| 1. | (7 posts) | Studio Ghibli Film Prints |
| 2. | (17 posts) | "Sen" and Nestle Promotion Bad? Good? |
| 3. | (3 posts) | Tattoos? Ouch! |
We looked at 47 posts by 32 different contributors.
I've found the cause of the "Permission Denied" errors: the new and improved SSH Client from the UW. When I upload a file the permissions are set as 600 instead of 640. A fix is supposedly in the works, until then I'm using WS_FTP.
Warren Savage wondered about putting on a Miyazaki festival, "Is it possible to rent 35mm prints of Miyazaki's films?. . . What I have in mind is renting the theater and the print, advertising the showing, selling tickets at about a dollar less than the going rate for first-run films (in Sacramento), and praying I come close to breaking even."
No definite answers appeared, but many leads were given. Marc Hairston wrote, "Generally to rent films like this you go through a film library/rental agency. (I used to do this in college for campus showings.) *But* such places only have films that have been theatrically released already (or are small indpendent films/documentaries). So the only ones that would fit that bill would be "Mononoke" and *maybe* you could find an old print of the dub of Totoro. . . the prints of the Ghilbi films making the rounds of festival are the only ones in existence, and those are controlled by Disney. They're very picky about the venues in which they are shown and I doubt you could just "rent" them for a showing such as you're discussing. . . However, I could be wrong."
Geir Friestad added another lead, "I'm pretty sure that the Japan Foundation (http://www.jpf.go.jp/) has subtitled prints of the Miyazaki movies in its libraries. I'm not sure what criteria must be met to rent films from them, though."
Colleen Laird posted some bad news, "I worked for a media group that hosted the Miyazaki film festival when it came through, and we've been trying to get those prints ever since. However, it appears that those reels are now inaccessable and that the tour was a one time thing."
However, Paul Mayer added some hope, "The last I heard from the film programmer at Anime Expo, Buena Vista is making those prints available now that the festival screenings have run their course. Anime Expo was working on three titles for their film room this year; talks continue but it's not a done deal yet. . . apparently Buena Vista will now at least consider screening requests. So Warren (and Colleen), give it a shot!"
What seemed like an innocuous tidbit provoked the fabled Thead of the Week©. It all started with this post from Ryoko Toyama, "Nestle, the special sponser of "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" will have special screening of "Sen" from July 12 -16 in every prefecture of Japan. You have to collect points on Nestle's products and send them. 15,000 tickets (three person per ticket) will be provided."
Just another marketing tool? Alex Ingram didn't think so, "Great, first Disney get the rights, now Nestle do promotions. Could Ghibli not be a little more careful in who they choose to work with?"
Lee Johnson added, "consider that it will be Disney licensing the rights to promote "Sen..." to Nestle, not Studio Ghibli itself. How sad it would be to see the streets lined with chocolate wrappers and happy meal boxes which promote the latest Studio Ghibli film. An animation studio who's main protagonist's work has a long history of issues related to environmental awareness..."
Chi Chung Tse wrote, "The sponsors actually help out the budget of the film so it can be made. Its just part of the business game. Ghibli films are work of art, but don't forget they are also products at the same time. . . The more money Ghibli/Disney/Nestle/etc made at the box-office, the better chance Ghibli would have better budget and resource for their next project."
Lee replied, "I wasn't saying nestle being involved with Ghibli was a bad thing (I mean, i had a kitkat a few hours ago so that would be hypocritical of me). I was saying that Nestle are probably connected to Ghibli via Disney and not directly to Ghibli themselves." He then asked the $64,000 question, "In fact can anyone clear this up? Have Disney got Nestle involved or is it solely down to Ghibli?"
Ryoko cleared up all the issues, "It is Ghibli (or Tokuma, its parent company) who is involved in the deal. We are talking about the promotion campaign of the film in Japan, not in the US (Nestle is a big company in Japan as well). And it is not a licensing deal. . . Netsle will make flyers, posters, TV commercials and so on, promoting the film (and a bit of its products). These are a kind of promotion that Tokuma and Toho (the movie distributor) cannot afford by themselves. In the case of Mononoke, it is said that while Toho spent 1 billion yen to promote the film, Nippon Life Insurance, the sponsor, spent 1.2 billion yen. . . In the past, promotion was done in a very decent way, and it is one of the criteria for selecting the sponsor. Usually, only one sponsor per film is selected, and Ghibli is very careful in selecting them (that's the story I heard)."
A sligtly silly thread developed from a Kyle Drake post, "Ghibli has this heavy duty "anti-establishment" status going for it, but I don't think it's that big of a deal, as long as they don't meddle with the artistic freedom of the animators. It sounds like they're just going to show the movie early to people that eat a bunch of chocolate bars. Not very involved, if you ask me. . . Just make sure their next film isn't "Dr. Nougat, and the Chocobot Energy Hour""
Sharon Westfall replied, "Maybe there'll be a scene where Sen will be eating a Nestle's Crunch Bar? :-)
Seriously, I think international mainstream companies promoting Ghibli films are a good thing. Plenty money to spend on promotion, will equal a bigger audience, will equal a more successful film, will equal more money to make more Ghibli films, or make it more possible to release the non-comercially successful ones overseas, too."
Elanor Rogers announced, "This is mainly just self-promotion, but the 'Fanart' page on my website features my (stylized) picture of Ashitaka and Yakkuru."
Raven Wolf commented, "I really like your Yakkuru! It's not like the typical fanart one sees (not that typical is bad)." Nothing out of the ordinary, then she added, "It's very original and seems like a good tattoo design as well."
Elanor replied, "I think a Kodama standing on a patch of leaves would be a nice tattoo, but maybe a little obvious.^^ I've seen Totoro tattoos (in pictures, not in person..) Do you know anyone who's gotten a Mononoke tattoo?"
That's a serious fan (boy/girl) who get's a tattoo!
"Nausicaa" references in videogames according to Felix Wong, Christian Link, and Sean Gibbons . Hanno Mueller posted an update of the "Mononoke" situation in Germany (detailed). Andrew Osmond slipped some Studio Ghibli references into his latest Cinefantastique article. "Princess Mononoke" playing at the University of Maryland on April 28th (Nausicaa.net details).
On time. Next week. Really!