Twilight Time (DVD label)

History

Twilight Time began in 2011 as the brainchild of Brian Jamieson and Nick Redman, both veterans of the motion picture and music industry. Both founded the company as a way to release vintage films for the classic DVD collector. Initially, Twilight Time licensed 20 films from 20th Century Fox's catalog to release on DVD and, when possible, in high definition on Blu-ray. The goal was to release films of varying genres that had never been released on home video in the United States. Twilight Time's initial focus was on films of the 1950s and 1960s in what Redman called "the Cinemascope period, those gorgeous widescreen entertainments that had it all—beauty, glamour, drama." But, he added, "We will also be selectively tackling the earlier years—the 1930s and 40s—and sampling every genre, presenting, hopefully, something for everyone." Ultimately, according to Jamieson, "Twilight Time will be serving both the collectible drive of film enthusiasts, and, in a larger sense, the cause of cinema literacy." Their first title, The Kremlin Letter, was scheduled to be release on January 25, 2011, but for unknown reasons, the release was pushed back by two months.

On September 1, 2011, Twilight Time announced a deal with their second film studio, Sony Pictures, to license and release titles from the Columbia Pictures library beginning in November 2011. The first titles to be released under this partnership included Ray Harryhausen's 1961 science fiction-fantasy classic, Mysterious Island, followed by the original Fright Night, the horror-comedy cult favorite written and directed by Tom Holland. Twilight Time will only be releasing Columbia Pictures on Blu-ray if a previous Sony DVD version is already available.

While initially limiting their releases to one title per month, Twilight Time later announced that beginning in November 2011, they would begin releasing two titles per month. Towards the end of 2013, releases began to see an output of three titles per month. In an interview with NixPix, Nick Redman confirmed that Twilight Time's monthly output would continue to increase, stating, "2014 is already shaping into a significant commitment of 50 to 60 titles," which means an average of four to five titles per month.

Twilight Time announced two new studio deals in 2013. Nick Redman confirmed a deal with MGM in September 2013. The deal includes all the United Artists catalog, MGM titles from 1986 to the present, and all of the titles released through Cannon, Polygram, and Orion. As well, Twilight Time announced its first international deal in October 2013 with Protagonist Pictures. The deal gave Twilight Time the US distribution rights to movies from the Film4 library, including films from directors Ken Loach, Neil Jordan, and Paul Greengrass.

On July 1, 2015, Twilight Time began direct-to-consumer sales when they announced they would begin offering their titles through their own website as an alternative to their existing sales through Screen Archives Entertainment.

Release details

Due to the declining home video market for older and little-known films, most major film studios have opted to stop releasing those titles via conventional retail methods. Instead, studios like Warner Bros., Universal Studios, Sony Pictures, and MGM have gone the manufacture-on-demand (MOD) route, releasing these titles on DVD-R, often without any kind of restoration or remastering, or any kind of extras.

Unlike MOD, all Twilight Time titles are fully pressed DVDs and/or Blu-rays from a restored transfer. All titles are limited editions with only 3,000 units of each format created, and will not be repressed once they are sold out. As these releases are geared toward the music aficionado, all releases will feature an isolated music score. As well, all releases will include an 8-page booklet on the movie featuring original essays, movie stills, and poster art. Other extras will be made available whenever possible.

Controversy

In September 2012, Twilight Time released a collectors' edition Blu-ray disc of Night of the Living Dead (1990). It was supervised by original cinematographer Frank Prinzi, who tinted many of the scenes darker blue. Though director Tom Savini praised the reissue, fans complained. Others also noticed that some of the sound effects had been removed, such as the camera snapshot sound that should play over the end credits between photograph transitions. Twilight Time promised to alert customers if future editions of their discs differed from the original.

Reissues

In June 2014, Twilight Time officially announced they were re-licensing some of their sold-out titles to be re-released, a departure from their initial stance that all titles would be strictly limited to 3,000 units. Though they had said they had previously considered re-licensing some of their titles, this was the first confirmation they had done so. Twilight Time will not be re-releasing all their sold-out titles, only the ones they feel they can improve upon. The reissues are planned to be completely new editions, to stand out from the original releases; for instance, having new bonus features or new high-definition restorations. The first four reissues are to be released in 2015. It is confirmed that three of the first four reissues are Christine, Fright Night and Journey to the Center of the Earth.

List of releases