Pit Stop

Discuss releases from Arrow and the films on them.

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EddieLarkin
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2012 10:25 am

Re: Pit Stop

#26 Post by EddieLarkin » Fri May 01, 2015 8:08 pm

He's referring to basically all of the extras that appear on the UK edition, which were produced for the release by his company. He will have been paid for their use before there were ever any plans for a US release, but since then he's had a big public falling out with Arrow and now I guess wants to take steps to prevent them using his past work?

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tenia
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Re: Pit Stop

#27 Post by tenia » Sat May 02, 2015 8:13 am

And posted on FB by High Rising Productions :
We did not give Arrow Video permission to use our extra features on their USA edition of Pit Stop or our Q and A on their USA edition of Nekromantik (which we filmed, edited and hosted for free).
After six years of working hard to build this label we are both hurt and angry that they refuse to honour deals and still want to sell their titles on our extra features even after we have been dismissed from their label.
Again, I don't understand what's the rant on Nekromantik. It has been released by Cult Epics in the USA, so Arrow has nothing to do the final release. Or did Arrow set up a deal with Cult Epics so they could used the extras from the UK edition while Arrow didn't have the "right" to ?

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manicsounds
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Re: Pit Stop

#28 Post by manicsounds » Sat May 02, 2015 9:44 am

EddieLarkin wrote:but since then he's had a big public falling out with Arrow and now I guess wants to take steps to prevent them using his past work?
What happened there? I noticed he was doing more work with 88 Films, but didn't know it was because of some falling out.

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Pit Stop

#29 Post by EddieLarkin » Sat May 02, 2015 10:30 am

I don't know what actually caused the original animosity or when it started, but he interpreted Arrow's recent acquisitions of Italian and slasher titles as them copying the two new series he helped start at 88 Films (Slasher Classics & 88 Italian), and publicly denounced them for it because they rejected some of the same films when he took them to Arrow a few years ago (you know, when the same films had far lesser transfers available and Arrow were not in a position to be doing their own transfers). He feels they're moving in on 88's rightful business and since they're so small, are making their success less likely. 88 stepped in eventually and were clearly not very happy at some of the rubbish he'd been spouting.

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domino harvey
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Re: Pit Stop

#30 Post by domino harvey » Sat May 02, 2015 10:41 am

Gee, I can't imagine why any label would be severing ties with someone who calls out past business partners for alleged shady practices, especially when even laypersons observing can see the inconsistencies of their arguments. Isn't that a bit like going on a job interview and bad-mouthing your previous employers-- ie why would anyone hire you since you'll probably do the same for them someday?

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Pit Stop

#31 Post by EddieLarkin » Sat May 02, 2015 11:16 am

Before all this started he did tweet his annoyance about not being credited on the back case of Rabid for an interview he did (he is of course credited in the booklet). Since then he's not had a good thing to say about Arrow. I imagine this Pit Stop extras thing is more about him simply not wanting to have his work feature on a label he dislike's releases, rather than a genuine case of Arrow not having the rights to use his stuff and thus exploiting him, which is how he seems to be painting things.

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chatterjees
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Re: Pit Stop

#32 Post by chatterjees » Sat May 02, 2015 9:01 pm

It makes sense now. I didn't know that something happened between Arrow and High Rising. I was wondering about why the High Rising Production extras are totally gone from a lot of recent Arrow releases I purchased, but found some extra made by them on a couple of 88 Films releases.

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dwk
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Re: Pit Stop

#33 Post by dwk » Sat May 02, 2015 9:45 pm

Calum posted at the Cult-Labs forum again. The first line is about his mistakenly thinking/posting that Arrow was going to release Nekromantik in the US.
Yes this was my fault and I apologise without reservation for the confusion.

I am somewhat saddened however that armchair 'experts' on the Critereon Forum seem to have their own madcap ideas about my actions and thinking. I will make it very clear - when you work for a company, any company, as a freelance employee you do so under clear guidelines. Pit Stop is not the first time Arrow has breached the agreement under which we worked for them - we were expected to give Scream Factory our Motel Hell extras, for free, so Arrow could gain their stuff on Night of the Comet - an arrangement that benefited them and not us. On the other hand when Synapse asked us to re-edit the interviews with Luigo Cozzi and Sergio Stivaletti that appeared on Arrow's Demons BD (footage we gave them for free and which they proceeded to pay another editor to put together) we were told this was unacceptable. Even though this footage which we shot and supplied we were never paid for.

