June 28 2008
Joss posts about Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.
Find out the release dates for the three part musical and more importantly what you can do to help promote it.
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C. A. Bridges | June 28, 08:45 CET
C. A. Bridges | June 28, 09:08 CET
Numfar PTB | June 28, 09:36 CET
Though this is more of a rhetorical question, since I like to have DVDs in my cupboard and will be waiting for the DVD anyway and order it at Amazon.com. They will have it at Amazon.com, right? Right?
Donnie | June 28, 10:58 CET
The problem is usually the studios (the copyright holders) wanting to control distribution among all their subsidiaries, partners, co-licensees etc. Since the whole point here is that Joss and co own the product themselves I assume they can do whatever they want with it. Unless they have sold the rights to the UK or elsewhere to some Mega Corporation then they won't have any reason to restrict online distribution.
zz9 | June 28, 11:27 CET
Dr. Horrible is going to be online free for five days. It'll catch the attention of the hardcore Whedon/NPH fans, and so odds are it will make money, but that's a seriously short window for it to grow a fan-base of it's own.
This is the internet. The potential audience size is vast. It feels like that potential could end up being wasted here. I guess I was hoping for a more Hulu-like model.
Quit | June 28, 12:18 CET
This way there's a 5 day window for the buzz builders and "evangelists" to watch it and start to spread the word and thereafter it'll (presumably) be available for a nominal fee (e.g. $1.99 per segment ?) on iTunes or from similar, chargeable sites. It also makes sense (to me) to try releasing it in a way no-one has before, since part of the point is presumably to find out how to make this t'intarwebs thing work for creators in a profitable fashion.
Saje | June 28, 12:28 CET
Good stuff. Maybe we should have a competition for the most original way to promote it.
Simon | June 28, 12:50 CET
OVERSEAS DOWNLOADS?
Sadly, I hate foreigners. And Americans. And animals. And flora, and some fauna. Also the magma that is the very core of this our mother earth. I'm full o' hate!
Nah. We're working on it. Of course we want as many people as humanly possible to download the piece, because that means we make more... art...
SOUNDTRACK?
Definitely. Hoping to get it out right after th' Big Stream as well.
TEE SHIRTS?
Hells yeah! Give us a few days. Then give us a few more. But they're comin'!
ACTION FIGURES?
Dear God, I hope so. I would make my Malcom Reynolds Doll and my Captain Hammer doll kiss -- thus exploding reality! (Oh, like you weren't all thinking the same thing.)
PEOPLE DRESSED UP AT THE CON?
This is too much to even dream of. Dare not to dream it!
(So cool...)
Okay, that ends our Q&A for now. Thanks for stopping by! And remember, you're only as young as the number of years between now and the time you were born. Smooches, -j.
joss | June 28, 12:53 CET
AthenaMuze | June 28, 12:55 CET
Anyhow, I'm not necessarily convinced that you would end up with more people desperate to own the DVD with this model. If you don't make people to pay for your product, the percentage of your audience that pays for your product will of course be smaller. On the other hand, you could have an exponentially bigger audience, which may make up for it. You kind of have to weigh those two factors against each other.
Perhaps one good example is the "In Rainbows" CD. I downloaded it, and didn't pay for it because I personally hated it, and deleted it after listening to half the tracks. But I wouldn't have listened to it at all if I had had to pay for it, and from what I hear they didn't do that badly.
I understand the thinking behind them proceeding as they have, and I wish them the best of luck. I'm just not sure it was the best way to go.
Edit: Crap, looks like a few people (including Joss) posted before me. I was responding to Saje's post.
[ edited by Dym on 2008-06-28 18:56 ]
Quit | June 28, 12:55 CET
(...)
Nah. We're working on it. Of course we want as many people as humanly possible to download the piece, because that means we make more... art...
Great!
I really hope we foreigners can buy the download... It would be torture to wait for the dvd and then import it.
Thanks for the news Joss!
=]
maxsummers | June 28, 13:13 CET
embers | June 28, 13:15 CET
Dym has a point, the fans will pay for the DVD, action figures and Tee shirts with Joss family pics, the rest of the world slower on the uptake will probably see this through alternative distribution methods, especially us coldhearted vikings.
Q: Advertising, commercials, presented by ..., tried at all or philosophically objectionable ?
jpr | June 28, 13:22 CET
Donnie | June 28, 13:24 CET
Nope.
Mirage | June 28, 13:30 CET
And I'm glad that it will be available to y'alls foreigners, especially since I hate being the decadent American filled with guilt because of American ways. I'm not sure that came out right. Well, suffice it to say that I'm glad that all will be able to enjoy said Horrible goodness.
