Commentary tracks- love them or hate them?

[donutsweeper]

So in my goal to use my LJ for more than just ficcage postings here is a rambling thinky thought post on commentary tracks on movies and tv shows, due mostly to the fact the Merlin one (which I haven't listened to, but is flooding my tumblr) has just been released.

There's a number of things about the commentary that can really add to my enjoyment of the show/movie (of the 'oh wow, I never thought about it that way' manner), but I've also had times when it's made me question things and even outright hate people.  There's also the issue that once actors/directors/writers say that 'this scene is supposed to show X' it's hard to then later not see X when watching it.

I've listened to some GREAT commentary- Fight Club and Daredevil both come to mind movie-wise and for TV John Barrowman on Doctor Who's 'Empty Child' and Joe Flannigan on SGA's 'Rising' are both wonderful.  But then there's some that just come off as boring or as if you're missing a joke (like SGA's "38 Minutes") and then there's the OH NO WHY DID I WATCH THIS (seriously, never watch the commentary and BTS stuff for Highlander Raven, you will never see Elizabeth Gracen in the same light again).

Thoughts, anyone?

And, btw, a hearty welcome to anyone stopping by my journal for the first time, have a donut and enjoy your stay!

Comments

[noirrosaleen.livejournal.com]

WHERE DID YOU FIND AN EMPTY CHILD COMMENTARY???

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I bought the DVD way back when, sorry, not anywhere downloadable.

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

Commentaries depend entirely on who is doing them. It has to a person who understands what they are doing them for. There are people who think they are there to recap what is going on on the screen, which is stupid. There are people who think you want to know the reason for every angle and colour. And then there are the really great ones, who know you're there for humour, camaraderie between the cast, funny anecdotes and just the the right amount of trivia. But I mean, Kenneth Branagh's Thor commentary is just him talking for 90 minutes, but it's really interesting, even if it isn't funny. So I guess it varies and also depends on what you're looking for. I both love and hate them, but pretty much always give them a try and if I have a choice between getting a DVD with or without a commentary track, I always get the commentary track. I love behind the scenes stuff.

The Lord of the Rings commentaries are probably my favourites ever. They were the first DVDs I owned so the first commentaries I listened to and they are perfect. If you can get Bradly, Anthony and Colin on a Merlin commentary, it's wonderful. Katie is annoying. The SGA commentaries are usually good, but can veer into boring monotone, especially if some poor person has been left on their own to do it. The Sherlock ones are really great as well, though Russell Tovey is a bit of an ass on the Baskerville ep. Doctor Who has been good up until the newer series. It seems that only Karen likes to record them and she's too giggly for my tastes. I definitely prefer it when a member of the cast is on hand. The Firefly commentaries are also pretty awesome.

/rant

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Very good points! Yeah, knowing *why* they're doing them is important. Oooh, I haven't watched the Thor one, but we do own the DVD, I might do that sometime. Of late I've been watching a lot of DVDs streaming through Netflix so there hasn't been the option of the commentary track but if I get the DVD and I have time I do try to give it a listen.

Do you find it weird when the commentary is done by someone who uses a different accent on the show/movie than in real life? I wonder if hearing Colin's Irish brogue would make listening to Merlin a bit odd or something.

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

I like to put them on when I'm cross stitching, because I don't have to pay too much attention to what's going on on screen.

I guess it would depend on how much you want to believe the actor is the character. It's a bit jarring to hear Colin being so Irish, but it doesn't' affect how I view him as the character, or anything. I just find him a bit hard to understand sometimes. Especially since he's quite mumbly on top of things. :D

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I haven't been crafting as much lately, you're right, that's always a good time to listen to things like that.

good point re: colin. The mumbly aspect worries me though, I sometimes have problems understanding people then.

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

I don't find him too hard to understand, but I'm pretty good with accents. Bradley sort of takes over, anyway, so Colin didn't get much in when they're together anyway. :p

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's good to know. Maybe I'll look for the DVDs at the library then

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

I generally like commentary - as long as it's funny. lol Loved LOTR commentary, although Elijah, when he joined in, was a bit too serious. The other hobbits were hilarious.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched that one. Funny is always good though!

