Favorite special features that don't seem to make it on DVDs anymore
11-14-07, 03:54 PM
#51
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Originally Posted by GoldenJCJ
Those 8-page trivia booklets that MGM used to do were nice. I wish we still got those.
11-14-07, 04:10 PM
#52
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Whenever I have a friend over to watch movies, I like to suggest some really good ones, and I LOVE to be able to put that DVD in and have my friend watch the trailer for that movie him to see if he wants to watch the movie or not.
but since they seem to be doing away with the trailers, it's harder to sell a certian movie to my friends. So they can only go by what's writtne on the back and my suggestion.
But I like to watch trailers for movies as well, so I wish tehy'd go back to including them for the movie you bought, no so much other movies.
but since they seem to be doing away with the trailers, it's harder to sell a certian movie to my friends. So they can only go by what's writtne on the back and my suggestion.
But I like to watch trailers for movies as well, so I wish tehy'd go back to including them for the movie you bought, no so much other movies.
11-14-07, 05:28 PM
#53
Originally Posted by Drexl
Their market research probably said people don't care about them. People who feel that way see them as an advertisement for the movie they already bought. It's a shame.
The worst part is you used to be able to find tons of trailers on YouTube but studios keep torpedoing them. Which is stupid, since a trailer is an ADVERTISEMENT FOR YOUR MOVIE. Why wouldn't you want people to post them online and spread them around?
Originally Posted by poirot
Documentaries that would actually run longer than 30 minutes- instead of just a bunch of lightweight featurettes with a 'Play All' option. But I believe the latter approach allows studios to avoid paying extra, and that's probably a factor in the disappearing trailers as well. (Nice to see that the Die Hard 4 release, apparently, has an honest-to-God documentary included.)
Last edited by tylergfoster; 11-14-07 at 05:33 PM.
11-14-07, 07:44 PM
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A few for me:
• Trailers and TV Spots. It should be mandatory that these are included on every DVD. There's nothing I hate more than going into the trailers section of the DVD only to find a bunch of random trailers for other, unrelated films and not the one I'm actually watching. I especially love to see how old films were marketed.
• Exclusive shorts. The Dawn of the Dead remake had one that showed the final days of Andy the gun store owner, which overlapped with events portrayed in the movie. Granted it wasn't particularly well executed, but it was a great idea that I wish they'd do more often. Other examples are the Wake Up, Ron Burgundy companion film that was packaged with the Anchorman DVD, the Hotel Chevalier short that's meant to preface the main events of The Darjeeling Limited, or the Battlestar Galactica "webisodes" that were featured on the Sci-Fi Channel website and portrayed events that were supposed to have happened in between the second and third seasons. Ideally, for optimum stylistic and technical continuity, they could add these shorts into the main production schedule and let the directors do some little episodes backstorying certain characters, showing events in the film from someone else's perspective, experimenting with alternate ending concepts, or doing something that serves as a sort of extended epilogue or prologue to the film.
• Joe Bob Briggs and MST3 commentaries (on appropriate horror and classic sci-fi titles, of course). Those are always great.
• Live panel discussions (the kind where they get principle members of the cast and crew together on stage and field questions from the audience). They do a lot of these at film festivals and at events like Com-Con - and they're typically sponsored by the studios anyway - so why not film them and include it on the DVD? A lot of times these panels yield a lot of interesting anecdotes and technical info that gets missed in the main commentaries and docs since it's a live, dynamic discussion and not a static one. So the participants have the benefit of comparing and contrasting their recollections (and having their memories jogged about things they may have forgotten). Also because the fans in the audience are typically more knowledgable about the film and the events surrounding it, they tend to ask much more pointed and intriguing questions than a documentarian who's just trying to nail down the basic meat and potatoes stuff.
• Vintage featurettes. Just like original trailers, I enjoy seeing the original behind-the-scenes or on-location featurettes shot for EPK purposes back in the day. For newer films these usually suck since you could just as well commission a full-fledged making-of documentary that would serve purposes better, but for older films where most of the principles are long gone and good behind-the-scenes material is hard to come by, they can be very valuable historical documents. It's great to see an old on-set interview with John Wayne or Humphrey Bogart that they shot for the news or some Entertainment Tonight type of program, or a look behind-the-scenes during filming. There's an original 1972 making-of featurette on the Dirty Harry DVD that, while admittedly EPK-quality all the way, is really fun to watch since it offers a glimpse back in time at how they used to promote these films and their stars. Sure you could go interview Clint Eastwood today, but it's interesting to see where he was at back in '72 - attitudes and opinions can change a great deal over time.
