Transmission, Raro, Arbelos UK and other sublabels

[Peacock]

Definitely one of the best Transmission titles so far!

[CSM126]

Bit of a stretch to imply Jackie Brown as a NY crime film when it takes place in Southern California, innit?

[BoltzmannBrain]

I don't see any reason why films like Across 110th Street, Nadja and Joe should be Transmission releases instead of Radiance releases. This sublabel is as unnecessary as some Vinegar Syndrome sublabels or Toy Robot Video and I don't want to support all this pointless sub/partner label nonsense.

[TechnicolorAcid]

I don't see any reason why films like Across 110th Street, Nadja and Joe should be Transmission releases instead of Radiance releases. This sublabel is as unnecessary as some Vinegar Syndrome sublabels or Toy Robot Video and I don't want to support all this pointless sub/partner label nonsense.

It’s not a sublabel, it’s just a label that Radiance hosts on their site and that operates completely independently from Radiance like Raro UK or Mawi Films (RIP).

[BoltzmannBrain]

It’s not a sublabel, it’s just a label that Radiance hosts on their site and that operates completely independently from Radiance like Raro UK or Mawi Films (RIP).

My understanding was that all the other ones are independent labels like the VS partner labels but Transmission is operated by Radiance.

[TechnicolorAcid]

It’s not a sublabel, it’s just a label that Radiance hosts on their site and that operates completely independently from Radiance like Raro UK or Mawi Films (RIP).

My understanding was that all the other ones are independent labels like the VS partner labels but Transmission is operated by Radiance.

I think it’s operated by one of their collaborators but to my knowledge Fran, who is the person that decides what gets released by Radiance, has nothing to do with licensing or the release itself except for distribution

[BoltzmannBrain]

My understanding was that all the other ones are independent labels like the VS partner labels but Transmission is operated by Radiance.

I think it’s operated by one of their collaborators but to my knowledge Fran, who is the person that decides what gets released by Radiance, has nothing to do with licensing or the release itself except for distribution

Transmission's MGM titles are coming from Radiance's MGM deal like Cinematographe's MGM titles are coming from Vinegar Syndrome's MGM deal, no?

[therewillbeblus]

It is interesting that Fran originally said that Radiance would also focus on American indie cinema from the 70s(?) onwards and those titles seem to have been allocated to Transmission

[swo17]

Reminder from the first page of this thread:

For those wondering why we needed another label my position on this was that I didn't want to see a repeat of my experience with Arrow Video/Academy. It's very easy to become influenced by positive feedback and sales so that something that starts as one thing turns into another. Yes we've done genre and controversial cinema on Radiance but these have been specific choices within a line of curation while Tranmission may overlap with that it's a line of curation I am much less involved in and it will not reflect my overall tastes, indeed of the 7/8 titles we have lined up I've only seen 2. I may later watch those titles and love them and wish they were Radiance titles but you can't do all the titles all the time and I can't watch everything that gets mentioned as a possible title. In attempting to do more it can be very easy for a label to become watered down by many curators all putting their voice in and the influence of that causing the label to change over time. In 5 years I want Radiance to be doing what it was doing on day 1. And hopefully the same will be true for Transmission.

[Finch]

I don't get the fretting about whether something gets released by Radiance/Arrow or Transmission/Toy Robot. These are run by colleagues of people from the "main label" who get to curate their own titles and we all get more to choose from. If you like a particular film just buy it.

[BoltzmannBrain]

Radiance already puts out plenty of crime films but I guess the problem with Across 110th Street is, based on swo's quote, that its success might lead Radiance to do more films with an African-American focus and that's not desired for Fran's label.

[TechnicolorAcid]

Radiance already puts out plenty of crime films but I guess the problem with Across 110th Street is, based on swo's quote, that its success might lead Radiance to do more films with an African-American focus and that's not desired for Fran's label.

Or maybe he didn’t want to do it because either 1.) he hadn’t seen it or 2.) he did but didn’t want to compete with Shout’s 4K. Although I will add that I would very much like to see some African American or African cinema get released by Radiance

[rapta]

Transmission is a sub-label of Radiance in that they're a separate team headed by Paul Martinowicz who oversees and curates the selections, with possibly some guidance from Fran and cross-pollination with Radiance (for example Nadja was originally going to be a Radiance release, and sometimes theatrical efforts are combined).

It's not quite the same as the other hosted labels, though most of those have been fully authored in-house so many are ostensibly Radiance releases as they themselves have produced the discs (particularly thinking of the Raro Video titles, plus Mawu's Black God White Devil), whilst others have been direct ports of US discs from the respective labels (e.g. Arbelos, Grindhouse, Fun City Editions, Canadian International Pictures, Altered Innocence). Chasm and Mawu are both independent UK labels that have been supported by Radiance, but it's unclear what percentage of those releases are produced independently by those companies or brought in-house, though all are almost definitely authored by Radiance.

It is interesting that Fran originally said that Radiance would also focus on American indie cinema from the 70s(?) onwards and those titles seem to have been allocated to Transmission

Not all of them though, as we've had New Rose Hotel, Hi, Mom! and Cutter's Way since Transmission's inception, not to mention upgrades of Miami Blues and The Hot Spot. Radiance aren't averse to releasing US titles, and Transmission was partly established to curb the slightly more cult/mainstream impulses of the mainline Radiance. You could argue any of those first three could have been at home with Transmission, but perhaps it was something about those particular films or directors that kept Fran from handing them over to Paul (particularly Ferrara and De Palma, who we know he's a fan of).

As we now know, some titles are too big for either label, or don't fit under either label's ethos. I'm thinking in particular of Fargo (too renowned, Arrow end up getting it) or Letter from an Unknown Woman (Fran vowed not to license any classic Hollywood, as those are covered by many other labels). Fran and his team would much rather dig into various international cinemas as the main focus, and occasionally dip into US cinema, and I suppose the US films they've picked have generally been auteurist, independent or maverick choices in some kind of way. The ones that have gone to Transmission have been geared towards what was being distributed on VHS, at grind houses and rep cinemas, or shown on late night TV.

Radiance already puts out plenty of crime films but I guess the problem with Across 110th Street is, based on swo's quote, that its success might lead Radiance to do more films with an African-American focus and that's not desired for Fran's label.

Don't know if we could come to that conclusion yet, and there are many examples of African-American cinema I could see Radiance covering one day. Of course Charles Burnett and Mario Van Peebles come to mind, even if Criterion have covered them. Specific films like The Brother from Another Planet, Uptight and Space is the Place could also work for Radiance one day. Since Across 110th Street is somewhat associated with blaxploitation, but still not completely defined by that term, it definitely feels right for Transmission and should be seen as just another arrow in their quiver. It'd be similar to them releasing a Euro Western or sci-fi film that would have seemed too 'genre-oriented' to feel at home with Radiance.