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Posted: May 21st 2007, 3:02 am
by Natasha (candygirl)
Troy wrote:Pardon my ignorance :oops:, but what does this Museum of whatever feature entail?

(Yep, i'm a relative newbie. Not to the show, but to this forum.)
The MTR session was supposed to be one of the bonus features for the previous 2002 MSCL DVD release. It was mentioned/discussed several times in the AU DVD forum before the bonus disc was shipped in 2003/2004.

Info from the AU DVD forum FAQ:
The “question and answer” footage is from the Museum of TV and Radio from a special "My So-Called Life" session during the "Museum of Radio & TV 12th Annual Television Festival" in March 1995 with complete cast & crew & fans. Dan (from our MSCL.COM team) has already seen the footage and was really enthusiastic about this stuff. It was never aired. But you can probably watch the material for a small fee if you go to the museum in L.A.
And why pray tell would the Region 1 rerelease be loaded with extras when the Region 2 rerelease (just got it in the mail from Amazon.co.uk yesterday; no subs, no bonus material of any kind) has none?
That hardly seems fair.
In some cases, bonus features vary depending on region. Why? This is sometimes what happens when DVDs are released by different companies in each region. If Company A has the R1 rights and Company B has the R2 rights, Company A might not want to pay to purchase the rights to something like the MTR session (I believe the asking price for that was $100,000 back during the AU days). If Company B is willing to pay, however, they can put the bonus material on the R2 release and everyone in R1 without a region free DVD player is SOL.

Other times it happens because a DVD is released in one region before bonus materials are available. For example, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was always released in R2 before it was released in R1. Unfortunately, that meant that some features like episode commentaries that made it to the R1 DVDs months (or years) later didn't exist when the DVDs were released in R2.

Posted: May 21st 2007, 3:30 pm
by Jody Barsch*
There was, I believe, also a Museum of Television and Radio panel about GLBT characters in television shows and Wilson and Winnie were both on it. I keep thinking that I should go to the museum and see if I can track those down, but I never do.

Posted: May 22nd 2007, 4:25 am
by Natasha (candygirl)
I know I'm going to sound like a total dork, but one of the things I'd like in the bonus material would be some of the information we have compiled at the forum and elsewhere on the webite about the show like Everything I llearned from MSCL, info about the episode titles, MSCL reading list, movie/tv references, colors, etc. Of course, I still haven't been able to watch the DVD fan-made commentary so it's possible that a lot of that information is included! I love those pop up trivia options (like on The Sure Thing DVD or the monthly movie that A&E or Bravo does)!

Details about bonus material

Posted: Jun 15th 2007, 4:11 pm
by Sascha
You probably all read the article in VideoBusiness and/or on TVShowsOnDVD.com, so you know by now that we're in contact with Shout Factory (since mscl.com was mentioned in the articles).

From what I can tell so far, they are really nice people and they are putting a lot of effort into this re-release of our favorite show. In my personal opinion "our" show couldn't be in better hands and I can't wait to put the new MSCL DVD in my collection next to "Freaks and Geeks" (and throw the old MSCL box in the trash ;-)).

We'll put a special DVD page up at http://www.mscl.com/dvd when we have more informations about the DVD box. Of course we will also update this forum when we get more details confirmed.

Anyway, here are a few more new details about the upcoming ShoutFactory DVD release.

Please note that nothing is officially announced or set in stone. Things may still change!

Shout!Factory shot so far interviews with the following people:

Crew:
- Winnie Holzman, Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick (executive producers and creators of "My So-Called Life")
- Todd Holland (director "Life of Brian" and "Weekend")
- Jason Katims (writer "The Substitute", "Life of Brian", "So-Called Angels")
- Scott Winant (co-executive producer, director "So-Called Angels", "Dancing in the Dark" and pilot episode)

Cast:
- Wilson Cruz ("Rickie Vasquez")
- Paul Dooley ("Chuck Wood", he's also Winnie Holzman's husband)
- Devon Gummersall ("Brian Krakow")

Audio commentaries for the following episodes (with various cast & crew members):
- The pilot episode
- Life of Brian
- So-Called Angels

More commentaries with other cast and crew members as well as other bonus material are in development.

The booklet will have tributes by Joss Whedon (of "Buffy" and "Firefly" fame) and Janeane Garofalo ("Felicity", "The Larry Sanders Show"). Winnie Holzman will add an introduction with thoughts about possible future plot developments.

We should have some more details in the following weeks, maybe even some preview of the DVD box art, so stay tuned!

Posted: Jun 15th 2007, 6:47 pm
by Jody Barsch*
This is all very thrilling! I love that the site's getting play. Have you had contact with SHOUT! Sascha?
From what I can tell so far, they are really nice people and they are putting a lot of effort into this re-release of our favorite show.

IMHO, they should have a big DVD release party with cast, crew, FANS! Seriously, this is some dedication we've got here. :mrgreen:

MSCL DVD Cover

Posted: Jun 23rd 2007, 5:37 am
by Sascha
I have some exciting news! Shout Factory sent us an image of the upcoming DVD box cover.

The title ("My So-Called Life") will be embossed (raised) and varnished (shiny).
"The Complete Series" will be varnished also.

Image

What does everyone think?

Posted: Jun 23rd 2007, 12:21 pm
by elz200
I'm not crazy about it. But now it seems so official. I'm so excited for the release. At least now I'll be looking forward to something after the summer ends. Thanks for the scoop!

