Thursday, December 13, 2007

TURKISH 60's EERIE WEIRD LOST GEM

Hey, today I got a screener of the first 7 minutes of a 60's movie that I totally ignored.And after a quick net search I found out there's no english mention of it.Turkish sites only have its credits at database sites, nothing more.I therefore suspect it is a totally forgotten and lost film.If it wasn't I really wonder why nobody had ever even mentioned the title to me.I made up a 2 minutes teaser off those 7 mins.My jaw really dropped on the floor.BUT, I'm a real teaser myself, so I skipped title and credits!I'll put up a better trailer and title etc some time next year after I buy the whole movie of course.Here is this little teaser and I'm waiting for your comments...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7OsM0kyPLc

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

DEMIR PENCE KORSAN ADAM DVD, out late January

I just uploaded the cover and the specifics for my next DVD, due out late January, DEMIR PENCE KORSAN ADAM (IRON CLAW THE PIRATE).
PENCE pronounced "pen-'cheh"

VIEW MOVIE TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUNxtVe-Kvw

What I must point out is the new situation.

Inevitably, all my future releases will come out in 500 NUMBERED COPIES.
So far I've been trying to offer 1200 copies per title but the demand was not up to that.

Sadly, my costs will remain almost the same (Copyrights, authoring, extras etc) which means the prices WOULD have to go up by 100% BUT I will just raise them by 30-40% ONLY.
My final profit will be MUCH MUCH less than that of 1200 copies but as you know I'm not in it for the profit but for the fan.

I know that a large number of people will shy away from my DVD's due to the high price BUT I want to believe that there will be at least 500 faithful fans who will spend some more cash for the MOST LIMITED RELEASES on earth.

Monday, November 19, 2007

ONAR'S RIGHT HAND IS DEAD!

It took me a while to find the heart to sit down and write a few lines about the biggest strike both in ONAR's existence and in Turkish Cult Cinema in general.
About a month ago, my good friend and main helper Metin Demirhan, was about to take some important interviews on my behalf, in Istanbul.
Then, sudden silence...
A few days later, I get news from a common friend that Metin was in intensive care with brain bleeding, in a deep coma.
10 days later I hear that he's starting to move his eyes and his fingers and everybody believed it was a miracle and he would wake up.
On November 1, Metin passes away.
Our common friend, and famous journalist Ali Murat Guven, attended the funeral and sent me photos with his coffin etc.
I don't want to look at them and I don't want to accept he is not with us.
I was keeping all his emails bacause there was precious info in all of them and because I just liked them.
I still see his last email, telling me he's about to interview those guys and I'm still waiting for his email, telling me everything is ready.
I remember, 5 months ago, he was ready to get an interview from Yesim Yukselen, a sexy vamp playing in lots of cult movies.
She was not really old.
Suddenly, Metin tells me that the day before the interview she just died.
He was totally shocked. Said she was like a mother to him.
I guess he was feeling cold with the touch of death that took a dear friend.
Maybe cold because he realised death is unpredictable.
Maybe lucky because it wasn't him.
Maybe appreciated life better.
And now?
He's simply dead and buried.
As Ali Murat put it to me :
{ He worked for the art of cinema in all his lifetime. He never saw a 1000 USD together in his long working years in the media. If he had a cup of coffee and a packet of cigarettes, then he was always happy and smiling like a little child. He wanted nothing for himself, he always wanted to live inside the great family of cult film lovers from all over the world.
He was always poor and “no-budget” like the movies which he was interested in and wrote about}

He took all recent interviews for me. There is also a personal interview with him in my TURKISH HORROR DOUBLE BILL DVD.
Luckily, just a month before his tragic demise, he took 2 interviews for me. His last interviews.
One with Yilmaz Atadeniz (Kilink, Casus Kiran etc) and one with Irfan Atasoy (Star in all of Atadeniz's Fantastic films).
I will include them in future releases of course.
He wrote the cult and unrepeatable book TURKISH FANTASTIC CINEMA and he was shooting a cheap gory film since last year, which regretably remained unfinished ( Baltam Gelecek Kellen Gidecek!) (My axe will come, your head will go!).
He also ran some blogs, like http://fantastiksinema.blogspot.com/ and http://www.yilmazatadeniz.blogspot.com/
It is totally macabre to check them out. They feel like some kind of orphans to me. Who will take care of them now?
Ok, I'm absolutely freaked out by this horrible loss and I really feel the whole Onar project kind of useless.
He was my biggest fan and biggest admirer and biggest assistance.
The least I can do from now on is to dedicate all my dvd's to him and call them something like "METIN DEMIRHAN COLLECTION".
He deserves it. He was the one who started all this "trend" and he made so many films known and sought after, through his book.
..................................................................................................................................................................

Monday, October 15, 2007

SOME THOUGHTS FOR THE FUTURE(?)...

