Hey all, Time for the third installment of SlapstickStuff's new "Just The Hits" series, and this time it's the queen of sarcasm, slingshots, and super unpredictability: GINGER! HD.SlapstickStuff.com SlapstickStuff.Vidown.com
It's no secret that Ginger is one of my friends AND a favorite to shoot with. And because of (or despite) that, her scenes tend to veer WIDELY off script. There's a lot more ad-libs.... and engaging with the producer... and mess... and skin. So even editing all her clips down to JUST the essence, this compilation still runs over 30 minutes! And to give you more bang for the buck (and to simplify my life), I went ahead and included all her slimings in the same clip as well. I'm not sure if this will happen for EVERY model, but it works well for Ginger: She's got quite a few "standard" slimings (model says "I don't know," stuff falls on head)... But there's also some "slime tossing" (those are the pics where she looks like a rainbow)... And some dumping/pouring (usually when I "accidentally" tip a bowl over her head)... And the occasional slime smearing. You'll also see a lot of interaction with Cassandra (even though her hits are mostly absent)... which means I'm mixing HD *and* SD clips for the first time. For those who care: The HD stuff will either be 720p or 480p, depending which download you get... But the SD stuff will be its original size (480p) regardless. Let me know if you like this arrangement moving forward. (It seemed criminal NOT to include her debut "Dueling Nurses" scene, so that made my decision easy.)
Whew! Enough nuts and bolts. A few relevant pics below, and the clips are in both the HD and "Original" Download Stores. Enjoy!
So a few more odds & ends along with a PLEA for feedback....
--First, I'm sale-pricing the clip at $9.99. This seems more than reasonable, considering it contains all the bits from 7 scenes that cost between $6 and $10 EACH. But it's hard to know how to price these compilations, which leads to...
--Question #1: Do you WANT to see compilations? Many MANY customers suggested this idea, so it seemed a no-brainer. But once I started releasing them, the marketplace kinda shrugged. But some of that may be pricing, or content, or type of comp, which leads to...
--Question #2: Do "single model" compilations work? I asked for feedback/suggestions for future comps last time, and got another shrug. So I'm just guessing here. I've done multiple model comps that basically consist of "first hit" or "first slime," and those are still ongoing. For more comprehensive clips like "Just The Hits," it seems better to narrow the focus to just a single model. Otherwise I'm releasing comps like "Every pie hit from the first 3 months of 2006," or something very random. OR...
--Question #3: Do you want to see themes? And if so, which ones? Because some are too broad (one customer suggested "bikini scenes," which is fine but would probably require 10-15 separate clips)... Some are too narrow ("Pigtails" would be 4 scenes total)... And some probably won't sell ("Top Hats," I assume). But something like "Girl v. Girl" or "Tit for Tat" would work, although it would probably span several clips and I'd probably leave some scenes & hits out. Which leads to...
--Question #4: How about "curated" comps? Something in between super comprehensive and skimming the surface... Maybe a series of "Classics" where I'll highlight all the pies or slimes from the biggest-selling clips over the years, similar to a band's "Greatest Hits" album. The one problem? All customers have a different idea of what the "best" clips are. So a "Classics" comp could be a nice overview with a lot of great hits and models for a reasonable price... Or it could be a pointless clip that's missing your favorite model or scene so why buy it? And that would vary, person to person.
Anyway, give me thoughts & ideas. Putting a comp clip together takes less time than editing a brand-new scene, and obviously a LOT less money than shooting a brand-new scene, but it's not a quick process. So I'd prefer to focus my time & energy on what people want to see most.
Regis said: Damn, dude. Next time I'm in NC I need to hang out with you and your friends. Or just your friends!
Well, she doesn't live in NC. And we don't hang all that much. But beyond that... I'm happy to introduce you to my non-model friends tho. Some of them bear a passing resemblance to Bea Arthur. You'd be in heaven!
Probably not. She's a fine model and does good work elsewhere, but I thought she was only OK with the pie thing. (In fairness, she'd previously shot with Scumbag Chris, so it took a while for her to "shake off" that impression of all WAMmers during the shoot.)
Also, she didn't really sell very well. And FBOW, bottom line is the name of the game. If a model is good, and wants to come back, and turns a profit on her previous shoot... Then she's probably coming back. If any of those three prerequisites are missing... Probably not.
Shelly, for instance? Not a huge seller. But very very good. And I've never lost money on any of her shoots. Which is more than I can say for a few new models from the past year.
pieandslimeonly said: Will you be shooting with Stacy from volume 139 again?
Stacy has also shot with Ken from Anglefan. Maybe you should ask him if he has any other "unreleased" scenes with Stacy in them. Here is a few of her with Anglefan.
pieandslimeonly said: Will you be shooting with Stacy from volume 139 again?
Stacy has also shot with Ken from Anglefan. Maybe you should ask him if he has any other "unreleased" scenes with Stacy in them. Here is a few of her with Anglefan.
Yes Mr Pies, you're right about that. Unfortunately, Stacy didn't sell that well for me either despite having a lot of fun with her friend Angela at that shoot last summer. And no, there are no other unreleased scenes of Stacy. If I come back to her neck of the woods, never say never! Rich's video of her is really good - I bought it and thought she was awesome.
SStuff said: So a few more odds & ends along with a PLEA for feedback....
--Question #1: Do you WANT to see compilations? Many MANY customers suggested this idea, so it seemed a no-brainer. But once I started releasing them, the marketplace kinda shrugged. But some of that may be pricing, or content, or type of comp, which leads to...
