On a DVD (or laserdisc), an audio commentary is a bonus track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, who talk about the movie as it progresses. Depending on the nature of the movie, and upon the person providing the spoken dialogue, it can add a wealth of informative, entertaining information about a movie of which most audience members would not be aware. Size comparison: A 12 cm Sony DVD+RW and a 19 cm Dixon Ticonderoga pencil. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Types of commentary

Audio commentaries are located on separate 'audio tracks' on the DVD. A single DVD disc can have several of these that can be selected by the viewer from the main menu of the DVD or by pressing a designated button on the remote. Each contains different content: one has the actual dialogue and sound of the movie, while others can contain different language dialogue (for translation purposes), a different type of audio encoding (Dolby Digital, DTS or PCM), music-only soundtracks, and audio commentaries. Some DVD productions include multiple commentary tracks. In general, directors are open to recording commentary tracks, as many feel it can be helpful to young filmmakers, or they simply want to explain their intention in making the film, while others (such as Steven Spielberg or David Lynch) feel commentary can de-mystify and cheapen a movie. Dolby Digital is the marketing name for a series of lossy audio compression technologies by Dolby Laboratories. ... DTS Coherent Acoustics is the full name for the audio format standard usually known as just DTS. It is covered in U.S. Patent 5,956,674. ... Steven Allan Spielberg KBE (born December 18, 1946)[1] is an American film director and producer. ... David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946, in Missoula, Montana) is an American filmmaker. ...

There are several different types of commentary. The two main types simply define the length of the commentary rather than the type of content. They are:

• Partial or scene-specific, which only covers selected scenes of the film. Sometimes these are recorded without the speaker viewing the film and thusly the commentator may make more general comments than pointing out specific details.
• Feature-length or screen-specific, which is recorded in one session: the speakers watch the movie from beginning to end and give their thoughts directly based on what is happening on-screen. Occasionally these can include silhouettes of the speakers (to enhance the "live" aspect of the commentary) or even telestrator prompts, allowing the director or commentator to "draw" on the screen, pointing out specific details. There are also video commentaries, showing the speakers as they are recording the commentary.

Commentaries can be done in various fashions. The majority of commentaries include one person, likely the director, but can often contain producers and occasionally cast members. Other types of commentaries include: The telestrator is a device that allows its operator to draw a freehand sketch over a motion picture image. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

• Edited, which is recorded at various sessions, often with various speakers. Multiple-person commentary tracks recorded for The Criterion Collection are noted for this technique. The audio is edited into a cohesive whole.
• Character, which features one or more actors commenting on the movie while in character.
• Scholarly, which is performed by a film critic, historian or scholar, taking the viewer through the significance of the film, the technique, and at times telling the story behind its making. Variations feature fans who would also have some level of expertise concerning a title.

Sometimes, audio commentaries will also include hosts or moderators to keep the discussion flowing, and will feature either subtitling or a narrator to inform the viewer which person is speaking, if there are a considerable amount of participants. The goal of a commentary is of course to add some context to the choices made in making the film, whether that be of the actual filmmaking, or subtext in the writing or direction, although some commentaries, such as in-character commentaries or group cast commentaries tend to be more for entertainment than for educational value. The Criterion Collection logo The Criterion Collection is a privately held company that distributes authoritative consumer versions of important classic and contemporary films on DVD. It was established in 1984 as a joint venture between Janus Films and the Voyager Company. ... Fans of Janet Jackson, at Much Music in Toronto The word fan refers to someone who has an intense, occasionally overwhelming liking of a person, group of persons, work of art, idea, or trend. ... Moderator, a Latin word for he who moderates, can refer to: Moderator provinciae was the title of certain Roman provincial governors Moderator is a Scots, and Scottish English, gender-neutral word that approximates chairman or convener. ...

History of audio commentaries

The value of audio commentaries as a marketing tool was revealed during the heyday of laserdisc, the laser-based video format produced before the introduction of DVDs. The Criterion Collection company, for example, produced high-quality "deluxe" editions of classic movies on laserdisc, using the best available prints and re-edited versions. These were often very expensive compared to today's DVDs and included bonus material such as trailers, deleted scenes, production stills, behind-the-scenes information, and audio commentaries from the directors, producers, cast, cinematographers, editors, and production designers. They were marketed to movie professionals, fans and scholars who were seen as an elite niche of consumers who could afford to pay more for definitive, quality editions. The audio commentaries on laserdiscs were typically encoded on secondary analogue tracks which had become redundant, as modern laserdiscs had stereo audio encoded digitally alongside. This is why certain older videodisc players, which predate the digital audio standard, are only able to play back analogue tracks with audio commentary. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Movie trailers are film advertisements for films that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema, on whose screen they are shown; they are commonly known as previews of coming attractions. ... Deleted scene is a commonly-used term in the entertainment industry, especially the film and television industry, which usually refers specifically to scenes removed from or replaced by another scene in the final cut, or version, of a film (including television serials). ... The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ... A film producer creates the conditions for making movies. ... Actors in period costume sharing a joke whilst waiting between takes during location filming. ... A Cameraman-Reporter during a MINUSTAH mission in 2007 (Photo: Patrick-André Perron A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera (the art and science of which is known as cinematography). ... Film editing is the connecting of one or more shots to form a sequence, and the subsequent connecting of sequences to form an entire movie. ...