So, TARZAN ISTANBUL'DA DVD is finally out. "So what?" must have been the first response of "fans", provided they even knew about it.
It came out last Friday, October 12th and since then I was forced to re-think about Onar's future.
To cut a long story short, sales dropped even more.
I managed to sell a few copies the first day of release and since then, ZERO, NIX, NADA, CAPUT, etc.
My older releases used to have a particular dynamics. I kept selling a few items every day for about a month and then things slowed down.
Now, I sold a few dvd's for 1 day and then everything stopped.
Even worse, half my wholesale clients quit buying from me and the few that remained just ordered 3-5 dvd's for the sake of appearances.
Ok, I still have 1 good and faithful wholesale client and thanks to him I'm still in business.
So, now it's as good a time as ever to face the reality and fight with it.
Although over the past months I've been trying to improve my products in every possible way and although I dropped the prices by 2-3 euro and although lots of people admit and appreciate it, the result is nevertheless negative and leathal.
It's obvious that there are not 1200 fans of this genre on earth who can support me.
So, I must address to the correct number of fans that is not even 500.
Now, my idea is this:
I will quit pressing 1200 pieces.
I will be pressing a SUPER-MEGA-LIMITED edition of 500 copies.
However, since my costs will remain the same (COPYRIGHTS- AUTHORING- SUBS- FACTORY etc) I will have to raise the price.
But since I will stick to only one wholesale customer who will buy a small quantity and since I will have to sell the rest alone I will be able to keep prices at a reasonable level.
Normally, since all costs will be the same while the copies will go down to 500, the prices would have to go more than double.
But now, I figure I will be able to retail them at only 23-25 euro, while my faithful retailer will probably offer them at a similar price.
Now if you have heard of a more limited edition at a cheaper price, go ahead and post it here!
As for my previous plan of releasing 1 dvd per month I guess it will have to be modified according to people's response.
For the moment, I'll still try to release CASUS KIRAN in November, on 1200 copies.
But after that, right now I don't know which film I must release, or when.
I wish I could afford Christmas time.
I'm ready to listen to your thoughts and ideas.
You can just post them via a comment here.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

NEWS-COMING SOON etc

SEPTEMBER 23- 2007

As you can see at Tarzan's extras, there is a new addition. I managed to secure a never-before-seen lost check sequence. It is a mute 40 seconds camera test before the actual shooting. We can see the director Orhan Atadeniz, Kunt Tulgar playing Tarzan as a child etc. The release date is likely to be October 10.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

I thought that some people might care to know that I'm about to lay my hands on some "lost" turkish old films.
I had been looking for them and asking for them for 3 years now. Everybody around the world, everybody in Turkey insisted that I should give up on them. I had unleashed the best hounds after those titles. I had made the best connections in the turkish cinema industry. I had offered enormous rewards for the finders.
BUT, even before me, all the strongest collectors had spent a lifetime searching for them. The actors AND directors of those films had been looking for them too! I, too, had pronounced them "officially lost".
BUT, my greek village is known for its crazy people. And like a crazy man, I never ceased the quest.
And NOW, I received official confirmation that many of those titles were discovered in 16mm prints! The guys are ready to make contracts with me, BUT if I don't see screeners of the films I can NOT believe the story. BUT, to get screeners I must pay loads of cash. AND even if the films ARE there, I must pay to acquire them. Plus, the license fees are enormous. And since my sales are going from bad to worse I feel totally frustrated.
As for the titles, I just can't announce them before I actually see the screeners and this will obviously take some time. Besides, right now, I feel as anxious and nervous and frustrated as ever, so here's a nice chance for you to share some of my anticipation and curiosity...

FINALLY...

I thought I'd kill my dvd's prices for a while hoping this will boost sales up a bit. I need urgent cash for my new finds as I explained above. So, as of today until October 31 ALL ONAR DVD'S WILL BE 2 EURO CHEAPER & ALL TURKISH IMPORTS WILL BE 4 EURO CHEAPER!!

OCTOBER 3

I'm afraid I'm getting boring and predictable but as ALWAYS, more fuckups with the TARZAN DVD. I was supposed to have taken the master to the factory last week already.
Suddenly, after an endless remastering, I found out that the sound had been completely discoordinated! The studio guys confessed this was an unprecedented phenomenon.
Then they did what needed to bring the sound back to order and started adjusting the subtitles.
But, for some satanic reason, the english subtitles refuse to sit on their place! They seem to have come alive! They just REFUSE to sit where they're supposed to! And this is another phenomenon according to those frustrated people! They promised everything will be taken care of by this weekend and this Monday, October 8th, the master will go to the factory. And it will be ready for sale after about 10 days...hopefully.

OCTOBER 7

Ok, the master is ready! Tomorrow I'm taking it to the factory and it's quite probable the DVD will be in my hands on Friday 12th.

And I guess you have already checked my next- after TARZAN- DVD, CASUS KIRAN (SPY SMASHER).