individual releases.

Thanks, I suspected they were! Actually I'm sure I have seen some of them in the past but really couldn't remember, and couldn't find pictures online. It's become a rare thing for me nowadays to get to the kind of shops where I'd see Second Run and other boutique labels releases "in the flesh".

I wonder if there's going to be a release pattern for DVD and Blu-ray releases. The first two discs of the year wee DVD only, followed by two Blu-rays, then two DVD only and now we have a Blu-ray for July.

Ha! Thank you Disgrace.
No - there is no method to our madness. Just simply how things have panned out.

Does anyone know when the rest of SecondRun catalogue will go up on Arrow's site? I asked SecondRun via email and they told me they plan to upload all their releases on Arrow's site in the coming weeks, but it has been almost a month since

That's in the process of being uploaded - a lot of work for someone to input details of over 100 titles.
The full catalogue will be up soon!

Taste of Cinema have compiled a list of '35 Visually Stunning Czech/Slovak Films' - delighted and proud to say that there are a good number of films on this list that Second Run have released - not to mention a few that we have lined up for the future...
http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/35-vi ... your-time/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bikey, what's the likelihood of older titles being upgraded to Blu-Ray? Szindbad, Confidence and All My Good Countrymen? Szindbad in particular would look lovely in HD. I'd happily buy all three, and also, Morgana, again on Blu-Ray, or dual format.

A Szindbad blu ray would be an instant purchase, so I second that idea.

(I haven't seen the other films mentioned, so I can't comment.)

I don't think an HD master exists. Hungarians were only restoring to SD video until very recently - The Round-Up has been redone in 4K, but I'm not sure about anything else.

I'm hoping that we'll see an upgrade of the newly restored The Third Part of the Night as a tribute to Zulawski and it could be released to tie in with Arrow's Cosmos release

I wouldn't even ask about a catalog title unless an HD transfer already exists in another market. So maybe All My Good Countrymen?

Calvin wrote:I'm hoping that we'll see an upgrade of the newly restored The Third Part of the Night as a tribute to Zulawski and it could be released to tie in with Arrow's Cosmos release

Mondo Vision is working on Third Part of the Night.

Are there any news regarding the back catalogue being uploaded to arrow's store?