So, What's So Special About the Special Edition?
Thursday, January 6, 2011 at 1:08PM 
We have a lot of people asking what’s going to be in the Special Edition. Enough that we thought it was about time we write a post about it.
The Special Edition is indeed going to be special.
We have a ton of ideas with regards to what we’re going to include. Unfortunately though at this point, it’s just too early to state specifically what the S.E. will consist of. Our mindset right now is: Finish the film first and then work on making the S.E. outstanding. But this is what we can tell you...
Too Much Good Stuff
So far, we’ve collected over 200 hours of footage - much of it meaty, info-ladden story & design-filled interview content. However, the projected run time of the finished film is 80 minutes (not to short, but more importantly, not too long). As a result, we know (and we’re already seeing this) that there will be tons of interesting, intriguing and emotional content that won’t make the film - simply due to time constraints.
A lot this extra material is design/game-specific content that might be a little too esoteric, some of it is plot pieces that might not fit the pacing of the final film. A good example of something that we love, but would likely not go into the film is the Canabalt piece you’ve seen already. The Special Edition will be filled with little vignettes like this...
Multiple Movies Worth
Overall, we think we have enough quality material to cover not one, not two, but likely three films worth. You can already see this happening with our web content:
To date: We‘ve released 86 minutes of free web content
(remember our film is aiming to be 80 minutes long).
This means that between the web, the special edition and the film itself. There will be a mountain of IGTM-related content out there.
Fully Produced Extras
One important point that we need to make with regards to our S.E. content is that we plan to fully produced these bonus items. A lot of traditional bonus features are simply dumped to a film's DVD's special features. We'd like to treat all S.E. content as if it were its own stand alone film.
Other Material
We also want to include as much other relevant material we possibly can. A lot of this would be dependent on the approval/blessing of the film’s subjects. But we’d love to see content such as:
- Game Concept Drawings/Art
- Official Soundtrack
- Behind the scenes material
- Limited Edition Packaging
- We are also toying with the idea of a companion hard copy book of some sort.
Going To Be Worth it
Overall, the Special Edition will be our way to do everything we possibly want to do with this project. Our own personal way of closing the book creatively on this film, before we start the next. The material mentioned above, is the type of stuff we’re thinking for the Special Edition. Basically as much high quality material as we can possibly fit into 2 or 3 discs. But like I said earlier, all of this is yet-to-be-determined. Make the movie first; then the extra goodies.
But rest assured the mandate for the Special Edition is to make it rock and make it worth every penny of the donation (which really does help and goes straight into the current production).
Any follow up questions or ideas? We’d love to hear ‘em! Let us know via email or comments below...
-J
J + L
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
We've started to announce various segments that will be included in the Special Edition of the film. Here are a few of the planned segments...
- Steph Thirion & Eliss
- Thatgamecompany (Flower, Flow, Journey)
- David Hellman & The Art of Braid
- Jason Rohrer (Passage, Sleep is Death, Under a Star Filled Sky)
There's a lot more to come, and we'll be posting additional material as the package develops :)
Reader Comments (65)
Hi Paris,
Yes - I do think the film will end up on iTunes. It may not be the first window of availability (i.e. you may be able to get it elsewhere first), but the film will certainly find its way to the iTunes store.
Vancouver: We'd like to show at VIFF. It's something we would aim for. But regardless, I think we will be showing in Vancouver in some capacity. We've received a fair bit of interest from that city, it has a great indie community ... and it doesn't hurt that I used to live there :)
Thanks for asking,
-James
Hi,
Two requests:
1) DVD zone 2 and not only zone 1
2) Italian subtitles
Thanks
P.S.
Your work is very professional!
@Marco Good suggestions - we'll look into it. The DVD we're going to attempt to produce region-free (though admittedly, I'm not up to speed on the specifics of worldwide DVD mastering)
Italian subtitles are a possibility. It'll likely depend on cost, demand & timeframes. But we're hoping that it's something that is easily implementable. If so, I see no reason why we wouldn't go for it.
Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad you're liking it so far :)
James from IGTM
I thought it would be neat if there was a special credits section for those who donated or pre-ordered these special editions since the money is going into the production of the film.
@Kyle Hey Kyle good suggestion - so good that that's exactly what we're planning to do :) In the film, we will certainly be acknowledging the preorder supporters (by name). None of this is possible without you guys.
And on the site here, we do keep a running tally of the preorder folks.
Is that what you were thinking? Or was it something different?
-James
That's awesome, it's exactly what I was thinking. I just thought it was cool to help support the film and I'm greatful that you have decided to thank us by including our names.
@Kyle
Totally! Without the support, this film wouldn't be happening. If we were traditionally funded we'd be crediting those funders...so it just makes sense :)
-James
Hi,
I was just wondering if the Indie Game Movie is out yet, how much it is and where I can get this badboy ;). Also, if it's not out yet, is there an official release date? Thanks for your time guys.
Nick
Hi Nick,
No, not out yet (You can preorder from the site, though). We have yet to set a specific release date, but it will be Fall 2011. We expect to announce specific dates and plans this summer.
Thanks so much for the interest!
James
I think it would be interesting if one of the disc was a DVD rom that had demos of the games featured in the film
That's a lot of extra content! Do I smell Indie Game: The Series coming?
;)
Well, probably enough content for a defacto series of sorts. And I could always see us doing more little (& big) pieces. It'll be quite exciting when we start the follow up (whatever it is).
Is there any option that is HD? If you plan it for digital downloads, it does not need so much more bandwith thanks to modern codecs (they are super-effective!!).
BTW it is possible to master a multi-region or region-free disc, but a multi-standard disc won't work out. I used to work in DVD authoring and have a few ideas about that, but you better don't try to stretch the specs too much. Just make an NTSC disc, it should work in most PAL players, too. ;)
Thanks for the info Michael. Mass world-wide DVD production is a relatively new subject for us. Slowly, but surely we're figuring it out.
We do want to do an HD version of the Special Edition. Right now, the front runner seems to be going BluRay. However, we're still investigating that.
HD Downloads of the S.E. is a little more problematic, as the S.E. will be comprised of a TON of smaller video pieces, and we want to avoid shipping something that is simply a messy .ZIP of video files. If we can come up with an elegant way to deliver all the content digitally, we would love to. But right now it's still up in the air.
-James
If you do decide to do a Blu-Ray and I have already preordered the Special Edition DVD and T-Shirt, can I get a Blu-Ray instead? I would rather have a Blu-Ray if you do decide to go that route.
@Kyle,
Definitely. If we do offer BR, we will be giving all preorder people the chance to opt-in / upgrade. I'm not too sure of the specifics (i.e. if any upgrade cost will be involved), but more than anything, we want to make sure every preorder person is getting what they want - format-wise. We don't want to leave anybody out in the cold.
Thanks for your preorder & support!
-James
Hi! I'm from Mexico, Could I pre-order the special edition? Because I'm not a US resident but I would like to have this material!
Thanks.
Certainly! We ship worldwide and would gladly ship to Mexico :)
Thanks for asking, and thanks for the interest!
-James
Oh that is so awesome you can ship special edition overseas! I have been dreaming about it for so long! I even dedicated my custom essays for Programming class to special edition)) and I must say I got A!)
Just pre-ordered the special edition :D Had to ask my dad for his credit card(and I'll pay him in cash) as I don't have any other way of paying for it.
If there are some sort of credits for preordering, would you mind changing the name from my dad's to mine? I'm not sure my dad would want his name to appear on something he's not unfamiliar with. (Plus I'm paying him back the money, just had to use his credit card)
Excited to see the documentary when it releases!
-Pre-ordering from Hong Kong, China :D