Posted: Jun 23rd 2007, 4:11 pm
by Natasha (candygirl)
Whenever I look at any type of marketing, I always remember what one of my teachers told me my freshman year in high school: stay away from cutesy or too busy, keep it simple, etc. Words of wisdom, even if they were only meant to be applied to the huge butcher paper signs we were making to advertise the spring play.

I was trying to decide if I prefer the old green DVD cover better only because I'm already used to it, but that isn't it. I like the old cover because it's simple. The back portion with the notebook paper shows the high school theme without going overboard.

The new cover is too busy to me. I like the picture they chose of Angela, and I like that they have quotes from the show (although I don't like the font for the "school is a battlefield" quote nor do I like the way they made "for your heart" a fragement, and I think that particular quote might come off as a little cheesy to the casual buyer). I understand why they went with the multiplication tables and the text on the right side of the page to emphasize the school theme, but I don't like it. First of all, who doesn't know the multiplication table by high school? We learned that in third grade. Secondly, the text on the right is very distracting and as far as I can tell, it's not a text that's relevant to the show which makes it totally superfluous. Lastly, I HATE the gridlines over Angela's face. I do see how they connect the multiplication table and the notebook paper, but it's completely unnecessary and ends up making the picture look like a mock-up. The patterns at the bottom are interesting and evocative of the crazy clothes worn on the show, but that border is too much when it's added to the quotes, the text, and the gridlines.

Hey, I just know what I like!

:lol:

It's just personal preference and I'm sure there are other people who will really like it. I'm just picky and opinionated!

:mrgreen:

In the end, it's not a big deal to me. I know some people get really worked up over DVD cover art, but to me the most important thing is getting the DVDs themselves. I want the DVDs so I can watch them, not so I can stare at the cover art for hours at a time. If the biggest complaint about this release ends up being the cover art, we'll still be a million miles ahead of the last release!

Posted: Jun 23rd 2007, 4:14 pm
by stburr91
I kind of like it. I really like that at the bottom, it has a quote from the show. I wonder if they got the idea of putting a quote from the show at the bottom, from this site?

Don't hold back Candygirl, tell us how you feel.

Posted: Jun 28th 2007, 12:48 am
by Jody Barsch*
I'm not crazy about the cover either, and agree with what Candygirl said. The picture of Claire is great, but overall, it is really busy. I like the inclusion of quotes, but the one about the boys seems to place the wrong emphasis on the show. They should have chosen something she says about life, or identity -- change. But as CG said, the cover's not what we're buying these for (again).

Posted: Jun 28th 2007, 11:21 am
by Sascha
I agree with candygirl too, I'm not a big fan of this cover layout either. But I'm guessing that they're targeting a younger generation of DVD buyers with this release. "Oldbies" like us in our thirties will buy this DVD box in any case because we know what's inside, we don't care about the cover. But young teenagers who've maybe never seen the show might be attracted by this "flowery" and colorful concept. Both quotes are somewhat cheesy without context, yes, but they will resonate with 12-15year old teenage girls. I guess. And yeah, those lines over her face. Argh. But let's hope it just looks this weird because it's on a screen and it will look better on the real product.

Back in 2002 when AnotherUniverse announced their ill-fated DVD release, I drew up my own concept of how my "dream MSCL box" should look like. Well, I was always a big fan of the MSCL logo in white letters on black background (like it was featured on the show) and so this design (link) came around. But my layout looks like a show about death, not life, nobody under 15 would buy a DVD with my layout. Even "Dead Like Me" had a happier DVD cover ;-). But I heavily reused that global theme anyway on the MSCL.com frontpage. There, now you know all my design secrets ;-)

Posted: Jun 28th 2007, 11:11 pm
by elz200
I'm 16 and i also don't like the cover. I hate the random flowery bit at the bottom, It looks to busy. It does make sense though that they need to market it to current teens. Most of my friends have never even heard of it(!!)
I think i only got into it because i watch too much tv, old and new. i do like Sascha's idea better. Is there any chance that they could change the cover? I heard shout was looking at our ideas for the special features.

Posted: Jun 30th 2007, 9:42 pm
by Illyria
I don't like the cover and I don't understand how that design is suppose to target todays teen audience at all. Had it been a cover that actually looked good but targeted towards today's teens I would've been OK with it but I really don't like this. And since when do teens like embossed? It feels more "granny" than anything else. The flowery thing at the bottom just adds to that feeling.

I kind of hate it. I think it would be better go go with a collage type of cover (photos, high school), but still focusing on Angela. And no yellow. MSCL is not yellow.

The photo is good, quotes are good, the logo needs to be more intact.

Posted: Jul 5th 2007, 12:54 pm
by Nothingman
Illyria wrote:...It feels more "granny" than anything else. The flowery thing at the bottom just adds to that feeling.

I kind of hate it. I think it would be better go go with a collage type of cover (photos, high school), but still focusing on Angela. And no yellow. MSCL is not yellow.
Now that you say that it reminds me of a nursing home. Yellow walls, books, and old fabric. I agree the picture is a hit, but the rest is just filler and the lines on the face have to go. The quotes are good idea, I like the battlefield one, but the boys quote can go. I don't think it really fits the cover when it's taken out of context.

When it comes to this show, I think the name and reputation are what's going to sell it. I think very few people will buy it off the shelf having never heard of it and only seeing the box. So in that respect it probably isn't a big concern on what it looks like in terms of sales. But if you wanted new fans to pick it up and buy it without researching it, you might want to have a some sense of intrigue. That currently has none, it's best feature is it will make the DVD's easier to carry.

Posted: Jul 5th 2007, 10:58 pm
by Jody Barsch*
Nothingman wrote:it's best feature is it will make the DVD's easier to carry.
:lol: