'The Adventure Continues on DVD': Franchise Movies as Home Video

'The Adventure Continues on DVD': Franchise Movies as Home Video

Pavel Skopal, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic <skopalSPAMFILTER@phil.muni.cz>

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Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, Vol. 13, No. 2

SAGE Publications

Research into practices applied by the Hollywood studios on the DVD market requires analysis of the economic logic of the market and the rhetoric of various paratexts accompanying the movies on DVDs, as well as consideration of practices of the television industry. At stake are not only the principles of economy of scope and the strategy of repurposing content that DVD accomplishes, but also the way the studios use DVD like the TV industry uses the internet for an old media's `augmentation', to use John Caldwell's term. Additionally, the extras on DVDs create a frame of reception through their exploitation of institutional practices which are familiar to the viewer from television and home video. The movies on DVD are marketed by the Hollywood cinema in a double mode: the DVD offers theatrical spectacularity as well as the intimacy and `imperfection' of television and home video. DVDs with their high-budgeted franchises provide the best opportunity for combining spectacle, narrative openness and complexity with a sense of intimacy and authenticity.

franchise movies, Hollywood cinema, home video, marketing practices, television industry, DVD