received/reviewed: lunchbox prototype, copy of bonus disc

This forum has been closed and archived. No further postings allowed. Read-only access. For more informations read this announcement.
Locked
User avatar
danguyf
MSCL.com Team
MSCL.com Team
Posts: 88
Joined: Feb 5th 2002, 5:19 pm
Location: VA
Contact:

received/reviewed: lunchbox prototype, copy of bonus disc

Post by danguyf » Jul 10th 2003, 9:35 pm

What should I find on my doorstep this evening but a UPS delivery from Ross. I shook it; it sounded metal. Could it be? It was.

The lunchbox looks fantastic, if I do say so myself. The images are of excellent resolution and quality. The placement fits well IMHO. There are two minor things that I would change if I could -- places where I misinterpreted the G-Whiz template apparently. (I'll leave them to one of you to discover by comparing the lunchbox with the online schematics, should anyone actually care.)

The only bothersome gaffe is that I failed to anticipate the metal latch on the top, which is consequently plunked down right on top of half of the Y/s/ca in "MY so-called". Still, the logo is present and uninterrupted on the front and back, so I guess it's not a huge deal...

Image
"Mr. Lunchbox! I am so surprised to see you!"

Image
Dan admires the sexy, sexy lunchbox.

(Images are Dan's property and may not be used without permission.)

Inside I found a note from Ross and a DVD-R copy of the bonus disc. The note says he's going to "ship it in a double Armory case for when the TV and Radio footage is cleared ... These are getting done, and when they finish them and get them to us, I'll fire one out to you." He apologizes for the delays and thanks me for my work on it.

The note also explains, provided I'm understanding it correctly, that this was the single sample prototype that G-Whiz sent him. Let me restate that: my lunchbox is not one of the "production" units, so to speak. Ross says that he would have sent it to me sooner but since it was his only one and he was having trouble with G-Whiz he didn't want to not have it on hand. The implication, then, would seem to be that everything is now patched up with G-Whiz and he anticipates more lunchboxes coming into his possession and so therefore no longer feels the need to hold on to the prototype.

The bonus disc is nice, what I've seen of it. My cheap, malfunctioning DVD player can't handle DVD-Rs apparently, my 2k machine has DVD Express -- which crashes about 3 seconds into each chapter, and my wife's XP machine has no XP codec because apparently M$ requires you to buy one.

So I've seen the menu but very little else. The menu is nice enough; nothing flashy or kinetic, but branded and not bland -- that is to say, some work went into it. The three choices are "Interview", "Credits", and "Tour". The interview is presumably my interview. The credits start with "Special Thanks To... / MSCL.com / Bedford Falls" and then my dvd software crashes. The tour appears to be the very quick video tour I did of the BF offices starting with the elevator doors opening.

I tried to do some screen grabs but apparently the ability to screen grab the DVD display has been intentionally blocked.
Last edited by danguyf on Jul 11th 2003, 10:05 pm, edited 3 times in total.

User avatar
fnordboy
Ed Zwick Wannabe
Posts: 1954
Joined: Sep 25th 2002, 10:29 am
Location: Exit 16E, NJ
Contact:

Re: Received the lunchbox and bonus disc

Post by fnordboy » Jul 10th 2003, 9:56 pm

Holy Sh!t!

Hopefully you are not the proud owner of the one and only MSCL Lunchbox in existence. Congratulations, hopefully the rest of us will see one in the very near future.

It is a bit discomforting to see that Ross is back to his tricks of throwing out stuff piecemeal just so the rest of us poor slobs can have a glint of hope. Hopefully he will follow through though. I will try not to wait too impatiently for the rest of ours to arrive.

Again, congrats! And thanks for posting the info and the pics. :)

Jason R
"Mr. DVD"
Posts: 1627
Joined: Jan 30th 2002, 1:42 pm
Location: New York

Post by Jason R » Jul 10th 2003, 9:57 pm

Just be very careful here, Dan.

The lunchbox was shipped a while back by regular mail as a prototype. Last we heard, the other boxes were still stuck in Hong Kong (that they existed was never an issue. getting them here and into customers' hands was and still IS). You and I had discussed this before. Just be careful that you don't get people's hopes up. There is a difference between sending one box and disc for PR purposes and actually delivering.

With the NBC journalist working on a story about AU's practices this can either be Ross blowing more smoke, or it can be him responding to pressure.

That said, it's about f**king time someone saw this stuff.