There has been a bit of this in the past and we finally put our foot down with Mark of the Devil. We were paid for the use of our stuff on the Arrow USA edition and promised by email this would never happen again. As I said, I honour my side of this - Synapse asked me if I could supply them our stuff for Tenebrae and Phenomena just last week and I said I could not as it would breach the agreement I have with Arrow.

To now see our stuff announced on Pit Stop is frankly shocking and I trust and hope they will pull this material.

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EddieLarkin
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Re: Pit Stop

#34 Post by EddieLarkin » Sat May 02, 2015 10:21 pm

From his examples, it sounds like Arrow proceeds on the basis that if they engage a company to make a supplement, they control that supplement and if they want to allow another label to use it, they can, and if they want to prevent another label from using it, they can. Whether that goes against agreements they had with Calum I don't know but it sounds SOP for this line of business.

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domino harvey
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Re: Pit Stop

#35 Post by domino harvey » Sat May 02, 2015 10:29 pm

I don't think it takes an armchair expert to see this guy is committing career suicide by trash talking his former employer/contractor/client/whatev so publicly and with his factual accuracy in dispute from literally the first message he broadcast (re: Nekromantik)

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dwk
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Re: Pit Stop

#36 Post by dwk » Sun May 03, 2015 1:50 am

Eddie that is how Arrow is acting, but we do not know the terms of their deal Calum Waddell/High Rising Productions.

Domino, a few weeks ago Calum Waddell announced that he was quitting the special feature producing business. So he has no career to kill.

Orlac
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Re: Pit Stop

#37 Post by Orlac » Sun May 03, 2015 3:53 am

Yeah, but those liner notes commissions could still come in use.

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tenia
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Re: Pit Stop

#38 Post by tenia » Sun May 03, 2015 6:57 am

domino harvey wrote:I don't think it takes an armchair expert to see this guy is committing career suicide by trash talking his former employer/contractor/client/whatev so publicly and with his factual accuracy in dispute from literally the first message he broadcast (re: Nekromantik)
Judging his legitimacy based on his mistake about Nekromantik is sophism. Being wrong on this one doesn't mean he is on Pit Stop.
Also, I'm not sure there is a lot of possibility to denounce any possible issues regarding this than simply claiming it on various forums and social network. For sure though, things should be kept factual (what mostly is Calum's latest post on Cult Labs) instead of trying to play with the sensitive strings of piety.

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domino harvey
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Re: Pit Stop

#39 Post by domino harvey » Sun May 03, 2015 10:42 am

To be clear, it does not matter if he is 100% correct in Arrow screwing him over, the point is instead of dealing with the label privately and directly, he's aired the dirty laundry for all to see, and that's stridently unprofessional. He's making himself unemployable, period (and if he has retired, it's shaping up to be irreversible). I'm not an Arrow fanboy (they typically do good work but frankly I find some of the fawning exerted here over the label a bit overblown), this is just a common-sense objection

zeroman987
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Re: Pit Stop

#40 Post by zeroman987 » Sun May 03, 2015 11:37 am

EddieLarkin wrote:From his examples, it sounds like Arrow proceeds on the basis that if they engage a company to make a supplement, they control that supplement and if they want to allow another label to use it, they can, and if they want to prevent another label from using it, they can. Whether that goes against agreements they had with Calum I don't know but it sounds SOP for this line of business.

I don't see the big deal about this because the Pit Stop UK release is region free and already accessible to the US market. The cat is already out of the bag. If Calum wanted to limit the features to the UK/Region B, there is an actual mechanism for this built into the format; he should have negotiated for region locking on the release. It really seems that Arrow is releasing this here as a move to protect their claim over the rights to put this release out in the US against CR/Kino/Corman, and to delegitimise the CR/Kino release.

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tenia
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Re: Pit Stop

#41 Post by tenia » Sun May 03, 2015 12:30 pm

zeroman987 wrote:the Pit Stop UK release is region free and already accessible to the US market.
An easily importable release and a domestic one have about nothing in common in terms of visibility and sales.

Orlac
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Re: Pit Stop

#42 Post by Orlac » Sun May 03, 2015 12:30 pm

domino harvey wrote:To be clear, it does not matter if he is 100% correct in Arrow screwing him over, the point is instead of dealing with the label privately and directly, he's aired the dirty laundry for all to see, and that's stridently unprofessional. He's making himself unemployable, period (and if he has retired, it's shaping up to be irreversible). I'm not an Arrow fanboy (they typically do good work but frankly I find some of the fawning exerted here over the label a bit overblown), this is just a common-sense objection
I think fawning over any label is a bit much. I can't think of one that hasn't pulled a few boners.

ianungstad
Joined: Wed Mar 16, 2005 9:20 pm

Re: Pit Stop

#43 Post by ianungstad » Mon May 04, 2015 6:04 pm

Haha.

