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Alternate Audio Tracks for Movies
Patrick Stein writes "DVD Tracks is a forum for the distribution
of home-brew, alternate audio tracks for movies.
Inspired by Roger Ebert's column in Yahoo!Internet Life entitled You, Too, Can Be a DVD Movie Critic, DVD Tracks puts
you behind the microphone to talk about your
favorite flicks." Cool idea, but there's only one track. (Groundhogs day?)
This sounds like the killer app for DVD. The original and the MST3K audio track on the same disc.
Brandon D. Valentine
It seems to me that the movie critic industry is all cynical - or all senial. I've learned not to pay attention to reviews and criticism's just because movies that get crappy ratings always turn out ok or good, and movies with GREAT reviews most often turn out to be boring. Movie reviews from movie buffs rather than people getting paid to say what they think about how good the "acting, filming, angles" are, will be a welcome change.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I hope not. It just occurs to me that this might be a "derivative work" according to the MPAA...
I think most of us rational people realize that "alternate soundtracks" are perfectly harmless if not actually helpful to the bottom line of companies whose DVDs are getting alternate tracks made for them, but I think most of us recognize just how rational the MPAA is...
If they do attack this, at least the the "squashing of free speech" aspect of their current campaigns will be more blatant (if such a thing is possible), and if they DON'T, then we'll have another legitimate reason for 'fair-use' space-shifted copies of DVD movies (to make SVCD's with the alternate soundtracks for personal use on our standalone players, of course.)
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
Read a few reviews
Note who wrote them and what they had to say
See the movies, and then reconcile which critic(s) you most often agree with
Look for their review when you're planning how to spend your disposable income
Update list as necessary
I've noticed some reviewers are excellent for films targeted at 18-30 year old, who are completely out of it when reviewing something like A Bugs Life. Keep tabs on where their opinions are off base and on target. Disappointingly many have forgotten what it was like to be young.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
This schema would allow The Dark Side of the Moon as an alternative soundtrack for
The Wizard of Oz.
Well, perhaps the best commentary track I've heard is Roger Ebert's "Dark City" commentary. It is far more interesting than the director's commentary track (also on the DVD). Commentaries can be genuine film scholarship -- they don't just have to be random trivia about making a movie. After listening to the commentary, I felt as if I've attended a film school lecture.
On the other hand, Joe Blow is not going to have the knowledge of both film and literature that Roger Ebert has, so maybe amateur commentaries aren't a great idea.
This -does- make me wonder, though, if/when our friends in the MPAA would do something about this, trying to blur what defines a 'derivative work'. Look up 'The Wind Done Gone' sometime, a parody of 'Gone With the Wind' that re-tells the story from a different viewpoint. The Margaret Mitchell estate tried to sue the author, but fortunately was unsuccessful with the attempt. Still though, were truly big media to flex political muscle/money, who knows what they can do. After all, look at the DMCA and CBDTPA...
-Mudpuppy
"Carpe vitam globis!"
There's no wrong way, to eat a Rhesus...
However, I like E-bert's idea. What if you were involved in the movie, and had a particular viewpoint. I had a friend that works for Paramount, and is involved behind the scenes with Star Trek, especially the movies. And he's got stories and behind the scenes insights that would blow your mind. Watched The Wrath of Khan with him and it completely changed my impression of that movie.
Having an expert commentary about a movie based on particular subject matter would be also very worth it. My grandfather was in the first wave at Utah Beach and definitely has alot to say about Saving Pvt Ryan.
Now, if you can have a program to sync the commentary to the PC DVD player, then it'll be the killer app for PC DVD.
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. - Cmdr. Susan Ivanova
The site's featured track is for the movie Groundhog Day, which repeatedly plays a song by Sonny and Cher (stage name of Salvatore Bono and Cherilyn LaPierre), both of whom have voiced support for perpetual copyright.
If you want to watch the movies dubbed on the site without the revenue from your DVD purchases supporting the political agenda of Hollywood, then for every dollar you spend on entertainment, make a matching contribution to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. (I'm a card-carrying member myself.)
Will I retire or break 10K?