The first ever audio commentary was featured on the Criterion Collection release of the original King Kong movie, on laserdisc in December 1984. It featured film historian Ronald Haver and his first words were: This is about the original movie and novel. ...

The decline of the laserdisc format and the increasing popularity of DVD was highlighted in the fall of 1997, when simultaneous laserdisc and DVD editions of the movie Contact were released. The former contained one bonus audio commentary track by director, Robert Zemeckis, and producer Steve Starkey. However, the DVD contained two additional, separate audio commentaries (by Jodie Foster and the special effects producers), as well as other bonus features. Despite its history with laserdiscs, the idea of audio commentary was still such an uncommon notion that, in its January 1998 review of the Contact DVD, Entertainment Weekly scoffed, "Who in the universe would want to journey through more than eight hours of gassy, how-we-filmed-the-nebulae trivia included in this "Special Edition" disc? Meant to show off DVD's enormous storage capacity, it only demonstrates its capacity to accommodate mountains of filler."^[1] Contact DVD Contact is a 1997 film adaptation of the science fiction novel Contact by Carl Sagan. ... Robert Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an Academy Award-winning American movie director, producer and writer. ... Jodie Foster (born November 19, 1962) is a two-time Academy Award-winning American actress, director, and producer. ... Entertainment Weekly (sometimes abbreviated EW) is a magazine published by Time Inc. ...

Notable DVD audio commentaries

• The DVD release of Ghostbusters contains a so-called 'video commentary' track with director, Ivan Reitman, writer/star Harold Ramis, and associate producer Joe Medjuck. Silhouettes of the trio were added to the picture using one of the subtitle tracks, in a manner that made it seem as if they were sitting in a theater commenting on the movie as it was screened for them. This was seen as a homage to (or imitation of) Mystery Science Theater 3000. In some scenes, arrows, lines, or circles may be drawn onto the screen to highlight things the directors are talking about. The DVD releases of Men in Black and Muppets from Space had similar features. Unfortunately, this 'video commentary' feature is not presentable when viewed on a 16x9 display.
• The DVD release of Fantasia features two separate commentaries: one by Roy E. Disney, James Levine, and John Canemaker; and a second by Walt Disney, created using audio clips of interviews and a voice actor reading his production meeting notes, hosted by Canemaker. When its sequel, Fantasia 2000, was released on DVD, it also included two separate audio commentaries: One featuring Roy E. Disney, Levine, and Canemaker, and the other featuring commentary on each of the separate segments of the film by the directors and art directors of each segment. For the sections starring Mickey Mouse ("The Sorcerer's Apprentice") and Donald Duck ("Pomp and Circumstance"), voice actors Wayne Allwine and Tony Anselmo were used to make it seem as though Mickey and Donald were providing their own commentary on their appearances in the film.
• The DVD releases for Atlantis: The Lost Empire (Special Edition) and Finding Nemo contained specially-edited 'video commentaries'; the feature-length audio commentaries by the directors and producers were punctuated by cues to video segments illustrating various behind-the-scenes aspects. Similarly, in several commentaries on the first season of Lost, the commentators would actually stop the episode's progress and play behind-the-scenes clips, continuing to talk over the footage.
• The 2000 DVD of This is Spinal Tap features a commentary by the three members of the band, in character. They relate how they felt slighted by the film, and how the director (Marty di Bergi in the film) did a "hack job" with the documentary. The commentary is another added element to the fiction of the band. Actors Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer had previously recorded a commentary for a Criterion Collection DVD which had gone out of print. Similarly, the DVD of series 1 of the BBC sitcom I'm Alan Partridge features commentary from the characters of Alan and his assistant, Lynne. Like Spinal Tap, Alan is heard to be frustrated at how the show makes him appear.
• The Ultimate Matrix Collection, a box set of the entire Matrix trilogy, has two audio commentaries on each film — one by philosophers who loved it (Dr. Cornel West and Ken Wilber), and one by critics who hated it (Todd McCarthy, John Powers and David Thomson).
• The commentary on Trey Parker's Cannibal! The Musical (aka Alferd Packer: The Musical) is notable in that the commentators — cast and crew — start out sober at the beginning. As the movie progresses, the group drinks and gets more and more inebriated. A similar commentary, featuring many of the participants from that commentary, was recorded for Orgazmo.
• The fourth, fifth and sixth season box sets of The Simpsons contain special "illustrated commentaries" on selected episodes, where two animation directors draw on screen while commenting on the episode. This is achieved by using subtitle data to produce the drawings overlayed on top of the video in sync with the audio commentary track.
• The Simpsons and Futurama, both Matt Groening creations, are among the few TV series to have audio commentary tracks on every episode in their season box set DVD releases. For Futurama, the commentaries are actually helpful to the viewer, as the commentators point out who voiced minor characters. The actors for these characters are otherwise unlisted in the ending credits. Twin Peaks, Mr. Show, Red Dwarf, the first season sets of The Shield and Goodnight Sweetheart and all episodes and specials of The League of Gentlemen are other examples of this.
• The commentary for Eurotrip has the writers and director playing a drinking game to their own film, while giving a commentary.
• When the first season of Veronica Mars was rushed to DVD so first-time viewers could catch up before the second season began airing in Fall 2005, the creator, Rob Thomas, recorded an audio commentary for the pilot which was a downloadable podcast because there wasn't time to get it on the boxed set.
• In lieu of recording a commentary himself, Michael Moore allowed his interns and secretary to record the audio commentary for his documentary Bowling for Columbine.
• Despite his high profile, director Steven Spielberg has yet to provide a commentary track for any of his films. He feels that the experience of watching a film with anything other than his intended soundtrack detracts from what he has created.^{[citation needed]}
• On the DVD release of Shaun of the Dead, one (of the four) commentary tracks is given over entirely to a recording of the actors who played zombies in the movie. The first cast audio commentary (including Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis and Dylan Moran) also mocks audio commentaries as the cast admit that they almost never listen to them (with Simon Pegg claiming he listens to them when going to sleep), as well as Dylan Moran saying that they simply involve people saying things like "oh, we used a steadi-cam for that one because Roger had a bad knee," and that no-one was interested in hearing it.
• There is a fake DVD commentary on the DVD of Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story with Rawson Marshall Thurman, Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller arguing. 40 minutes into it, all three exit and the commentary is replaced with the audio commentary from There's Something About Mary. The real audio commentary can be found as an easter egg on the DVD.

