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Downloadable Film Commentaries Becoming Popular?
FilmFan writes "Now that Kevin Smith is offering a downloadable commentary for Clerks 2, will other Directors follow in his footsteps? Some studios think so and are already offering similar content for shows such as Battlestar Galactica, Dr. Who, and Star Trek: Enterprise. Other websites offer fan-created content and even offer a free DVD player capable of playing these downloaded commentaries in sync with a DVD."
I've never really gotten just why fans want to disrupt movies by hearing the director's voice. The last time I did that, Mel Gibson just ruined 'The Passion of the Christ.' Never again.
You were asking: "Never again what? Never again: watching a Mel Gibson movie, or listening to the directors cut?"
Well, my answer is BOTH!
The commentary for Enterprise must have been great.
"We really liked the way the "spreading the goo" scene... uh... brought out the... um..."
"Characters?"
"Yeah! The characters, and their, um... personalities."
"Yeah. It really heightened the dramatic..."
"Drama."
"Or something."
Scrubs did this too, except while the show was on air. They released the commentary of a repeat and then you were meant to listen to the commentary while it was on NBC. It was a cool idea but I could never quite get it to sync up perfectly. The mp3's are still online too.
I guess having an iPod would drown out the noise from the crying babies, the ringing cell phones, and the talking loudmouth.
More seriously (and less grumpily) though, it's definitely a neat way for fans who really enjoyed the movie the first time to get more out of it the second time. I give them credit for coming up with a new *positive* experience for watching movies, instead of advertisements and commercials, and etc etc.
Prepare for the next buzzword: Moviecasts!
Respect the laws of physics, for the laws of physics have no respect for you.
This would be an excellent use of Second Audio Program (SAP) for TV shows. It would always be in sync, it wouldn't require anything to download/play, and most modern TVs support it any way. Everyone speaks english, so what is the big deal?
Maybe. Depending upon who does the recording.
I always thought it would be interesting to have different people commenting on movies than those involved with making them. Critics, sure, but maybe directors influenced by the film or historians or other knowledgeable folks.
It'd be like watching the movie in the company of someone interesting.
Wow. That is such a Slashdot comment. "Uh...I have a date with Natalie Portman tonight. We're watching...uh...Casablanca."
That said, I do sometimes prefer the "Pop-Up Video" style commentaries (formatted like a subtitle, maybe).
...is a really nifty player. I just tried it. I can't believe I never heard of this before. Anyone else like it? I was using Media Player Classic but that still makes things awkward: like reverse is simple to do on my set top DVD player yet a pain with MPC. It's a frickin' breeze with this program. It works more like a normal DVD player. The only problem is the skin is ugly, but I'm sure I can change that.
This seems like a good ploy to get more people to see the movie twice.
This is great for those studying filmography, animation, or acting; depending of course on the quality of the commentary. The director talking about what kind of doughnoughts were on the snack table the day they shot a certain scene is obviously no help, but commentaries where the director or other cast/crew talk about the process of making the film can be very insightful to students.
Lose: misplace or fail || Loose: not bound together
Don't forget the downloadable commentaries for Firefly.
With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter. -- William Lloyd
I generaly like commentaries on my DVDs so that after I watch it 'clean, I can listen to people talk about it while I watch it again. I find it adds a great deal of value to a DVD. Do I want to pay another $10 to watch a movie while I listen, no, I'll save it to buy the DVD. That said, commentaires to older movies are generally better then hearing what anyone has to say about a film that just came out. Especially when some commentaries are just love fests between all the actors and crew so they don't piss anyone off they are bound to work with again.
This seems to be true even for games. Part of the reason, for instance, HL2 Episode 1 is replayable for many is because it comes with commentary. It seems people not only want the experience, they want to know what the creators thought as they brought forth that experience.
I have the DVD of "Good Night and Good Luck." I really enjoyed the film (and I recommend it highly, especially around here, where its political sentiment will likely ring true with many readers). One of the coolest things about that DVD is that, after watching the film, I was able to watch it again and hear George Clooney and Grant Heslov's commentary dubbed over the movie. I'm not a big fan of George Clooney, but I didn't care; it was really insightful to hear anecdotes and scene descriptions from the writers themselves. You can gain a real understanding for the composition of the film.
You watch the film once and you interpret it in your own way. Then you can watch it again (and since you've already seen it, the voiceovers don't ruin anything) and you learn why certain scenes were included, why they contributed to the plot, why the actors were directed in a certain manner, etc. I think it's a cool feature. I'm not so sure about downloading a commentary, but having it on the DVD is a "value added" service that makes it worth owning, IMO...
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
I think this is a pretty cool idea. Most of the time, I am sure, most of us try (while watching a film we adore maybe for the 5th time ) to look through the glasses of the director(of an impressive film). I don't think that this will apply to mediocre action films or romantic comedies, however imagine that there is a thorough documentation by Kubrick ( with his lively and agressive style) while you are wathcing Clockwork Orange. OR imagine what Lynch had to say about the bizarre final of Mulholland Drive. And furthermore, imagine you have free access to these after you watch an amazing film, just as the ones described above.
and I am pretty sure that we all prefer DVDs to junky VCDs or poor quality records, not only regarding the quality but also the commentaries, deleted scenes and director's opinions.
I hope it works very well and we have that option for the movies we enjoy
There's plenty of room at the bottom! Richard P. Feynmann
Bad offtopic mod there. Now then.
What makes you think that everyone in the United States speak English? It's absurd how little you have to know to become a citizen here. My grandmother recently took the citizenship test. You only have to answer six questions correctly in a oral exam, and much of their judgement of your English is based on that and some spelling/grammar things. Whether you can understand a conversation or not is barely a factor. Most people can pick up on key words and predict the questions, the answers to which they have already memorized. Go from there to being able to understand an entire movie, and you see why many people need SAP to watch movies and such.
"MY APOCALYPTIC TENOR HAS NOT BEEN DISPELLED!" - T-Rex, qwantz.com
I've downloaded a couple of commentaries for different things, and some of them are pretty well done. The Leaky Cauldron did a commentary for the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire DVD, which came with no commentary. It was nice to have a commentary by people who were actually on the set.
In general, I've found that some of them are really good, and add a lot to the experience- especially if the commentary is by people who have some clue as to what was going on during the filming. Other times unfortunately, it just seems like you are trying to watch a movie with a couple of people who won't shut up.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
Well, I guess it depends on the audience. The "American Beauty" commentary is an excellent insight as far as cinematography is concerned. It really appeals to potential moviemakers -- you pay attention to a lot of detail. It's like a free seminar. The commentary for Ghostbusters is excellent (including shadows). You appreciate the elements of writing and how they are translated into a good movie. I wish I had a commentary track for Eyes Wide Shut with Stanley, for instance.
They are not for everyone, I agree with that. But I don't think they're always a waste of time.
Now everyone can be a smartass and make fun of movies.
I don't know about the average man or slashdotter, but one of my favorite things in this world are commentaries on DVDs for good movies.... particularly for Kurosawa movies.
One wierd thing I've noticed on commentaries for movies that were released before the invention of DVDs is that they, too, were recorded years before the DVD came onto market... I've heard several introductions for commentaries mark that they were created in '92 or so. I've always wondered why film studios would go to the trouble of booking notable figures in the film industry as well as prominent actors for commentaries before they knew what the hell kind of format would support them. Just a thought.
Ex nihilo nihil fit.
...The original (not the abomination of a remake that had no soul, no purpose, & no message) "Rollerball". I own the DVD for this and it comes with a fantastic commentary track, including all kinds of depth. I'd always loved the movie, and I found that what I loved about it dovetailed nicely with what the director had been trying to do.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
One of the most interesting DVD filmmaker commentaries I've ever heard was for a bad movie. On the Lost in Space movie DVD, the filmmakers went into detail about what they'd aimed for in a given scene, why it didn't work, and what they originally planned -- which always sounded more interesting than what made it onscreen. That commentary told as much about the realities of filmmaking as do the commentaries you hear on far better films.
I'm not talking about an MST3K-style lampoon of terrible films, but more an analysis and discussion of what went wrong and why. I see that the Sharecrows site links to a Gigli commentary, which I suspect must be played for laughs. But that's not the only way to bring utility to a bad film.
Tragically, it's never the same of course..... I miss that show.
