Direct-to-video la gi
Bloomberg LawBloomberg Law speaks with prominent attorneys and legal scholars, analyzing major legal issues and cases in the news. The show examines all aspects of the legal profession, from intellectual property to criminal law, from bankruptcy to securities law, drawing on the deep research tools of BloombergLaw.com and BloombergBNA.com. Reporters from Bloomberg's Washington, D.C. bureau are prominently featured as they offer analysis of policy and legal issues. Show http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DirectToVideo This entry is trivia, which is cool and all, but not a trope. On a work, it goes on the Trivia tab. Go To Exactly as good as it sounds. This is the practice of skipping theaters/television and just going straight to home video as the first release. This is generally not a good sign in terms of quality (especially if it was originally going to be released theatrically, but was consigned to video)—the term "direct-to-video" or "straight-to-video" often gets used as slang for "cheaply made, rushed, low quality", and in extreme cases, "complete bucket of crap". In the United States, while there have been plenty of direct-to-video films and such since the advent of home video, they were usually things that were considered financially unsound to release in theaters, like instructional videos, specialized documentaries, foreign films, films with controversial or niche subject matter, Z-grade low budget horror films, cartoon compilations, concert films, longform music videos, and pornography. The practice of creating and releasing regular fiction specifically for video didn't really take off until 1994 with Disney's Aladdin: The Return of Jafar and Universal's The Land Before Time II, neither of which were intended to hit theaters at any point in their production.note Other studios started following suit, hardly limited to child-oriented animation. In particular, independent studios and filmmakers quickly picked up on this distribution model, due to its lower distribution costs and reduced censorship (video stores will often stock unrated films that theaters won't touch). There is a distinct business model that drives the direct-to-video industry, particularly when it involves lower-quality films. One might think that churning out mediocre-to-bad movies on purpose would be a dumb idea, until one looks at the sales and rental figures. A cheap 70- to 90-minute film can be produced for as little as a few thousand dollars if you hire obscure actors, crew and writers (often non-union, and barely getting minimum wage), everything gets shot around the studio, and nothing is required that can't be obtained from the studio's stock wardrobe and props. Or, as has been trending since the mid-2000s, animation will now be done as pretty cheap CGI movies. The studio then usually makes about $3-5 million off this, most of it from sales to rental chains. It floods the market with tripe into which nobody put any true effort, but it still makes money in the long run. It's the modern equivalent of the B-Movie; in fact, many of these would be B movies if double features were still a regular thing. Some direct-to-video flicks will try to make lemonade of their lemons by claiming that their movie is "too intense", "too scary", "too well-written", "too sexy", or "too lavishly budgeted" for theaters; usually the viewers don't fall for it. It may be a sign that a series or franchise the movie is associated with has long since jumped the shark, or is about to very soon. Alternately, the movie could be a shameless ripoff of an existing, highly profitable franchise. A film that had a theatrical release in its home country might be released direct-to-video internationally note . This may be due to several factors: it might be a sign that the film was a complete failure in its home country, or it might be because the subject matter or style limit its appeal in a particular foreign market. It's also common for a film made and released direct-to-video in its home country to be released theatrically in other countries — for instance, Bambi II and Honey 2 were both released straight to video in the US and Canada, but given theatrical runs in Europe. Further still, works that were originally intended to be direct-to-video end up getting retrofitted to show on television or in theaters. Usually, only some minimal editing is done to make it fit for theaters, but there have been cases where the project was intervened midway and beefed up to make it quite a bit better. An example of the former is Doug's 1st Movie, which was put into theaters after the success of The Rugrats Movie. A famous example of the latter is Toy Story 2, on which Pixar expanded tremendously for its theatrical release, along with another Disney film, Recess: School's Out. In Japan, where the business model is referred to in wasei-eigo as Video-through (ビデオスルー), OVAs follow the same model of distribution, but have the opposite expectations in terms of their quality. In short, while "direct-to-video" means "too bad for theaters" in the West, OVA means "too good for television" in the East. With larger budgets and without Executive Meddling or the strict requirements of the Media Watchdogs, OVAs are expected to be significantly better than television-based anime. Live-action direct-to-video, known as "V-cinema" overseas (although this is technically a trademark of Toei Company), also has a much better reputation in Japan. This is due mainly to the number of established filmmakers who use it for their more "experimental" or unusual work, enjoying the greater creative freedom and lack of censorship. In addition, some Japanese dubbed versions of foreign films or TV series also go direct to home video without getting a theatrical or TV release first — for example, the Japanese release of Family Guy. With home video being slowly replaced by streaming services, direct-to-video has become more loosely defined as any film that skips theaters for a release through streaming or the general web. Because of the rise of original programming for services like Netflix and Hulu during the 2010s, with shows like Stranger Things boasting production values and A-list talent on par with cable offerings, the line has become blurrier between "theatrical" and "direct-to-video" content. This became especially true in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic, where it became common for films originally intended for theaters to be released directly to streaming instead. In a further expansion of the phenomenon, it has become increasingly common for Missing Episodes of shows that were canceled early to first see the light of day on home video or streaming. See also It's Not Supposed to Win Oscars, the Ghetto Index, Sequelitis, It Will Never Catch On, and Audience-Alienating Premise. Direct-to-video releases (examples by source media)open/close all folders Anime & Manga
Comic Books
Comic Strips
Films — Animation
Films — Live-Action
Literature
Live-Action TV
Music
Puppet Shows
Toys
Video Games
Web Animation
Western Animation
Alternative Title(s): Direct To DVD, Direct To Streaming
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