Sanctuary Discussion (Spoilers for the most recent episode)

[scarimor]

that is something we'll have to accept

Ok, so i'm sure they built their financial models on the (making up numbers here)

us paying $8 a bundle
aus paying $10
canadians paying $9
UK paying $16

all american dollars here, converted

so they guestimated how many subs they'll have from each country, which would give them a guestimation as to how much money they're getting, and that's their budget

well if they change that to a flat rate, i don't see them changing it to the lowest. they'd lose too much of their budget (and we gotta remember, most of these folks sank thier own money into this, there's no studio backing them, they ARE the studio)

Yes, they're currently subsidising their potential US customers at the expense of non-US ones. An equitable pricing model would not do that.

since when are we the most affluent????

Are you being funny? It's not a secret.

USA: GNI per capita US $43.740 (World Bank 2006)
UK: GNI per capita US $37,600 (World Bank 2006)

as far as i see it, the brits got it made when it comes to imports. I buy a 15 pound brit DVD, i pay $30, they buy a $15 dvd, they pay $7.50.

On which planet do you think this normally happens, Sky? E.g. Sony CDs: you pay $15.00, we pay £15.00. And that is precisely why I boycott products like Sony CDs and iTunes, and stick to companies who give their customers a fair deal. I don't want to pay less than the US, I'm happy to pay about the same (even though the US is more affluent). But I won't pay significantly more for a product that costs its producers no more to distribute to one location than another.

ETA: If anyone's interested, here's an article to explain why iTunes was a bad choice to copy:
UK iTunes Prices Questioned.

[RealmOfX]

Actually if we go by country rankings then out of US, UK, Canada, Australia and NZ then NZ should be paying the least because their market is the one who can least support the price.
Ranked by GDP PPP $mil
1. US 12,980,000
6. UK 1,903,000
12. Canada 1,165,000
17. Australia 666,300
58. New Zealand 106,000

However the bean counting bozos (and I'm NOT talking about the Sanctuary people) that purport that "they charge what the market will bear" all come from the country that according to their rules should be paying the most.

What they have is overwhelming numbers to dictate to smaller markets, they also have a significant portion of the rights in entertainment DRM and thus skew prices according to their breaking the world into regions for their profit. The UK (20.18%), Australia (6.79%) and NZ (1.37%) have significantly smaller populations and can't fight back. Canada benefits from sharing a border and a lot of markets so it doesn't pay to screw that market badly as it could have serious consequences for them. As for the rest of us Pffffttttt! Capitalism at it's worst.

I honestly feel that the bean counters (sorry to any accountants out there) just grabbed a worldwide methodology without seriously considering the consequences simply because they come from a country that is not being majorly discriminated against. The methodology they chose is based upon a model that perpetuates DRM so that they (iTunes, Sony etc) can screw the external markets. The Sanctuary bods want to be DRM free but they adopted the pricing methodology that supports it and their restrictive trade practices. They just didn't think it through.

I'm not sure what they can do about it at the moment. They did their sums based upon the iTunes world pricing policy and changing it or not changing it will have consequences. I'm happy that they are responding quickly and are at least considering the problem because apart from the disparate pricing I am hugely impressed with what they have done so far.

[Purpleyin]

since when are we the most affluent???? as far as i see it, the brits got it made when it comes to imports. I buy a 15 pound brit DVD, i pay $30, they buy a $15 dvd, they pay $7.50.

in thier own country they're not the most affluent, but in a world market the pound beats pretty much every currency out there

Actually it's more like £8-9 for a $15 DVD and that's only if you're lucky and avoid import duty/VAT that's added (roughly 30% max I believe) and that's also if they have reasonable shipping charges. When I buy a imported DVD on ebay I may end up paying less than £15 for what would be $15 but only if I'm getting a great deal on it in $ to start with - luckily buying on ebay means the sellers tend to tick gift item and it avoids duties but it can takeseveral weeks for things to get here anyway if you don't go for more expensive airmail.

That's not accounting for if sellers overcharge because they know you can't get something in the UK yet/easily. And DVD's etc are probably the best thing to import. Buying other goods isn't a great choice. I ordered stuff off ThinkGeek once and basically, after converssion charges, shipping, in that case unavoidable import duty and VAT charges what cost $40 did cost me about £40, so worst case for for importing stuff is that with the extras $1 = £1 rather than the presumed half price. :/

[immhotep]

An odd thing has happened to me and a few others, i havent paid for the download, i havent downloaded illegally, ive jsut watched it on Youtube. except when i go on my account ive got the first episode in HD completely free, i can download it, got the extras, the credits, i can watch it online...everything.

[petemoretti]

An odd thing has happened to me and a few others, i havent paid for the download, i havent downloaded illegally, ive jsut watched it on Youtube. except when i go on my account ive got the first episode in HD completely free, i can download it, got the extras, the credits, i can watch it online...everything.

Maybe they thought of giving the first webisode for free in HD too !? Though I don't think it'd be fair for all the people who paid for it !!!

[NZNeep]

Maybe they thought of giving the first webisode for free in HD too !? Though I don't think it's fair for all the people who paid for it !!!

Or it could be that when they were trying to fix the issue of some people paying and not getting eps, they gave some eps to people who hadn't payed. By accident, or just to make sure they got everyone. Just wait and see before you start complaining about it being fair or not, I would hate for them to come under fire for trying to fix something.

