The 21 Convention

The 21 Convention is Coming to DVD on Demand

Posted on 25. Feb, 2010 by Anthony 'Dream' Johnson in News

What you see above is one of the final drafts of 2007 cover art.

Cover art for what you ask?

Convention footage on DVD of course =). I for one, think it’s been long enough. People have continually requested I go through with this (all the way since 2007) but I was always in favor of online distribution over physical disc distribution – not to mention, people seem to like and appreciate free footage (who would have thought!).

But it’s not so simple for everyone. Here in the United States high speed internet is abundant, cheap, and easy to get.

Not so much elsewhere in the world though. Some people are stuck with slow internet, no private internet, or in some cases, pay for bandwidth bit by bit.

Paying to stream dozens of hours of footage over and over again when paying for every ounce of bandwidth? Ouch (and don’t even mention 2009 HD footage).

But the reasons for putting footage on DVD don’t end there. Streaming video has it’s limitations unfortunately, and in the case of 2009 high def footage, there is not yet a suitable player that allows you to skip to whichever part of the video you choose.

That wouldn’t be much of a problem if the videos were 5 minutes long … but they aren’t. Adam Lyons and Drew Baye for example teeter right on 2 hours.

What if you only want to re-watch part of the video, and that segment happens to be 80 minutes in?

In the past, you either have to wait 80 minutes, or allow it to download while you do something else. That kinda sucks, and unfortunately there isn’t a way around it that I know of right now for streaming online videos of that magnitude.

On a DVD of course, this is a complete non issue. Simply skip a few chapters at the click of a button, and presto.

Finally, a lot of people have expressed interest in simply owning a physical copy of the footage. And rightfully so. We live in a chaotic world, and things can get turned upside down in a heart beat. While I have every intention to see this convention through to my 30′s and beyond … there is no guarantee I, or this convention will always be around.

Hell, I may get hit by a bus tonight for all we know! (ouch lol)

In any case, if such dramatic events did occur, and someone was not willing to pick up the reins and continue The 21 Convention, it would be a huge disappointment for me to see the footage disappear into the Wikipedia history books.

Footage on DVD ensures that won’t happen. Someone, somewhere, will always have a copy once these release.

And of course, you don’t have to worry about internet going down/being slow (college dorms, I know first hand), your computer being broken (my friend Drew can’t watch videos because his laptop screen is cracked in half, yet the computer still works somehow), or just not wanting to watch convention footage on your computer screen.

I for one, am on this damn thing enough =). A television isn’t much better, but it’s a change of scenery at the very least.

Anyway, this is only meant to be a preliminary post about the DVDs. I’ll close with with some of the more obvious questions a lot of people probably have.

When?

To be honest, they’ve been done for a few weeks now. BUT, the artwork is not. So, as soon as the artwork is done. Hopefully that is within the next week or so. Once the box art and DVD artwork itself is done (similar to the covers, which are unique to each year), the DVDs will be printed, packaged, and ready to order.

I’ll explain more in the next post.

How will they be available?

For the first time ever – to the furthest extent of my knowledge – event footage will be available in DVD on demand format.

What the hell is that you ask? Probably what you think it is.

Individual orders for individual speeches.

Of course, the discs will be available in sets as well for a discount, but from my understanding what most people really want is only a handful of their favorite speeches on DVD.

So yes, you can just order Adam Lyons 2008, or just Dj Fuji 2009, as a stand alone DVD. Or you can purchase all of 2007 as a set. All of 2008, or 2009, 2010 (when it releases), and so on.

You will also be able to buy all three years worth of footage currently available for one price – that’s a colossal 43 discs worth of footage, including 3 bonus discs (one for each year) with rarely seen footage, or in the case of 2009, 30 minutes of new footage never before seen by anyone but myself or the video production company.

It’s actually really good, and quite hysterical … if you are planning on buying 2009 as a set, or all three years, it is definitely worth looking forward to.

Finally, “combo packs” will also be available for certain speakers, containing multiple years of their footage, for a slight discount over buying them individually (but not as part of a yearly set). This will apply for Manwhore, Adam Lyons, El Topo, and so forth.

What will the cost be?

I can’t release final numbers yet because honestly, I’m still working on them. DVD production and distribution is quite an animal to tackle … but I promise this – they will be of a higher value dollar for dollar versus any product similar in nature.

Translation?

They are going to murder anything even remotely similar in nature on price. The cost we see in most DVD sets reflect inefficient “marketing” practices, bureaucratic nonsense, and synthetic hype that simply doesn’t match the product. Things like $20,000 sales pages, $3,000 worth of pictures and artwork, and another $20K thrown into ill targeted PPC ads that are competing with multi-million dollar, grandfathered in corporations like Double Your Dating.

Nope, none of that crap here.

There will be professional pictures taken of the finished product, and as you can see the artwork is more than adequate for a full DVD case (same one a regular store bought DVD comes in) … but there will be no PPC ads, no ridiculously long sales pages, none of that trash.

You read right, no sales pages.

The only thing selling these DVDs will be the footage itself, that everyone links to, because it’s awesome, and free. You know exactly what you are buying, just on disc format for home viewing/physical ownership.

As a result, I think we’re going to see the first accurately priced DVD product on the market for this type of content … how bout them apples?

And not only that, but you aren’t forced to buy the content in a huge set. If you so choose, go for it, and you’ll save big time. If you only want 3 of out 43 discs, be my guest and only get those.

Sounds cliche, but the choice is yours.

…

Next post will be days before the footage releases. It will include high res pictures of all 43 finished discs, 2008 and 2009 cover art, as well as some additional pricing information.

Rock on

-Anthony/Dream

Tags: combo packs, dvd, dvd footage, dvds, on demand, real hype, real value, streaming video

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