Rich, I know you're a record collector, and you even brought up the analogy of a greatest hits album elsewhere in your post. So I'm going to really run with the parallels to the music industry here. You said a "curated compilation" of clips from across the years would like a greatest hits album by a band. But really, that kind of very broad comp would be more like a label-specific or genre-specific anthology that drew on songs by many artists (i.e. models in your case). Each of the types of compilation clips you talk about is, in it's own way, a hits collection. The ones you've been doing recently are quite deep dives into the back catalog of a specific model, true, but they're still collections of entirely recycled material.
I'm really NOT putting them down when I describe them that way. I just think it's unrealistic to think these collections of "old" clips would sell really well right out of the gate, for the same reason that musical artists' greatest hits albums rarely burn their way up the charts when they are released. There are a few exceptions here and there, but if you look at a lot of chart statistics, you'll find that most bands chart far better with their "regular" albums than they do with their GH releases. The anthologies don't tend to generate a lot of excitement or momentum when they first appear, precisely because they are composed of material that anybody in the know has already heard (granted, they might add the "collector bait" of one or two new songs.)
On the other hand, the GH album often becomes the go-to purchase for casual fans and sells slowly but very steadily over time. And unless they're released way beyond an artists' chart prime (I'm talking to you, Led Zeppelin and Fleetwood Mac), GH collections tend to become an artist's best selling album over the long haul, even for most artists who are more celebrated for their albums than their hit singles.
Assuming someone has never bought any Ginger videos before, the compilation clip of her work looks like a very good deal, especially at your sale price of $10. But to me it seems likely that most of the people who are A) ready to regularly plunk down cash on downloads (a fairly small minority of UMD users, it would seem) and B) most drawn to Ginger probably have already bought at least a couple of the clips of hers that appealed most to them when they were initially released. So now do they want to spend $10 to get a highights clip that will include excerpts of the stuff they've already bought, plus excerpts of the other clips? I'm guessing a lot of these folks might prefer to either just buy another full clip of Ginger's for a few dollars less, or perhaps buy a clip of a different model altogether. So right there, you've already lost the sale of most of the people who like Ginger the best. There are still all the people who haven't bought any Ginger clips to appeal to, of course -- you want to hook the "casual Ginger fans," to continue the music analogy, the ones who wouldn't buy a whole full-priced "album" by her but might spring for a hits collection with a "Nice Price" sticker on the front. I would guess that this clip -- and all your other model-specific comps -- will sell steadily but slowly, gradually outselling the "regular" clips by those same models. But that's going to take a lot of time.
PM, those are all good points. I feel like a few GH comps *have* sold very well straight out the box.... The Beatles' "1" for instance. Then again, The Beatles.
Just comparing Carrie to Britney, you'd assume the Carrie comps would be bigger sellers... Since we're talking 12 scenes vs. 7, and her clips have sold better. But Britney was the bigger seller. Maybe price?
Anyway. The only other models I planned to "comp" were Lyndsay, Jen (maybe with all their SD stuff too), and Jill. I suppose Deana and Toshia could work too. (The Toshia comp would need to be 2 parts!) But it's not a deep pool of 3- and 4-timers.
Interestingly enough, my earlier comps--that focus on JUST first slimes or initial pie hits, but with multiple models and volumes--have all sold VERY well, straight out of the box. And continue to do so. (And after a month on the UMD, the six pie and slime comps are far and away the best sellers.) Which is why I'm thinking "curated" comps could work better. Or themed comps.
But I'd definitely love more feedback. I was assuming the primary audience for these would either be folks who were being thrifty (if you don't care about buildup, you're basically getting $50 worth of content for $10) or those "curious" about a model. I do agree that the biggest "fans" of said model would actually NOT be the audience, since they probably own everything already. (This is why I needed exclusive bonus tracks!!)
SStuff said: PM, those are all good points. I feel like a few GH comps *have* sold very well straight out the box.... The Beatles' "1" for instance. Then again, The Beatles.
You're right, of course. That one was a total blockbuster. The earlier Beatles hits packages, the double LPs 1962-66 and 1967-70, sold great too (making it to #3 and #1, respectively, on the charts back in '73).
The Beach Boys' Endless Summer, released one year after those Beatles packages, also sold really well, hitting #1 (a feat no regular Beach Boys studio album or anthology ever accomplished. Their only other #1 album was a live thing from 1964.) And the ELV1S: 30 No. 1 Hits album of 2002 went to #1 on the US pop AND country charts, as well as being a UK #1 album.
I'm sure there are more examples, especially in the UK, where greatest hits packages tend to chart better anyway, but those are a few I know of off the top of my head. (In the UK, the two biggest selling albums of all time are Queen and Abba greatest hits packages. In the U.S., those honors go to Thriller and the Eagles GH Vol. 1).
SStuff said:Just comparing Carrie to Britney, you'd assume the Carrie comps would be bigger sellers... Since we're talking 12 scenes vs. 7, and her clips have sold better. But Britney was the bigger seller. Maybe price?
Or maybe it's that factor I was talking about before. A lot more people already owned some of the full Carrie clips, which may well have made the Britney comp appealing to more people, especially at its lower price point.
SStuff said:Interestingly enough, my earlier comps--that focus on JUST first slimes or initial pie hits, but with multiple models and volumes--have all sold VERY well, straight out of the box. And continue to do so. (And after a month on the UMD, the six pie and slime comps are far and away the best sellers.) Which is why I'm thinking "curated" comps could work better. Or themed comps.
Since, as you said in another thread today, a lot of people tend to shop by model, this seems to make sense too. A lot of people probably already own a lot of clips by their very favorite models, which would really eat into model-specific comps' sales (since they're all focused on your best-selling models -- i.e. the ones you've brought back the most; I know Shelley came back a lot too, but you didn't mention her as a comp possibility, presumably because of her relatively lower sales). Comps that span a bunch of different models would seemingly be better at appealing to a wider cross section of WAM video buyers.