criterionforum.org

gpat138 wrote:Amazon Prime members have access to "add on" subscriptions such as Showtime and Starz through Amazon Video. FilmStruck would be wise to partner with Amazon to do something similar. You could then access all of FilmStruck's streaming content through Amazon Video which is already available on numerous platforms (Roku, gaming consoles, Blu-ray players, TVs, etc.). The only drawback is that Amazon Video is currently unavailable for Chromecast or Apple TV.

They're well past that now, and it's been made very clear that they'll be using their own application.

Press release confirms what Bill Hader has been doing on the various social media posts:

Bill Hader – the Emmy® award winning actor will provide hosted introductions and insights into director Akira Kurosawa and screenwriter Sam Fuller

Lucky Yates (the voice of Krieger on Archer) also mentioned he'll be hosting movies so it'll be interesting to see who else they get down the line.

RSTooley wrote:PS4 and Xbox apps are slated to be released sometime in 2017.

Excellent. \:D/ I'll sign up when they become available. IN the meantime I got more than enough purchased titles and Netflix & Amazon Prime streaming options to tide me over.

cdnchris wrote:I still only have a PS3 (not a big gamer anymore). I've been looking at a Roku, though I don't see any sign of that being able to work with Filmstruck yet. It looks like the Amazon Fire do-hickey is still limited in comparison to Roku. Am I correct in that assumption?

I see no reason why they wouldn't have it on PS3 as well as PS4. Pretty much all streaming apps are available on both if they are available on one. It's all one big Playstation Network for both the PS3 and PS4 after all.

At around 1:01, on the bottom right was a cropped image for some kind of supplement named "Creative Marriages: Fellini & Massina." It is visible on the website's image for the Filmstruck launch as well. Has this been on any previous Fellini disc? If so, which one?

At around 2:10, there was another image visible for A Bad Spaniard, evidently some kind of supplement about Berlanga. This is probably the "new program on director" mentioned in the notes on The Executioner's release.

As an aside, I wonder if the cover for The Tree Of Wooden Clogs will be changed, seeing as there were two alternate covers visible at around 1:59-2:01.

Finally, what is the film being restored at 1:49?

Is this press release the first time that Shout Factory has been mentioned alongside Flicker Alley, Kino, etc.? I wonder if that means the same type of film titles they own/aren't licensed from other studios that are currently part of the Shout Factory TV streaming service are going to be included or if that is just a way of dealing with the Westchester Films library that they own that has also be released by Criterion like Stagecoach, A Room With a View, and Foreign Corespondent (since those seem to be streamed by both the Criterion Hulu channel as well as ShoutFactory.tv).

Mungo wrote:At around 1:01, on the bottom right was a cropped image for some kind of supplement named "Creative Marriages: Fellini & Massina." It is visible on the website's image for the Filmstruck launch as well. Has this been on any previous Fellini disc? If so, which one?

At around 2:10, there was another image visible for A Bad Spaniard, evidently some kind of supplement about Berlanga. This is probably the "new program on director" mentioned in the notes on The Executioner's release.

EDIT:
Most of the images on the page may be themes, with supplements mixed in.

The Fellini one is not a supplement from a Fellini DVD. The newsletter mentions Filmstruck accessing OOP films -- if it is a supplement, since Nights of Cabiria and Fellini's earliest films are OOP, maybe it's new.

After reading through the various press releases, I'm still a little confused by language like "FilmStruck will be the exclusive streaming home of the Criterion Collection as of November 11." Does that mean that from 10/19 until 11/11 the Criterion library will be available both on FilmStruck and on Hulu? Or does it mean that when FilmStruck launches on 10/19 it will just be the basic service, and that the Criterion channel will be unavailable before 11/11. What starts on 11/11, the "home" part or the "exclusivity" part?

Sam T. wrote:After reading through the various press releases, I'm still a little confused by language like "FilmStruck will be the exclusive streaming home of the Criterion Collection as of November 11." Does that mean that from 10/19 until 11/11 the Criterion library will be available both on FilmStruck and on Hulu? Or does it mean that when FilmStruck launches on 10/19 it will just be the basic service, and that the Criterion channel will be unavailable before 11/11. What starts on 11/11, the "home" part or the "exclusivity" part?

Criterion films will be available on both Filmstruck and Hulu at launch. Whether the entire library will be available at launch is still not clear to me.

paulm wrote:Is this press release the first time that Shout Factory has been mentioned alongside Flicker Alley, Kino, etc.?

My first though about Shout! Factory joining the mix was: oh my god, I hope they add Werner Herzog films.

From FB:

Q: When will FilmStruck be available on Roku?

FilmStruck: Hi Jeffrey: We're working on that build right now, and we're hoping to have it available in the early part of 2017. We hope this info helps!

Lame that they're ready for Amazon Firestick, but not Roku -- guess it's because of their preexisting relationship with Amazon. Count me out till 2017.

