
The PhD Movie - sp332
http://phdmovie.com
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Udo
I downloaded it last week (strangely enough, I got there by browsing the
Stripe website despite being subscribed to the PHD RSS).

For an indie movie, it's really not bad. Yes, it has some terrible, terrible
scenes that just don't work - but the majority is actually pretty watchable.
There are some good jokes in there, even though I often felt they could have
been portrayed better. The character I love most is the professor - he looks
and acts _exactly_ as expected from reading the comics :-)

Overall I think most of the script and some of the actors could really shine
in a Hollywood do-over of the same movie.

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maxs
I saw it a few months ago at a screening at my university. It's quite funny,
and quite accurate too :). It is definitely an indie production, but that
doesn't take away from the fun.

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sp332
I've liked PHD Comics for a long time. When I first heard that there was a
live-action trailer for a movie (a long time ago), I figured it was a joke -
some friends got bored and shot a video over a weekend or something. But I
watched the trailer and it was really good. I honestly believed that it was
too good to exist. I mean, how often does a webcomic get turned into a live
action indie movie? Exactly. So I was psyched to see that they finished it and
it really exists :)

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wildtype
I've seen the trailer since several month ago, not interested, terrible
acting.. But i still love the comics.

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yellowbkpk
I just watched the first half of it and thought the acting was just slightly
better than the acting in Act of Valor ("real Navy SEALs!" in a movie about
Navy SEALs).

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rb2k_
I would actually have bought it for 5$, but seeing 15$ for the download is
kind of a bummer.

Louis CK (a pretty well known comedian with his own TV shows) charged 5$ for
his evening special in a hassle/drm-free HD download and was pretty successful
with it.

I am not quite sure where the sweet spot is, but I think they might be able to
reach a broader audience for 5$ :-/

~~~
eavc
Maybe, but they can always do that down the line. At the moment, they have a
dedicated audience that will gladly pay $15.

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jamesrcole
There's always going to be dedicated people who will pay a particular price.
But how many are there?

Isn't the question really: what is the sweet spot, where you get the highest
total for 'number of purchasers'*'the price'?

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drostie
Well, no. Given your number of customers as a function of price D(p), you
aren't necessarily trying to maximize p D(p). It's not completely obvious, but
in principle you can get ∫ D(p) dp out of those people, if everyone paid what
they were willing to pay.

In order to pursue this goal it is very common to make a finer approximation
to ∫ D(p) dp by creating several price-points. You see this all the time on
Kickstarter for example, "donate some extra and we'll send you a copy of the
source code." And one of these ways is "donate some extra and you'll get to
see the finished product first," which is one of the solutions given above:
charge $15 when it first comes out, then reduce to $5 over time.

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jakobe
That's the theory. In practice, people who think that $15 are too much, will
either forget about it (and not come back when its cheaper), or they will
pirate it.

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shasta
That's not practice. It's just your theory. I dislike this rhetorical device.

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jakobe
In practice my theory is right.

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scromar
I was ready to pay, and then it asked me to put my credit card information
into a non-secure page. Looking at the page source, it looks like they use
Stripe for payments. Will the credit card details be transmitted encrypted
once I press the submit button, or are they transmitting the details in the
clear?

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delinka
The Stripe JavaScript will submit your details over HTTPS. To prevent this
very concern (the perception that submitted data will not be secured), sites
should serve their forms over HTTPS as well.

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viraptor
Unless someone substituted the javascript served by the page over unprotected
HTTP (while it was sent to you). Firesheep already showed that making similar
process user-friendly isn't that hard.

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drtse4
Was a bit surprised that they didn't ask for founding on kickstarter, seems
like the norm these days :)

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bedris
Considering it is a movie about getting a PhD, I'm surprised they didn't try
to fund it through an NSF grant!

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_exec
I wish they'd have provided a download-only option, but I suppose unlimited
online streaming sorta makes up for it.

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excuse-me
I'm waiting for the XKCD live action movie

~~~
archangel_one
As we know, that's going to be "River Tam Beats Up Everyone":
<http://www.xkcd.com/311/>

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droithomme
Somebody's smoking crack to think $10 is a good price for streaming a
documentary no one's heard of, with the option to pay even more for a
download.

Don't they teach pricing any more?

I just know these guys are leaving money on the table.

Try $2 for a view, $5 for a download, $12 for a DVD. Assuming you're a world
renowned comedian with millions of fans. Anything less, adjust price downward
accordingly.

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jakobe
The film is not a documentary, and it's no wonder you haven't heard of it;
it's targeted at the audience of the phdcomics webcomic. I assume they don't
aim for the mass market, but try to cater to their readers.

If you target a small audience, you need to charge more. $2 might work for
mass market, but not for a niche.