And yay, soundtrack! Once I have it in my clumsy little hands, onto the iPod it will go--to be played in shuffle with the likes of the Clash and Manic Street Preachers. That's some good company. :)
I won't be so much of a Dr. Horrible whore as a companion--I will be choosy as to whom I evangelize. Namely, super cool people with at least $1.99 to spare.
BandofBuggered | June 28, 13:38 CET
It's our mission to promote you (or any cast/crew member of Firefly/Serenity) and we like to fulfill our mission. :)
danregal | June 28, 13:43 CET
Yeah, that's my point Dym i.e. however you release it, if it's available for free then only full-on fans will pay for the DVD so you need another way to monetise it. If it's available free then as a pay-for-download then casual fans may pay for it off the back of the "evangelising" (the quotes are there for a reason) simply because it's more convenient (and has the whole instant gratification bonus).
And surely the point is partly that it's an experiment which often means not doing it the way others are doing it ? Course, it may crash and burn and then unfortunately the mushrooms won't get to go to the ball and someone, somewhere will be out of pocket (sincerely hope not though).
And remember, you're only as young as the number of years between now and the time you were born.
OK, *checks over shoulder*, that's just downright uncanny. How the hell did Joss know exactly how young I am ?
Saje | June 28, 14:04 CET
I wasn't but now I sure am!
evolutiongirl | June 28, 14:06 CET
Otherwise, it's like a certain tv network that puts something on for a week, then abruptly takes it away. Before the audience discovers it.
I think you'll find more people willing to take the plunge while it's viewable for free, then grow rabid and foaming at the mouth to throw money at you to own this amazing creative product on their very own DVDs.
AnotherFireflyfan | June 28, 14:10 CET
You're tearing me apart!!!
*goes to lie down.*
QuoterGal | June 28, 14:14 CET
The Do That Girl | June 28, 14:19 CET
QuoterGal is James Dean?
@theonetruebix | June 28, 14:19 CET
Dear God, I hope so. I would make my Malcom Reynolds Doll and my Captain Hammer doll kiss -- thus exploding reality! (Oh, like you weren't all thinking the same thing.)
Hee! Joss is a shipper! :D
electricspacegirl | June 28, 15:16 CET
newcj | June 28, 15:20 CET
a) A show airs on TV usually only once per episode - so not really much different.
b) The teaser (and possibly others) will still be available online after the free airing is over I would assume - and how many of us saw that and just thought, "Wow, I wanna see what that's about!"
Beth | June 28, 15:21 CET
catherine | June 28, 15:27 CET
samatwitch | June 28, 15:36 CET
Oh, yes...and I want those t-shirts! At comic-con or before would be awesome.
hacksaway | June 28, 15:51 CET
MattK | June 28, 15:54 CET
JossIzBoss | June 28, 15:56 CET
awesomelegend-wait-for-it-ary would it be to get Neil Patrick Harris to post at Whedonesque. Everything else is really small beans.Well apart from everybody in Hollywood waiting to see if Joss' model will work. I love this feeling of pioneerism about it. That might not be an actual word but hey anything goes. We're on the brink of something new and as long as there's fan wank I'll be happy.
Simon | June 28, 16:15 CET
Gonersfolks know, but now I don't have to, and frankly I'm relieved. Those complications were going to have complications, and these'll be much better 1) from the original artwork and 2) from the original creators! How rad is that?!!I'm hoping the download comes in something useful for Mac/iPod users - while avi files look pretty damn good, they are a pain for Le Mac and have to be converted for iPods, and I'd much prefer an M4v or suchlike - but I imagine there'll be some choices... and maybe Joss and Friends have finally perfected the iHole.
And there's a doctorhorrible youtube user which has nervouscircus as their friend, so I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume that's some kind of official-y thingy. There's no videos up yet, so I can't figure out how the hell to subscribe, but you can send a request for friendship and post comments...
(I wish I was James Dean - or rather, I actually don't, 'cause he's dead and he was a guy, and I like being alive and female - but I wouldn't mind being a hot cultural icon with three great movies and a Porsche named "Little Bastard." Um, just not that particular "Little Bastard." )
QuoterGal | June 28, 16:36 CET
cabri | June 28, 16:41 CET
Also, to any Mac users out there not already in the know: if Dr. Horrible does turn out to be released as an unprotected avi or some similar file then you can use the free Perian plug-in for QuickTime, or Flip4Mac plug-in (forget the address...) if it's a windows media file.
