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?)

Comments

Calling Joel Hodgson

[bandix]

This sounds like the killer app for DVD. The original and the MST3K audio track on the same disc.

Re:Calling Joel Hodgson

[Telastyn]

Better yet, they could collect the most amusing user-submitted MST3K-izations and release them as an add-on. Each submitter could get $$$ and fame.

Re:Calling Joel Hodgson

[poot_rootbeer]

The latest batch of MST3K DVDs to have been released have this feature. Or rather, they're double-sided DVD's with the original cut of the movie on one side and the MiSTed cut on the other.

Re:Calling Joel Hodgson

[fwankypoo]

Mystery Science Theater 3000

Re:Calling Joel Hodgson

[Sloppy]

MST3k means "Mystery Science Theater 3000". It was a television show where a bad movie was shown in the background, and in the foreground there was a shadow of some recurring characters (Joel/Mike, Crow, Tom Servo) so that it looked like the recurring characters were watching the movie inside a theater. The recurring characters heckled the movie. (It was a lot funnier than it sounds.)

Re:Calling Joel Hodgson

[ctyner]

Actually, the past four MST3K DVDs have not had this feature. The last to do this were "The Wild, Wild World Of Batwoman" and "The Beginning Of The End", which were released in March 2001.

Good for REAL movie critics

[sjorgnsn]

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.

Re:Good for REAL movie critics

[Rakarra]

Is it me or do even the impossibly crappy movies (even based on user opinion) seem to get glowing featured reviews? Does imdb simply have a policy of putting the highest-rated review on the front page? Maybe I should start writing bad reviews of crappy movies, and give them ratings of 10...

Re:Good for REAL movie critics

[quintessent]

movies that get crappy ratings always turn out ok or good

I've had a different experience. When there is really nothing in it worth seeing, I'm generally aware of this just from reading two or three reviews. Occasionally I disagree with them. But I'm still better off overall.

Re:Good for REAL movie critics

[mpe]

It seems to me that the movie critic industry is all cynical.

In some ways it can be a good thing if reviewers of anything are somewhat cynical.

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.

Sounds more like the professional reviwers being too much of a homogeneous group...

Any software to support this?

[Ryu2]

Any DVD player app that can play such a custom audio track instead of the DVD audio? Playing it with a separate app seems cheezy.

Re:Any software to support this?

[Anonymous Coward]

Mplayer for *nix does this.

It lets you sink anything from an mp3, ac3, or raw wav file i think.You can even adjust the delay timing to get it right. It also pauses like normal.

One big, whompin' track?

[JamesOfTheDesert]

Interesting idea, but, unlike a sync'ed DVD track, it seems it would be hard to skip ahead if you get bored with an alternative track that's in a single big MP3.

Are there ways to bookmark sections in Mp3's to allow jumping to fixed locations in the track? Then you could jump to specific chapters.

Re:One big, whompin' track?

[ImaLamer]

I think the idea would be to create new DVD's and release the image file on the underground or for the smart people give us mp3 files.

This way you burn a legal copy - keep your original safe - and watch your new commentary either in your Component DVD player [given it can read your discs] or your PC.

If making DVD discs you could make another track - but if you like VCD as I do [runs almost everywhere] you could just make a 60 cent two disc set. I know of many free programs that will put an mp3 to an mpeg - hell you could even make a MPEG-2 with some.

Seems pretty easy, I've had a great idea about The Matrix but I won't say it here.....

Groundhog Day

[ackthpt]

...I got you babe...

I swear, if I got up every morning to that tune on the radio, I'd drop a toaster into my bathtub, too.

I can't quite figure out how or why I'd want to do my own soundtrack for a movie. Seems there's plenty I like the sound to just fine, and those that I don't, eh... I'm not sure I'm cut out for the MST3K line of work.

"Together I shall rule the world!" -- Tom Servo

Now I do have a lot of experience with running the play-by-play from the radio instead of from the TV during sports broadcasts. :-)

Bandwidth issues

[e1en0r]

I thought about starting a similar site a few months ago, but I think in the end there will be too many bandwidth issues. I would guess the same will go for this site too. The "Groundhog Day" track is 17MB and I'm sure everything else will be pretty big too. Unless they get some kind of revenue source I think they'll have a hard time. And although this sounds like it would be a great thing for the movie industry to get behind, I'm sure they think it'll hurt their profits or infringe on their copyrights (they'll try to find a way) in some way and won't support it. A better idea might be something like Audiogalaxy (minus the spyware).