Arrow bumped up the release date on Pit Stop by over a month to July 7th. (The Code Red release is slated for July 14) and dropped the MSRP to $29.95 to match Kino's pricing.

How deliciously bitchy and passive aggressive.

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manicsounds
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Re: Pit Stop

#44 Post by manicsounds » Tue May 05, 2015 10:14 pm

Calum Waddell's view is like an girl who is angry that her ex-boyfriend is posting her nudie shots. In that perspective it is understandable he would be angry.

As for Waddell being blocked from Arrow's facebook page and Arrow not replying to his concerns, someone had better figure something out, whether it's to check the fine print of the contract or just hug and make up.

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Thornycroft
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Re: Pit Stop

#45 Post by Thornycroft » Sat May 09, 2015 5:31 am

ianungstad wrote:Arrow bumped up the release date on Pit Stop by over a month to July 7th. (The Code Red release is slated for July 14) and dropped the MSRP to $29.95 to match Kino's pricing.

How deliciously bitchy and passive aggressive.
To which Code Red has responded by shifting their release date forward to July 7th and dropping the MSRP to $23. Looks like Bill is willing to fight this one with more than incoherently worded Facebook posts.

Regarding Waddell - I'm kind of surprised he's had such a prolific career. A fairly vocal segment of the cult film community seem to despise him (which his occasionally litigious nature hasn't helped), and the few interviews and liner notes of his that I've read struck me as both moderately obnoxious and lazily researched. Still, I doubt this immature public outburst is enough to constitute career suicide.

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RyanGallagher
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Re: Pit Stop

#46 Post by RyanGallagher » Wed May 13, 2015 12:40 am

Thornycroft wrote:
ianungstad wrote:Arrow bumped up the release date on Pit Stop by over a month to July 7th. (The Code Red release is slated for July 14) and dropped the MSRP to $29.95 to match Kino's pricing.

How deliciously bitchy and passive aggressive.
To which Code Red has responded by shifting their release date forward to July 7th and dropping the MSRP to $23. Looks like Bill is willing to fight this one with more than incoherently worded Facebook posts.

Regarding Waddell - I'm kind of surprised he's had such a prolific career. A fairly vocal segment of the cult film community seem to despise him (which his occasionally litigious nature hasn't helped), and the few interviews and liner notes of his that I've read struck me as both moderately obnoxious and lazily researched. Still, I doubt this immature public outburst is enough to constitute career suicide.
The cold war continues: now the Arrow USA release is set for June 30th, and can be pre-ordered from MVD for $22.46.

Edit: it also has a big "Director Approved" sticker on the cover now.

Image

Bürgermeister
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Re: Pit Stop

#47 Post by Bürgermeister » Wed May 13, 2015 2:39 am

Ha, won't Criterion have something to say about the "director approved" sticker?
I remember they moaned when Masters of Cinema used one on the DVD release of Shoah.

Orlac
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Re: Pit Stop

#48 Post by Orlac » Sat May 16, 2015 7:07 am

Is Calum really as terrible as Latarnia Forums makes him out to be? They've really got it in for him.

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Thornycroft
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Re: Pit Stop

#49 Post by Thornycroft » Sun May 17, 2015 2:32 am

Orlac wrote:Is Calum really as terrible as Latarnia Forums makes him out to be? They've really got it in for him.
I haven't read the Latarnia Forums, but what I gather from other places is that the hate goes back to when he was writing for Dark Side magazine. Quite a few people disliked his work, then really took against him at the time of Dark Side's plagiarism scandal when they felt he was too vociferously defensive of editor Allan Bryce. The owner of Latarnia is one of those whose work was plagiarised so he's had a massive grudge against both Waddell and Bryce ever since. What pushed a lot of other people over the edge was when cult website Sex Gore Mutants published a review of Dark Side magazine that was deeply critical of their response to the scandal and Waddell sent them a cease-and-desist. He's also been known to contact forum owners asking for posts that make certain allegations about him to be taken down.

Then there's perception of his work as being lazy and unprofessional (notably his moderation on the commentary for Arrow's release of The Car, where he admits to forgetting his notes and alienates director Elliot Silverstein with bizarre tangents like describing the breast-hook scene from Cannibal Ferox) which just pours more and more fuel on the flames. Every single thread on a forum like Rock! Shock! Pop! about an Arrow release to which he's contributed will contain at least one whinge of annoyance at his participation.

Orlac
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Re: Pit Stop

#50 Post by Orlac » Sun May 17, 2015 9:48 am

He does sound like a wally, it must be said!

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