[jckfan55]

Thanks rderoch & Sky for your answer to my HD question. The SD looks pretty good to me, so I won't worry about the HD. Unless and until I upgrade my computer.

Sally, I've got to watch the ep again and look for the changes in Helen's card.

[RealmOfX]

Thanks rderoch & Sky for your answer to my HD question. The SD looks pretty good to me, so I won't worry about the HD. Unless and until I upgrade my computer.

Sally, I've got to watch the ep again and look for the changes in Helen's card.

When you do, listen for the sound effects while watching the visual effects.

Not only was the first webisode visually great, the music and the incidental sounds were fantastic too. I loved that first opening shot over the roof tops with the moonlight and shadows on the roof, chimneys and parapet; then the moving down into the dark alley.

Anyone else have a favourite shot? I can probably come up with a big list.

[immhotep]

I think my favourate scene was in the morge "lunch next week" "ill call" (whilst disecting a body, it just was very comical, dark humour, i love it.

[tagger]

The morgue shot out over the autopsy tray.

The final scene business card exchange shots - each camera take got closer and closer to Will and Helen's faces (I presume symbolism for their relationship.)

The up and out over the city and then down into the Sanctuary shot - where we see the Sanctuary grounds with the new city in the background - beautiful.

Which reminds me,

I finally read the Ron Martin interview - great interview. Technically meaty.

I wondered about reflectivity with the chroma key green (or whatever they call it, I can't remember) - some shiny objects in the webisode now seem red (tops of the trollops shoes, rainwater on the Yeti, some facial features).

Is the redness a green screen side effect, or is my monitor out of whack?

And handling translucence with 360 degrees of green around a see-through object must be maddening. Filling in each frame? Yikes.

Very cool interview. Didn't understand it all, but I'll learn! Thanks to the fan site for doing it and transcribing it!

[scarimor]

Actually if we go by country rankings then out of US, UK, Canada, Australia and NZ then NZ should be paying the least because their market is the one who can least support the price.

Yep, their GNI per capita is in the twenties I think.

However the bean counting bozos (and I'm NOT talking about the Sanctuary people) that purport that "they charge what the market will bear" all come from the country that according to their rules should be paying the most.

What they have is overwhelming numbers to dictate to smaller markets, they also have a significant portion of the rights in entertainment DRM and thus skew prices according to their breaking the world into regions for their profit. The UK (20.18%), Australia (6.79%) and NZ (1.37%) have significantly smaller populations and can't fight back. Canada benefits from sharing a border and a lot of markets so it doesn't pay to screw that market badly as it could have serious consequences for them. As for the rest of us Pffffttttt! Capitalism at it's worst.

Word.

I honestly feel that the bean counters (sorry to any accountants out there) just grabbed a worldwide methodology without seriously considering the consequences simply because they come from a country that is not being majorly discriminated against.

You may be right about that. I'd like to think that they just had no awareness of how controversial (i.e. despised, loathed, blacklisted ) it is because it gets no publicity there. If they knew that concerned people deliberately avoid buying from companies which operate this policy, would they have adopted it?

The methodology they chose is based upon a model that perpetuates DRM so that they (iTunes, Sony etc) can screw the external markets. The Sanctuary bods want to be DRM free but they adopted the pricing methodology that supports it and their restrictive trade practices. They just didn't think it through.

I'm not sure what they can do about it at the moment. They did their sums based upon the iTunes world pricing policy and changing it or not changing it will have consequences. I'm happy that they are responding quickly and are at least considering the problem because apart from the disparate pricing I am hugely impressed with what they have done so far.

That's what we have to give them credit for. The immediate, lightning flash response to it.

[ForeverSg1]

Yep, their GNI per capita is in the twenties I think.


Word.


You may be right about that. I'd like to think that they just had no awareness of how controversial (i.e. despised, loathed, blacklisted ) it is because it gets no publicity there. If they knew that concerned people deliberately avoid buying from companies which operate this policy, would they have adopted it?


That's what we have to give them credit for. The immediate, lightning flash response to it.

How's the puter? Me been lonely.

[scarimor]

How's the puter? Me been lonely.

*WAIL!* ME TOO!

The motherboard is fried. It gave up properly soon after I got out of the Sunken Temple. Stupid frakkin chipset. Once I figured that out I called the nice no-fix-no-fee chappie in for a second opinion (he concurred) and he's ordered me another one. If I let him charge me to put it in I get 12 months warranty on the work in addition to the 3 year warranty on the new board, so I decided it's worth the dosh and the wait.

But it's AGONY!!!

And I can't even watch the Youtube eppy on this thing.

[tagger]

Wow, look at the imbedded videos from the VFX article on Sanctuary - I missed these initially: totally impressive what the actors have to do working with green screen:

http://media.awn.com/player/vfxworld/?v=458

The article has another imbedded video I think we may have seen of the lab - click on the pictures in the article.

Full article is here:

http://vfxworld.com/?sa=adv&code=57c...ticles&id=3283



EDIT: I think this may have already been posted, I just missed the green screen vids...

[tagger]

*WAIL!* ME TOO!

But it's AGONY!!!

And I can't even watch the Youtube eppy on this thing.