Like Rats from a Sinking Ship? (Netflix Changes Plans and Rates)

Netflix recently announced that they will be changing their subscription plans and rates.  The unlimited single DVD and streaming plan that once cost $9.99 a month (I was actually paying $8.99 when I first signed up), will sky rocket to $15.98.  The plans can be purchased separately for $7.99 each (so no discount for the combo).  New users signing up will see this change immediately, while existing users have until Sept. 1 to change their plans.

It’s going to be interesting to see how this affects the masses.

Obviously Netflix couldn’t sustain their business plan on the current rates under which they were operating (unless they planned on carrying only obscure documentaries and non-studio titles… which they were teetering on the edge of as it was).  I assume this pricing change will allow them to start carrying more popular and newer titles.  We’ll see if it improves their instant streaming catalog (I kind of doubt it).

Unfortunately, in the transition, the change promises to hurt independent film.  As a filmmaker who’s movie is about to be purchased for DVD rental by Netflix, this blows even more hardcore.

Netflix pays filmmakers a negotiated (but much more “standard”) price per disc purchased.  Netflix pays a negotiated price for a period of time for unlimited streaming.  Obviously they’re going to pay an unknown indie film much less than a film from an established studio with star power.  Thus, the DVD deal is much better for a filmmaker (even established filmmakers/studios).

If people bail en masse from Netflix’s “unlimited DVD” package (which initial user reactions indicate), we stand to lose a substantial amount of expected revenue from this source.

Not only that, but the timing of this announcement was AWFUL.  Netflix will increase their initial DVD order for an indie title based on a higher number of current users with the title in their queue (you can queue a DVD before it’s actually available –not so with streaming titles).  As soon as our agreement with Netflix was secured, we told our fans to place the title in their queue, and many, many people did.  The very next week Netflix announced their plans to change their pricing and plans.

I wonder how many existing “DVD” subscribers immediately bailed on Netflix, thus driving down the number Leading Ladies DVD’s queued.  I wonder how many more will bail before Sept. 1.

Our film is slated for release Sept. 13, 2011.  Just enough time for all our fans to cancel their DVD memberships with Netflix.  Hopefully our fans will wait till the last second to cancel DVD memberships (so the order still goes through –I’m betting Netflix already has this factored in for current orders, however).

Hopefully people will just actually buy the DVD and support independent film.  Here’s a link.

Viva la storytellers!

p.s.  I don’t know if it’s related, but the Netflix widgets for film titles (an image linked to a button that will add a title to your queue) has recently stopped functioning –it’s been down for days.  Hmmm.

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Trims and/or Chapters Adjusted

Add this to my long list of gripes about Adobe Encore (currently using CS4).

Just opened a project that had been burning fine.  Changed nothing.  Now after I click “build,” Encore gives me an error of “Trims and/or chapters adjusted.”

Most solutions found via the web suggest this problem arises after transcoding, however, my video and audio is all MPEG-DVD generated out of Premiere (no transcoding occurs in Encore).

Lame.

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FINALLY - Flash, thus Hulu, Supports Multiple Screens with Full Screen Video

I haven’t tried it out yet, and I won’t be anytime soon as I’m running many, many video renders on this machine and it’s not really the best time to try to watch Hulu, but I was very happy to see this message when I powered on today:

Adobe Premiere Pro CS4: Disable Audio Clip, Timeline Won’t Play

When working in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, sometimes when I disable an audio clip to silence that isolated audio (Clip>Enable) the timeline will no longer play.  You hit the space bar… nothing.  You click the play button in the Program Window… nothing.  Actually, “nothing” isn’t exactly right.  The play button does toggle to the stop icon, but only for a few seconds, like it’s trying to play, but then it switches back.
I’m posting this because I can’t find the issue documented anywhere, and I just wanted to let people with the same problem know they aren’t going crazy.
I don’t have a fix, but it happens to me often enough to be an issue.

[UPDATE] One solution (as posted by Greg in comments): find any disabled clips in your timeline.  If two disabled clips are butted against one another, Premiere will not play (obviously a glitch in the program).  Thanks, Greg!

I have had this problem when only one clips is disabled, but hopefully the above works for you!

