How can I get a tape distributor?

[Guest ShooterJay]

Some quick background...

 

I'm the co-producer for "Lobsterman's All-Star-Rasslin'" a TV show starring the Lobsterman, of Comedy Central's "Daily Show" fame, and featuring matches from his indy, AWA Promotions.

 

The basic setup of the show is this. LM and his cohost do some really stupid "Late Show"-esque studio segments, like interviewing dolls of celebrities, parodies of stuff like "To Tell the Truth" and Jay Leno's "Headlines," pies in the face, staging matches between action figures, and other assorted over-the-top wackiness. The basic thrust we're going for is "Stuff kids will like and college kids can get stoned/drunk to."

 

The actual wrestling matches are divided into three classes of worker.

1. Cruiserweights who wrestle the modern WWE style, with a small sprinke of indy highflying.

2. Pure lucha libre, with luchadors imported from Mexico.

3. '80's WWF-style, heavily-gimmicked fat lumps. Think "Bloodsucking Alien" and "Super Rhino" here.

Groups 1 and 2 mix, 3 keep to themselves. The key word here is "variety."

 

What I'm most proud of is that the show is a cut above 99% of indy TV shows in the US. We have total unrestricted access to a public access TV studio for the in-house segments.

 

For the matches, we run a two-camera shoot, complete with a switcher. The cameras are digital, meaning peak tape quality no matter how many generations we go down. We have state-of-the-art Media 100 and Avid computer editing systems, and a really flashy Compix graphics generator. I work for the access station, meaning my partner and I have almost $250,000 worth of editing equipment to produce these tapes at our disposal for free.

 

To summarize, our tapes, from a video quality standpoint blows the product put out by larger indys like CZW and XPW out of the water, and the matches are from young, experienced, 100% homegrown talent, with the main eventers being able to put out competent 15-20 minute matches that generally hit ***-***1/2 or over.

 

 

We're currently airing on two public access stations, one is the place we work at, the other is in Nashua, NH, the promotion's home. In September, the show will be running on Massachusetts' Channel 3, the one that comes with the AT+T cable package. We're trying to work out a deal with WNDS also.

 

What I'd like, in order gain a little more recognition and boost the fed's so-far pittiful live show gate, is to hook up with a tape distributor. Do you guys know of anyone I could get in contact with. Also, as a general rule, would we have to make our own tapes, or just send in a master for them to dub. Remember, it's digital, so video quality is not lost with dubbing.

 

Any help at all would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Guest JMTapes]

Are you just looking for someone to shill the tapes etc? I'd be glad to if you're interested. I'm in northern Mass., so I'm pretty close to Nashua. I'm not really sure what you're looking for, but shoot me an email if you like. Thanks-Jim

 

www.jmtapes.com

 

[email protected]