blog.starwreck.com

Konnichiwa!

The success story of Star Wreck is definitely not over! I’m happy and proud to announce you that as of this week, Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning - Imperial Edition is available also in Japan.

Released by AMG and Medallion Media, this wonderful package has it’s own sleeve design artwork, wonderful poster/liner notes - and as a cherry on top, a full, high-quality Japanese dub! This is definitively something we didn’t see coming when we released the film back in 2005, but this is again a proof that releasing a film for free doesn’t mean it’s worthless after that - more like the other way around!

Take a look at the front cover, and check out and excerpt of the film in Japanese! And I have a mission for you people - spread the word for your Japanese friends about this extraordinarily epic release! You can purchase a copy of Japanese SW:IE for example from here.

During my trip to Japan I also met the people from AMG and Medallion Media, and we had some pretty unforgettable time in the nightlife of Japan. They had invited me to the dinner, where I was introduced to sake, ebisu beer and potato-vodka, as well as traditional Japanese cuisine - a lot of sushi and items I had never eaten, nor never got to know what they exactly were, were brought to our table in an unending stream. We had a lot of interesting conversations about the film - they really knew what Star Wreck was about and loved it, and dropped some very good questions I was happy to answer about production and the story as well. As the evening grew darker we also visited a small Shinto temple and walked around the small streets of Tokyo, and I have to say I’m pretty amazed of the Japanese culture and state of mind.

First thing I learned that Tokyo, being one of the most populated areas in the world, is also one of the safest cities to visit. I was told that I could leave my laptop and wallet in the most crowded trainstation, and nobody would steal them. Actually, my friend Hector told me that his friend had forgotten a laptop to a tram during rush hour, and when he called the tram central, they had fould the laptop and had it delivered to his apartment in less than 20 minutes. The same guy, few months later, travelled to Europe, and the first thing that happened in Danish airport was when he was buying a bus ticket, turned away for a few seconds from his luggages, and the same laptop was stolen in just a few seconds.

In general, I have to say I’m very proud of this release, and so is everybody at Energia as well. When we released our film for the first time, we were just happy if many people would download it and like it. But when these new releases keep on popping here and there, it’s way beyond what we ever could have expected. I also hope that our story encourages many filmmakers working on their first productions to see the positive sides of releasing the film also for free. This way the film is right away available for viewing all over the world, and if the film is good, it’s value in other distribution medias is boosted drastically. Had we released Star Wreck just on a DVD, we wouldn’t be standing here at all, and we’d be cursing how the evil pirates steal our income. Today, we can happily give our film for free for everybody we want, the “piracy” doesn’t affect us at all (actually we are pretty darn proud of our Chinese and Russian pirate versions of SW:ITP :), and still can trust that those who really love it, also get the DVD.

Having said that, I would also like to point out that none of this would’ve been possible had we not had you, our dear community. Some of you have helped us in producing this film, and even more of you have helped us in getting the word spread around the internet, and still keep doing that. Energia team would like to collectively take our hats off and take a deep bow for every one of you that have made Star Wreck the thing it’s today! Arigato!

- Timo, Samuli, Jarmo, Atte, Antti and all the other weirdoes down at the Energia office in Tampere, Finland.

Update:
Here’s the Japanese trailer, it’s made by the distributor. It’s certainly different that our trailers. Download the trailer here (.wmv).

This entry was posted on Monday, October 1st, 2007 at 14:12 and is filed under English posts, General, Video, star wreck. You're welcome to comment below, or link to this post. The comments are not moderated, but behave or Santa will smack you with a shovel.