Distributor to DCP: Without 200K, "Witnesses" Will Flop

[malkie]

I think you've got it, Philo! You've definitely got it! The mopologist method of causal relationships... any little, teeny-tiny (albeit vague, or even totally unseen by the rest of the world) comparison means... there's a chance! Probability be damned-- There's definitely a non-zero chance!!!

And using Bayes Theorem with probability on some things, you can find 1 chance in 345,345,76,7866,890,7,,5,455,66777,88,9,9,87,5,54,4,4445,5,,6,7,78888,,9,8,8766,5,5,,4,,4,4,45556677878,8,888 that something could not possibly be false or known!!!

hmmmmm, I think I have to challenge the results of your calculation - in fact, I suspect that you just randomly typed the digits of that number.

You see, there is only one '0', and there are no '1's or '2's in it, and there is only

1 chance in 345,345,76,7866,890,7,,5,455,66777,88,9,9,87,5,54,4,4445,5,,6,7,78888,,9,8,8766,5,5,,4,,4,4,45556677878,8,888

that that could happen in real life.

[Philo Sofee]

And using Bayes Theorem with probability on some things, you can find 1 chance in 345,345,76,7866,890,7,,5,455,66777,88,9,9,87,5,54,4,4445,5,,6,7,78888,,9,8,8766,5,5,,4,,4,4,45556677878,8,888 that something could not possibly be false or known!!!

hmmmmm, I think I have to challenge the results of your calculation - in fact, I suspect that you just randomly typed the digits of that number.

You see, there is only one '0', and there are no '1's or '2's in it, and there is only

1 chance in 345,345,76,7866,890,7,,5,455,66777,88,9,9,87,5,54,4,4445,5,,6,7,78888,,9,8,8766,5,5,,4,,4,4,45556677878,8,888

that that could happen in real life.

I love it!

[kairos]

Ok I think Dan could easily get a loan for the $200k and pay it back easily with success at the box office. It tellls me that the film is in big trouble when one figures that would be more than 1/6 th of the total funding of the film about $1.2 million. My own take since the beginning that Dan cannot win with this subject as the theme. Another thought is the distributor just can't produce a significant trailer that will bring people to the theaters. Recall also GBH paying Mark Hoffman maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars for those embarrassing documents. Why can't ENSIGN Peak bail the film out?

by the way who besides Taves is on the "critic" side of the opinion spectrum?

k

by the way 2: the rumor is that besides masking and social distancing theater goers must wear blindfolders!!

[Moksha]

I can see Dr. Peterson's quandary. If Witnesses does not objectively show some merit such a good box office receipt, or glowing reviews from General Authorities, then how will the Interpreter be able to produce future films?

[Philo Sofee]

I can see Dr. Peterson's quandary. If Witnesses does not objectively show some merit such a good box office receipt, or glowing reviews from General Authorities, then how will the Interpreter be able to produce future films?

If brains were taxed, he'd get a rebate.

[Doctor Scratch]

I see that there's been an update on the progress of the "Witnesses" film, including an apparently inadvertent update on whether or not the film will have the kind of "reach" that DCP thinks it should have, and which, evidently, will require an extra $200K. Check it out:

Tonight, my wife and I joined with the producer and the director of the Witnesses film project and most of its principal cast members in order to share the theatrical poster for the film and the movie trailer. The trailer and the poster are being featured in a large number of Megaplex theaters, just before showings of The Forgotten Carols. However, according to current plans, they’ll go fully public sometime in January.

This is interesting, and it raises some questions. First, what does he mean when he says that he "joined with the producer and the director...and most of its principal cast members"? Did they get together via Zoom, or did they meet up at one of the Megaplex theaters? That he would omit this detail seems pretty telling. My guess is that, despite the fact that the pandemic is in its worst phase, with infection rates soaring, they actually all "gathered" at the theater. Then again, I guess it's still possible that they screened the trailer via Zoom. Who knows?

The second interesting tidbit is his assertion that the trailer and posters are "in a large number of Megaplex theaters." What does that mean to you? What's a "large number"? 100? 250? 1,000? It turns out, thanks to a quick Google search, that there are a grand total of 16 Megaplex theaters--15 in Utah and 1 in Nevada. Well, hey: apparently there is going to be a 17 location in Idaho in 2021. And he didn't specify that the trailer was in all 16 of the theaters--just "a large number." So, let's say 10 maybe?

Perhaps most intriguing of all, though, is the notion that "they'll go fully public sometime in January." Great! We'll at last get to see the "official" trailer! DCP seems prepared, at last, for us to see it:

Fortunately, negative reviews (if any additional ones appear) won’t bother me. The worst of them have already been written by implacable and obsessive critics who haven’t laid eyes on the film, and I’ve already read them.

Look: I get that criticism of the first "trailer" was pretty tough. I mean, there were some ridiculous errors in it, including that wireless mic clipped to the back of the guy's pants. He should be grateful to us for helping him to improve his movie.

In any case, I'll definitely be looking forward to watching the trailer in January!

[Lem]

....Perhaps most intriguing of all, though, is the notion that "they'll go fully public sometime in January." Great! We'll at last get to see the "official" trailer! DCP seems prepared, at last, for us to see it:

Fortunately, negative reviews (if any additional ones appear) won’t bother me. The worst of them have already been written by implacable and obsessive critics who haven’t laid eyes on the film, and I’ve already read them.

That's a pretty facile and utterly misleading summing up of the 'reviews' here. People's specific comments on the film were almost exclusively based on aspects of the trailer, so to imply that our reviews are invalid because we haven't seen the entire film is disingenuous. It's too bad, because if he really was interested in spreading it beyond Mormon audiences, he would have taken full advantage of our assessments. A focus group analysis never hurts. Surely his producers and distributors are telling him that.

[Everybody Wang Chung]

The second interesting tidbit is his assertion that the trailer and posters are "in a large number of Megaplex theaters." What does that mean to you? What's a "large number"? 100? 250? 1,000? It turns out, thanks to a quick Google search, that there are a grand total of 16 Megaplex theaters--15 in Utah and 1 in Nevada. Well, hey: apparently there is going to be a 17 location in Idaho in 2021. And he didn't specify that the trailer was in all 16 of the theaters--just "a large number." So, let's say 10

It looks like there are currently 301 movie theaters in Utah: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/uni ... tah?page=1

If DCP’s poster is in 10 theaters, that’s less than 4% of all theaters in Utah and more than 96% of the theaters in Utah do not have the poster.

Not a very good marketing strategy. It sure looks like DCP is setting this movie up for financial failure. This certainly adds credence to the many rumors that this whole enterprise was just a scam for DCP to line his pockets. Time will tell.

[Mixman76]

As one who has worked on many, Mormon films, most of these filmmakers are only in it for the money. There is one exception that I know of, but the rest are just unscrupulous, mediocre and cheapskate producers who prey upon TBMs who are taught that Hollywood movies are inherently evil. They pay their vendors, crew and actors as little as possible and keep most of the profits. It’s a good business model for them as producers, pretty crappy for the rest of the people working for them. I suspect Witnesses is no different.

I mean Hollywood producers can be just as bad! But at least there are unions who pay people a living wage and provide benefits for their crew.

[IHAQ]

So basically 1 person at Megaplex is the only interested party so far, and even they have tucked the trailer away into a graveyard advertising slot. The £200k is an attempt to get someone else, anyone else, to take a look?

I think the donors deserve a full accounting and enquiry as to where all the money has gone. Along with evidence that the Co-Producers have tipped in their fair share.