Sam T. wrote:After reading through the various press releases, I'm still a little confused by language like "FilmStruck will be the exclusive streaming home of the Criterion Collection as of November 11." Does that mean that from 10/19 until 11/11 the Criterion library will be available both on FilmStruck and on Hulu? What starts on 11/11, the "home" part or the "exclusivity" part?

My guess is "exclusivity." You can try emailing them.

I think its a mistake to launch these kind of online services without apps for all the major platforms.

Launch time is when you get the most publicity and when people with a Roku or gaming console find that can't watch this service on their TV's they may just move on and not even be paying attention when the apps finally launch.

It's kind of ridiculous that there's not even Chromecast support at launch (they list it as "coming soon" in the email I just got). I realize it's not trivial to make apps for all the different platforms people use and not especially constructive to complain about it at this point but there's no way I'm buying another streaming device just for it. The fact that Amazon Fire is the only convenient way to play it on a TV at launch doesn't seem like a great strategy.

I feel like that might be a Turner thing. Until very recently, their apps for TBS/TNT/TCM/Cartoon Network weren't on any "tv-connected" devices, just mobile devices. I think TBS and TNT are now on Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV (like recently added within the last two months or so) but not Roku or Chromecast supported yet.

As expected, I'm seeing a ton of posts across social media of people expecting this to feature TCM's films to stream, lamenting that it doesn't, or confused about their involvement period. I can't see why they would advertise TCM so heavily in what basically amounts to a producer's credit and not clarify this even in their initial press release. That is, I know exactly why they would lead along customers on another company's brand name recognition, but it seems pretty classless of Criterion.

They've had really unclear messaging as to what the service offers if you don't subscribe to the Criterion part, so that's not terribly surprising. Even a ballpark number would be nice to have.

I'm still confused as to what the $99 a year gets you. Do you get access to every Criterion title in the collection? Will new Criterion releases be added to FilmStruck at the same time as physical discs?

jmj713 wrote:I'm still confused as to what the $99 a year gets you. Do you get access to every Criterion title in the collection? Will new Criterion releases be added to FilmStruck at the same time as physical discs?

It'll be an expanded version of the Hulu library. Criterion doesn't have streaming rights to all of their physical catalog, including most films to which the major studios hold the licenses. But Hulu also has 300 titles as yet unreleased by Criterion. The Hulu Criterion library is 900 films; the announcements state the FilmStruck one will be 1100. It'll be most of their classic foreign films, virtually all of the Eclipse titles, some contemporary foreign films and U.S. indies and well over 300 as yet unreleased-by-Criterion films.

Criterion did add some new releases to Hulu, but it depends on rights; also they're just not going to make 100% of new releases they do have the rights to available because it cuts into their business too much.

From the Turner Side... Roku in January, AppleTV 30 days out... there's also going to be 1100 Criterion extras available along with 1400 films right off the bat. They had it up and running to test out on a tv, interface was smooth and design was simple but sleek.

I could be entirely wrong, but my impression is Criterion isn't as hands on here as you would have thought and Turner is running the show - they're based in Atlanta. In other words instead of farming out their catalog to Hulu they've given it to Turner and Turner's using Criterion's brand & marketing chops. They are bankrolling this so it makes sense.

For what it's worth they were mostly nice, but a person who you would want to inspire confidence didn't in my opinion. They also didn't seem to know their product that well. That said I don't see how they could screw this up with the product they're offering, but you can ever underestimate people's capacity for stupidity.

On a related note, I just watched another FilmStruck trailer on Facebook (can't find it again to embed a link); and I swear it had clips from the animated film Heavy Metal interspersed among the other Janus/Criterion titles.

Has anyone else seen the one I'm talking about?

Yes I saw the clip with Heavy Metal among Janus/Criterion titles. So that's either a Filmstruck exclusive or perhaps it'll get a spine number soon.

TCM isn't very customer service or technically oriented from my experience. Example: A simple thing of advertising the correct day and date of one of their after midnight starting movies:

Actual start time for this is Sunday, October 9 at 5am Eastern.



Perversion For Profit (1965)

Apparently, for whatever reason, they run a 6am to 6am schedule, so anything that starts after midnight shows an incorrect day / date. This has been pointed out to them so often that everyone (on the TCM message board) just accepts the error.

On a related note, I just watched another FilmStruck trailer on Facebook (can't find it again to embed a link); and I swear it had clips from the animated film Heavy Metal interspersed among the other Janus/Criterion titles.

Bakshi's Fire and Ice was streaming on the beta version. I think that this scene shown might have been from this film.

doh286 wrote:Bakshi's Fire and Ice was streaming on the beta version. I think that this scene shown might have been from this film.

I thought about that film and Wizards, or the two Laloux titles I'm not as familiar with, as potential sources. But I just saw that trailer again and those clips are definitely from Heavy Metal. They primarily feature the character from this image, which I pulled from an article on the film:



I think I also saw Nicholas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas mixed in there as well, but the Heavy Metal footage was what stood out for me.