Spielberg and commentaries

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Spielberg and commentaries

Post by ShyViolet » October 12th, 2005, 11:55 am

Why do you think Spielberg doesn't ever do a DVD commentary for any of his movies? Will he ever do one??

I would love to see one for War of the Worlds. :)
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!

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Post by fani » October 12th, 2005, 1:54 pm

huh...

in my opinion it might be because if he actually make a commentary people might misinterpret some of his sentence as an offense/bad thing.

You remember in the Incredibles Brad Bird commentary when he said, "The next person who says 'oo what's it like to work in the animation genre', I'M GONNA PUNCH THEM!"

He might be thinking that his joking comment is meant as an offense.

Am I making sense?

GeorgeC

Re: Spielberg and commentaries

Post by GeorgeC » October 12th, 2005, 2:51 pm

[quote="ShyViolet"]Why do you think Spielberg doesn't ever do a DVD commentary for any of his movies? Will he ever do one??

I would love to see one for War of the Worlds. :)[/quote]

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$


He's got more than enough of it, but it could be nobody has met his price. He's definitely been called greedy by more than one person out there.

Darn shame, too.

I don't know. The whole money situation with DVDs is ridiculous. People want astronomical sums to do commentaries on DVD or release certain extras to disc.

I don't know if you've noticed, but a lot of DVD releases have had music changed on them because the music copyright holders want more money than the home video companies want to pay. Before you cry foul at the home video companies, remember that for that DVD you paid $10 for at Best Buy 2 years AFTER it was first released the CD soundtrack is PROBABLY still $18-$20!

A lot of times, the rights for various elements in the films (ie, the music) are held by various companies. Films and TV shows have literally been held hostage from general re-release because of rights disputes and an inability for companies to come down to agreements that would make it profitable to re-release said films and TV series on DVD.

It's a shame, but often unreasonable greed rules this world.

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Post by ShyViolet » October 12th, 2005, 4:49 pm

So true. I'm pretty sure that's why the Donnie Darko soundtrack (not the score) took so long to come out. Those 80s songs were too expensive for the tiny little film company to buy or something. (I STILL CAN'T FIND IT.) I do have the score, which I love, but it's not the same.


Anyway.... :roll:


I think Spielberg, as talented as he is, is on a bit of a high horse. (you can't really blame him.) Why should he bother to sit down for two hours and record his thoughts about a movie like he's "one of us"? He's the great Steven Spielberg for crying out loud. He's under no obligation to let anyone in on his master thought process. I'm not totally blaming him, it's just that he's so super-successful. Or maybe it is just money like you said....still not to have done ONE commentary....it's a little odd IMO.

huh...

in my opinion it might be because if he actually make a commentary people might misinterpret some of his sentence as an offense/bad thing.

You remember in the Incredibles Brad Bird commentary when he said, "The next person who says 'oo what's it like to work in the animation genre', I'M GONNA PUNCH THEM!"

He might be thinking that his joking comment is meant as an offense.

Am I making sense?
Yeah that seems reasonable, considering that Spielberg's so high-profile, he might slip and say something a little questionable and alienate bunches of people. He always kind of shuns publicity up to a point anyway.

Plus I think Katzenberg should do commentaries too...especially on POE. I tried to listen to that one and found it very very dull and boring. Supposadly DW films have "directors" but you can tell that they are mostly hired help. (in my opinion.) It's not totally their vision, so you can see that they are being very careful not to say the wrong thing. Ditto on the Shrek commentary. Which makes for a VERY boring track. :roll:
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!

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Post by Meg » October 12th, 2005, 6:53 pm

fani wrote:You remember in the Incredibles Brad Bird commentary when he said, "The next person who says 'oo what's it like to work in the animation genre', I'M GONNA PUNCH THEM!"
I thought that was funny! :D

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Post by ShyViolet » October 12th, 2005, 7:02 pm

I don't get him....doesn't he care that so many people WORSHIP what he does?????? :shock: :shock:
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!

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Post by Christian » October 12th, 2005, 7:16 pm

So true. I'm pretty sure that's why the Donnie Darko soundtrack (not the score) took so long to come out. Those 80s songs were too expensive for the tiny little film company to buy or something. (I STILL CAN'T FIND IT.) I do have the score, which I love, but it's not the same.
Get the 80's songs from their original source or from iTunes or something. It doesn't have to be from a Donnie Darko soundtrack CD. I've had The Killing Moon for 22 years now.

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Post by fani » October 13th, 2005, 12:38 am

[quote="Meg"][quote="fani"]You remember in the Incredibles Brad Bird commentary when he said, "The next person who says 'oo what's it like to work in the animation genre', I'M GONNA PUNCH THEM!"[/quote]

I thought that was funny! :D[/quote]


i found it funny too but...some of my relatives and family...well..there's a reason i don't show commentaries to them.

let's keep it to that shall we?^_^

*nudge**nudge* wink*wink?

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Re: Spielberg and commentaries

Post by Uli » October 13th, 2005, 4:23 am

...
Last edited by Uli on May 25th, 2007, 8:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by Phil » October 13th, 2005, 10:07 am

This might just be an excuse, or a load of baloney, but I read somewhere that Speilberg doesn't do commentaries because he feels it detracts from the enjoyment of the film. One can't get immersed in the movie, caring about the characters, while someone is talking about locations, camera angles, and special effects.

Apparently, he prefers that people enjoy his films on their artistic merits as opposed to their technical merits.

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Post by Christian » October 13th, 2005, 11:18 am

I don't know how many people here remember this but Spielberg also never wanted any of his movies to be released to home video. He felt watching Jaws or ET or Jurassic Park on TV is not the proper way. I'd have to say I agree with him.

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Post by Ben » October 25th, 2005, 7:06 am

It is well known, as Phil says, that Spielberg doesn't want to explain what he was trying to do with a certain scene, or destroy the illusion.

He's more than happy for behind-the-scenes footage and SFX deconstructions, but doesn't want to lay out in black and white, as it were, his intnetions, rather letting the audience find their way through a film and come away "fresh" each time.

ET and An American Tail were the two movies Universal really had to lobby for in order to get home video rights. Steve saw these as Disney-styled re-issue cash cows which he said would never be released on home video.

Funny how he changed his mind - ET was a muddled release, and AAT isn't even presented in its original ratio and doesn't feature any extras!

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