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Clone Hunter is now on Gigaplex.

EstroGenius -- the short play festival -- has opened its submission window for plays. I have zero idea where they're going to be holding the festival, as Theatresource the theater is now closed. Interestingly there's now a submission fee of $10. I don't think we've ever had that before. I'm not entirely sure that getting into the submission fee business is that good an idea -- that's probably mostly from my experience with film festivals -- but the producing organization can very quickly get addicted to bringing in all that cash from suckers who enter their plays in the festival.

Hmm... from the FAQ:

Q: Why is there a charge this year?
A: Because EstroGenius is growing! The loss of our  space on MacDougal Street creates a unique opportunity for the festival to expand into a larger venue, but it also means we need more money up front to rent that space and produce your play in a bigger, more prestigious and versatile venue. Your submission fee helps make that possible. 

Well. A "unique opportunity"? Yeah. Not so much. If we had wanted to produce the festival at another theater, we certainly could have.  My distaste for this kind of corporate-speak is... well it makes me want to retch. Producing the festival without a venue in place is going to be one major league pain the in tuchus.

Here's a model of a dead dragon.

Clonehunter on Gigaplex

Gigaplex now carries Clonehunter.

I think I have said all these things.

I ain't never heard of Gigaplex before. But they seem to have a fairly clearly written business model* on their website.

Gigaplex uses Apps to screen movies - directly to a user’s device. Every App is a proprietary piece of software, developed by Gigaplex engineers. Our apps are accessible from a wide variety of App stores. They provide a superior experience to viewers versus traditional browser-based viewing. Our customers have demonstrated that they are willing to pay for exceptional content in an exceptional viewing environment if it is conveniently available on demand. When content owners partner with Gigaplex by contributing films and TV content to our growing library of feature-length films and television content, they get a chance to exhibit their content to hundreds of millions of potential viewers. Be assured that our customers will watch your film in the highest possible quality. Our built-in social media tools let content owners and fans of their films instantly share their experiences with people in their circles of influence. We regularly welcome new content owners – producers, distributors, studios and other content owners – to the Gigaplex global platform.

I'm one of those dorks who still uses a browser. I guess I'm just stuck in the 2000's.

They have a lot of Malayan and Hindi pictures.

One thing that's interesting about distribution in this day and age is that I actually got an email from the company:

We are pleased to inform you that we have secured rights to your movie “Clone Hunter” and is now a part of our ever growing Gigaplex film collection, available as Pay-Per-View or as a part of our subscription service. Unfortunately, I believe that many current and potential future fans are missing out because they are unaware that your film is offered through of our revolutionary method of distribution.

As a result, our team is making an effort to, first of all, make sure that you are aware that the film is being offered through Gigaplex. Secondly, we then want to make sure that the customers and your fans know that the film is available for streaming through Gigaplex.

Here’s the link to your movie on Gigaplex, which you are free to use as you feel would best promote your movie.

https://www.igigaplex.com/movie_info.php?name=Clone+Hunter 

I'm sure it's a form letter which goes out to any and all directors and producers they can find. But it's a smart form letter. The trend I'm seeing is that distributors are reaching out to filmmakers in order to get publicity for their pictures.

So when you want to know trends in modern motion picture distribution you just talk to me. Er. Actually, no, don't talk to me. Talk to a distributor. I'm still trying to figure things out.


*You'll note that "fairly clearly written" is never something you can actually say about my own blogs.

Clone Hunter Streaming

Angela Funk in Clonehunter.

Clone Hunter is available for streaming on both FlixFling and Big Star. Actually, it might not be on Big Star yet. But it will be soon.

"Cane is a former planetary cop who resigned in disgrace. He is a freelance clone hunter now, a glorified gun for hire. He and his junior partner, Angela, are hired by Montserrat, a brutal Oligarch, to track down a murderous clone that threatens the stability of Montserrat's private planet. The more Cane and Angela delve into the case the more corruption they discover, until they come face to face with their own darkest secrets and must decide which side they are on."

