I stayed away for this long because Cynthia was upset that I posted something here that I recorded specifically for her and didn't ask her permission to do so. In a way, she had a valid point. It's kind of rude to record something and send to someone saying "I recorded this for you" then post it in a public place without getting permission. Now I have returned because I need to set a few things straight. I apologize in advance for all of the quotes but please bear with me.
Updates from me:
I've finally and ultimately decided I shall not release my movies to Amazon. Instead I will sell them through my own website only.
I have talked this over with
@voiceguy and he has fully agreed with me on it.
Hmm. I wouldn't say "fully agreed" necessarily. One of my managers at my old job always used to tell me "You have to learn to pick your battles, and don't pick one you can't win." I tried really hard to convince her to sell the movies on Amazon, almost succeeded, then some of you people started posting plans to try to get bad reviews from various websites. After that, Amazon was out of the question for her and I knew I was never going to convince her otherwise. It was a battle I wouldn't win, so I stopped trying. But "fully agreed" is too strong a term for what happened, it would be more precise to say I "acquiesced".
And actually
@voiceguy has been quite an encouragement and inspiration in why I should be alienating toward the Oz fans and to how much of an extent (a great one). His ideas of subjects for new books forced me to remember why I wanted the Wogglebug to be in movies in a non-Oz environment as if his origins were always there and never in Oz. It's because I love the Wogglebug and hate Oz because Oz hates him. .
Huh? Wha? I never encouraged her to alienate the Oz fandom, quite the opposite in fact. I kept pointing out to her that the Oz fandom was a good built-in fanbase because they actually know who the Wogglebug is. But her hatred of them runs so deep because 99% of them think of him as a villain. Battle can't be won, another acquiescence.
It sounds to me like
@voiceguy , if he's supporting you alienating a fanbase, has no idea of how to handle franchises or fandoms for the purpose of creating a success. Every person you alienate is not just one less fan but many, as they'll likely tell their friends and family not to bother either.
You know,
@ActualKiwi , You strike me as a fairly intelligent person but you obviously don't know me well. I understand fully well how franchises work and that you don't want to alienate any conceivable fan. Like some others have already mentioned, I think it's wrong for Cynthia to lump you all together as despicable trolls -- but will you at least grant me the kindness of admitting that there have been a number of rather vicious-minded people in this thread who have insulted and demeaned her? Granted, she made a bad impression when she first posted here, but she did manage to win over a number of people who have legitimately tried to help her.
@ActualKiwi All I'm saying is
@voiceguy understands me and knows I am the one who's in charge of my decisions, actions, and scripts and movies, franchise and fandom. And he is only the voice behind the icon of my fandom and that is as it should be. I just mean he is helping me just as he only wants to do. And so he knows if he wants to help me at all he can only support and help me to alienate the Oz fans and make their favorite characters look bad. He never argues against me at all as he knows my mind is made up and he wants no bad energy between and so he does not question my decisions and scripts he just does his lines and honors my wishes.
Not 100% true, but I do try to respect her decisions and gently try to ameliorate some of them. I don't argue, but I do make suggestions. If she chooses not to take them then so be it. In the end, she's da boss.
So voiceguy is fully supporting Cynthia ostracising the Oz community and this business model? Interesting.
Not sure if that's her putting words in his mouth (ie she made suggestions and he said 'sure, sounds good') or if he's really behind it.
Possibly an "I'll agree with you if it keeps you paying me" situation.
Again, the fact that I get paid for doing the voice work comes up. Let's run through it again, shall we? I get paid for doing the Wogglebug's voice ONLY for movies that she plans to make money off of. I do not charge her for studio work or audio adjustment. I do not charge for recording re-takes or rewrites. I do not charge her for promotional materials. I did not charge her for writing the lyrics for the songs in the movie. I did not charge her for rewriting pretty much the entire screenplay, a rewrite that vastly improved her scores with the script-reading services. I will not be charging her for the two short film tie-ins to this movie. Since she paid me for recording the lines for the New York Adventure, the script has undergone a major overhaul. I am currently working on a free re-write of that script and will record those lines for no charge. I even convinced her that the girl who voices Sylvie (which means half the weight of the movie is on her shoulders) should be paid as well. Now, is everybody clear on the money situation?
Woggle, if you're still around, I have a few quick questions: do you watch/read or keep up with any modern children's media or have an opinion on it? Any current sources of inspiration or disdain? Also, have you had any success testing out your Wogglebug stuff with kids and parents?
I think I can answer those for her. She keeps her finger on the pulse of children's programming to see what's new and what's successful. There is an "Alice in Wonderland" series that inspired her to do the short film tie-ins to the features. They will involve Sylvie returning to Genoma for a short adventure (or being told a story about one) which will teach a valuable moral to children. The children doing voices and their parents all love the script and can't wait to see the movie.
@voiceguy is taking you for a hell of a ride.
Not quite sure what you mean by that, sir, but if it's a reference to money then please see my comments above.
Say what you want about Cynthia Hanson, she has a clear focus on what she hopes to accomplish. If not everything she does seems to make sense to some of you, it's because I don't think she's ever tried to tackle anything this big before. I am trying to help her get through this project as much as I can, because I want it to be a success. I know what failure is like -- my first movie "The Man from Schenectady" was made by a director who thought she was a paragon of film-making. She took my script (which everyone who read it said was a brilliant piece of comedy) and ruined it. I don't want to go through that again. So my first order of business is to help Cynthia to make the best movie she can (she films scenes, I tell her what needs to be fixed, and she fixes it). We'll work out the distribution later.
