DVD Film School
By Peter John Ross (www.sonnyboo.com)
What a world we live in
today, originating with the laserdisc, supplemental material
with a movie has become a standard as DVD's made their way
into virtually every home. Filmmakers have benefit greatly
from this, especially for the astute observers. Not a lot of
us can afford film school, but I can help you make a
curriculum from your own DVD collection and from discs
available from the public library for free. A lot can be
learned form DVDs in the form of commentary tracks,
documentaries, as well as the obvious just viewing the movie
for it's own value.
You can create your own
“curriculum” from many of your favorite movies on DVD. If
there are commentary tracks and extras, they usually contain
a lot of valued information on how something was done. Not
everything have techie, scary guys on how they did the
special FX.
Commentary tracks have
some of the best lessons to learn from. For example, Rob
Reiner & Cameron Crowe commentaries are almost exclusively
on performance and nothing on camera, and others are too
much about camera tricks they neglect to say anything about
actors in the movie. And there's an all-new category of
commentary tracks for people like Tim Burton who don't talk
for 20 minutes at a time and teach us nothing.
My Best DVD commentary
Track (for filmmakers)
ROAD TO PERDITION with
director Sam Mendes. This isn't even one of my favorite
movies, but it's by far my number 1 commentary track. Sam
Mendes understands and has the perfect balance between
actor's performance & directing the camera. A lot of
commentaries are too skewed towards one & not the other.
STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF
KHAN with director and uncredited writer Nicholas Meyer. It
features the essence of storytelling from a formerly young
up & coming director looking back after years of experience.
TRUE ROMANCE with Quentin
Tarantino writer's commentary track.
A great story of how the
kid from a video store worked several angles to become the
"Quentin" that we know as a pop culture icon. More sedate
than usual, and at his most endearing, Tarantino’s
storytelling is at it’s best with the commentary. Also an
explanation of why he does his stories non-linearly is
priceless.
THE USUAL SUSPECTS from
Bryan Singer director, & writer Christopher McQuarrie
discuss the beginnings of the story and again, the balance
between story and acting plus the great cinematography of
this movie.
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
(criterion collection edition) from director Jonathan Demme,
Jodie Foster, and Anthony Hopkins. Not available on the
"special edition" disc widely available, the commentary
track has many insights into the actor's process and the
director anecdotes, and trivia make for interesting
examination of a landmark film.
SLACKER (criterion
collection DVD) - the "crew" commentary with Rick Linklater,
& Lee Daniel has many cost saving tips and other seeds that
can grow in the minds of many young filmmakers.
CHASING AMY (criterion
collection DVD/Laserdisc) - Although it's the usual comedy &
antics of a large group of buddies, in between the jibes
mocking Ben Affleck's movie Phantoms, there are some
insights into the creative process of Kevin Smith. A few,
and it's selective but the few nuggets of info are worth the
banter.
LORD OF THE RINGS (all 3
movies from the 4 disc special edition DVD sets) - all 4
commentaries on all 3 movies can mine many great ideas and
information on filmmaking in general. That's over 40 hours
of viewing/listening right there.
FIREFLY: THE COMPLETE TV
SERIES - disc four, the last episode commentary by Joss
Whedon. By his own admission, creator, wrier director
producer Joss Whedon does a somewhat less trivial commentary
and tries to describe the origin of the concepts behind the
ideas for an episode of phenomenal television. Getting
philosophical and still maintaining his wit and humor, Joss'
revelations and gratitude to everyone around him make this
commentary special.
EL MARIACHI (all DVD
version & originated on Laserdisc) when the opening words of
the commentary tell you it's more like "how to make a movie
for $7,000 or less", how bad can it be? It has a lot of
great information delivered as you watch the inexpensive
action movie.
The BMW Films series "THE
HIRE" has all 8 films made for the web, plus their
commentary tracks. Hearing insights from directors John
Frankenheimer, War Kong Wai, Ang Lee, Tony Scott, Joe
Carnahan, Guy Ritchie, and more make this a riveting and
educational tool on telling stories in the short form. Not
many will have $1million per 6 minute short, but the style
and motives are priceless if you can learn to adapt the
knowledge to match your budget.
THIS IS SPINAL TAP
(criterion version DVD and Laserdisc long out of print) -
the commentary track by the three lead actors Harry Shearer,
Michael McKean, and Christopher Guest is very very different
than the one on the commonly available "Special Edition
DVD". On the Special Edition, they do a commentary as the
characters. On the hard to find Criterion version, they do a
commentary as actors, writers, and filmmakers. Lesson
learned? It really boggled my mind to learn they never set
foot out of Los Angeles County to make the movie. The power
of suggestion of putting a title that says "Atlanta,
Georgia" whilst showing a hotel can really effect perception
in the viewers mind.
Honorable mentions -
RUSHMORE (criterion
collection DVD) for Wes Anderson on his second movie
features many great cinematic advice.
GOOD WILL HUNTING with Ben
Affleck, Matt Damon, and Gus Van Zandt carry on about the
experience working on this academy award winning "indie"
film.
GLADIATOR with Ridley
Scott let's go a lot of epic filmmaking nuggets
MADE with the "action
commentary" by Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn and Peter
Billingsley aka Ralphy from "A Christmas Story" where they
use the same technology from football games to literally
point out things on screen. MADE was an indie film shot in
New York and features a lot of Soprano's cameos but also has
some indie film techniques.
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN/BLAZING
SADDLES DVD’s with commentary track from Mel Brooks let
loose some comedy genius and methods of old from a guy who's
been funnier longer than most indie filmmaker's grandparents
have been fornicating.
SEVEN SAMURAI, Criterion
Collection DVD, whose commentary has the sole distinction of
being done by a film critic as opposed to a filmmaker, one
of the cinema’s greatest films ever made teaches a lot about
the genius of Kurasawa from a unique, outsiders perspective.
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My Favorite DVD EXTRA's
Documentaries & Extras
offer up a lot of fluff and sometimes some of the best
reality of the film business. Here are the most educational
in my humble opinion…
EL MARIACHI DVD (all
editions)
TEN-MINUTE FILM SCHOOL
from Robert Rodriguez is one of the most common denominators
between new filmmakers in this, funnily enough 13 minute DVD
extra. It's not as obvious why this is inspirational. After
you've made several DV movies, and done 200 hours of
editing, you can start to understand how genius Robert's
shooting& editorial style was and what he's really
demonstrating.
JAWS 25th anniversary DVD
(actually the 20th anniversary Laserdisc set transferred to
DVD) in the documentary "On Location" features one segment
where Steven Spielberg describes how he wanted to do the
Kinter boys death scene on the beach, he wanted to do it in
one shot, and it wasn't possible with 180 degrees.
Spielberg's solution is genius and ever filmmaker should see
why he is a master filmmaker at age 29.
ENGLISH PATIENT (Miramax
Collector's Edition) - MASTER CLASSES EDITING with Anthony
Minghella. A lot of DVD’s have deleted scenes, so rarely are
they accompanied with such a great explanation as to why &
how they get left on the cutting room floor. Sadly, the
great Walter Murch, academy award winning editor of English
Patient, sadly gets missed in this session.
PULP FICTION (Miramax
Collector's Edition & Criterion laserdisc) EXTRA, Quentin
Tarantino on the Charlie Rose show. At the zenith of the
Quentin era, his history, perspectives, and ideals get put
through the passionate mouth of Quentin unfiltered.
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN
(Miramax Collector's Edition), there are two extra's worthy
note... the entire feature film documentary "FULL TILT
BOOGIE" on an extra disc, and one snippet from the
"Hollywood Goes to Hell" featurette where Quentin's mom
describes his beginnings, and Robert Rodriguez' family
recounting his early years.
CLERKS X: TENTH
ANNIVERSARY - The "SNOWBALL EFFECT" documentary is a fine
example, and an exhilarating story on how a schmoe not
unlike us gets catapulted to stardom & a career in film.
It's a great manual on the selling of an independent film.
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
(original DVD release) - On the documentary "Into the
Breach", Spielberg's father recounts with additional stories
from the man himself several stories (including priceless
clips) of his first super 8 and 16mm forays into war movies.
Lesson Learned? At age 13, Spielberg was a better director &
innovative filmmaker than 99% of the DV camcorder jockey's
out there. Some people just have filmmaking in their blood
and can be Mozart at birth; others have to work at it.
DIE HARD (2 disc edition)
- On disc two there is a great supplemental on EDITING 2
scenes from the raw footage and also a cool 3 minute clip on
"to letterbox or not to letterbox" which should be required
viewing for anyone who needs to convince the idiots who
think they get "less" picture with the black bars
AMERICAN MOVIE - The movie
itself needs to be viewed by anyone who thinks his or her
idea for a movie is so good it needs to be made. Mark
Borchardt is a tragic hero. This is the guy we're all
terrified to be. Lesson Learned? Whether we want to admit
it or not, every filmmaker of any genre could very easily be
perceived as wacked as him, but not all of us are as
passionate.
THE GODFATHER COLLECTION
(disc 4, the BONUS MATERIAL), the HBO documentary "A Look
Inside the Godfather Family" is the antithesis of AMERICAN
MOVIE. It's the same type of story except of a successful
filmmaker with tons o' vision & talent. I don't think too
many people can think that Francis Ford Coppola is not
passionate. Unlike Mark Borchardt, though it's pretty clear
he can get his vision on a movie screen and it exceeds
expectations... whenever he doesn't cast Sofia Coppola in a
leading role. Also the value of rehearsals and quality of
script differ from Mark Borchardt. Lessons learned?
Rehearsals and passion and teamwork and emotion and Al
Pacino combined can make a good movie or two. Seriously,
it's about someone's passion & vision utilized in a
collaborative environment can synergize a masterpiece. Tack
on the business end of things & it's too rich to be passed
up. For most filmmakers, we want to land somewhere in
between Francis Ford Coppola and Mark Borchard.
Walt Disney's FANTASIA,
uncut version from boxed set DVD. The documentary and the
commentary track, pieced together from archived radio &
television interviews, demonstrate a lot of creativity and
the innovative thoughts behind one of the 20th centuries
greatest cinematic genius', long before it got raped by
Michael Eisner for a few bucks at a theme park. How he
conceived and executed so many radical ideas from nothing
staggers the mind.
THE SHINING (from Kubrick
Collection) - The documentary, on set material from Vivian
Kubrick shows a very real, not pretty at all look at Stanley
Kubrick & his really evil directorial style. For all of us
who hailed Kubrick as a genius needs to see what he could be
like on set. Lesson Learned? I think you can get a good
movie without resorting to this kind of anger and violence.
In many ways this is great to see because unless your last
name is "Kubrick", you will probably never get to treat
people like this and ever make a movie again.
STAR WARS EPISODE I THE
PHANTOME MENACE - On the topic of deleted scenes, the
documentary preceding the deleted scenes section features
Walter Murch, Francis Ford Coppola, and Phillip Kaufman
explaining how & why scenes get deleted. The priceless story
of Walter Murch excising a moment from film "Julia" and the
director saying that the scene being cut from the film was
the very scene that got him to do the project to begin with.
Lesson Learned? Say what you like about the movie, all of
the documentaries and behind the scenes on this DVD draw a
pretty clear blueprint on how to tackle an epic in the new
world of CGI, blue/green screen, and special effects.
THX1138 (2 disc version) -
2nd Disc the "Legacy of Filmmakers" doc on the early
foundations of American Zoetrope is relevant to filmmaking
not only for it's historical significance as it is the
warning of being frivolous with money & opportunities as
Francis Ford Coppola was, compared to the frugal nature of
George Lucas. Then seeing the original short film "Electric
Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB" has many redeeming qualities.
HIDDEN FORTRESS Criterion
edition DVD - George Lucas' interview on the disc is
indicative of ALL the 1970's filmmaking rebels and the
influence Akira Kurasawa had on them.
BRAM STOKER's DRACULA
(special edition laserdisc) the Featurette showcases the
lengthy rehearsal process. Everyone was there from Anthony
Hopkins to Keanu to Gary Oldman and how everyone worked long
before cameras rolled. Again, the vision of the cast & crew
living at the Coppola house & having dinner together makes
me seek that sense of surrogate family (IE teamwork) that at
least makes the work feel less like work & more like fun.
Lesson learned? Rehearsals are important as is bonding
between cast & crew.
LORD OF THE RINGS:
FELLOWSHIP OF THE RINGS Special Edition, on disc four of
this impressive set the recounting of many stories of the
fun of shooting the movie made this seem like the ultimate
love fest of respect and antics. Lesson learned? Have fun
and create an environment where people want to be there by
allowing participation in the creative process and also
mutual respect for every aspect of making a film.
SUPERMAN (special edition)
- One word... "Verisimilitude". Watch the documentary on the
disc & you'll understand. I refuse to say more.
ALIEN QUADRILOGY (as well
as original Laserdisc sets) - the interview with Ridley
Scott on why he deleted the "cocoon" scene in the original
Alien, and James Cameron's idea to make an army of Aliens
editorial by re-using the same alien suits make this another
great catch for people making do with what they got and
making the tough choices for reasons of "pacing".
1941 (collector's edition
DVD and laserdisc set). The documentary features a very
extensive history of the writing of the screenplay by Robert
Zemeckis and Bob Gale, and their involvement with John
Milius. Lesson learned? Being a USC film school grad used to
be quite an "in" to Hollywood via alumni. Read between the
lines - When you get famous, never forget to help someone
out who needs it. Francis Ford Coppola took in John Milius
who took in Robert Zemeckis who took in Peter Jackson.
Some of the movies listed
are big budget Hollywood movies, so learn to adapt some of
the information to your own style & even budget. A lot of
the information is creative in nature, or even business
related and can benefit the savvy filmmaker that can infer
relevant info for them.
If your favorite movies
have extras or commentary tracks, listen and learn. Take
something from the creation of the movies you love. Knowing
a bit about how a movie was made possible gets you closer to
figuring out how to make your own visions. Deductive
reasoning is the key. Adapt & overcome any obstacle.
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