User avatar
danguyf
MSCL.com Team
MSCL.com Team
Posts: 88
Joined: Feb 5th 2002, 5:19 pm
Location: VA
Contact:

Post by danguyf » Jul 10th 2003, 10:14 pm

I have edited my original post to make clear the fact that the lunchbox sent to me was the prototype from G-Whiz.

In all things AU I have striven to lay out the facts as I know them and leave it to everyone to make up their own minds.

Jason R
"Mr. DVD"
Posts: 1627
Joined: Jan 30th 2002, 1:42 pm
Location: New York

Post by Jason R » Jul 10th 2003, 10:19 pm

I appreciate the clarification in your original post, Dan. The way it originally read, customers might think that the items were shipping to them. (and there has certainly been a cycle of promises being made and broken for quite a while now).

I want to remind everyone that no less than 3 weeks ago, Ross was complaining to me via email that GWhiz went out of business. So, am I skeptical?

Well... maybe a little. :P

In any case, now is not the time to let Ross buy himself more time. Hopefully, by sending these prototypes, the pressure on AU.com to deliver will actually INCREASE now. So many things are combining to pressure AU, that I am actually optimistic that they might deliver (the pending TV story, the Attorney General activities, etc.)

On the downside, I get emails stating that some refund checks are bouncing and people are not getting refund forms or their refund checks. That's why I urge some caution. We are not dealing with your typical customer service situation here.

Jason (who finds it ironic that his company's logo will forever be printed side by side with AU.com's on this lunchbox).

User avatar
danguyf
MSCL.com Team
MSCL.com Team
Posts: 88
Joined: Feb 5th 2002, 5:19 pm
Location: VA
Contact:

Post by danguyf » Jul 11th 2003, 5:56 am

I managed to download a shareware DVD player last night with its own codec. I've watched the credits, the tour, and the first minute or so of the interview.

Observations:
[1] My name is mispelled in the credits. LOL
[2] The tour could have really benefited from a steadycam.
[3] The walk-through tour jumps a few seconds at one point, apparently so as to remove a few seconds of Ross on his cellphone; you can still see him reflected in the glass doors, though.
[4] The tour includes Zwick asking me if I'd like to follow him into the restroom.
[5] The interview looks good!
[6] Rather than remove the audio of my questions and replace them with title cards, as I had planned to do had Grafik done the disc (which was derailed when I quit), they've just cleaned up the audio and left me in there... so you get to hear my voice, in all its nervous worshipfulness. Greeeeat. ^_^

User avatar
Anakin
Let's Bolt Regular
Posts: 75
Joined: Jul 19th 2002, 12:46 am
Location: Naboo

Post by Anakin » Jul 11th 2003, 6:51 am

Glad to see the photo of the lunchbox prototype in Dan's hand.
Any clue that where are the production units now? Still in Hong Kong? And when will they be transported to the customers?
If you will not fight, then you will meet your destiny!

Jason R
"Mr. DVD"
Posts: 1627
Joined: Jan 30th 2002, 1:42 pm
Location: New York

Post by Jason R » Jul 11th 2003, 7:01 am

Anakin wrote:Glad to see the photo of the lunchbox prototype in Dan's hand.
Any clue that where are the production units now? Still in Hong Kong? And when will they be transported to the customers?
Last I'd heard, they were still in Hong Kong. This was from G-Whiz.

Just be reminded that this "progress" is misleading. The lunchbox prototype was sent to the USA many months ago. As of yesterday, AU.com still had not fulfilled its obligations to Bedford Falls, and Grafik (dan's old company) had not been paid for sending Dan out to do the interview. (although screwing BF and Grafik is perhaps a lesser offense than screwing thousands of customers, It is telling that nobody has gotten what they were promised).

Dan, I would be interested to know if any MSCL logos, photos or indicia were used in the bonus disc? Or was it simply the title?

thanks!

User avatar
danguyf
MSCL.com Team
MSCL.com Team
Posts: 88
Joined: Feb 5th 2002, 5:19 pm
Location: VA
Contact:

Post by danguyf » Jul 11th 2003, 10:50 pm

After searching around a bit last night I found a DVD codec for XP that almost worked. Sascha, thankfully, sent me a link to a different codec this morning that works almost perfectly. (The only problem is a sort of stutter, which makes the three of them somewhat resemble Max Headroom at points.)

So I'm watching the interview I did with Marshall, Ed, and Winnie right now. I did this, what, nearly a year ago? And I have to say, I am finding watching it so so magical.