You know this is not entirely accurate -- for instance we never say that Cain was a former planetary cop although that is an awesome idea. Heck, maybe we should re-make the movie that way! ;-)
And, of course, "Montserrat" is the name of Montserrat Mendez (who acted in Clone Hunter and wrote Earthkiller.) The name of that character in Clone Hunter is actually "Gulliver" and is played by Vincent Marano.

Meet The Writer

Today I met Eric Ian Steele. He wrote Clonehunter. I told people that I was finally going to meet the Clonehunter writer and they said "Is he coming here to hurt you?" Lucky for me security was very tight at the border which meant that instead of me being found in a bag in the East River, he, his mom, and I strolled around, talked movies and TV, and ate chocolate.

I know, I know, there's no picture of us together. But we did take a picture. I'll have to wait until he sends it to me before I can post it. Then I can prove we actually met.

He also said the most amazing thing I'd ever heard in my entire life. "Magnificent 7 but with robots." I do not understand why we aren't making this movie right now.

That idea is simply brilliant.

Oh man, the more I think about it the more awesome it seems.
_____
Last week Joe Chapman convinced me we should just use all CG robots in Robowar. That means that bird-legged backwards-knee robots are back in the equation! Woo!

Have you ordered your Project London comic book yet? I have.

Islamic Insurance for a New Generation

No, I have no idea what this site is about but apparently if you aren't afraid of what sort of cyber STD your computer can catch, you can download Clonehunter from it. Bizarrely, I think the site itself actually is about Islamic Insurance.* Why it has links to torrent sites is beyond me.

In any case, it might explain why the only reviews for Clonehunter on IMDB are from countries that do not have a licensing deal for the picture (as of this writing, the UK and the Netherlands.)

In Japanese the name of Clonehunter is

ターミネーター2525

Which I believe is "Terminator 2525"**. I can't find any Japanese reviews online but honestly I wouldn't know where to look. If you happen to read Japanese and find any, hit me up! I've found a lot of places to buy the picture in Japan but no reviews.
+++++
*You know that many Christian sects were opposed to insurance at the turn of the last century. It's because buying insurance meant you didn't believe in Providence or some such.
**In my browser that text is seriously messed up. In my editor on Blogger it seems fine. Yeah, I have no idea how my computer handles Japanese text.

Oh Look

Clonehunter is available in Japan as of the 5th of November. The name of the movie is Terminator 2525.

Clonehunter Props

Urban Taggers.: More B-grade movie Nerf spotting.. 'Clone Hunter'

Carly Hirschberg 

Our prop guns are more and more recognizable all the time! We use Nerf guns because, of course, they look awesome. I suppose we're going to have to keep modifying them more and more though so they look less and less like Nerf guns simply because they're so easily recognized. ;-)

Watch Clonehunter Online

Well it turns out there are other places to download Clonehunter. But those sites are illegal! You don't want to do that. You want to watch instantly on Amazon!

Steal Clonehunter (No wait! Video on Demand!)

Oh look, Clonehunter is available on illegal bit torrent! I'd advise not trying to download it though, who knows what kind of yukky virus your computer will get?

I suppose someone should send a takedown notice. How is this movie at 23.98fps? The original files were that bit rate but the only way anyone would have had access was via a DVD of the picture (which was 29.97). Did the movie get RE-converted to 23.98?

Actually, I can't even download the movie. I can't figure out where the link is. And, well, I don't really care.
That's not what's important. The important thing is that now the movie is available as video-on-demand from Amazon! Wahoo!

Streamers

The guys at Figure 53, the brilliant company which brought us Qlab for playing back sound effects in theater, made a program called Streamers which exports... well... streamers for ADR and composers.

A still from Clonehunter.

Using streamers is kind of old-fashioned but there's a lot of merit to the method, especially if you're already used to working with them. That's so not the way I tend to work though. We tend to not even do ADR -- we will just match up other dialog takes or dialog takes we do in the field as "radio versions" of scenes instead of having actors come in and doing the dialog in the studio.
If we did do ADR, streamers might be nice.
And if you're recording with an orchestra and no click track, streamers are also the way to go.
But I don't even do audio on a Mac so I'm out of the loop anyway.

[Am on page 62 of Earthwar.]

