I wrote a long winded post about the footage back in November. It’s time for an update, with simplicity in mind this time around.
 

WHAT’S THE SAME

• All footage is still coming out online, free of monetary charge to stream in HD.
• DVDs are still coming out.

WHAT’S CHANGED

• I have selected 25 videos, total, from 2009 and 2010, to be released on Itunes for purchase and download in 720p HD. They are the 25 that I believe will be most popular. If they sell well, I will have more put up for sale on Itunes.
• 2010 DVDs will be available in special bundles, event sets, and individually — right off the bat. The DVDs are printed and ready for shipment to anywhere in the world. The delay is in (and I know how ridiculous this will sound), pictures of the actual DVDs. This may not sound important, but it is important to me to do this right, and professional photographs are a necessary part of that in my mind.
• With the exception of Mark Sisson, all event and documentary footage is in the process of being transferred to Youtube, including 2010 footage, for permanent hosting. There will be advertising in the videos. The videos will be embeddable anywhere. There will be less advertising in the videos when you watch them on this site.
• The online streaming versions of the footage will begin releasing only days after the DVDs and Itunes versions go live. The catch is that only one, two, or three speeches (at most) will be released each week. The order will be basically randomized, with a few tweaks on my end in certain cases for content continuity.

In other words, the speech you really want to watch may come out first, or last. There is no way to know ahead of time.

This is being done for two reasons.

1. I think it’s stupid and ineffective to release all of the videos at once.

2. Each video release is contingent on paying for the right to release that specific speech publicly.

IOW, I have to pay the videographer a certain amount for every video that comes out online (and when all videos are online, all debt will be paid).

Within certain bounds, I have every desire to get the videos out as fast as possible. I also hate bouncing checks, especially with two international events on the horizon. SO, the more DVDs and Itunes downloads sell, the faster the videos come out (up to three per week). Vice versa.

 
You’re welcome to donate, but I am done passing the basket around for hand outs (monetary or otherwise).

I am much more interested in building the best events in the world, and distributing videos of those events in a desirable manner (DVDs and downloads), and at a price that reflects their value to you the viewer.

– Anthony Dream Johnson

ps — It has been a difficult personal struggle to get all of the footage ready for DVD/Itunes/Youtube. But it has been a good struggle. One I will be fully proud of when everything goes live next week. Stay tuned for a countdown timer.

[Edit]

Mark Sisson is being hosted online to stream. However it will not be on Youtube.

I can not even begin to express how big the mental sigh of relief is that I am now breathing with the complete release of all event footage from three full years of The 21 Convention.

It’s a monumental step, that took months upon months of planning and preparation, and I am beyond pleased to release them – especially in the individual format found no where else as far as I am aware.

That’s right, every single speech ever given at the convention is not only available in it’s yearly set at a reduced price, but also individually.

From Dj Fuji and Adam Lyons at The 21 Convention 2009 (~2 hours each), to “Nilatak” from The 21 Convention 2007 (~1 hour), and Johnny “Manwhore” from The 21 Convention 2008 (~2 hours).

It’s all there, every last minute of it.

We even have a new, never before seen 2009 presentation at about ~30 minutes long from “Nilatak” the 2007 speaker for all 2009 complete set orders (a special bonus).

But why put out all event footage on DVD? What’s the cause, the purpose? If it’s all free online, what reason could there be to buy the DVDs?

Well surprisingly enough, it’s you guys (attendees and online fans alike) who have urged me to release DVDs for nearly 3 years now. I have, obviously, been hesitant to do so for far too long.

Why?

Well, I knew it would be a small journey in and of itself – and it certainly has been. It’s also been a great learning experience as well though, and I am now 110% comfortable with any future video productions that need to be put to DVD. 2010 event footage is a big one obviously, but The Community Tapes will also fit nicely volume by volume onto individual DVDs for those interested in owning a physical copy.

I even have plans to release The Community Tapes on blu-ray high definition video discs along with standard DVDs =). A story for another day though.

Fearing a learning experience is only a one part of why it’s taken so long though. The other half of the equation is that it’s taken a very long time to become comfortable accepting money for something I love and pour nearly every ounce of passion I have into.

