Our contact at Disney, Maggie Allison, had many ‘firsts’ written into our contracts. To begin with Disney would choose the laboratory we would use to print their product and carefully monitor of the number of copies printed, (in order that they would receive the correct royalty each month, (10 to 15%, per print, depending on the title); Disney would also view a test print, in order to ensure that the quality met with their high standards and finally a proof of any advert, flyer, sales literature and the box label, for the film itself, again to monitor quality and/or content. This was a long and tedious process and really slowed down the production of each title, but the status it was about to give Derann meant these terms were nothing to quibble about. The odd thing with the first release was that the negative, made by Technicolor New York produced very soft, lacklustre prints that we ourselves were never happy with, but Disney passed them with flying colours! On the positive side, the time restrictions we had with ‘The Little Mermaid’ would be phased out, Disney themselves realising that a sales window of just 6 months wasn’t working due to the high cost of prints. It seems they thought that the features would sell in a similar fashion to the video releases! The second feature release ‘The Rescuers Down Under’ was released still with the 6 month only release pattern and we even announced that the title would be withdrawn, but Disney not wanting to lose sales relented and the negative remained in the labs. After that we were able to sign standard contracts, which in itself turned out to more than a little troublesome, as we would often receive letters and/or phone calls still requesting the return of a particular negative. Therefore we would often announce the imminent withdrawal of a title, only to find that that wouldn’t be the case. It was all very confusing! Over the next 15 years we released over 25 full length features and dozens of shorts and featurettes.
…. to be continued.
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