[ edited by MattK on 2008-06-28 23:29 ]
MattK | June 28, 16:56 CET
For sale: entertainment revolution.
NYPinTA | June 28, 17:15 CET
RavenU | June 28, 17:43 CET
My slashy heart just went pitter-patter. *swoons*
noandwhere | June 28, 17:43 CET
[ edited by Jossaholic on 2008-06-29 01:52 ]
RollingInKittens | June 28, 17:53 CET
A friend of mine is setting up a pop culture store in the city. I'm so getting him to promote Dr. Horrible.
MP | June 28, 19:03 CET
Trek_Girl42 | June 28, 19:16 CET
[ edited by theonetruebix on 2008-06-29 01:19 ]
@theonetruebix | June 28, 19:18 CET
You can always rely on at least some fans wanking at least some of the time Simon. It's like a rule.
And AVI is basically just an envelope (it stands for Audio Video Interleave and is really only a standard for making video and audio work together good ;) within which can be a multitude of different things. Saying your machine/software/tupperware doesn't play AVIs is a bit like saying your DVD player doesn't play "discs". Lots of things are discs, including frisbees ;).
Saje | June 28, 19:29 CET
Yeah, probably, because by default Macs can't play avi files because they often require compatibility with a proprietary Microsoft-owned format (a windows media codec). It's not a problem anyway, there's plenty of software to install that'll play them, but it is just another hurdle potential viewers have to go through.
When it comes down to it, you can't just can't please everyone. For example, if you want some really shiny DVD-quality video you'll probably want to use H.264/AVC but that'll mean people with older computers won't be able to watch it without stuttering.
Judging from the web-presence of Dr Horrible so far I'm not too worried anyway, it all looks very professionally done, so I imagine they'll just offer up a few different formats and that's that, problem sorted. All speculation at this point of course, it's probably not worth thinking about too much until it's actually time to buy.
ETA: What Saje said, I'll just add that the two most common video codecs avis contain are wmv3 (closed format, bad) or xvid (open format, good). The problem with Macs is that they don't support either by default, which is just silly because it's trivial to get them to work, it's just not something the end-user should have to think about. Anyway, sorry about the technical details, they're just here if anyone's interested..
[ edited by MattK on 2008-06-29 01:41 ]
MattK | June 28, 19:36 CET
I want one of those Captain Hammer groupies' shirts!
flying buffalo | June 28, 19:45 CET
Certainly not on a Mac which is meant to be for the folk that don't want to bother with that stuff. That's good intel on the default formats MattK, i'd no idea what a Mac can and can't play out of the box.
(for Mac users, it's simple but not necessarily easy BTW - if you haven't already then download and install Quicktime then the DivX codec and then go here)
Saje | June 28, 19:53 CET
So thanks for the links and the recommends - for those of us that know little or nothing about the audio and video files on their computers, knowledgeable help is very welcome.
(Macs were also meant for the folks that do graphics for a living and for the longest time couldn't get the programs they need to use - and files they needed to share and prepare - in anything but Mac-flavor.
I hafta use both Macs and occasionally PCs at work, but we're only Mac at home, and while portable...)
QuoterGal | June 28, 20:42 CET
BrownCoat_Tabz | June 28, 20:43 CET
As for the comment, "which is meant to be for the folk that don't want to bother with that stuff", it's quite the opposite for me, I'm on it because I need full Unix support, but want a stable system too (don't need to think about drivers and the like).
--
And, to get off this topic and back to the general excitedness at hand, I think I'll echo BrownCoat_Tabz's squee with one of my own.
Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. :)
MattK | June 28, 20:50 CET
So far I haven't had any trouble watching anything online, and I would certainly freak out if I had any problems on the Dr. Horrible site during that precious one week screening, or problems with the downloads.... So thank you to everyone who has supplied links which I may or may not need later on.
embers | June 28, 21:12 CET
If I recall, a Mac-vs-PC argument would be at the very bottom of Caroline's "Most Wanted" list of WHEDONesque discussions... but what I do myself like to see - in computers as well as politics - is info on the ways they are alike or can cross-over - that's been really useful to me when it's come up in passing...
(Though if I had to pick, I would prefer it to a shipping brouhaha... ; >)
QuoterGal | June 28, 21:47 CET
I too have just switched to a Mac for the first time, and have picked up fixes along the way fairly easily to be able to play .avi and .wmv and .whathaveyou files. And if I can do it, believe me, anyone can. I have absolutely zero intuition when it comes to tech thingies.