There has been a ‘gap’ or disconnect of sorts that has been difficult for me to accept and overcome personally for many years. I’m finally “okay” with it now, but it has taken me quite some time for such a simple realization – it’s okay to be compensated for your time, even when it’s spent doing something you absolutely love.

Well, that, and in real life there are hard costs that can’t always be circumvented =).

The live events are obvious ones with conference rooms, travel/hotel accommodations for select speakers, staff costs, and multiple thousands of dollars for high quality camera work.

But it goes beyond just that. The editor that does all of our major videos spent over 350 hours on volume 1 of The Community Tapes when all was said and done. That I can tell you right now, did not come cheap, despite him loving the content and supporting what we do as much or more than anyone else.

Even further, hosting videos online in the format we do is not free =). Would be nice if it was, but there are frequent video costs, domain costs, hosting costs, and so on.

Bla bla bla.

The important thing to me is just like El Topo said in his documentary interview – that we send a message to the individual, first and foremost. Everything else comes second behind that – helping people, and making a real difference in the lives of individuals.

What else could matter?

…

Enough chit chat. I’m sure plenty of people are saying “That’s nice Anthony, but I want to go buy a few DVDs, where do I buy em?, I’ll read your post later!”

HAHA

I want to say one more thing first though, that isn’t so obvious.

“Obvious” things would be technical reasons for buying the DVDs which I’ve discussed before, such as slow internet, owning a physical lifetime copy, etc.

It’s simply this – by buying a complete years set, you are supporting The 21 Convention, big time. By the same token, when purchasing an individual DVD, you are supporting The 21 Convention and future endeavors (like the documentary series), but you are also indirectly supporting the speakers.

It’s voting with your dollars as I’ve seen it called elsewhere, and DVDs flying off the shelf of a speaker tells me I need to have them back at The 21 Convention, wherever it may be.

Finally, I want to mention that for the first month a significant portion of all 2007 DVD sales (individual and set), will go directly to the camera man and video editor for 2007. His name is Peter, and he flew to the first convention on his own dollar to film it at no direct cost (meaning he charged us exactly $0).

I’ve extended my thanks to him many times (verbally and monetarily), but I would like to give him one last thanks for performing such a critical job that year when this convention was in it’s infancy.

I will also be donating a significant portion of 2008 DVD sales for the first 12 months to Michael Gottino, our current film producer/editor. In 2008 I was short many thousands of dollars for him to film the event, but he took my word and finished the event anyway – on nothing more than my promise to pay him at all costs, as soon as possible.

He didn’t have to do that, and I would like to extend my thanks to him for filming the event, and pouring his creative talent and ambition into the documentary series, event trailers, and so on.

…

And that’s about it. All the links you need are below. Everything is set up and working perfectly, including individual pictures of every single DVD available (custom to each speech).

View our official store home page here.

View all available DVD sets here.

View all 2009 individual DVDs.

View all 2008 individual DVDs.

View all 2007 individual DVDs.

And here are some more pictures (which you can alternatively click to corresponding DVD selections instead of the above links).

Hap tip to VE Photography for an amazing job.

Brief Q and A

Q: Shipping?

A: Available for all domestic and international locations (international is more expensive than domestic obviously). One speed for the time being, however you do save when you buy multiple DVDs (especially a set).

Q: Do sets come in special packaging?

A: DVDs within a yearly set come in individual DVD cases, standard to each year. All sets also come with exclusive bonus discs – of which 2009 includes 30 minutes of never before seen footage (and yes, it’s good!).

Q: What exactly is on the DVDs?

A: That’s the beauty of it – you can get an exact and entirely free preview before buying. A link is provided on each DVD page to it’s corresponding online streaming version, which is exactly what you are buying, unless otherwise stated (Manwhore 2008 for example comes un-watermarked and  in a slightly higher resolution, but looks about the same). As for the menus, pretty cool, with some nifty music I picked out =D. Very basic, play, and a chapter selection (actually quite useful for speeches that include guests on stage, you’ll see what I mean).

Q: Why are the prices different for each year?

A: Individual prices reflect film quality. 2009 is basically perfect. 2007 and 2008 are great, but not quite as good as 2009. In this sense, I want people to pay accurate prices for the DVDs. $19.99 for all DVDs just didn’t seem fair considering the difference in quality, so I knocked the price of 2007/2008 DVDs down a bit.

