Scott W. Davis
03-07-2005, 12:26 AM
If you head over one of the e.i. Independent Cinema pages - that's Shock-O-Rama (http://www.shock-o-rama.com/#news), Seduction Cinema (http://www.seductioncinema.com/news.htm) and of course MistyMundae.com (http://www.mistymundae.com/news/index.html), you will see a story about the latest Ventura Summit. Also included for download is a couple promo reels from the convention. If you download the SHOCK-O-RAMA: A Year of Shocks (http://www.eicinema.com/trailers/SHOCK-O-RAMA-dsl.wmv) presentation, you may notice some familiar names. Horror Express gets a couple mentions in the promo reel. Meaning, we enter pure Ebert territory as being a blurb-worthy site. :woot:
Horror Express would like to thank Michael Raso and the folks at e.i. for remembering us when they were chroncling their much-deserved success. I'm a fan of these flicks, so I guarantee that I'll keep watching them and reviewing them. And keep us on that screener list. Good luck for the future guys and thanks again.
There's also a separate reel about the restorative efforts of Retro Seduction Cinema (http://www.eicinema.com/trailers/RETRO-RESTORATION-dsl.wmv) worth looking at. Here's the body of the story:
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"03-05-2005 - eiCINEMA ATTENDS 2005 VENTURA SUMMIT
ei Independent Cinema was a recent participant in the 2005 (and 4th Annual) Ventura Summit, held February 16 - 18, at the 5-star Bacara Resort & Spa, in Santa Barbara, CA. Each year the Summit brings together top indie labels (Showtime Home Video, Urban Works, Tokyo Pop, ei Cinema, MPI, to name a few) and the buyers from major retailers & e-tailers nationwide including Blockbuster, Best Buy, Musicland, and Netflix. The purpose of the event, thanks to host Ventura Distribution? To open up, nurture, and maintain the direct lines of communication and free flow of ideas between supplier (home video label), distributor (Ventura), and customer (retailer) for the purpose of doing better business together in the ever-changing landscape of the home entertainment marketplace. One-on-one, round-table discussions between labels and buyers, panel presentations, and marketing and technology symposia filled the morning and afternoon sessions; cocktails, dinner, screenings (Showtime premiered the first episode of its new series, "Fat Actress," starring Kirstie Ally), and a Las Vegas-styled poker event made the evenings a special treat.
ei hasn't missed a Summit, and the studio was thrilled to be part of the most productive one yet. On Thursday, it had the opportunity to screen a 4 minute Shock-O-Rama Cinema "A Year of Shocks" promotional reel highlighting the success of the Shock-O-Rama horror label - a label that was officially launched just one short year ago at the 2004 Summit. The captive audience of fellow labels, retailers, and Ventura personnel enjoyed the entertaining, lighthearted, yet informative piece that included clips from 2004 and upcoming 2005 Shock-O releases, footage from an impressive array of promotional events the label attended in 2004, and a detailed breakdown of the strong and creative marketing support and advertising muscle ei puts behind the Shock-O-Rama label and each of its releases.
ei also had the chance to premiere its Retro-Seduction Cinema "Retro-Restoration" promotional reel - a 4 minute piece that details the extensive, passionate, and painstaking lengths to which the retro erotica label goes to bring classic erotica features as well as long-forgotten, long-lost, or previously neglected sexploitation films to fans and aficionados worldwide. From film elements recovery and restoration, to producing brand new interviews with and mini-documentaries on legendary erotica producers, artists, actors, and moviemakers and their films, to 16x9 hi-definition mastering, the "Retro-Restoration" promo, featuring ei Cinema President Michael Raso, tells the Retro-Seduction Cinema raison d'etre in entertaining and informative fashion.
Of special note is the longevity of the warm, long-standing, and successful exclusive relationship that has existed between ei Cinema and Ventura Distribution: they are celebrating their ninth year together - an impressive feat considering the mercurial, often cut-throat nature of the home entertainment industry. Over the years, Ventura has grown to become the leading distributor of independent product in the U.S., rivaling and often out-performing the major studios in market share in certain genres, and ei takes pride that its releases on the Seduction Cinema, Shock-O-Rama Cinema, and Retro-Seduction Cinema labels have certainly done their part in making that happen.
