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."

Comments

Oh, can't wait.

[sammy baby]

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."

Re:Oh, can't wait.

[Russ Steffen]

You think that's bad, check out some of the commentary from the DVD....

Director 1 : (snoring)

Director 2 : (snoring)

Recording Tech: Are you guys going to do some commentary, or just sleep out the rest of the episode?

D1: *wakes up* What?

D2: *wakes up" Where am I?

RT: You're recording comentary for "Enterprise", Season 4, Episode 11, titled "Observer Effect"

D2: Hey, are like one of those super-nerd fans that has every episode memorized?

RT: No. I've got it written on a fucking sticky-note so that there's at least a chance it will end up attached to the right episode on the DVD. No one - and I mean no one - has your show memorized.

D2: (Dejected) Oh

D1: Wait, so what was happening before we nodded off?

RT: Well, we got through the opening credits okay.

D1: Excellent.

RT: Then 3 minutes into act 1 you both got bored and wandered out to the parking lot and played hacky-sack for a while. Then you came back in here and slept for 20 minutes.

D1: Hmmm.

RT: I kept the audio track rolling the whole time.

D2: Really? Why?

RT: Frankly, the snoring was the most interesting thing I've heard come out of either of you.

D1: Can I have you fired?

RT: No. I don't work for you. And besides, I'm in The Union. I could piss in your coffee and all my boss could do is come in here and give me a stern look.

D1: Odd that he's standing right next to you, giving you a stern look right now...

D2: (distant slurp) Hey, does this coffee taste funny to anyone else?

RT: Okay guys, we've got 3 minutes left in this episode. Either of you want to share any of your "razor wit" before we put this one in the can?

D1: Yeah I got something to add.

(Clears throat)

At this point in the show I had the writing process nailed down to a science. It used to be that writers for Star Trek would use a little placeholder word, "tech," which would be filled in with other words, like "anomaly" or "photon torpedo", by the production staff.

I went one step further. I fired all the writers and replaced them chimps. Chimps chained to typewriters. And those typewriters, had just two keys - "dialog" and "tech".

And those chimps produced page after page of glorious manuscripts. They were like two-note symphonies of "dialog" and "tech". And those chimps did all of this for me out respect for my talent as a director. And fear of getting hit with a cattle prod. But mostly respect. And fear.

So I would take these manuscripts and I'd have them sent off to some third-world country where 8 year old children, who spoke not a word of English, would slave away 20 hours a day in squalid and dangerous conditions to replace those "dialog" and "tech" placeholders with the dialog you hear in the show.

D2: And the quality of that process really shows in the finished product.

RT: Why, exactly are child labor and "squalid and dangerous" conditions necessary for this?

D1: You have to suffer to produce great art!

(contemplates)

Anyway, someone has to suffer for my art.

RT: Well, we are all suffering because of your art.

D1: Yes, well. The streamlining of this process really helped me manage my time. I'm a very busy man.

D2: Why don't you tell us all what keeps you so busy.

D1: Ah yes. You see, I'm destroying science fiction. I buy the original master prints of classic science fiction films, and then I burn them.

D2: You burn them?

D1: Yes. Sometimes I shit on them first. But mostly I just burn them.

In fact, while filming this episode I spent most of my time on the Paramount backlot burning the last master copy of "2001: A Space Odyssey".

Actually, I didn't burn the whole copy, though. The makeup for the alien in this episode is made from little fragments of the famous "Starchild" scene. It gives the eyebrow ridges a

Re:Oh, can't wait.

[HexRei]

wow, did you steal this, write it previously in preparation, or just have THIS MUCH TIME on your hands?

In any case, its pretty fuckin funny :)

Scrubs did this too

[the_unknown_soldier]

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.

iPod + Movie

[MassEnergySpaceTime]

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!

Second Aduio Program

[redphive]

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?

Re:Second Aduio Program

[Overloadplanetunreal]

Actually I experienced a creative use of SAP a couple years back. I was channel surfing and landed on some very young children's show. It was one of those ones where it was basically an adaptation of a kids book in to a 10 minute animated show.

Anyway, I can't remember why I switched on SAP, but when I did, I was surprised to find out that all it did was add narration to the whole thing. Whereas the normal show just has the dialog, the SAP added what I assume was the original text from whatever book this was a recreation of.

Like watching movies with smart people

[yndrd]

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).

Great for students

[NeilTheStupidHead]

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.

Shiny!

[peacefinder]

Don't forget the downloadable commentaries for Firefly.

I like conmmentaries

[AdmNaismith]

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.

It really works well for some films

[ShaunC]

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...

Good idea - gives insight

[kyc]

    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

Fantastic.

[TheNoxx]

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.

Re:Need more commentaries for bad films

[01101101]

You jest about mst3k style commentaries, but with hi capacity DVD's there is no reason they couldn't use the extra room to do a number of commentary tracks, including one by the guys from MST3K. I'd buy more cruddy films on DVD if I knew it had an MST3K track built in. Could be a new revenue stream.

Re:The Burn

[rob_squared]

Unfortunately, English is not the official language in the United States'. I'm surprised Congress hasn't brought up the idea of an amendment to make it official. If they're going after flags, gay marriage, and illegal immigration to hand-wave people away from the real issues, english as a national language would do a much better job in my opinion.

Cue the Peanut Gallery! (no, REALLY! ... read on!)

[thedbp]

Shameless plug for a great piece of software for Mac OS X called Peanut Gallery from RONIN NO SAKURA KAI SOFTRONICS.

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 .Mac iDisk, or the World Wide web, complete with pre-rolls, intermission and Core Video-Powered theater-like visual effects.
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.