Ghostbusters is a 1984 sci-fi comedy film about three eccentric New York City parapsychologists. ... Ivan Reitman (born October 27, 1946 in Komárno in Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) is a Slovakian-born, Canadian-raised Jewish film actor, producer, and director. ... Harold Ramis (born November 21, 1944 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American actor, director, and writer. ... Joseph Medjuck (born February 17, 1943 in Fredericton, New Brunswick) is a Canadian-born film producer in Hollywood. ... Mystery Science Theater 3000, often abbreviated MST3K, is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc. ... Men in Black is a 1997 science fiction comedy action film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith and Vincent DOnofrio. ... Muppets from Space DVD cover Muppets from Space was the sixth feature film to star The Muppets, and the first since the death of Muppets creator Jim Henson to have an original Muppet-focused plot. ... Fantasia is a 1940 motion picture, the third in the Disney animated features canon, which was a Walt Disney experiment in animation and music. ... Roy E. Disney in Sweden, 1990 to promote The Little Mermaid. ... James Levine (born June 23, 1943 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American orchestral pianist and conductor and most well known as the music director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York. ... John Canemaker (b. ... For the company founded by Disney, see The Walt Disney Company. ... A voice actor (also a voice artist) is a person who provides voices for animated characters (including those in feature films, television series, animated shorts), voice-overs in radio and television commercials, audio dramas, dubbed foreign language films, video games, puppet shows, and amusement rides. ... Fantasia 2000 is an animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. ... Mickey Mouse is an Academy Award-winning comic animal cartoon character who has become an icon for The Walt Disney Company. ... Donald Duck is an animated cartoon and comic-book character from Walt Disney Productions. ... Wayne Anthony Allwine (born February 7, 1947 in Los Angeles, California) is an American voice actor, a sound effects editor and foley artist for Walt Disney Studios and the current voice behind Mickey Mouse, a role he assumed from Jimmy MacDonald. ... Tony Anselmo is an animator and cartoon voice actor, and since 1985, the voice of Donald Duck. ... Milo trying to convince scholars of Atlantis existence. ... Finding Nemo is an Academy Award-winning computer-animated film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released to theaters by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution. ... Lost is an Emmy Award and Golden Globe-winning American serial drama television series that follows the lives of plane crash survivors on a mysterious tropical island, after a passenger jet flying between Australia and the United States crashes somewhere in the South Pacific. ... Spinal Tap is a mostly fictitious heavy metal band, the subject of the 1984 rockumentary/mockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap. ... Michael McKean (born October 17, 1947) is an American actor, comedian, composer and musician, best known for his portrayal of Leonard Lenny Kosnowski on the sitcom Laverne and Shirley; as one of the members of Spinal Tap; as a Saturday Night Live cast member; and for other various appearances in... Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest (born February 5, 1948), is a British/American comedian, actor, writer, director, composer, and musician known as Christopher Guest. ... Harry Julius Shearer (born December 23, 1943) is an American comedic actor and writer. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, which is usually known as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion. ... A sitcom or situation comedy is a genre of comedy performance originally devised for radio but today typically found on television. ... Im Alan Partridge is a British sitcom. ... The Ultimate Matrix Collection The Ultimate Matrix Collection is a DVD release featuring all the titles in the Matrix Series, as well as several hours of special features, spread over 10 discs. ... A box set (sometimes referred to as a boxed set) is one or more musical recordings, films, television programs, or other collection of related things that are contained in a box. ... The Matrix series spans major motion pictures, Japanese-style animation, and video games in an attempt to tell a story thats part science fiction, part modern myth, with elements of cyberpunk, computer science, philosophy of mind, Hinduism, Christianity, Gnosticism, Buddhism, classical mythology, and other influences. ... Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953 in Tulsa, Oklahoma) is a prominent African-American scholar and public intellectual. ... Ken Wilber Kenneth Earl Wilber Jr. ... David Thomson (born 1941 in London, UK) is a noted film critic in the United States and the author of the lauded New Biographical Dictionary of Film. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Cannibal! The Musical is a student film directed by the future creator of South Park, Trey Parker, while studying at the University of Colorado at Boulder. ... Alferd Packer is one of the few people in the US to ever be jailed for cannibalism, having allegedly killed and eaten five of his travelling companions while trapped in the Rocky Mountains during fierce winter weather. ... The real Orgazmorator helps Joe and Ben save Lisa Orgazmo is a 1997 movie by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of the animated series South Park. ... The Simpsons DVD season boxsets have been released since 2001 in different regions all over the world. ... The Simpsons DVD season boxsets have been released since 2001 in different regions all over the world. ... The Simpsons DVD season boxsets have been released since 2001 in different regions all over the world. ... An animation director is the director in charge of all aspects of the animation process during the production of an animated film or animated segment for a live-action film. ... Futurama is an Emmy Award-winning animated American sitcom created by creator of The Simpsons Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox network. ... Matthew Abram Groening (born February 15, 1954[2] in Portland, Oregon;[3] his family name is pronounced ) is an Emmy Award-winning American cartoonist and the creator of The Simpsons,[4] Futurama and the weekly comic strip Life in Hell. ... A television program is the content of television broadcasting. ... Twin Peaks is an American Emmy Award-nominated, Peabody and Golden Globe-winning television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost, which first aired in the United States on April 8, 1990 and ended on June 10, 1991. ... Mr. ... Red Dwarf is a British science fiction comedy franchise, the primary form of which comprises eight series of a post-watershed television sitcom that ran on BBC2 between 1988 and 1999, and which has achieved a global cult following. ... The Shield is an American police-drama television series shown on FX Networks in the U.S. and other networks internationally. ... Goodnight Sweetheart was a British sitcom starring Nicholas Lyndhurst as Gary Sparrow, an ordinary modern man who discovers a time portal in Stepney, in the East End of London that allows him to travel back to the Second World War. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... EuroTrip is a 2004 American comedy film produced by the same people as Road Trip and Old School. ... Drinking games are games which involve the drinking of beer or other alcoholic beverages. ... This article is about the Veronica Mars television series. ... This article is about the writer Rob Thomas. ... An orange square with waves indicates that an RSS feed is present on a web page. ... Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American political-activist, a film director, author, social commentator, and political humorist. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A secretary is either an administrative assistant in business office administration, or a certain type of mid- or high-level governmental position, such as a Secretary of State. ... Bowling for Columbine is a controversial documentary film written, directed, produced by, and starring Michael Moore. ... Steven Allan Spielberg KBE (born December 18, 1946)[1] is an American film director and producer. ... Shaun of the Dead is a zombie-themed romantic comedy (or rom zom com as it dubs itself) or zombie comedy released in 2004. ... Simon John Pegg (born 14 February 1970 in Gloucester) is an English comedian, writer and film and television actor. ... Nicholas John Frost (born March 28, 1972 in Romford) is an English actor and comedian famous for his work with Simon Pegg. ... Kate Ashfield (born 1972) is an award-winning English actress best-known for co-starring in the 2004 movie Shaun of the Dead. ... Lucy Davis (born 2 January 1973) is an English actress. ... Dylan Moran (born November 3, 1971) is a good (but not great) Irish comedian, actor and writer. ... Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story is a comedy from 20th Century Fox, written and directed by Rawson Thurber and available on DVD or VHS December 2004. ... Vincent Anthony Vaughn (born March 28, 1970) is an American film actor. ... Benjamin Edward Stiller (born November 30, 1965) is an Emmy-winning American comedian, actor, film producer and director. ... Theres Something About Mary is an American film based on a real-life story released in 1998 by 20th Century Fox, directed by Bobby Farrelly and Peter Farrelly (the Farrelly brothers). ...