I suggest you read Slashdot
Petfly (Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo), the producers of "The Flash" and "The Sentinel", are providing episode commentary in the form of podcasts (http://www.dmgutierrez.com/podcasts.html). It's a pretty interesting concept - who wouldn't love to hear, say, Bob Newhart commenting on episodes of both "The Bob Newhart Show" and "Newhart", for example?
- Sweeneybird
My first thought reading this was, "Hey... anybody could make one of those!" Just sit there with a microphone while you watch the movie (with the sound in headphones to avoid bleed in to the commentary track), and you too can explain why Matrix Reloaded was the best movie of the trilogy, scene by scene.
Ok, not so exciting. But, it might be more interesting to hear extra commentary from the actors or crew after the DVD release, or from other interesting people (like, say, Kevin Smith or Joss Whedon's take on the Star Wars prequels). Alternatively, if you gave several people microphones, and especially if you did multiple takes and spliced the best bits together later, you could probably get some pretty good MST3K style tracks (again, the Star Wars prequels seem ripe for this).
I dunno if I'd want to pay to see a movie twice in the theaters, just to hear the commentary however. I mean, how loud do you need your earbuds so you can even hear over the theater sound? Still, it is a really cool idea and since I know plenty of people who would be seeing a beloved movie multiple times in a theater anyway, this idea definately has an audience.
Blar.
There IS a bit too much ass-kissing on the cast comentaries for my tastes, but I think I can forgive them since they spent so many years together. The technical and the directors commentaries were my favorites.
Maybe it's just because I'm such a LOTR freak.
Are there any other films that have such a depth of commentaries? I know I would LOVE to see a treatment of One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest...except it's far too late for the commentaries to be anything but Simpson Commentary-esque.
I suppose the money men need to know that the cult audience is there and waiting before they spend the cash...but really...you'd think that anyone who works on a movie in any aspect would jump at the chance to talk about how they contributed to it. How much extra could it cost to get a screening room and some recording equipment for a few hours?
Blar.
This seems like the perfect opportunity for Kevin Smith to make a small portion of the audience laugh during a "serious" scene and ruin the movie for the people who haven't seen it yet. Great prank. Wish I thought of that. At least, that's what I would have done if I were Kevin Smith, but then again, I'm an asshole.
887321 = 337*2633
It's Doctor Who, not Dr. Who.
http://www.buddytv.com/ A guy I met at church is working on this project.
I really enjoyed watching firefly and battlestar galactica with my friends.. our emotional responces built on eachothers. buddytv may allow friends to give commentaries to other friends? I haven't looked into it that much...
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My apologies to those who, for obvious reasons, didn't appreciate my sense of humor, I should have put a bit more thought into it.
The thing about 'Everyone speaking english' was meant to be funny, and I suppose wasn't.
That said, it did raise a few interesting discussions. Most programs that I view do not have any SAP information, and rarely provide French programming.
My bad
Yeah, LaserDisc. You know, that format that many people dump on as being a failure (sometimes saying BluRay or HD-DVD will be a failure like LaserDisc).
LaserDisc may not have been huge, but it lasted a long time and it was WAY ahead of its time. The industry learned a lot from LaserDisc, not the least of which was how to soak top videophiles for enormous amounts of dough. LaserDisc players were expensive, and the discs also. And top tier of LD people went from composite to component and from stereo to digital stereo to digital dolby surround to pro logic to Dolby Digital 5.1 to digital ES. And they were also the first to buy 16:9 TVs to display widescreen content with improved resolution ("squeeze LDs", which were anamorphic like DVDs).
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
While I don't think just any random person should be making commentary on every movie they can think of (but if they want to, that's cool), I know a lot of people who know *way* more about film than I do, and would like to hear some of them rambling in a TrackZero style during some of my favourite movies.
http://www.trackzero.net/ has been doing this for a while, and sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's not, but hey, they're doing it.
Tune In, Turn Up, Geck Out.
FamilyGuyFiles.com was doing these in 2003 ... old news. :)
Shameless plug for a great piece of software for Mac OS X called Peanut Gallery from RONIN NO SAKURA KAI SOFTRONICS.
