Dazzle sparkles on special interest

INDIE FILM GUIDE: Label aims to release niche product to target retailers

By Susanne Ault 11/3/2006

ATAS hopes to encourage careers in TV with its Behind the Scenes title.
NOV. 3 | Dazzle Entertainment is launching its first proprietary DVD, 24 Behind the Scenes: The Editing Process, on Dec. 5.

Founded in 2004 as a consultancy by former Anchor Bay Entertainment president David Vasile, Dazzle hopes to additionally become a label for special interest product. Dazzle has experience with special interest, advising disc suppliers over the last two years about how to break niche DVD titles into non-traditional retail channels.

Producer Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and First Light Publishing released Behind the Scenes strictly into the educational market earlier this year. ATAS created Behind the Scenes, as well as other related titles, to help encourage careers in TV.

But Dazzle, with distribution partner Navarre, will be targeting a freshly packaged, re-edited Behind the Scenes to mainstream retailers, including electronics and entertainment specialists. The title is priced at $19.95, about half of what ATAS members were charged earlier this year for the title.

“This was meant to be educational, but because big actors were involved and production values are sharp, it wound up also being incredibly entertaining,” Vasile says. “We are working with the Academy to release the other [related] titles.”

Branded Journeys Below the Line, ATAS also has produced the series ER: The Propmasters and Rare, First-Hand Insight for Production Management and Other Students. All original Journeys titles can be purchased at the Web site www.emmys.org.

Vasile hopes Dazzle can follow Behind with 20 to 25 special interest releases in 2007. Currently, Dazzle is readying for first quarter Inside Weddings, a how-to bridal guide that would be aimed at department stores and home product specialists.

“We want to stay focused on special interest,” Vasile says. “At mass merchants, a cooking title might be marked at $7 or $8 and might be slower moving product. But that same product at a major home retailer is suddenly not niche but can be a mainstream item sold at a premium.”