Q: Will the DVDs work on my TV?

A: Yes, I personally guarantee it (all DVDs have been rigorously tested on 7 different DVD players, 2 different TVs, and 2 lap top computers). All DVDs are in 16×9 widescreen NTSC format however, so keep that in mind when ordering.

Special Bonus

As mentioned previously, attend both conventions this year (Stockholm and Orlando), and you will get the entire 2009 twenty disc set for free, including shipping. That’s over $300 in value, entirely free, if you attend both conventions. It’s 100% automatic, just sign up under the same name and e-mail address and we will contact you for your shipping address. Pretty sweet deal if you can make it to both historic events =).

Take your pick from 40 unique DVDs.

God we have been trying to release these for so long it’s frikin demoralizing … alright, maybe not demoralizing, but it’s about time!

And hey, we’re (obviously) just about there. In fact, this is everyone’s first chance to “order”. Why the quotations? Well, ironically, you can only “order” these for free right now.

No seriously, I’m not kidding. This isn’t some stunt or gimmick, just the way things are working out chronologically – and it’s kind of funny considering the “free” history of the footage (or maybe I’m just easily amused).

So how does it work?

Like so. Sign up for either convention on Thursday May 6^th, Friday May 7^th, or Saturday May 8^th – and you can pick any non-bonus DVD you want, for free, along with your ticket – no strings attached.

• Sign up for The 21 Convention 2010 of Stockholm Sweden (June 11^th-13^th).
• Sign up for The 21 Convention 2010 of Orlando Florida (July 22^nd-25^th).

No hidden shipping or handling charge (no matter where you live, United States, Europe or otherwise), and no forced monthly subscription crapola – you know, that small print often tagged at the end of a “free” offer, that ends up costing you an arm and a leg, and probably a migraine if you try to get your money back.

It’s really that simple.

Sign up May 6^th, 7^th, or 8^th, and enter the corresponding information on the ticket page after clicking the big fat “Order Now” button – which includes a shipping address, name, e-mail, and a small box for you to enter which speech you would like (it’s at the bottom).

Please include the name of the speaker, which year they spoke, and if applicable, which day of that year the speaker presented.

Basically everything you see on the entire site is available, excluding “bonus” content which is only available in a “Bonus Disc” format reserved for those who purchase an entire set (divided into years). I’ll get more into this in the next DVD post (when they go live for mass ordering), but in the meantime, you have 40 different discs to choose from for this promotion (including Q and A Panel DVDs).

• 19 for 2009
• 14 for 2008
• 7 for 2007

Again, one “Bonus Disc” has been created for each year, which you can only get by ordering an entire years set, but in the mean time they are not available for this promotion. So, 43 total for all three years, but only 40 are available for this Sign Up/Free DVD special.

In addition, some speeches on the site have been combined into one disc – I for example spoke twice in 2007, and both presentations are on the same disc. Guess what? Request one speech, and you’re getting both whether you like it or not!

Sweet? You bet.

Okay, anything else I should mention? Yep. How about a look at the DVD case artwork (click for a super large view).

And some real life photos of the cases (unique to each year).

Finally, a very special offer that extends well beyond three days.

Sign up for both

• The 21 Convention 2010 of Stockholm Sweden
• The 21 Convention 2010 of Orlando Florida

by May 25^th under the same name and e-mail address, and get the entire 2009 twenty disc set, absolutely free.

That set will cost well over $200 stand alone, and includes ~30 minutes of never before seen 2009 footage. That’s right. “Nilatak” from The 21 Convention 2007 made a brief return in 2009 and the presentation is only available in DVD format at his request.

No shipping or handling charge, no bull. Just free if you attend both events. You don’t even have to do anything since we’ll be cross referencing the attendee lists.

And in case you were wondering, this offer does extend to the individuals who have already signed up for both events. We’ll be contacting you in the near future for a shipping address – unless you don’t want the 2009 set. Just let me know, I’m sure someone else will take it .

That’s it for today. The next DVD post will reveal more details, more pictures, prices, and so on for the full DVD release. And yes, you will be able to order each one individually!

