Interview with BCI's Cliff MacMillan. Transforming a label!

Intro:

1. Can you give us a little background on yourself?

I’ve been in the video business for 24 years. I started in retail in an independent video store, then tower records as the vide o buyer for the chain and I then moved on to distribution taking a job with Ventura distribution for six year. I joined BCI about 2 years ago. I also spent nine years as a movie theatre manager – in big multi-screen theatres and in a few grindhouses in the eighties

2. Delta Force or Invasion USA?

I prefer Forced Vengeance, but if I had to chose I’d pick delta force

3. How did you start working at Adness?

I met the owner of Adness while i was at Ventura. He wanted to start a U.S. DVD label so, we distributed the line at Ventura. I picked the films he released, and oversaw the release of each title - art, transfer etc.

4. How did you wind up working at BCI?

I was friends with the then president and VP of sales and they asked me to join the company

5. Were you wary of working at BCI because of its history of being a Public Domain boxset company and the public perception of it?

It was a concern. I had worked hard to build labels like Adness, where we licensed over 15 Sonny Chiba films, putting out quality presentations of his films for the first time, and now I was joining a company that use to do the opposite…but that was the old BCI, now the company is owned by a public corporation and we are almost completely out of the pd business.

BCI:

1. How did Brentwood become BCI?

The company was purchased by the Navarre corporation and moved away from the pd business and into a more front-line DVD company. The he-man releases really put BCI on the map. They are amazing releases that really cater to the fans.

2. It often seems such a daunting task to restructure a company, when you started at BCI what were you goals?

The company moved to doing much bigger deals with major licensors and the goal was to move away from pd and create quality releases for DVD fans. We have licensed content now from major studios like disney, abc and new line.

Do you feel you’ve accomplished them?

As a company I believe we have accomplished them and I feel like I am continuing to help BCI meet those goals and bring the fans quality DVDs.

3. Do you feel that you’ve been able to get an adequate budget to produce quality titles and support from BCI’s higher ups?

Very much so….but as a business, you need to make sure that you recoup the money you put into releases…and sometimes films don’t warrant a super collector’s edition because you’ll probably only sell a couple hundred copies. You want to do the best you can, but it’s a business and we are in the business to make money for our owners. So, sometimes you don't get the budget you'd like to create something….but Navarre is very supportive of what we do and our sister company, Funimation.

4. Does the accusations that often pops up on forums of BCI just being a PD company aggravate you, especially when it is no longer the case?

Yes, it does. We have become another company but people just won’t believe it and still see us as Brentwood. But I just can’t let it bother me any more. People will think what they want…but if you look at the he-man releases or shadow warriors, you’d see that we are completely changed.

5. If you could say anything to fans about how BCI being totally different from Brentwood what would you say?

Oh, I think I did above. I think if they look at those releases they will see that things have change…or look at our Starlite drive-in theatre release of madmen of Mandoras (aka they saved Hitler’s brain) where we found the missing negative (thanks to mike vrany) and did a truly amazing new film transfer. The film looks better than it deserves to look lol

6. How has BCI been dealing with the problems of the major impendent stores

eliminating shelf space for non-major labels?

It is getting harder out there getting shelf space with the amount of releases coming from the studios. This is another reason why we can’t spend thousands of dollars creating extras for smaller films…because we might not even get the title onto store shelves because of the competition

7. Is the threat of bootlegging (more so for the Japanese titles) are large problem? Right before your Sister Street Fight set came out a bootleg set came out and appeared in major online shops.

I just have to hope that our version is so darn great that people will want to own the official release and not purchase the bootleg. In the case of sister street fighter, we did new hd transfers and Patrick Macias did a great booklet, so i hope that people will want to buy ours because of these extras.

8. How important is fan feedback? You often post on many forums, which is usually only done by a couple of label heads. You’re bookmark file must be overflowing.

I like talking to the fellow film and DVD fans. I am one of them. I'd be on the forums even if i didn't work in the business. It's great to hear from the fans that like what we are doing…and like anyone you hate to hear the negative comments… but that is the nature of the business …you just try your best and hope everyone is happy.

Rarescope

1. How did Toby Russell come into contact with BCI?

Through a licensor that i work with. I have never spoken to toby.

2. How does a title usually get prepared for a US release (transfers, extras, etc)?

On the Rarescope titles, the transfers, extras and artwork are done by the folks at Rarescope. We author the final disc and manufacture them.

