Some
excellent points here, gentlemen. Given my 'reputation' of being critical, I didn't want to lead the charge in expressing some of this, but I'm happy to add my voice to a discussion started by others.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by JohnS
*I thought the award show was a little silly,even kind of unnecessary.
*If they do more Never Back Down, Kiss of the Spider Woman presentations again, have them do it in OUR theater. It's a shame when both are on blu-ray and they have to be presented in the way they were. We can give a better presentation.
|
Agreed re the show, which I think is a manifestation of EMA's broader stuggle to somehow sustain the relevancy of/interest in the whole trade show. (Btw, I understand that Jamie Kennedy was there to liven up the evening but I could have done without his, um, off-color remarks during his opening monologue.) Thank goodness for the absinthe cocktails, which made this whole affair a bit more palatable.
I speculated that the reason they decided to have the screenings at the theater instead of "our" room was because of the anticipated number of people attending. I don't know about NBD, but KOtSW was so sparsely attended that the audience could have easily been seated in the demo room. Perhaps they should consider requesting RSVPs for screenings so they can get a sense of attendance and then make a "game time decision" about venue. It would require a little prior planning to make sure the demo room is not cross-booked, but it's not as though playing the BD would have required lots of prep time (versus shlepping a film print from one locale to another and hiring a projectionist to run it).
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Sam Posten
My ONE complaint, and its the same as last year, is that it seems so hard to really 'fit in' in the exhibitors areas. On one hand I really would like to have genuine conversations with the smaller guys who have supported HTF with screeners and prizes like Shout Factory, Magnolia, etc and showing up their in their rooms (if they are even unlocked!) I often feel like an intruder since we arent a retailer... That the majors are locked off on their own floor with guards posted really seems unfriendly too. I know they are there to get business done but not even having a small public booth with glossy sell sheets that us mere mortals can visit is weird to me.
|
Totally agreed. Never let it be said, Sam, that you and I don't agree on something.
I know this isn't entirely the fault of the EMA but, just like last year there was at best a curiousity and at worst an apathy upon walking into some suites and talking up HTF and explaining that we're attending as part of EMA's efforts to include consumers in the show. If we are invited to participate again, perhaps Mark Bersell, if not Bo Anderson himself, can take even further steps than this year to mention HTF
et al. in his advance communiques to exhibitors, describe who we are and what roles we play in the "opinion repeater" online communities and encourage them to, well, make us feel more welcome.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Andrew M
There still isn't enough time to attend the HTF events and get to the exhibit suites and attend the seminars but short of cloning I'm not sure how to solve this...
Unfortunately the show directory and advance show information did not clearly indicate which exhibitors were in appointment only suites and which were open to all attendees. If I had known in advance I would have contacted New Video/A&E Home Video, etc before the show to set up meetings.
|
Agreed on time constraints. But I think it should be said that this issue was exacerbated this year by the insanity of having suites spread across two locales (the Fantasy Towers and the Palms Towers) with seemingly no rhyme or reason as to who was where.
Perhaps a better idea would have been to put all "appointment only" exhibitors in one tower and everyone else in the other. This might have also precluded the snootiness of being repeatedly asked "Do you have a meeting?" when approaching the elevators in the tower in which the HTF demo room, the hospitality suites and the seminar rooms were located.
I also would like to reluctanly state that I think the studios that DID thankfully choose to present to us this year ought to make more of an effort to tailor their presentations to our audience. I thought Rich Marty giving the same BD Live presentation to us as he did during the opening session to everyone else was . . . disappointing. I appreciate and enjoyed Grover Crisp's speaking to us. However, I'm left wondering whether the studios--absent a "format war"--have the
chutzpah to do what the HD DVD group did last year: namely, simply make themselves available on an open-ended (as in, no formal presentation, which sort of delimits the q & a subject matter) basis for questions, and (in the case of Sony) have both a hardware guy and a software guy present. Sort of an in-person equivalent of an HTF chat.
I also thought Fox' giving us a presentation on Digital Copy was akin to giving a
spiel on MP3s to attendees at an audiophile convention. Giving standard def DVDs out--because they are promoting Digital Copy--to an aud many of whom they know received BD players last year was also . . . disappointing. I think it's a safe surmise that more of our attendees than not are more interested in BD/resolution/fidelity than DC/portability. So for me, even more than handing out BD software, I'd be more interested in Steve Feldstein
et al. sitting down and talking to us about our Fox issues: pricing, exclusion of supplements, the MGM relationship, etc.