SoddingNancyTribe | June 28, 21:54 CET
Hmmm. The money's tight so hiring a blimp won't work, nor skywriting, nor the banner attached to a plane. I wish I was someone important in the grand scheme of things so that when I blog, people would pay attention. I kid. Maybe something with mimes. I'll have to give it a think.
Tonya J | June 28, 23:13 CET
J Linc | June 28, 23:28 CET
So I put Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, http://drhorrible.com , Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day on it. It took a long time to write. Maybe the ticket people read it cause it took a long time to write...I used the side of the ticket window so nobody was held up in line and then handed the star back to the ticket person.
I had a Serenity t-shirt on as usual. Gonna get me a Captain Hammer groupie t-shirt or some such shirt.
Anonymous1 | June 29, 00:04 CET
newcj | June 29, 00:50 CET
zeitgeist | June 29, 01:34 CET
[ edited by JossIzBoss on 2008-06-29 08:36 ]
JossIzBoss | June 29, 02:36 CET
(OK, semi-seriously, if not for the openness of the PC architecture, we wouldn't be where we are today regarding the amazing advances that've happened in the last 20 years - anyone else remember when a 40 meg hard-drive was big and 640k was all the memory we'd ever need ? Course, it's also true to say that if not for the openness of the PC architecture the damn things would work better but, y'know, rough with the smooth and all that ;)
Yep, VLC is free and Free and also Just Works and these days that's generally what i'm after. I don't have a Mac BTW MattK but thanks for the tip (missed it on first glance) in case I ever decide to jump ship ;).
Saje | June 29, 07:45 CET
imaginarywretched disease is Dr. Horrible! Please help me, think of the kittens (or whatever else could convince you to share it with me pronto!).zeitgeist | June 29, 09:49 CET
I have some program called Flip to something that plays AVI files so I can watch them. Not a big deal.
And can I say SQUEEEEE again?
SQUEE!
BrownCoat_Tabz | June 29, 10:34 CET
That is so cool...I mean shiny! Do you know how they did that?
Anonymous1 | June 29, 10:53 CET
JossIzBoss | June 29, 11:09 CET
OzLady | June 29, 20:08 CET
I could make a joke about it coming soon, but that might be off-color. :)
What I think would be awesome is if college students in lab sciences started bursting into Dr. Horrible songs when doing chem labs due to the lab coat and goggley goodness.
BandofBuggered | June 29, 20:25 CET
Let's do it folks! The Joss has given us a task, a mission: to spread the word! Squeeeeee!
Linnea1928 | June 29, 21:07 CET
I did it. I did. I finally started that blog I've been threatening to start on what I laughingly refer to as my website and inaugurated it with a Doc Horrible info post. It only took me a good part of the day to figure out, so if I'd been doing it for pay, I think I would have actually lost money... It will eventually be called a Blerg, but that will be when I can figure out, oh, so many things I do not understand, such as getting my custom header into the WordPress theme (it was so easy with blogspot) and a myriad of other confusions and frustrations in my everso steep learning curve.
But Joss asked us to, and so I... did... it. (I can so hear my Mom in my head saying, "Hmmmmph! - if Joss asked you to jump off a bridge, would you do that, too?" And the answer to that is "I don't think so, but we'll find out when he does, won't we?")
Anyhoo, I dood it.
*drops off to sleep standing up.*
QuoterGal | June 30, 03:21 CET
First computer I used was a Digital PDP 8. No disk at all, 6K memory. We toggled the bootstrap in on the front panel, and it loaded Basic from paper tape(!!). We did our programming on fill-in-the-dots-with-pencil cards.
Ah, the "good" old days.
redfern | June 30, 07:26 CET
;-)
Yep, fair enough, you win the "dark ages" top prize redfern ;).
(first machine I used was a Commodore Pet and first I owned was a ZX81, both pre hard-disks for the masses and both great fun. Getting programs off - magnetic ;) - tape into the ZX was a bit of a dark art but still much easier than paper and/or effectively having to enter the BIOS by hand. Can't say I envy you ... OK, maybe a little bit ;)
Saje | June 30, 07:54 CET
Numfar PTB | June 30, 11:17 CET
*rubs sleep out of eye*
Okay, so before I fell asleep, I remember embers wishing for a lab coat & goggles. Yes, your standard college bookstore should have those, but if you wanted to go fun, they do have black lab coats, with biohazard & radioactive symbols. Even tie-dye. I just can't find them at the moment, sorry.
QG, I wouldn't consider Joss being the "jump & how high" kind of guy. He's more of a nudger to get you to do something that you were planning on doing anyway. Right? Right. :)
korkster | July 01, 18:26 CET