3. Has the line been successful so far?

It has done well

4. How often will Rarescope titles be coming out?

Usually bi-monthly, but we have had a short break recently as we've been waiting for some transfers to be completed

5. Is there anything that our readers should be specifically on the lookout for in the coming months?

A new version of Chinese Hercules with extras and an early Jackie Chan film

Ronin

1. Can you explain the Ronin label and what type of films it will be handling?

The Ronin label will specialize in films and television series from Japan. There will be more Chiba, more samurai and more superheros

2. How has it been working with the Japanese studios?

Great! They have lots of great product. I wish I could acquire it all and they have great materials. They take care of their films and their libraries

3. How has the line of Sonny Chiba films been doing?

Very good….since we are re-releasing titles that were already released at Ventura, most of the real Chiba fans already own most of the titles we have put out recently, so you are just trying to find the fans that didn’t buy them intially..but we’ll have new titles…like shadow warriors and new versions of the bodyguard, karate warriors and dragon princess…all license from the u.s. rights holders …and new transfers from the negatives

4. Is their any chance that Ronin will be able to put The Street Fighter or will New Line not sell the rights?

I sure would love to release them. We have licensed 'wanted dead or alive' from new line and I constantly ask them about the street fighter films, but I believe they have plans for the films.

5. What is the policy of Ronin in getting US versions and English dubs? Although not always greeted with enthusiasm by all, many (including me) do like seeing them. One eample is the completely random opening to the Sonny Chiba film The Bodyguard.

I’d like to offer both versions when possible, sometimes it isn’t. On the bodyguard, dragon princess and karate warriors we will be releasing the English version only. We don't have access to the original versions from the licensor and i'd have to license the film a second time to include the original version. So, the fans will be bummed that the Japanese version is not included but the u.s. licensor doesn't own those rights and i can afford to license the film twice.

6. The release of Shadow Warriors is something new to R1 with only the release of Zatoichi being comparable, is there a chance of more Chiba shows or asian television shows for that matter? Yes, a good chance…a very good chance ….more to be announced later

7. Is there any chance that Ronin will put out any more Tsbruaya shows either dealing with Chayio or TPC?

I don’t think so.

8. If you can look into it, is there any chance you could get Dinosaur War Azienborg (its owned by TPC and legal issue free)? It combines suitmation and anime and is amazing (well at least for me). Here is part of the show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELJ17nTYSNI this is a copy using the Arabic dub. It was released in the US as a compilation of four episodes called Attack of the Supermonsters (and which is made fun of by everyone but me).

I have never heard of that show… I will certainly check it out.

BCI Grindhouse/Demois/Crown International

1. How did BCI get the Paul Naschy and CIP films?

I found out both were available and we put in a bid for them

2. Do you think the Grindhouse (CIP) series can help fill the void left by the demise (at least for the moment) the MGM Midnite Movies series?

I hope it can…but MGM has a much better library of films to choose from J

3. Is it often hard to find the uncut and original aspect ratio masters for these films? Sometimes

it's difficult…but more often, it's just expensive to create them. The Naschy films were quite an ordeal. The licensor had to search several prints and different cuts to find all the footage. Luckily, we had an expert consultant on the project, Mirek Lipinski, who knew the films and could tell us where there was missing footage when the masters arrived and the licensor would go back into the vaults to find the missing footage. It was quite a time consuming undertaking since the materials were in another country.

4. Does BCI plan to acquire older films from the 50s and early to mid 1960 or will the focus be more 1970s featured?

I like to release films from all sorts of genres and decades, but i’m partial to the 70s

5. Though released by Rhino the Crater Lake Monster was distributed by CIP, is there any chance of a re-release of that?

Yes, and in a new HD master

6. Where does BCI get the trailers and ads for its double features?

Mostly from the crown vault and our other licensors…and collectors

Misc

1. What is BCI’s plan for next gen digital media such as HD and Blu-ray?

We plan to support all formats. When we announced our hd-dvd titles about a year ago, we thought retail would embrace quality titles at an affordable price, but they just wanted studio titles, so we put our plans on hold until the retailers devoted space for the independents. So, I hope we will have hd-dvd releases later this year

2. Has BCI looked into adding their content to digital-on demand or online on demand services?

Yes, our parent company has audio product on I-tunes and we have some deals with other digital downloading companies

3. Is there anything else you would like to tell our readers?

Thank you for your support. I wish i could announce some of the things we have coming in 2007 and 2008, but it’s too early to announce as some of the deals are being finalized but it think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with what we have coming. I’ll let you know as soon as i can.

Thanks again to Cliff for this great interview!