A Pretty Fair Clonehunter Review

Ha! Over at DVD Talk, Tyler Foster reviews Clonehunter.

My favorite quotes:

• Clone Hunter is the perfect curiosity piece.
• It looks patently and completely fake 90% of the time, and you can tell there isn't any real flexibility in how the the movie is designed, but at least it's consistent.

Oops. Little mistake

The Japanese version of "Alien Uprising" is called "Alien Revenge".

My last sales report was based on old sales. This is what we're up to so far in very recent sales:

Clonehunter -- Thailand (I can't wait to get a copy!)
Alien Uprising -- Malaysia/Brunei
Day 2 (!) -- Thailand and also Indonesia.

Whew, that means we gotta finish Day 2 right away don't it? ;-)

A few more sales

Solar Vengeance, Clonehunter, and Alien Uprising have sold to Thailand and to the Middle East. Not all of them to both markets but a mix of movies and markets. I'm guessing that we'll get a few $K net to our coffers once all is said and done with such and things and expenses on our end and paying our rep and such but I don't have the specifics.

What would be cool is if we finally pass the $50,000 mark on Alien Uprising and start paying people percentages out of that picture. I doubt that'll happen without a TV deal in North America but maybe after a half-dozen more small deals with the picture that's where we'll be? We'll see. Like I said, I don't have specific number yet.

The Last of the Clonehunter Reviews?

This one is bad though. Written by Lee Roberts, it also talks about how the movie looks:

It’s grainy, dark, and looks like it was shot with a camera in the 70’s.

Hmm... isn't that what I've been saying about the HVX cameras with the Letus adapters? I'd swear some reviewers have been trolling my stuff to come up with things to say about our movies.

Also: I like that the special features include "Blooers". I think we should have blooers on every film.

Eclipse Magazine Reviews Clonehunter

And they like it!

The Venturer V in Clonehunter.

Favorite quote:

"Listen to the commentary for a lesson in how to land a spacecraft – also on how to continue a commentary once the alcohol runs out…"

Distributor unhappy today that we only sold 1,122 copies of the picture in North America (so far). I'm staying upbeat though. Let's do more! ;-)

More Clonehunter Reviews

David Ian Lee, Angela Funk, and Ben Thomas in Clonehunter.

 DVD Verdict

A micro-budgeted sci-fi actioner attempts to compensate for its vanishing funding with sexy camera effects and Super Serious Acting.

The Tamba Tribune
A good old throwback to the low-budget, but high-aspiration, Drive-In flicks of yesterday.
My favorite line from the review is: There aren’t enough aliens or gun fights.
These aren't reviews, but mentions/blurbs (I don't know what you call those) about Clonehunter:
The Winston-Salem Journal gives us a mention.

Beaver County Times.
Imperial Valley News.

BrooklynPRgrrl Margarita Sophia Cortez is our distributor's (Lifesize Entertainment) publicist.

And Yet Again, Another Review of Clonehunter

Angela Funk as Rachel in Clonehunter

This is one from my distributor's site again.

Another Clonehunter Review

Not a good one, mind you, but another one.

New Synopsis

A new place to buy Clonehunter. Interestingly, they have their own synopsis. They must have written it themselves. I think it's the best synopsis of the movie so far:


In a bleak future where the wealthy elite have achieved immortality by harvesting the organs of clones, a clone-hunter and his partner uncover evidence of deep-rooted corruption on a secluded planet ruled by a brutal despot. Gulliver wants to live forever, but when one of his clones escapes, his private paradise starts to crumble. Now the closer Cane and Angela come to capturing the renegade clone, the more they realize that they may be fighting for the wrong side.

The back cover of the Clonehunter box actually has an amusing typo in it where the name "Gulliver" is replaced by "Montserrat". Montserrat is not the name of a character but rather the name of the actor/playwright Montserrat Mendez who plays "Peck" and also wrote Earthkiller.

Order yours today!

Order your copy of Clonehunter from Blockbuster online! Why? Because Netflix won't pay any attention to us unless Blockbuster does well. Give it lots o'stars! Party like it's 2525!