DVD - Classic films' new lease of life

Hammer was once the most successful British film company in history. Then it got into difficulties. DVD has been our saviour and it forms a significant component in our strategic thinking for the future, says CEO TERRY ILOTT.

Hammer’s origins go back to a film distribution company, Exclusive, which, in the late 1930s, began to make films, mostly shorts, to meet the quota rules that required a proportion of cinema screen time to be set aside for British productions. It was these quota rules that spawned Look at Life, Pathé Newsreel, Edgar Lustgarten Presents and thousands of forgettable “quota quickies” that supported the main features.

Hammer’s first film, The Mystery of the Marie Celeste (1935) was quickly followed by The Bank Messenger Mystery. Episodes of Dick Barton, Special Agent and Life with the Lyons, a host of music shorts and various documentaries followed. Then, in 1957, Hammer made The Curse of Frankenstein, which was immediately followed by Dracula. Both starred Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, both were released as main features and both were huge hits. Neither Hammer nor British cinema was ever the same again.

Hammer became a fully-fledged production company specializing in horror features. By today’s standards, its productivity was unimaginable: ten features a year in the early 1970s. In 1974, the company’s extraordinary success was recognized with The Queen’s Award for Export Achievement.

By 1984, with the delivery of the television series Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense, Hammer had been responsible for 291 productions. Among them were Dracula Prince of Darkness, The Devil Rides Out, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde, The Reptile, The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires, She and One Million Years BC.

But the company’s commercial and creative impetus was spent and after 1984 there was nothing. For 15 years, the company lived off the royalties earned by its back catalogue. These royalties were derived mostly from home video and sales to television.

Because it grew up as a retail-led, price-driven and product-starved business which both the Hollywood majors and the retail multiples initially ignored, home video was quickly swamped by cheap, made-for-video titles of very poor quality, sold in low-rent, back-street shops. This, combined with video’s technical limitations, forever stamped the medium as second-rate. Home video became a pile ’em high, sell ’em cheap business in which Hammer titles had to compete with rubbishy action and slasher movies. The market couldn’t distinguish the one from the other.

Then, when the majors did get a grip on home video and the retail business was taken over by the big chains, shelf space was limited for niche titles like the Hammer classics. Don’t get me wrong, we were grateful for home video, but its contribution couldn’t prevent the company from drifting into perilous financial waters.

Then a miracle happened. In the late 1990s, DVD took off at a speed that no-one had expected. More than that, it addressed a new market, a discerning market. All of a sudden, Hammer titles were sold in the company of classics. They became collectables rather than disposables. The DVDs themselves were of a quality light years ahead of VHS. Indeed, DVD introduced the concept of seminal publishing, by which distributors felt obliged to use only the best materials and to put out only complete versions.

More than that, DVD had the capacity to include all manner of add-ons, which in Hammer’s case included interviews with directors, writers and stars from what was now regarded as a golden age. Some of the interviewees, including such stalwarts as Nigel Kneale, Roy Ward Baker and Val Guest were already in their eighties while others, notably Christopher Lee, were enjoying new-found fame. Either way, collectors hung upon their every word.

The Hammer classics on DVD are mint-condition, created from restored original materials. Demand has jumped dramatically. At the same time, the premium-pricing of the DVD collector market has made each sale far more valuable to us.

The multi-language capacity of DVD has reduced origination costs for foreign-language markets and the emergence of specialist magazines and websites catering for the collector’s market has not only reduced our marketing costs but has enabled us to reach audiences that we just couldn’t locate before.

The low unit costs of production also allow us to do things that previously were not possible. DVD give-aways can be taped to the covers of part-works and specialist magazines and they can be bundled with PC and console games.
Not surprisingly, our fortunes have improved.

We have also used DVDs in the place of our dwindling stock of precious 35mm prints for festival screenings. A season of Hammer classics was screened at the recent New Orleans Media Experience entirely via DVD projection. Although it doesn’t put money in the coffers, the festival circuit is important to us. It maintains the Hammer name and brand and it reminds audiences of the value of our heritage.

The refreshed Hammer is now looking once again towards production. DVD is an essential ingredient in our business model, especially for a series of low-budget horror films that we are planning to make in Australia. DVD is both the guarantor of the downside and our principal source of profits on the upside for these movies.

Not the least benefit is that, with post-production being entirely digital, it is possible to avoid a good part of laboratory costs until we have a finished picture, on the basis of which we can decide which distribution route to go down.

If a picture is not of sufficient commercial appeal to merit theatrical release, we can put it out straight to DVD. If it does go theatrical and performs reasonably well, the greater part of the upside is still likely to be in DVD.
Naturally, we are also looking at DV as a production medium.

In the future, we expect digital technology and DVD to offer hitherto undreamt of ways of sampling our catalogue and re-purposing our old films in new formats, for example interactive video games.

We also expect to store all our materials digitally once global agreement has been reached on format.

Yes, like everyone else we are worried about DVD piracy, but our concerns pale besides our excitement at the opportunities afforded by this fabulous medium.
Hammer is on the way back and DVD must take a lot of the credit....

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