When IFC released my film, they asked me to send them a copy of the final version a month before the theatrical release date so that they could encode it for video-on-demand. I was still tweaking the sound mix and making last minute changes, so I rushed the sound mix to completion in order to make the deadline.
Soon after I had sent it, I realized that some of the sound levels weren't quite right, and I wanted to tweak it some more. I was told by IFC that I could make changes right up to the release date, since no encoding would be involved, so I went ahead and did a remix. When I called IFC to tell them it was finished, I was told that it was too late, and that my "final final version" would have to wait until the DVD release, which would be sometime around October.
Today, I learned that the DVD has already been encoded and that the DVD release date is in fact scheduled for September 12th! I'm not sure why nobody bothered to tell me this was happening. These are all very nice people who mean well, but the end result is that the director seems to be the last person consulted about any of this.
When I asked if I could weigh in on the DVD artwork, I was promptly sent the work-in-progress artwork. I found it to be excellent (much better than I could ever have done), but I got the sense that this wasn't part of their routine, and that they were only showing it to me because I had specifically asked to see it.
They also agreed to let me re-encode the sound, which is great news. They've been incredibly accommodating, but I'm surprised at the degree to which the film ceases to become the property of the filmmaker once a distributor decides to "pick it up."
Next time, I'll know to be more on top of it.
posted by Caveh Zahedi at
11:57 PM