[aeron-lanart.livejournal.com]

In general terms, I don't like commentaries.

There is one and only one reason for this - the ones I've come across aren't subtitled. If you put a film/tv show on with the commentary track playing and have subtitles selected, it subtitles the film/show and NOT the commentary. As I rely on subtitles to hear what's being said on screen, never mind when there are people talking over it, I am left floundering and frustrated. A dvd commentary is not an enjoyable experience for me.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that's something I never considered. I'm not sure I've ever seen them where they were subtitled. That's not really fair or right!

[aeron-lanart.livejournal.com]

And as you can imagine, it turns what might be slightly mumbly and difficult to hear for someone else into impossible for me. I think the only commentary in recent years that I've managed to listen to all the way through is the Sherlock one that didn't involve Russell Tovey (couldn't make head nor tail of what he was saying half the time). Stupid ears.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Oh that just sucks. *sends donuts*

[aeron-lanart.livejournal.com]

donuts make everything better :)

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

HAVE A TOWER OF THEM

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

I have seen a few with subtitles recently. The Tempest and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I can't think of others at the moment (the third Lord of the Rings, maybe? ) but they are out there. Hopefully they'll get on that in the future.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Oh that's cool!

[aeron-lanart.livejournal.com]

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy does? Excellent. I've had the dvd a while but hadn't got round to watching it yet - I had intended to watch it with my parents (my dad is a massive Le Carré and Smiley fan) but I didn't have time on the visit and they ended up watching it without me but gave me the dvd back with a hearty recommendation. Now I have an added incentive. :)

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly sure it does. I remember putting the subtitles on because Gary Oldman was so mumbly. But it was a really useful track because, while I enjoyed the movie a lot, there were a lot of things I missed that were cleared up in the commentary.

ETA: I think in all cases I've found commentary subtitles, it was through the audio menu while the movie was playing, not the main menu option. If you have some option with your remote to switch between audio and/or subtitle options, you could try looking through that,

[geekslave.livejournal.com]

I generally like commentaries. Like someone else said, if I have to choose I'll always by a DVD with a commentary versus one without them.

I generally like best the ones that are informative, with behind the scenes info, and actors taking about what motivated them in a particular scene, or writers talking about the choices they made to get to a certain point. But I also like some humor mixed in. Like you said Fight Club is a great example of this.

As fun as they can be, I don't really lve commentaries where the cast is just having a giant party and not talking about what's going happening on-screen. I don't like it when people blather endlessly, but again, aren't actually talking about what's happening on-screen.

I usually don't love single person commentaries because a lot of those people can't fill the whole time and there's so much dead space. Rob Reiner has directed some of my favorite movies, and he's done comentaries for Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, A Few Good Men, and there's always so much dead air and things being repeated over and over. Thankfully, on the Stand By Me blu-ray released a couple of years ago he did a commentary with the actors that was better.

Stacey

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

The behind the scenes stuff can be really interesting, can't it?

Yeah, I've never really understood the point of the ones where all it is is a bunch of people blathering about with nothing to do with what's happening on the screen.

[jadesfire.livejournal.com]

I find I much prefer actor commentaries to director/producer ones. J bought me the Merlin S1 DVDs for Christmas, and I kind of nearly dozed off listening to the show creators commentary on episode 1. Which isn't a favourite anyway, but still.

For me, hearing what the actors were thinking, or were trying to do, or what was going on in the background at the time, is much more interesting, as their perspective is much closer and more immediate. And funny, usually.

I remember one...I think it's an SGA commentary...where another member of the cast randomly wandered into the studio while they were talking, chipped in for a while, then wandered off again. It was fun, but it was also off-putting, because they completely lost the thread of the episode, so the images and the talking were completely unrelated. Definitely a mixed blessing.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

The directors/producers work best if they are with there with actors too, I think and kept from just blah-blah-blahing about their vision of the show. Moffatt, when a writer, did commentary with John Barrowman on "Empty Child" and was fascinating, but I think that was because John kept him talking about what the feel of this scene was and how that one got a laugh from the crew and whatnot. (And John is always funny, which always helps)

[jacketpotato.livejournal.com]

I rarely ever listen to commmentaries, I guess I don't have the patience. Which is stupid, because I'm often delighted by the tidbits revealed. I should give it a go, I suppose. I think maybe I tried it when they were first a thing (like, when DVDs were first a thing heh), and didn't think they were interesting enough and then I never went back. Hrrmmm.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I haven't listened to many lately either, I've taken to watching streaming on Netflix and they don't have the option I don't think, and when I do have the DVDs there is the time/patience issue for me too.

[jacketpotato.livejournal.com]

I will say that I have always been enamored by the commentary to Dr. Horribles Sing Along Blog, because the commentary is a separate musical called "Commentary! The Musical".

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Really? I only watched that when it originally came out online, I'll have to look for them.

[jacketpotato.livejournal.com]

There is a youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/CommentaryTheMusical/) that looks like they've got it all up!

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Oh cool, thanks!!

[aeron-lanart.livejournal.com]

Oh brill. Thanks for the link, I've watched the first one so far and it's hilarious.

[aeron-lanart.livejournal.com]

That might make it tempting enough for me to buy the dvd (see my above note about me hating commentaries). I participated in 2 Dr Horrible sing-a-longs last year, one of them at Discworld con, so I do like it.

[jacketpotato.livejournal.com]

A Dr Horrible sing along at a Discworld con sounds like a little slice of heaven.

[aeron-lanart.livejournal.com]

I can't remember if we had the Buffy sing-a-long before or after, just that we did both. Was a fun evening.

[unfeathered]

I love Joss Whedon's commentaries. I was kind of spoiled into thinking all commentaries would be like his because the Buffy DVDs were the first I ever bought. Unfortunately I was wrong. But his are brilliant - entertaining and funny and offering exquisite insights into just about everything.

But yeah, the Empty Child one is good too. :-)

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Oh, Buffy! Yes, I have a few of those DVDs and you're right, Joss Whedon's commentaries are *great*. I may need to rewatch those soon :)

[unfeathered]

It is a looong time since I watched any of them, actually, but yeah, always good to go back to. The most recent Joss one I watched was 'Serenity' earlier this year, and it almost seemed shorter than the film, it was so engrossing!

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I still haven't seen Serenity. I don't want to see characters I like die.

[unfeathered]

Heh, I didn't know they were going to die the first time I saw it, and by the second time, obviously, I already knew, so not really a problem. Still bugs me that they did, though, since there wasn't much point to either.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

That's what bugs me. Death can be an important plot point and motivator, but too often is just.. there to play with out emotions. No thank you.

[unfeathered]

*nods* Yeah, I'm with you there.

Still a good film, though. Not as good as the series, imo, but it does kind of round some things up, and make sense of a few things.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Glad it's still a good movie. Maybe I'll watch it one of these day, I just doubt it'll be any time soon.

[aeron-lanart.livejournal.com]

Death can be an important plot point and motivator, but too often is just.. there to play with out emotions. No thank you.

That's Joss for you (and certain others who have tried to emulate him with less skill - yes RTD, I'm looking at you).

If you know what is going to happen, and to who, you can do the 'la la la I'm not listening/looking' bit at the relevant time and then you can immerse yourself in Denial.

It is a good film. Bearing in mind I'd not see any Firefly when Serenity first came out and the reason I picked up the dvd when I saw it cheap in ASDA in 2008 was because it had been recced by an author I liked (Mercedes Lackey). Then I decided after watching it that I really needed to see the series. I have since seen Serenity on a (biggish) screen 3 times, once travelling to London to do so - as part of the "Can't Stop the Serenity" movement that works with Equality Now - and adore Firefly.

There's a Firefly reunion convention in September this year with Kaylee and Simon as guests, I haven't got my ticket yet, but I will be there.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've come to expect it from Joss. Thus the reason the Avengers didn't surprise me. I think it's sort of lazy writing though, you don't need to kill people to get a reaction, not if you're doing it right.