-Anthony/Dream

ps- I have an impressive amount of these DVDs printed out for shipment, so no worries about running out on this special. BUT, remaining tickets in current price brackets are another matter. Currently there are 27 Orlando tickets at $299.95, and 18 Stockholm tickets at €299.95. If they run out, the ticket price jumps by 50 dollars/euros respectively. Will they in 3 days? Maybe. If they do, you’ll still get the single DVD free, or even the entire 2009 set if you attend both events, but obviously you’ll be paying a higher ticket price. You’ve been warned! =)

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

The first announcement of “the documentary” was back in October of 2009. In case you missed it, here’s the link. Since then, I’ve been journaling about it on the forum, writing about it on my blog, The Dream Lounge, and even tweeting about it on occasion (and whatever the equivalent terminology of that is for Facebook).

Enough links though – what exactly is the status of “the doc”, and what is it really about?

Status

Things are moving along well. We have now completed five individual 90-120 minute interviews with four speakers and one three year attendee.

That’s not counting 3 more speakers we interviewed from afar (where we provided the questions and format, and they filmed the interview themselves with the appropriate equipment).

That’s hardly a scratch on the 30+ speakers and hundreds of attendees that have been present at The 21 Convention over the past three years, but in reality, it is a TON of footage.

A ~2 hour interview for example, will yield at LEAST 60 minutes of useable footage – “talk time” as we call it.

Now consider that out of that ~60 minutes (after logging the footage thought by thought for editing reference come crunch time), we MIGHT, use 5 minutes throughout the entire documentary – either because what that interviewee said fit the flow and progression of the collective piece so well, or because what they said was so profound it would be a shame to leave it out.

And when it comes down to it, 90% of this footage is just awesome, but, we can only use so much. It really is tough to narrow it down.

Anyway, we have one final speaker left to interview for “the doc”. From there, we will likely interview a few more people, but it won’t be the full “sha bang” like we’ve done for the speakers and 3 year attendee. More along the lines of back to back shorter interviews with very specific questions.

And after that is the fun part … filming my own interview, and the “content” footage.

I don’t think I’m anything special on camera, but there are a lot of things I want to say, and set the record straight on – so it will be a bit of a challenge for me. I’m confident that if I relax, and take my time though, it will turn out well – and fully express what I (personally) want to share in this documentary.

Easier said than done though, ha!

As for “content”, I’m using that term loosely to encompass all of the footage outside of interviews that will be in “the doc”. A proper introduction, closing, and everything in between – perhaps even some in field footage and other surprises.

…

During the filming of all this, beginning just before our final speaker interview (excluding my own), we will begin inserting bits and pieces into the time line we have worked on – the underlying flow of the entire film.

Which will be the hardest part of all – where the production manager and I have to make the call on “do we cut this or keep it?…shit!”

LOL

It will be tempting to make it longer and longer … but there is a reason “director’s cuts” are sometimes 30-40 minutes longer than theatrical releases (Troy for example) – we’re not only communicating a message we find important, but telling a story as well.

There has to be a balance between the two. A true art, that thank god I have help with from the veteran production manager.

This sounds really interesting, but I’m still not sure what the hell this is all about.

A fair enough criticism (if stated in that manner), not only of “the doc”, but even of The 21 Convention.

My only response is this – have faith, and patience, as this is something that is continually evolving each and every day (a good thing in my eyes).

The themes of these two items are not entirely separate either. In fact, a driving force behind the start of this documentary was to “set the record straight” on what this convention is really about, and where it’s all heading (issues we have certainly addressed in the interviews thus far and will continue to dig into, although if you already watched Fuji’s short clip that was probably pretty apparent!).

Admittedly, this is something I have failed to put into words. But perhaps that is the blessing in disguise of this documentary – I don’t have to do it alone. We’re bringing together independent ideas from some of the biggest speakers in years gone by at this event – and as corny as it sounds, I think together we’re going to be able to lay the brick and mortar of this event for years to come, and maybe, even a whole lot more than that.

In any case, we’ll be releasing tid bits like the one above of Dj Fuji leading up to the release of the doc. In doing so, we leave you the viewer to make your own assumptions on just what the hell this is all leading to =).

Expect “the doc” to release in early May 2010, in multiple segments, free to the world. We will also release the finished product via DVD for those who wish to own a physical copy or have slower internet connections.

Stay tuned here on The21Convention.com for more info and sneak peaks.

-Dream