Prolific commentators

Bey Logan and Donnie Yen recording Iron Monkey commentary.

• Hong Kong action cinema expert Bey Logan was a popular commentator for UK DVD distributors Hong Kong Legends and their sister label Premier Asia. He has recorded over sixty commentaries for Asian films including classics such as Fist of Fury, Project A and The Young Master as well as modern hits Iron Monkey, Musa and Ong Bak. For the majority of his commentaries Logan was a solo commentator but occasionally he was joined by notable film makers and cast including Tsui Hark, Christy Chung, Donnie Yen and Maggie Q. He left Hong Kong Legends for the The Weinstein Co. in early 2006.
• US film historian Rudy Behlmer has recorded commentaries for many classics of American cinema, most notably Gone with the Wind, The Adventures of Robin Hood and Frankenstein.
• US writer and director Peter Bogdanovich has not only recorded commentaries for his own films (The Last Picture Show, The Cat's Meow, Paper Moon) but has also recorded commentaries for important American classics including Bringing Up Baby, Citizen Kane, The Lady from Shanghai and Strangers on a Train. He also participated in the commentary for the pilot episode of The Sopranos.
• Creator of The Simpsons, Matt Groening, has recorded commentary on most episodes of the show thus far released on DVD (seasons one to nine) as well as every episode of his other creation, Futurama. This means that as of May 2007 he has recorded over 250 episode commentaries. He has also provided commentaries on other Simpsons/Futurama related things, such as the music videos on The Simpsons: Season Two DVD. David X. Cohen, Groening's co-developer and occasional writer on Futurama, also provided commentary on every episode, as well as several installments of The Simpsons.
• Directors Kevin Smith and David Fincher are notable fans of DVD audio commentary, and Fincher's "Platinum Series" release of Se7en was considered one of the most in-depth DVDs of its time, mainly due to the four audio commentary tracks, all of which feature Fincher, and cover the writing, the cast, the sound design and the cinematography. Another commentary for Se7en was included on the Criterion Collection laserdisc, which included cast member Gwyneth Paltrow, but this track has not been released on DVD. Smith's DVD for Clerks II features three audio commentaries, all featuring Smith, and he is known for bringing his stars, including Ben Affleck and Jason Lee onto his commentary tracks. Smith has recorded audio commentaries for all of his films, and also appeared on the Road House audio commentary after mentioning it on the 10th Anniversary DVD of Clerks. Smith has also appeared on the special edition Donnie Darko DVD doing commentary with Richard Kelly. Fincher has recorded a track for all of his films except Alien³, which he disowned after controversy over the production. Directors Terry Gilliam, David Cronenberg and Paul Verhoeven are also highly respected as intelligent and informative commentators, often working with Criterion to create commentaries for their films.

Image File history File links Beyandonnie. ... Image File history File links Beyandonnie. ... Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industrys global fame. ... Bey Logan (born 1963) is a respected expert on Asian cinema, particularly Hong Kong action cinema. ... Jing Wu Men redirects here. ... Jackie Chans Project A (aka. ... The Young Master (師弟出馬) is a 1980 martial arts film that stars Jackie Chan as Dragon. ... Region 2 DVD cover Region 2 Platinum Edition DVD cover This article is about the 1993 kung fu film. ... Musa (hanja 武士; hangul 무사), released as The Warrior in English-speaking countries, is a 2001 South Korean epic film that stars Jung Woo-sung, Ahn Sung-ki, Ju Jin-mo and Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi. ... Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior (2003) is an action film from Thailand in the mold of old school Jackie Chan-styled kung-fu flicks. ... Tsui Hark (Chinese: 徐克; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Hsü Ko) (born Tsui Man-kong (徐文光) on February 15, 1950) is a New Wave film director in Hong Kong who is also a highly influential producer, often likened to Steven Spielberg for a similar galvanizing effect on his countrys cinematic scene. ... Christy Chung (鍾麗緹 Cantonese: Jūng Laitài Pinyin: Zhōng Lìtí Vietnamese: Chung Lệ Đề, born September 19, 1970) born in Montreal to a Chinese father and a Vietnamese mother. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Margaret Denise Quigley (Chinese: ; Pinyin: , Vietnamese: Lý Mỹ Kỳ [1], born May 22, 1979), better known as Maggie Q, is an American actress and former fashion model. ... The Weinstein Company is a film production firm. ... Gone with the Wind is a 1939 film adapted from Margaret Mitchells 1936 novel of the same name. ... The Adventures of Robin Hood is an American film released in 1938 and directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley. ... Frankenstein is a 1931 science fiction film from Universal Pictures directed by James Whale and very loosely based on the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. ... Peter Bogdanovich Serbian Cyrillic Петар Богдановић(born July 30, 1939) is a Serbian-American film director, writer and actor. ... The Last Picture Show is a 1971 film directed by Peter Bogdanovich, adapted from a 1968 novel by Larry McMurtry. ... The Cats Meow is a 2001 American film released in 2002. ... Paper Moon is an American motion picture comedy that was released in 1973 and was directed by Peter Bogdanovich. ... Bringing up Baby is a 1938 screwball comedy which tells the story of a scientist who winds up in various predicaments with a woman who has a unique sense of logic and a leopard named Baby. ... Citizen Kane is a 1941 mystery/drama film released by RKO Pictures and directed by Orson Welles, his first feature film. ... The Lady from Shanghai is a black-and-white film noir directed by and starring Orson Welles. ... Strangers on a Train is a film released in 1951 by Warner Bros. ... The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase and originally broadcast on the HBO network. ... Simpsons redirects here. ... David X. Cohen (born 1966), born David Samuel Cohen, is an American television writer. ... Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American screenwriter, film director and the founder of View Askew Productions. ... David Leo Fincher (born August 28, 1962) is an American music video and film director known for his dark and stylish portraits of the human experience, particularly Fight Club and Se7en. ... Se7en (also known as Seven) is an American 1995 Oscar and BAFTA nominated crime film directed by David Fincher. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Clerks II is the sequel to Kevin Smiths 1994 movie Clerks, and his sixth feature film to be set in the View Askewniverse. ... Benjamin Géza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) is a Golden Globe Award-nominated American film actor, director, and Academy Award-winning and Golden Globe Award-winning screenwriter. ... Jason Lee may refer to: Jason Lee (missionary) (1803–1845), American missionary and pioneer in the Oregon Territory Jason Scott Lee (born 1966), Asian-American film actor Jason Lee (actor) (born 1970), American actor in TV series My Name is Earl, Church of Scientology member, and former professional skateboarder Jason... Road House is a 1948 film noir starring Ida Lupino, Cornel Wilde, Celeste Holm and Richard Widmark. ... This article is about the film. ... Donnie Darko is a 2001 drama/psychological thriller/science fiction cult film written and directed by Richard Kelly. ... This article is about the film, for the video games of the same name see Alien³ (video game), Alien³ (SNES) and Alien³ (Game Boy). ... Terrence Vance Gilliam (born November 22, 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, animator, and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. ... David Cronenberg at Cannes 2002 David Paul Cronenberg OC, FRSC (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian film director and occasional actor. ... Paul Verhoeven (IPA: [pʌul vɛrhuvən]) (born July 18, 1938 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch film director, screenwriter, and film producer. ...