Re: Bandwidth issues

[e1en0r]

Hmmm. After further investigation it appears that the tracks are hosted elsewhere and you upload them to your server and just link to them. Better for the dude that runs the site, but unfortunately that type of setup usually ends up in a high percentage of broken links. I'll cross my fingers and hope it works though. It's a promising idea.

Re:Bandwidth issues

[liquidsin]

I don't suppose that his site getting linked from the front page of slashdot will do anything to help his bandwidth problems...

Re:Bandwidth issues

[NeMon'ess]

The best way to make the files small is to use Variable Bit Rate encoding of the mp3 files so only when someone is talking is there any sound. Any person making their own track should listen to the movie through headphones, volume low. This way the mike won't pick up the sound. The wave file should then be altered so only sound above a number of decibels is audible, everything else is nullified. That way the mp3 wont even have background hiss. The result, ultra small mp3 files that sound excellent.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Average track

[NiftyNews]

"Hey and welcome to the movie. Man, this is cool. Oh hey, anyway, this is Brian Chamberlake III and we're going to watch Tank Girl together. [40 second gap]. Here come the credits. [50 second gap]. Alright...Hey Jim, get me some popcorn! [2 hour gap, end]."

Total Downloads of this clip: 3

I see a different use for this.

[sheetsda]

Mystery Science-Fiction Theatre 3000 amateur edition anyone?

Re:I see a different use for this.

[geekoid]

As oppose to the incredibly professional one? ;)

Poor, poor Patrick....

[NOT-2-QUICK]

I don't personally know whom the site proprietor, Patrick, is or anything, but for his little site's sake I really hope that this article is either regarded as disinteresting by the masses of /. or that his ISP is in for one hell of a shock...

While this IS certainly an interesting idea and possibly even worth an article on Slashdot, his content is a bit thin and I have his usual site traffic is basicly not existant....until NOW that is!!!

So anyways...Pat, if you are reading this...good luck and I hope you are being charged for bandwidth by the Mb!!! Of course, you could always take a page from this guy and ask that the Slashdot community reimburse you...

Hrm.

[autopr0n]

I registered fancommentaries.org after I read the artical (a long time ago). I was going to setup scoop on it, but I didn't have enough time. Oh well.

Will copyright lawyers squish this?

[Dr.Dubious DDQ]

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.)

Not A Good Idea

[EXTomar]

Just what we need...people trying to learn English from what? Star Trek: TNG? Star Wars? The Matrix?!

There is no substitute for structured classes and learning the formal parts of any language. Watching movies and reading newpapers can help suplement language learning but one should never base learning around "pop culture". There are too many slangs and reagonal things to be really useful for general communication.

Re:Not A Good Idea

[gehrehmee]

I can't comment on stand-alone dvd players, but most PC dvd drives have uploadable firmware that will make then region-free. IIRC though, you still have to use a software program like decss to decrypt them.

Fair Use

[EXTomar]

Aren't talking about things you like/dislike, scenes, and giving your insight into movies you watch the very thing the Fair Use clause in copyright law supposed to protect? Isn't this then the very essense of this idea?

After all the alternate audio commentaries are somewhat meaningless unless you have the video to go along with it.

This sounds cool but...

[jhaberman]

I have to think... Why would I want to do this? I mean, the reason I listen to the comentary tracks on my DVD's is because they usually are done by someone who had a hand in making the movie (Actors, directors, editors, etc.) See, I want interesting behind the scenes info about that day's shot, how bad the situation was, what they were going for... things they tried to do but didn't work... etc. etc. etc.

I definitely don't want a review of the movie while I'm watching it by some schlub who has no more insight than I do. I can take care of that for myself, thank you very much.

Maybe that's just me, tho...

Jason

Re:This sounds cool but...

[Jonathan]

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.

Re:This sounds cool but...

[Gumshoe]

On the whole I would agree, the film makers themselves are in the
best position to comment on the film. However, this idea would
really come to life when people submit "background information"
commentries, ie. something a film maker wouldn't necessarily know
anything about.

For example, and someone has already mentioned this, a commentry
by a psychologist discussing the lead characters in Memento or Pi
would be fascinating -- at least to me.

Another example might be a compare and contrast discussion of a
piece of literature and it's celluloid adaptation. I would
suggest Lord of the Rings would be a great candidate for this
(Crikey, I've wasted countless hours in the pub critiquing this
film already, perhaps I should do it :-)

Groundhog Day commentary

[svferris]

I imagine the Groundhog Day commentary would go something like this:

"Hi this is Pat and welcome to my commentary on Groundhog Day. The movie stars Bill Murray..."

*five minutes later*

"Hi this is Pat and welcome to my commentary on Groundhog Day. The movie stars Bill Murray..."

Re:Groundhog Day commentary

[phutureboy]

You will experience Deja Vu.