.Mac iDisk, or the World Wide web, complete with pre-rolls, intermission and Core Video-Powered theater-like visual effects.
Basically, it makes inventive use of some Mac OS X video technologies to allow people to do running MST3K-style commentary in real time over a LAN or the internet, complete w/ shadow avatars and a theatre-like presentation. It even comes with a bunch of public domain movies like Night of the Living Dead and Refer Madness so you can start heckling right away. Unfortunately, my Mac isn't powerful enough to use this software (my old ass 1999 vintage B&W is finally starting to get long in the tooth) but I've seen it demoed and it is KILLER. Tons of fun.
From the site:
"You and up to 7 guests can enjoy video or audio from local files, your
Interact with each other via Maya-rendered 30fps* animated characters, inline real-time text chat, and voice.
Peanut Gallery isn't just a video player - it's a Shared Media Experience!"
Check it out! Its quite a lot of fun.
Of which my favourite is the commentary for (Kevin Smith movie) 'Chasing Amy' - recorded for the Criterion Laserdisc, and included on the Criterion DVD (which you should all buy, by the way)...
:)
It's well summed up by the specially recorded new intro, in which Kevin Smith says 'and on the commentary you might hear someone who sounds a lot like me saying"fuck DVD" - I would like to go on the record as saying it wasn't me, I never said it, I love DVDs' in his usual dead-pan style.
Sure enough the commentary refers to the wonder that is Criterion Laserdisc, much better than DVD, etc
Nice he didn't retcon it!
Mark
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Err, no it isn't.
...
Requirements:
A directshow compatible DVD player installed
It's a free add-on to an existing DVD player. It can't play DVDs by itself.
(This is an important correction, as I've been looking for a free DVD player for windows other than Media Player Classic for a while, and don't have a directshow DVD player installed)
How 'bout an over-under for the date the MPAA sues somebody who makes a wildly popular negative commentary that becomes more popular than the film? I'll also lay 3:2 they try to use copyright to enjoin the commentators.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
So I'm watching the movie the first time and I'm sitting next to someone listening to the commentary on their ipod? Yes, it could truly achieve the impossible - and make me hate Clerks II even than I hated Clerks I...
Slightly more on topic, Sonnenfeld's commentary for Big Trouble was one of the worst I've ever heard.
The ability to play DVDs should be free. If you buy a DVD, why should you have to buy the right to view it? Shouldn't it be implied that you're going to view it when you buy the disc? So why should you have to pay extra to "license" the DVD decryption scheme to play the DVD you already bought? This whole "pay to buy protected media and then pay for a player that can get past the protection so you can play it" thing is bullshit.
Twinstiq, game news
Just to note, the blurb suggests that Sharecrow's site is providing the commentaries. While it does aggregate links to a bunch of different commentary sites, the main place where aspiring commentators can have their commentaries hosted (first one is hosted free, others have a small fee--or you can link to files hosted elsewhere for free) is Commentary Central. This replaces the defunct DVDTracks site that Slashdot covered previously, which went defunct several years ago.
I'd also like to plug the commentary track that I myself recorded, for the Hayao Miyazaki film Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro (which is getting a new special-edition DVD release from Mangled Video via Anchor Bay in just a couple of months, by the way--too bad it won't include my commentary!). I've continued to update and correct this commentary over the last few months, and it's grown into something I'm really proud of. Any comments on my commentary would be well-received...
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
I teach film/TV studies and I could see an assignment in which students create an audio version of an analysis of, say, Citizen Kane. They could talk about the film's visual and sound style right over the film itself.
I don't suppose Sharecrow (or another DVD player) allows you to program in pauses in the playback. That would make it even more useful for analytical purposes--e.g., Gregg Toland and Orson Welles helped to build interest in the use of deep focus with shots like THIS ONE. [pause]
The only problems I see with Sharecrow (and I haven't tried it yet) are the reliance upon a "directshow compatible DVD player" and the lack of any non-Windows versions. Still, I'm intrigued enough to give it a shot.
Jeremy Butler
www.ScreenSite.org
www.TVCrit.com
Yes, it's nice to get something for free, and the commentaries may be fun, but remember - anything on the internet is temporary. The url is bound to be moved at some point, so these commentaries are nothing on having a commentary on the disc itself.