Alternate commentaries

Originally inspired by a column by Roger Ebert,^[2] a small but active fan base of DVD commentary enthusiasts has sprung up since 2002 offering their own specially-recorded fan-made DVD commentaries. These tracks (usually made available in MP3 format) allow the fans to put forth their own opinions and expertise on a movie or TV series in much the same way as an on-disc commentary. These commentary tracks are played either by starting a DVD player and MP3 player simultaneously, or using synchronization software such as Sharecrow. Alternate commentary tracks were originally aggregated at now-defunct website dvdtracks.com,^[3] and are now collected at Commentary Central. MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is an audio encoding format. ...

The idea of downloadable commentary tracks has since been co-opted by TV show creators themselves, as creators of TV shows such as the 2004 Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek: Voyager, and the Doctor Who revival have recorded downloadable commentary tracks meant to be watched along with the episodes as recorded from TV. Battlestar Galactica is a science fiction television program created by Ronald D. Moore that first aired on October 18, 2004 in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Sky One, and January 14, 2005 in the United States on the Sci Fi Channel. ... The starship Voyager (NCC-74656), an Intrepid-class starship. ... Doctor Who is a long-running award-winning British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The series depicts the adventures of a mysterious time-traveller known as the Doctor who travels in his TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space) time ship, which appears from the exterior...

Kevin Smith recorded a commentary track for Clerks 2 that can be downloaded to an MP3 player for viewing in the movie theater during the movie's first run; however, the commentary was not released because theater chains felt it would be distracting to viewers who were not listening to the commentary.^[4] Clerks II is the 2006 sequel to Kevin Smiths 1994 movie Clerks. ...

Mystery Science Theater 3000 head writer and on-screen host Michael J. Nelson has started his own website to sell downloadable commentaries called RiffTrax. He also regularly commentates on the public domain films that colorizing company Legend Films releases on DVD, including Night of the Living Dead and Reefer Madness. Michael J. Nelson. ... RiffTrax main page, March 1, 2007. ... Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 black-and-white independent horror film directed by George A. Romero. ... Reefer Madness is a 1936 drama film revolving around the tragic events that follow when high school students are lured by pushers to try marihuana: a hit and run accident, manslaughter, suicide, rape, and descent into madness all ensue. ...

Parody

DVD commentaries have been parodied by a number of people. Most notably:

• The Coen Brothers movie Blood Simple has a fake commentary written by the Coens and read by an actor posing as a film historian. This "historian" Kenneth Loring gives information about the production that almost everyone would recognize as being totally ludicrous. He claims for instance that one the opening scene was shot upside down with the actors saying their lines backwards and that some roles were reserved for Rosemary Clooney and Gene Kelly.
• In an episode of The Simpsons ("The Bart Wants What It Wants" [1]), Bart is watching an Itchy & Scratchy DVD and decides to turn the commentary on. A small box appears at the corner of the screen, showing Scratchy ("We shot this at four in the morning, and the crew was getting a little cranky") and Itchy ("You can never get enough takes for Steven Soderbergh"); midway through Scratchy's next sentence, Itchy cuts off his head.
• The Welsh comedian Rob Brydon wrote and starred in the ITV comedy show Director's Commentary (2004) in which he played a fictional director, Peter De Lane, and parodied the often conceited and pompous nature of directors when giving DVD commentaries by articulating his thoughts over archive footage. Although the show was well received it did not sustain viewer interest and only one six-episode series was made (as of 2006).^[5]
• The book Speak, Commentary, by Jeff Alexander and Tom Bissell, collects a series of fake audio commentaries purportedly made by well-known American cultural critics and political pundits on popular science fiction and fantasy movies. The contents include Ann Coulter on Ridley Scott's Alien, as well as Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn on Peter Jackson's films of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers.