Colorado Periodic Report Filing Scam

Attention Colorado business owners:

I have an LLC for my business in Colorado.  Colorado requires a business’s information be kept up to date with the State with yearly filing.  The fee for this service is $10, and can be done entirely online (you can do it with physical copies on paper, but it’s more expensive).

This year I received forms around tax time stating that I needed to pay a $225 filing fee.  The form looks kind of official, so I did a little research to make sure I wasn’t missing something.

So you know “Corporate Controllers Unit” is a Nevada based company.  They have NOTHING to do with the state of Colorado.  If you read carefully, you’ll see that technically they are offering to help you file your paperwork.  Thus, what they are offering is a “service.”

Just above the signature line at the bottom of the page is this sentence: “This product or service has not been approved or endorsed by any Government Agency and this offer is not being made by an agency of the Government.  U.S.C. 39.6.3001(d).  This is a solicitation for the order of services, and not a bill, invoice or statement of account due.  You are under no obligation to make any payments on account of this offer.”

However, they are making it look like they are agents of the Government, and you are required to pay this fee.

Don’t fall for it.

 

Just a few sources on the subject:

The Ripoff Report

Steamboat Pilot & Today

Rocky Mountain Real Estate Law

iTunes Crappy “Automatically Add Media” Functionality

It’s unbelievably lame that when you add media to your media folder, iTunes won’t automatically import it into your library.  And it’s NOT that it’s not COMPLETELY possible (and already scripted/coded).  In iTunes 9 they actually implemented a special folder (it’s freaking called “Automatically Add to iTunes” and sits in your iTunes directory) that you can (read: HAVE TO) add media to to have it automatically show up in your library.

[beat]

So why the F*CK not just implement that code with the f*cking MEDIA FOLDER?!

Unbelievable.  Typical, and what is apparently the norm, but still somehow unbelievable.

Gawker Media is Really F*CKING Up

Lifehacker and Gizmodo used to be the blogs I read most often.  However, recently all Gawker Media sites underwent a change that at first was just annoying, but after trying to use for a couple of weeks I find is downright prohibitive.  Until things change, I’ve actually gone so far as to remove Gizmodo and Lifehacker from my RSS feeds [sniff- I’ll miss you guys!].

First of all, any internal linking (which they use a lot of) has been obliterated, especially on mobile devices (which is where I most often view these sites).  Because mobile devices are automatically routed to a page which lists the most recent posts (there doesn’t seem to be any getting around this), ANY link you click will take you to the new “main” page (not the page you were trying to click to).

Also, when using an RSS feed, you see a preview of the stories on a site.  It used to be you’d click on the preview for any Lifehacker or Gizmodo story and go straight to the full story.  Now you click the preview, get taken to the “main” page, have to find the story again (often buried deep on the list), and then have to click to the story in order to actually read the material.

It was bad enough when Lifehacker and Gizmodo truncated their previews to just a few sentences from the story.  The new format is now impossible.  For a contrast (that works), Engadget usually shows nearly all the text from a story in my RSS Agregator.  I can get the full idea of the story, and if it’s something I’m really interested in, I’ll click through to the site.  The new Gawker format forces you to click through (and then sift through crap looking for the story) just to get a HINT of what’s going on.  Gawker may think it will increase traffic to their sites, but I’m not willing to do that, and I’m betting a lot of other people aren’t either (and will just find alternative sources for their news).

I honestly can’t figure out what the hell is going on with their new landing page (Lifehacker or Gizmodo –they’re set up the same) when using my desktop browser, so I’ve just stopped visiting altogether.  It’s so convoluted with photos, ads, and oddly aligned garbage that it’s not even worth my time.

I went to the Lifehacker site and wrote one of the editors (Adam) to voice my concerns, and I was surprised to actually get a personal e-mail back.  He assured me they were working on the issues.  Unfortunately though, they aren’t working on them fast enough, and they’re losing readers.  Hit any blog/forum discussion of the issue, and you’ll see that people are abandoning ship.

Surely Gawker Media is a aware of how bad things are.  I can’t believe they haven’t just reverted to the old setup until they can better work things out for a new format. 

They are seriously screwing the proverbial pooch here.

[update] Even Penny Arcade agrees!

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