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Audio commentary
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Audio commentary
An audio commentary is an additional audio track, usually digital, consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with a video. Commentaries are most often spoken by the production team. They can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add information which otherwise would not be disclosed to audience members.
The Criterion Collection introduced audio commentary on the LaserDisc format, which was able to accommodate multiple audio tracks. The first commentary track, for the 1984 LaserDisc release of the 1933 film King Kong, was recorded by Ronald Haver, a curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and was inspired by the stories Haver told while supervising the film-to-video transfer process. Criterion expected that the commentary would only be of interest to serious film students. It received a favorable reaction, and his commentary on King Kong is considered to ultimately have started the trend. Haver went on to provide commentaries for Criterion for the rest of his life.
Excerpt of Haver's commentary for King Kong:
Hello, ladies and gentlemen, I'm Ronald Haver, and I'm here to do something which we feel is rather unique. I'm going to take you on a lecture tour of King Kong as you watch the film. The laserdisc technology offers us this opportunity and we feel it's rather unique — the ability to switch back and forth between the soundtrack and this lecture track.
DVDs, Blu-rays, and 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays have made audio commentary a key component of special features. They often include commentary from cinematographers, screenwriters, actors, producers, directors, film historians, film critics and subject matter experts. For example, American cinematographer Garrett Brown, the inventor of the steadicam, is featured throughout the audio commentary track for The Shining, where he discusses his work with the ground-breaking technology. The DVD of the science-fiction movie Sunshine, directed by Danny Boyle, contains an audio track with English physicist and professor of particle physics Brian Cox. In the cast commentary for The Silence of the Lambs, former F.B.I. criminal profiler John Douglas, an advisor to the filmmakers, offers his anecdotes about the film.
The box set of The Ultimate Matrix Collection, 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 DVD release of Ghostbusters contains a video commentary track with director Ivan Reitman, Harold Ramis, and Joe Medjuck, with silhouettes of the trio added to imitate Mystery Science Theater 3000. The Blu-ray edition of the film Galaxy Quest includes a tongue-in-cheek trivia commentary called "Galactopedia", by American graphic designer Michael Okuda, known for his work on Star Trek, and Denise Okuda, co-author of the Star Trek Encyclopedia.
On the DVD release of Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore allowed his interns, secretary and production assistants to record the audio commentary for his documentary. In the commentary for True Romance, Quentin Tarantino, who wrote the film script, explains why he didn't direct the movie himself, and the inspiration behind him writing the script. For The Goonies audio track, many of the original cast members, Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Corey Feldman and Martha Plimpton, along with director Richard Donner, reunited and watched the film together, offering their opinions on the classic comedy film.
Film directors can also provide their perspective into how a film is made. In his commentary for the 1970 film M*A*S*H, director Robert Altman gives background information on production and on the way the script was used and misused. He also comments on problems he had with the studio in relation to the connection with the Vietnam War. Director Mel Brooks discusses in his audio commentary for Young Frankenstein how the movie was turned down by Columbia Pictures because its 2 million dollar budget was too high. He also points out the homages in his film, in relation to the history of Frankenstein movies.
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Audio commentary
An audio commentary is an additional audio track, usually digital, consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with a video. Commentaries are most often spoken by the production team. They can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add information which otherwise would not be disclosed to audience members.
The Criterion Collection introduced audio commentary on the LaserDisc format, which was able to accommodate multiple audio tracks. The first commentary track, for the 1984 LaserDisc release of the 1933 film King Kong, was recorded by Ronald Haver, a curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and was inspired by the stories Haver told while supervising the film-to-video transfer process. Criterion expected that the commentary would only be of interest to serious film students. It received a favorable reaction, and his commentary on King Kong is considered to ultimately have started the trend. Haver went on to provide commentaries for Criterion for the rest of his life.
Excerpt of Haver's commentary for King Kong:
Hello, ladies and gentlemen, I'm Ronald Haver, and I'm here to do something which we feel is rather unique. I'm going to take you on a lecture tour of King Kong as you watch the film. The laserdisc technology offers us this opportunity and we feel it's rather unique — the ability to switch back and forth between the soundtrack and this lecture track.
DVDs, Blu-rays, and 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays have made audio commentary a key component of special features. They often include commentary from cinematographers, screenwriters, actors, producers, directors, film historians, film critics and subject matter experts. For example, American cinematographer Garrett Brown, the inventor of the steadicam, is featured throughout the audio commentary track for The Shining, where he discusses his work with the ground-breaking technology. The DVD of the science-fiction movie Sunshine, directed by Danny Boyle, contains an audio track with English physicist and professor of particle physics Brian Cox. In the cast commentary for The Silence of the Lambs, former F.B.I. criminal profiler John Douglas, an advisor to the filmmakers, offers his anecdotes about the film.
The box set of The Ultimate Matrix Collection, 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 DVD release of Ghostbusters contains a video commentary track with director Ivan Reitman, Harold Ramis, and Joe Medjuck, with silhouettes of the trio added to imitate Mystery Science Theater 3000. The Blu-ray edition of the film Galaxy Quest includes a tongue-in-cheek trivia commentary called "Galactopedia", by American graphic designer Michael Okuda, known for his work on Star Trek, and Denise Okuda, co-author of the Star Trek Encyclopedia.
On the DVD release of Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore allowed his interns, secretary and production assistants to record the audio commentary for his documentary. In the commentary for True Romance, Quentin Tarantino, who wrote the film script, explains why he didn't direct the movie himself, and the inspiration behind him writing the script. For The Goonies audio track, many of the original cast members, Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Corey Feldman and Martha Plimpton, along with director Richard Donner, reunited and watched the film together, offering their opinions on the classic comedy film.
Film directors can also provide their perspective into how a film is made. In his commentary for the 1970 film M*A*S*H, director Robert Altman gives background information on production and on the way the script was used and misused. He also comments on problems he had with the studio in relation to the connection with the Vietnam War. Director Mel Brooks discusses in his audio commentary for Young Frankenstein how the movie was turned down by Columbia Pictures because its 2 million dollar budget was too high. He also points out the homages in his film, in relation to the history of Frankenstein movies.