The PhD Movie

http://phdmovie.com

by sp332 • 14 years ago

92 39 14 years ago

phdmovie.com

drtse4• 14 years ago

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

lrem2• 14 years ago

Would you believe a kickstarter about procrastination to actually deliver? ;)

Swizec• 14 years ago

When the movie was first announced there wasn't even a kickstarter yet. At least not one prominent enough for me to know about and I hang around HN every day.

bedris• 14 years ago

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

sp3323• 14 years ago

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 :)

rb2k_2• 14 years ago

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$ :-/

dashN9ne• 14 years ago

As a point of data, I would pay $8 for this as someone that has never read PhD comics before.

Looks fun.

lrem2• 14 years ago

That's funny. The price for me is 10$... And usually we get things more expensive in Europe.

rb2k_2• 14 years ago

I'm from Europe (Germany) too, and the streaming is 10$. The "optional download" is an additional 5$

eavc• 14 years ago

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

jamesrcole• 14 years ago

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'?

droithomme3• 14 years ago

> At the moment, they have a dedicated audience that will gladly pay $15.

And when they lower the price the other 99.9% of potential viewers will have forgotten all about it and lost interest.

sp3323• 14 years ago

There were more people working on this movie for a lot more time than Louis CK's evening special. Plus, they don't have such high visibility, so they need to make their money back on a lot fewer customers.

wildtype• 14 years ago

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

obtu2• 14 years ago

The casting is quite faithful to the comics. Though yeah, I don't know about the acting.

yellowbkpk• 14 years ago

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).

gammarator• 14 years ago

In fairness, the actors are not professionals--they are all Caltech students.

_exec• 14 years ago

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

maxs• 14 years ago

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.

scromar• 14 years ago

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?

delinka2• 14 years ago

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.

viraptor• 14 years ago

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.

obtu2• 14 years ago

HTTPS or not, Stripe accepting credit card data on a site they don't control is extremely worrying.

jamalex• 14 years ago

Having pre-submission pages (or anything leading to the submission of sensitive data) not be over HTTPS is more than just an issue of perception; for example, a network attacker can inject javascript into the unsecure form page and read/send off the credit card details before the form is even submitted.

delinka2• 14 years ago

Since more than one of the replies I me mention this, I'll reply to myself...

It is correct that serving the necessary JavaScript over HTTPS is the Right Thing To Do as it prevents injection. IIRC (I'm on my phone and not where I can research) Stripe serves the JavaScript themselves over HTTPS (you pull their scripts from their server) and this problem is solved.

While I understated the concern about serving forms unsecured, the same MITM problem is a potential issue for the page containing the form. The solution is the same: serve over HTTPS.

EthanHeilman• 14 years ago

If the page is not HTTPS an attacker could inject html to redirect your data a site which is not stripe (say the attackers fake stripe). HTTP stripe forms are not secure.

Udo• 14 years ago

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.

excuse-me• 14 years ago

I'm waiting for the XKCD live action movie

archangel_one• 14 years ago

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

droithomme3• 14 years ago

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.

jakobe3• 14 years ago

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.

sp3323• 14 years ago

It's not a documentary. It's an indie movie based on a webcomic. And I'm sure fans of the webcomic will pay at least $10 for it. And they have much less exposure than a world-renowned comedian, so they have to make some money from fewer customers.

The PhD Movie

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