• Adam and Joe also parodied audio commentaries in a sketch which displays a menu screen, and concedes that audio commentaries often sound like "self indulgent wankers in a pub".

• Webtoon Homestar Runner has featured the characters of the H*R universe doing commentaries for many of their cartoons. Most notably The King of Town DVD, In Search of the Yello Dello and the music video for They Might Be Giants' "Experimental Film."

This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Blood Simple is a neo-noir film, the debut of Joel and Ethan Coen, writers and directors of Fargo, The Man Who Wasnt There, and Raising Arizona, among others. ... Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was an American popular singer and actress. ... Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996), better known as Gene Kelly, was an American dancer, actor, singer, director, producer, and choreographer. ... The Bart Wants What it Wants is the eleventh episode of The Simpsons thirteenth season. ... Itchy and Scratchy The Itchy & Scratchy Show is a fictional television cartoon show within the television cartoon show The Simpsons (see show-within-a-show). ... Steven Andrew Soderbergh (born January 14, 1963 in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, and Oscar-winning director. ... This article is about the country. ... A comedian, or comic, is an entertainer who amuses an audience by making them laugh. ... Rob Brydon (born Robert Brydon Jones, May 3, 1965, Baglan, Port Talbot) is a Welsh actor, comedian and impressionist most famous for his role as Keith Barret in the BBC comedy Marion and Geoff and The Keith Barret Show. ... Independent Television (generally known as ITV but also as ITV Network or Channel 3) is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority (ITA) to provide competition to the BBC. ITV is the oldest commercial television network in the UK. Since 1990... Ann Hart Coulter (born December 8, 1961)[1] is an American best-selling author, columnist and political commentator. ... Sir Ridley Scott (born November 30, 1937 in South Shields, County Durham) is an influential Academy Award-nominated English film director, and producer. ... Alien; for other films/spin-offs see Alien (film series) Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Alien (film) Alien, a 1979 science fiction/horror film directed by Ridley Scott, became a cultural phenomenon. ... Avram Noam Chomsky (Hebrew :אברם נועם חומסקי Yiddish: אברם נועם כאמסקי) , Ph. ... Howard Zinn (born August 24, 1922) is an American historian, political scientist, social critic, activist and playwright, best known as author of the bestseller, A Peoples History of the United States. ... Peter Jackson CNZM (born October 31, 1961) is a New Zealand filmmaker best known as the director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which he, along with Fran Walsh, his long time partner, and Philippa Boyens, adapted from the novels by J. R. R. Tolkien. ... J. R. R. Tolkien in 1916. ... A webtoon is an online cartoon, often in a series. ... It has been suggested that World of Homestar Runner, Bubs, Coach Z, Homsar, The King of Town, Marzipan (Homestar Runner), Pom Pom (Homestar Runner), Homestar Runner (character), Strong Bad, Strong Mad, Strong Sad, The Cheat (Homestar Runner), The Poopsmith, and Trogdor be merged into this article or section. ... They Might Be Giants (commonly abbreviated to TMBG) is an American alternative rock duo consisting of John Linnell and John Flansburgh that formed in 1982. ... Experimental film, or experimental cinema, is a term that describes a range of filmmaking styles that are generally quite different from, and often opposed to, the practices of mainstream commercial and documentary filmmaking. ...

Quotes

• As an addendum to the commentary on As Good As It Gets (1997), the film's director, James L. Brooks, and its star, Jack Nicholson, share this brief exchange during the credits:

Brooks [on the virtues of the then new DVD format]: "It's a better mousetrap."

Nicholson: "...What's better? What's better? You know, we're sitting here being remunerated for what is ultimately the cancer of film, which we claim to love above all else."

• Ridley Scott is an enthusiastic supporter of commentaries and the DVD format in general. In the July 2006 issue of Total Film magazine, he stated:

"After all the work we go through, to have it run in the cinema and then disappear forever is a great pity. To give the film added life is really cool for both those who missed it and those who really loved it." As Good as It Gets is a 1997 film which tells the story of an obsessive-compulsive, cantankerous, racist, homophobic writer named Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson) who, because of his anxiety disorder, lives in a world that has shrunk to about the size of his apartment and the books he... James L. Brooks (born May 9, 1940) is a three-time Academy Award, nineteen-time Emmy and Golden Globe-winning American producer, writer, and film director. ... Nicholson as Wilbur Force in The Little Shop of Horrors (1960). ... Total Film, published by Future Publishing, is the United Kingdoms second best-selling film magazine, after the longer-established Empire from Emap. ...