Great.

[Sax Maniac]

You, Too, Can Be Slashdotted!

Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a000d'
Type mismatch: 'CInt'
E:\INETPUB\WEBSITES\YIL\COLUMNS\../ssi/ssi ASP.asp, line 83


I think the only alternate movie soundtrack I'd care to listen is would be Filthy's take on it.

Critics should not have a unquestioning audience

[ackthpt]

This is the simple practice I have for seeking critical advice on films:

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.

Groundhog Day commentary

[svferris]

I imagine the Groundhog Day commentary would go something like this:

"Hi this is Pat and welcome to my commentary on Groundhog Day. The movie stars Bill Murray..."

*five minutes later*

"Hi this is Pat and welcome to my commentary on Groundhog Day. The movie stars Bill Murray..." .

Pink Floyd @ Wizard of Oz

[felipeal]

This schema would allow The Dark Side of the Moon as an alternative soundtrack for
The Wizard of Oz.

Everything Old is New Again.

[vitaflo]

My friends and I used to do this when we were kids. I had a friend bring over an extra VCR and a copy of Star Wars. We'd put the video feed out from the VHS my friend had to the BETA my parents had (yes we had BETA back then), and for the audio we'd use a microphone my parent owned and would rig it up to the sound in to the BETA.

Then we'd just play the movie on the VHS, and record it on the BETA, and adlib voices over the top of it. Sometimes it was lame, but a lot of times it was absolutely hilarious, especially when we had a really good exchange that just came off the top of our head, and synced w/ the actors well.

Darth Vadar saying "Once you go black, you never go back" when he points and Leia and calls her a traitor has never been so funny. ;)

Roll your own-

[Mu*puppy]

MST3K commentary! Also, fandubbing my own anime comes to mind more and more...

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!"

This could be absolutely awesome

[Flounder]

Ordinary fan commentaries would probably be alot of "OH, THIS SCENE IS AWESOME, WATCH FOR TRINITY'S NIPPLE!"

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.

Would be nice to see used for localisation

[horza]

There is a big conspiracy out there. Go into any DVD store or rental and see how many have soundtracks or even *subtitles* in French. I went into a few to find a film for my French girlfriend and I to watch and came out with ZERO. Plenty of less widespread language such as Finnish, but nothing for the 10th most spoken language in the world. Now I know all these films are dubbed for French cinema. It would be great if the dubbed tracks could be released so that we can watch films in many different languages.

Phillip.

Re:Would be nice to see used for localisation

[tempmpi]

Theres a nice software named dvdsubber It can playback DVDs with alternative subtitles from a file. Many subtitle files can be found at http://dvd.box.sk Or you can just import french dvd from france, most pc dvd roms can be made region code free with a alternative firmware. Most european dvds of us movies contain the english soundtrack too & subtitles. BTW: Princess Mononoke got a french track.

Sonny and �her? EFF them

[yerricde]

...I got you babe...

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.)

In related news

[switcha]

I'm gonna be launching a server where you can upload videos of your self acting out your favorite radio events, or replacement streams to go over your favorite music videos.

Do you think your interpretation of Vince Carter's dunk over T-Mac that you heard last Tuesday rivals that of the man himself? Let us all see!

Are your dance moves, like, wayyyy better than Brittney's in her new video? Let our members decide!

Drop by our website www.retarded-ideas-getting-posted-at-slash.com and check it out. Currently, we are only hosting one video clip. It's Jerrod McCurtry of Stephensville, Ohio giving us an alternate video clip to Jay-Z's video 'Jigga My Nigga.' We look to keep expanding!

Re:Market?

[JamesOfTheDesert]

I'd rather just see the movie, not hear commentary (especially not 'off-the-cuff').

Yeah, if I wanted to hear complete strangers mouthing off as if their every thought was special I'd just go see the film in a movie theater.

Hell, you can get 3 or 4 secondary audio tracks at the same time like that.

Groundhog's Day Commentary

[sharkey]

"Hi. You obviously haven't been a long-time subscriber to Showtime since you bought this DVD. Or someone decided to play a nasty little joke on you. Since Showtime decided to show Groundhog's Day 2-3 times a day, every day, throughout 1996 and 1997, I find it hard to believe that anyone would shell out the money for the DVD. Since you don't know what you are getting, I'll shut up now."

Okay site, shoulda waited for it to mature a bit.

[kobotronic]

Interesting idea. I thought about recording a commentary track for some of the movies I like and have researched and watched enough times to have something to say about. Then I heard a recording of my less than perfectly modulated voice and decided to forget about it!

