Warner scares up Raw Feed
Studio's home entertainment division moves into producing DVD premieres
By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 3/29/2006
MARCH 29 | Warner Home Video’s theatrical catalog division is launching its first DVD premiere line.
24 executive producer Tony Krantz, X-Files executive producer John Shiban and The Blair Witch Project co-creator Daniel Myrick have teamed up to deliver titles through Warner under the brand Raw Feed.
Budgeted for less than $5 million each for production, the films will carry sci-fi, thriller and horror themes. Rest Stop, about a cross-country trip gone bad, rolls out first in the fourth quarter. Two more projects are slated for release during the first half of 2007.
All forthcoming movies from the pact will be considered for limited theatrical distribution. But the projects’ biggest emphasis will be on DVD and digital platforms.
Normally, studios house DVD premieres within their new release operations. Yet, the creators of the series were impressed with the catalog unit’s leading position in the segment.
“We really do a very good job of packaging our productions,” Warner senior VP and general manager of theatrical catalog Jeff Baker said. “We give consumers a rich experience as it relates to enhanced content with special editions. And our No. 1 share of the business was appealing to them.”
Warner’s library has 6,600 films. The studio will launch 200 new-to-DVD titles from its vault this year. That activity is similar to bowing a DVD premiere series, Baker said.
“It just so happens that this is also new to format,” he said. “But we will be marketing it in a different way than current catalog titles.”
Baker envisions promoting Raw Feed films by digitally streaming clips onto cell phones and other devices.
High-definition versions of Raw Feed titles also are planned.