• Casting auditions. The Superman DVD had some of these, as did the Gone with the Wind 4-Disc Collector's Edition and Season 1 of Miami Vice features an outtake of Larry Wilcox's reading for Crockett. I wish more DVD's included them. It's neat to see other people trying out for these roles, and what they bring to the table. Sometimes they have a wildly different interpretation, which can be a lot of fun. Ideally, I like to see them contrasted with the audtion tapes of the actors who actually got the part to see the differences. I guess they don't feature these too often because of the difficulty in arranging clearances since many now famous stars might want an arm and a leg for use of their image, or because of embarrassment over public display of their failed tryouts. It's probably also difficult tracking the footage down since I doubt too much thought is put into their preservation.
• Trailers and TV Spots. It should be mandatory that these are included on every DVD. There's nothing I hate more than going into the trailers section of the DVD only to find a bunch of random trailers for other, unrelated films and not the one I'm actually watching. I especially love to see how old films were marketed.
• Exclusive shorts. The Dawn of the Dead remake had one that showed the final days of Andy the gun store owner, which overlapped with events portrayed in the movie. Granted it wasn't particularly well executed, but it was a great idea that I wish they'd do more often. Other examples are the Wake Up, Ron Burgundy companion film that was packaged with the Anchorman DVD, the Hotel Chevalier short that's meant to preface the main events of The Darjeeling Limited, or the Battlestar Galactica "webisodes" that were featured on the Sci-Fi Channel website and portrayed events that were supposed to have happened in between the second and third seasons. Ideally, for optimum stylistic and technical continuity, they could add these shorts into the main production schedule and let the directors do some little episodes backstorying certain characters, showing events in the film from someone else's perspective, experimenting with alternate ending concepts, or doing something that serves as a sort of extended epilogue or prologue to the film.
• Joe Bob Briggs and MST3 commentaries (on appropriate horror and classic sci-fi titles, of course). Those are always great.
• Live panel discussions (the kind where they get principle members of the cast and crew together on stage and field questions from the audience). They do a lot of these at film festivals and at events like Com-Con - and they're typically sponsored by the studios anyway - so why not film them and include it on the DVD? A lot of times these panels yield a lot of interesting anecdotes and technical info that gets missed in the main commentaries and docs since it's a live, dynamic discussion and not a static one. So the participants have the benefit of comparing and contrasting their recollections (and having their memories jogged about things they may have forgotten). Also because the fans in the audience are typically more knowledgable about the film and the events surrounding it, they tend to ask much more pointed and intriguing questions than a documentarian who's just trying to nail down the basic meat and potatoes stuff.
• Vintage featurettes. Just like original trailers, I enjoy seeing the original behind-the-scenes or on-location featurettes shot for EPK purposes back in the day. For newer films these usually suck since you could just as well commission a full-fledged making-of documentary that would serve purposes better, but for older films where most of the principles are long gone and good behind-the-scenes material is hard to come by, they can be very valuable historical documents. It's great to see an old on-set interview with John Wayne or Humphrey Bogart that they shot for the news or some Entertainment Tonight type of program, or a look behind-the-scenes during filming. There's an original 1972 making-of featurette on the Dirty Harry DVD that, while admittedly EPK-quality all the way, is really fun to watch since it offers a glimpse back in time at how they used to promote these films and their stars. Sure you could go interview Clint Eastwood today, but it's interesting to see where he was at back in '72 - attitudes and opinions can change a great deal over time.
• Casting auditions. The Superman DVD had some of these, as did the Gone with the Wind 4-Disc Collector's Edition and Season 1 of Miami Vice features an outtake of Larry Wilcox's reading for Crockett. I wish more DVD's included them. It's neat to see other people trying out for these roles, and what they bring to the table. Sometimes they have a wildly different interpretation, which can be a lot of fun. Ideally, I like to see them contrasted with the audtion tapes of the actors who actually got the part to see the differences. I guess they don't feature these too often because of the difficulty in arranging clearances since many now famous stars might want an arm and a leg for use of their image, or because of embarrassment over public display of their failed tryouts. It's probably also difficult tracking the footage down since I doubt too much thought is put into their preservation.
Last edited by joliom; 11-14-07 at 08:10 PM.
11-14-07, 08:15 PM
#55
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Originally Posted by OneWayFilms
Whenever I have a friend over to watch movies, I like to suggest some really good ones, and I LOVE to be able to put that DVD in and have my friend watch the trailer for that movie him to see if he wants to watch the movie or not.
but since they seem to be doing away with the trailers, it's harder to sell a certian movie to my friends. So they can only go by what's writtne on the back and my suggestion.
But I like to watch trailers for movies as well, so I wish tehy'd go back to including them for the movie you bought, no so much other movies.
but since they seem to be doing away with the trailers, it's harder to sell a certian movie to my friends. So they can only go by what's writtne on the back and my suggestion.
But I like to watch trailers for movies as well, so I wish tehy'd go back to including them for the movie you bought, no so much other movies.
It also gives me something to do while I'm settled in my chair waiting for my girlfriend to sit down. I don't want to start the movie before she gets there so I flip on the trailer.
11-15-07, 04:01 PM
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Originally Posted by GoldenJCJ
One of my favorite things to do when watching DVDs by myself is getting pumped up to watch the movie by watching the trailer first - even if I've seen the movie several times before and know everything about it.
It also gives me something to do while I'm settled in my chair waiting for my girlfriend to sit down. I don't want to start the movie before she gets there so I flip on the trailer.
It also gives me something to do while I'm settled in my chair waiting for my girlfriend to sit down. I don't want to start the movie before she gets there so I flip on the trailer.
11-16-07, 11:00 AM
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Isolated scores (or even what the Thin Red Line had)
Original audio tracks! Jeebus. I have a computer with TWO channel speakers. I don't care about 5.1. Sure, PowerDVD can "remix" it to two channels, but a dedicated stereo track mixed by humans is always better. I'll give you an example. Simpsons Seasons 1 and 2 have stereo tracks that sound awesome. After that, though, I'm forced to use the 5.1 tracks and they are quieter, less dynamic on my system. How hard can it be to throw in the original mix?
Original audio tracks! Jeebus. I have a computer with TWO channel speakers. I don't care about 5.1. Sure, PowerDVD can "remix" it to two channels, but a dedicated stereo track mixed by humans is always better. I'll give you an example. Simpsons Seasons 1 and 2 have stereo tracks that sound awesome. After that, though, I'm forced to use the 5.1 tracks and they are quieter, less dynamic on my system. How hard can it be to throw in the original mix?
11-18-07, 06:54 PM
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Add that to my list too. I love a really great 5.1 remix as much as the next guy, but it should be mandatory that the original soundtrack is featured on all DVD's. If only for posterity sake.
11-19-07, 01:23 AM
#60
DVD Talk Limited Edition
I've never understood why people on this forum are up in arms over the movie being in its original aspect radio (as the director intended!) in its original language or non-colorized (in the case of B+W movies) but will say *nothing* when a movie that was never intended to have 5.1/DTS soundtrack has a mix made.
11-19-07, 10:59 PM
#61
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Originally Posted by Just Lurking
At least Disney no longer considers disc cover art a special feature.
11-19-07, 11:13 PM
#62
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One thing I wish they would bring back is not a feature but a way it was done.
It seems that most commentaries with more than one person I've listened to over the past few years have had all the voices mixed in the center. It used to be that they would mix them across the soundstage, so with two people you would hear one guy in the left speaker and the other guy in the right. Especially when two or more people are talking at the same time, this is helpful and makes it seem more like they're in the room with you.
It seems that most commentaries with more than one person I've listened to over the past few years have had all the voices mixed in the center. It used to be that they would mix them across the soundstage, so with two people you would hear one guy in the left speaker and the other guy in the right. Especially when two or more people are talking at the same time, this is helpful and makes it seem more like they're in the room with you.
11-19-07, 11:20 PM
#63
Originally Posted by Drexl
One thing I wish they would bring back is not a feature but a way it was done.
It seems that most commentaries with more than one person I've listened to over the past few years have had all the voices mixed in the center. It used to be that they would mix them across the soundstage, so with two people you would hear one guy in the left speaker and the other guy in the right. Especially when two or more people are talking at the same time, this is helpful and makes it seem more like they're in the room with you.
It seems that most commentaries with more than one person I've listened to over the past few years have had all the voices mixed in the center. It used to be that they would mix them across the soundstage, so with two people you would hear one guy in the left speaker and the other guy in the right. Especially when two or more people are talking at the same time, this is helpful and makes it seem more like they're in the room with you.