However, there's apparently only one track on this site - I listened to the Groundhog Day track and it's certainly not bad. The guy admits he doesn't have filler commentary for every scene on the screen and the microphone rattle in the beginning reveals a limited amount of preparation, so for what it's worth it's certainly a nice first try. I been to Punxsutawney couple times, and love Groundhog Day the Movie, so it was rather interesting to listen to the guy's comments.

I think perhaps though it was premature to feature this site on slashdot - don't you think you should have waited until there was a few more tracks on there? As it is, it looks like a thousand people are gonna download the same track - it would have made a better impression if you had let it mature a bit. All the same, it would be nice to see more things like this. It's a good and creative way to 'share' stuff without pirating. :)

He's talking about Region 2

[Gorimek]

The *.co.uk address gives that away.

I think North American DVDs have so many French tracks due to Canada. There are only 2 main languages in region 1. In Europe there are dozens.

Re:He's talking about Region 2

[mpe]

I think North American DVDs have so many French tracks due to Canada. There are only 2 main languages in region 1. In Europe there are dozens.

There would be at least 3. Plenty of Spanish speaking Americans, especially in the West and around the Carribean coast.

It may have sounded like flamebait...

[Golias]

but the AC has a point.

(For those who read at 1 or higher, the parent to this post said "No one will take the time to listen to this sort of thing. Except for the poster, maybe his girlfriend." Hopefully it will get bumped up soon, but AC's seldom seem to get their props under the current mod system.)

I strongly disagree with what Roger Ebert says about homebrew comentary. I like some director commentary tracks. I like it even better when a DVD comes with comentary by a very well-informed person who writes about movies for a living (such as the comentary on Criterion's edition of Seven Samurai, or the track Mr. Ebert himself did for Dark City). Listening to some of those tracks is like taking a film school seminar, with one of the nation's leading critics as your professor for the day.

That said, there is no way I'm going to spend two hours of my life listening to what the typical talk-backer from Aint-It-Cool-News has to say about his favorite flick. Why would I ever take the time to download a play-by-play breakdown of... oh, say "12 Monkeys"... when, for all I know, it was done by somebody who never saw "La Jette" (which it was based on), nor any of Gilliam's previous body of work, and spends most of the running time of the film talking about Brad Pitt's recent marriage to Jenifer Aniston and how he thought that the Bruce Willis movie "Hudson Hawk" was really underrated.

In Proverbs* it says that there is no man on Earth who you can't learn something from, but that doesn't mean that everybody's nuggets of wisdom are worth the time to mine them.

* Footnote: "Proverbs" is a popular religious text expounding on the virtues of wisdom, for those of you who drive around with those lame "Darwin fish" on the backs of your cars, in spite of having never attended a high school biology class.

Does anyone NOT know Groundhog Day?

[Hard_Code]

"(Groundhogs day?)"

Oh please tell me you have not NOT seen Groundhog Day? It's a classic. Rent it now.

"Now put your little hand in mine..."

Aaron

Or if the critic is Roger Ebert...

[uqbar]

I've found that I can predict which movies I will like by doing the *opposite* of Roger Ebert. If he is revolted by a movie (e.g. Blue Velvet or Fight Club) I know I will really like it. If he totally doesn't understand a movie (e.g. Velvet Goldmine which was a complex meditation on the impact of Glam Rock) the I know the movie is pretty intelligent...

Re:Or if the critic is Roger Ebert...

[AndyChrist]

How can you stand to watch the guy anymore? I mean...that Roeper guy isn't a total clone, but they agree entirely too much. The show is just BORING now.

Me, I listen to AICN's Moriarty.

And Jeff Mills version of Metropolis...

[uqbar]

Detroit minimal techno pioneer Jeff Mills did a soundtrack for Metropolis - which hasn't come out on DVD yet. Other musicians could do alternative soundtracks to their favorite movies - silent or otherwise...

Re:Grow up and stop "Warezing"

[Rakarra]

They feed upon an artificial value created by the monopolies IP gives them. The value of copies exist only because copyright holders can use their monopolies to create a lack of copies in the market.

What about the resources ($$$) that it takes to actually make movies/music/books/etc? Don't the creators deserve to reimbursed for their time and effort? Isn't it morally wrong to deny them their profit even from something they spent resources creating? IP doesn't magically grow on trees, it usually takes actual work and resources to create. When you buy a CD or movie, sure there's distribution cost (very low), but you're also paying the creation cost. That's why making a copy of something you didn't buy is stealing -- sure it's just a copy, but the use of that work creates the moral obligation to pay your share of the creation costs as well. So please don't try to play the "it's illegal, but not morally wrong" card; you don't have a leg to stand on.