• When DVD first started becoming commercially available in 1997, Kevin Smith was not a fan of the format. Smith expressed his animosity on the commentary for the Criterion Collection laserdisc of Chasing Amy. Smith began the commentary by saying, "This is a Criterion laserdisc, and at this moment, we'd just like to say, 'Fuck DVD'." Smith has since come to embrace DVD. When Chasing Amy was re-released to DVD, and the running commentary re-used, Smith filmed a special introduction in which he apologized for the comment, and attributed it to Jason Mewes.

Chasing Amy is a 1997 romantic comedy written and directed by Kevin Smith about two comic book artists: Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck), a heterosexual male, and Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams), a lesbian-identified woman. ... Jason Edward Mewes (born June 12, 1974) is an American television and film actor. ...

Commentary re-use

Some film companies transfer the audio commentary of the laserdisc release of a film on to the DVD rather than creating a new one. For example, El Mariachi Special Edition, Total Recall Special Edition and Spaceballs all contain the commentary from the laserdisc release. This may be for financial reasons, depending on whether the rights to the original commentary are cheaper to use than recording a new one (a company releasing a film on DVD today may not be the same company who released it on laserdisc); or it could simply be that the original commentary does its job well without the need for an update. Contrastingly, some DVDs do not have a commentary even though the laserdisc release did (for example, Taxi Driver). This may be because the parties involved have not reached a publication agreement. El Mariachi is a 1992 motion picture production directed by Robert Rodriguez as the first chapter in his Mariachi Trilogy. ... Total Recall is an American science fiction film released on June 1, 1990, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Ronald Shusett, Dan OBannon, Jon Povill and Gary Goldman. ... Spaceballs is a 1987 science fiction parody film co-written, directed, and starring Mel Brooks. ... It has been suggested that Travis Bickle be merged into this article or section. ...

The audio commentaries of The Criterion Collection are often considered some of the finest and most informative commentaries ever made, and the Laserdisc releases of classic films can be highly prized because Criterion generally does not license their commentaries for use on later DVDs when the rights to films they have release revert back to the studio, including the aforementioned Taxi Driver. Other notables include the commentary for The Silence of the Lambs (featuring stars Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, along with director Jonathan Demme) and Terry Gilliam's tracks for The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and The Fisher King. The Criterion Collection is a joint venture between Janus Films and The Voyager Company that was begun in the mid 1980s for the purpose of releasing authoritative consumer versions of classic and important contemporary films on the laserdisc and DVD formats. ... The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 Academy Award-winning film directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. ... Jonathan Demme (born February 22, 1944, in Baldwin, New York) is an American film director, producer and writer. ... The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a 1988 film directed by Terry Gilliam, starring John Neville (as the Baron), Sarah Polley, Eric Idle, Jonathan Pryce, Oliver Reed, Uma Thurman, and Robin Williams. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Maximum number of commentaries

There is no known DVD that contains six or more commentary tracks, although this is technically possible. Cabin Fever has five commentary tracks and many DVDs contain four commentary tracks, such as Hostel, The Lord of the Rings Extended Editions, Fight Club, Shaun of the Dead and Se7en. Cabin Fever (2003) is American horror film about a group of college graduates who rent a cabin in the woods and begin to fall victim to a horrifying flesh-eating virus. ... This article or section contains a plot summary that is overly long or excessively detailed. ... The Lord of the Rings film trilogy comprises three live action fantasy epic films; The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). ... Fight Club is a 1999 feature film adaptation of the 1996 novel Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, adapted by Jim Uhls and directed by David Fincher. ... Shaun of the Dead is a zombie-themed romantic comedy (or rom zom com as it dubs itself) or zombie comedy released in 2004. ... Se7en (also known as Seven) is an American 1995 Oscar and BAFTA nominated crime film directed by David Fincher. ...

Audio commentaries in video games

In June 2007, with the release of Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary, a first attempt to include audio commentaries in video games was put on the test, with interventions by Toby Gard and Jason Botta. Sounding very much like an audio commentary from a movie, the system does not use a predetermined continuous flow of speech because events of a game depend on the player's actions. Instead, crystals appear in specific places through the levels, and generate a few minutes of audio commentary related to the room or sequence whenever the player activates them. To avoid spoiling the game, the audio commentary can only be accessed once the player has completed the levels at least once. Toby Gard is a former computer game character designer (the original designer of Lara Croft) at Core Design, the company that developed the popular Tomb Raider video game series until Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness. ...

The audio commentary for a video game was deemed a good surprise by both players and critics, and could be the opening shot to audio commentaries in video games in the future. However, it is yet unknown whether other games will re-use the idea or not.

A similar system was previously tried in Valve's Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Lost Coast. A player would interact with speech bubbles to hear commentary by the game's producers. These water valves are regulated by handles. ...

References

Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... is the 25th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Roger Joseph Ebert (born June 18, 1942) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American film critic. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... is the 285th day of the year (286th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Mark Lewisohn (born 1958) is one of the worlds foremost experts on The Beatles. ... The domain name bbc. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• ratethatcommentary.com: A site that lists DVD audio commentaries and allows users to rate and review them.