I think I framed it well. I made a few choices that could be questioned, but they are minor I believe. Marshall puts his hand on the side of the couch about 15 minutes in and his fingers leave the frame, and after Ed left I could have re-centered on Marshall and Winnie, but I think it's better that I centered the couch in the frame and remained consistent throughout. Also, had I removed the coffee table from in front of them (which is never seen) I could have aimed the camera lower and shown more of Winnie's bare feet, but I'm rather pleased with the visibility of the tapestry on the wall behind them and the way the three of them. (I tried to take a picture of my TV but can't get the light right.)

My biggest complaint, at this point, is my voice. I am sooo clearly in awe. I take long pauses on occasion. I was not worried about this at the time because I had intended the remove the audio of my questions and replace them with title cards. Because of this, at the time I was trying to pitch my voice to keep it off the tape as much as possible -- which I was unfortunately a bit successful at. Whoever did the disc has done a decent job of making my questions audible, but it's still less than ideal.

This is such a great interview. Watching the three of them together is magic. They are so great together. And even after Ed had to get up and attend to Mr. Tom Cruise (which, to interject a tangent, can I just say how AMAZED and HONORED I am that they made time to talk to me on the same day that Tom Freaking Cruise was showing up for a meeting about Last Samurai!!!) it's just marvelous. They speak very well. For every question of mine they go on for, like, ten minutes at a time. And they manage to answer questions I hadn't yet gotten to ask, but which we had all wanted to hear the answers to. This interview will finally set the record straight about a few things, and I think it throws some light on several other things that had hitherfore not been revealed.

I'm very proud of the way I asked several questions, particularly the "Why do you stay at ABC when they keep canceling your shows?" question, which I phrased much more diplomatically. I'm very embarrassed by the way several other questions came out, such as when I asked if they feel in any way like godparents to the teen-centric rip-offs which have followed it (and, well, pretty much the entire WB line-up), which I fear might have made it seem to them like I thought any of those shows were at all comparable to MSCL -- I really want them to understand that I appreciate the uniqueness and superior quality of MSCL.

Marshall is talking about Operation OLS now, and how gratified he was that fans cared so much. Winnie says, "That experience changed me."

Winnie puts her glasses on, like, half way through the interview. I wish I'd known she was going to do that; I would have tried to position the lights differently.

Winnie is talking about "Jerry Maguire" and Cameron Crowe's homage to the MSCL pilot episode. Watching how they glow talking about the show, re-living the memories, is just mah-velous. They're going on and on about how great Claire Danes is now.

Marshall just said that we have to wrap things up, that he's late for a meeting. Had I realized that he was keeping Tom Cruise waiting, I would have gotten him out there faster. I feel like a cad.

And that's the end. In actuality, my tape ran out at the very end and there was this great moment where the video goes black but on the audio you hear Marshall say, "I think he just ran out of tape --" and then it just cuts off. I thought that would be a great way to end it. Apparently whoever did the disc thought a clean break would be better, though, and left that off.

Jason R
"Mr. DVD"
Posts: 1627
Joined: Jan 30th 2002, 1:42 pm
Location: New York

Post by Jason R » Jul 11th 2003, 11:11 pm

And I asked BF if MSCL.com would be able to stream the interview here. :D

Let's see how that goes.

crispy
Nicky Driscoll
Posts: 16
Joined: Feb 9th 2003, 6:41 pm

Post by crispy » Mar 30th 2004, 4:36 pm

So is there any chance the interview on the bonus disc will be made available on this website? Because I cancelled my order with AU long ago, never got my money back, and now will never see the bonus disc, even though I paid for it. :(

I wish I hadn't cancelled my order. But I was so disgusted with AU and the way they were cheating people, I just didn't want them to have my money. Of course THAT was stupid of me, because I didn't get a refund anyway. So they DID get my money and I... got nothing to show for it.

If I hadn't cancelled at least I'd have a CHANCE of being one of those lucky people who eventually received their bonus disc (I don't really care about the lunchbox). Needless to say... I'm depressed and furious with myself.

I'm dying to see the interviews on this disc... I respect the creators of My So-Called Life so much... I'm very interested in hearing what they have to say. PLEASE can someone help?

User avatar
fnordboy
Ed Zwick Wannabe
Posts: 1954
Joined: Sep 25th 2002, 10:29 am
Location: Exit 16E, NJ
Contact:

Post by fnordboy » Mar 30th 2004, 5:23 pm

I am locking this thread so that discussion can be moved to the Official Bonus Disc Thread

Locked

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests