Directors Commentary Research

DEFINITION:
A Director's Commentary is a descriptive account from the director of a perfomance/ produced product as it happens or has taken place and an opportunity for them to look back and take into considerartion the glory of hindsite and see what has gone well, maybe not so well and possible improvements for future productions.



TWO TYPES:
Partial or scene-specific - which only covers selected scenes of the film. Sometimes these are recorded without the speaker viewing the film and thus 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.

FORMATS:
Most audio commentary is used in films and movies, however they often are used with music video's too. There have also been some video games which have added bonus commentary to the game.

The commentary does not have to be done by the director - some have been done with cast members, writers and producers as well as critics, historians and fans. There have also been commentaries by actors in character - perhaps to make the commentary more entertaining and enjoyable.

EXAMPLES:


This Rise Against music video uses scene specific commentary by the director. We see the director being filmed and talking about the certain pieces of the video which he used to display the meaning of the song. We also see how the band filmed their part of the video from a different perpsective.



This is similar to the Rise Against commentary, however it uses a variety of people - director, artist and photographer. Although this isn't seen as a commentary, and is made by MTV, it still shows how all of these people came together using different ideas to create the PULP video.



This is an example of a feature lenght commentary, however it seems like the commentary is done to be slightly entertaining. The voices seem to match the quirky nature of the video and the band itself, and i feel that the way that it is produced makes the video alot more interesting and enjoyable to watch and listen to.