This year's Summit retail attendees included Amazon.com, Best Buy, Blockbuster Entertainment, Borders Books & Music, Fred Meyer, Musicland Group (Suncoast Motion Picture, Sam Goody, Media Play), Netflix, Newbury Comics, Tower Video, TransWorld Entertainment (f.y.e., Coconuts, Strawberries, Saturday Matinee), Virgin, and military distributor EURPAC."
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But don't take our word for it, check out e.i.'s sites to read more news about their upcoming stuff.
Horror Express would like to thank Michael Raso and the folks at e.i. for remembering us when they were chroncling their much-deserved success. I'm a fan of these flicks, so I guarantee that I'll keep watching them and reviewing them. And keep us on that screener list. Good luck for the future guys and thanks again.
There's also a separate reel about the restorative efforts of Retro Seduction Cinema (http://www.eicinema.com/trailers/RETRO-RESTORATION-dsl.wmv) worth looking at. Here's the body of the story:
**************
"03-05-2005 - eiCINEMA ATTENDS 2005 VENTURA SUMMIT
ei Independent Cinema was a recent participant in the 2005 (and 4th Annual) Ventura Summit, held February 16 - 18, at the 5-star Bacara Resort & Spa, in Santa Barbara, CA. Each year the Summit brings together top indie labels (Showtime Home Video, Urban Works, Tokyo Pop, ei Cinema, MPI, to name a few) and the buyers from major retailers & e-tailers nationwide including Blockbuster, Best Buy, Musicland, and Netflix. The purpose of the event, thanks to host Ventura Distribution? To open up, nurture, and maintain the direct lines of communication and free flow of ideas between supplier (home video label), distributor (Ventura), and customer (retailer) for the purpose of doing better business together in the ever-changing landscape of the home entertainment marketplace. One-on-one, round-table discussions between labels and buyers, panel presentations, and marketing and technology symposia filled the morning and afternoon sessions; cocktails, dinner, screenings (Showtime premiered the first episode of its new series, "Fat Actress," starring Kirstie Ally), and a Las Vegas-styled poker event made the evenings a special treat.
ei hasn't missed a Summit, and the studio was thrilled to be part of the most productive one yet. On Thursday, it had the opportunity to screen a 4 minute Shock-O-Rama Cinema "A Year of Shocks" promotional reel highlighting the success of the Shock-O-Rama horror label - a label that was officially launched just one short year ago at the 2004 Summit. The captive audience of fellow labels, retailers, and Ventura personnel enjoyed the entertaining, lighthearted, yet informative piece that included clips from 2004 and upcoming 2005 Shock-O releases, footage from an impressive array of promotional events the label attended in 2004, and a detailed breakdown of the strong and creative marketing support and advertising muscle ei puts behind the Shock-O-Rama label and each of its releases.
ei also had the chance to premiere its Retro-Seduction Cinema "Retro-Restoration" promotional reel - a 4 minute piece that details the extensive, passionate, and painstaking lengths to which the retro erotica label goes to bring classic erotica features as well as long-forgotten, long-lost, or previously neglected sexploitation films to fans and aficionados worldwide. From film elements recovery and restoration, to producing brand new interviews with and mini-documentaries on legendary erotica producers, artists, actors, and moviemakers and their films, to 16x9 hi-definition mastering, the "Retro-Restoration" promo, featuring ei Cinema President Michael Raso, tells the Retro-Seduction Cinema raison d'etre in entertaining and informative fashion.
Of special note is the longevity of the warm, long-standing, and successful exclusive relationship that has existed between ei Cinema and Ventura Distribution: they are celebrating their ninth year together - an impressive feat considering the mercurial, often cut-throat nature of the home entertainment industry. Over the years, Ventura has grown to become the leading distributor of independent product in the U.S., rivaling and often out-performing the major studios in market share in certain genres, and ei takes pride that its releases on the Seduction Cinema, Shock-O-Rama Cinema, and Retro-Seduction Cinema labels have certainly done their part in making that happen.
This year's Summit retail attendees included Amazon.com, Best Buy, Blockbuster Entertainment, Borders Books & Music, Fred Meyer, Musicland Group (Suncoast Motion Picture, Sam Goody, Media Play), Netflix, Newbury Comics, Tower Video, TransWorld Entertainment (f.y.e., Coconuts, Strawberries, Saturday Matinee), Virgin, and military distributor EURPAC."
****************
But don't take our word for it, check out e.i.'s sites to read more news about their upcoming stuff.