Talk:Audio commentary/Archive 1

Untitled
the definition of Carrottop commentary is unclear -- do you mean that Rules of Attraction had commentary by the comedian Carrot Top?

Vynce 20:29, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Fan Commentary
The DVD release of series 5 of Red Dwarf features a commentary by fans. Should this be listed as well?

And there was also the Channel 4 comedy series Director's Commentary, which made fun of the whole concept of DVD commentaries.--128.243.220.21 15:57, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I added a note about this as a variation on scholarly commentary. I also added a note about comedians as David Schmaeder on Showgirls or anythign with Joe Bob Briggs is essentially a variation on a film expert as well. Should we add somethign about real-life experts on the subject matter, like Jim Lovell on Apollo 13, the veterans on Black Hawk Down or the strippers on Showgirls? Ace of Sevens 05:17, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Commentator pay
Back when commentaries were just starting to become popular, most performers agreed to do them as part of publicizing the film. But when Arnold Schwarzenegger was asked to do a commentary for one of his films' DVD release, he asked for and received an additional payment. Since then commentary appearances and fees are negotiated like other contract items. Can someone with more details include this aspect in the article? MK2 10:44, 27 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Notable Commentaries
Not that it's a big deal, but one commentary track that might be suitable for the list are the first season of south park, which were not included on the actual dvd, but on a cd which accompanied the package. Also, it might be informative if there was a section on parody commentaries, such as "Wizard People, Dear Reader," which toy with the medium a bit, though a few of the "notable commentaries" cover that already.- A-man

Moviecasts
I removed Moviecasts as "main article" to Alternate commentaries. I don't think that page is a legitimate entry in itself (see discussion on the article) let alone the main article for alternate commentaries. --Crazymaner2003

Why is Kevin Smith a "prolific commentator"?
He "recorded a commentary for all his feature films"? WOW THAT'S AMAZING Rubber cat 09:02, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

By my count, he's done nine for movies he's directed (one for each, and a second one for Clerks, Dogma and Jersey Girl), three for things he produced (Vulgar, Drawing Flies and Clerks TV show) and two for movies he had nothing to do with (Donnie Darko, Orgazmo) for a total of 14. Does that qualify him as prolific? Ace of Sevens 05:29, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I added a bit that includes Smith. He's only done more commentaries since June 2006...within the realm of five, I think. Soon-to-be 20 commentaries when he's made 7 films is definitely "prolific". Droidguy1119 02:12, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Visual Commentaries
I changed the visual commentaries paragraph to be about Ghostbusters instead of Men in Black as Ghostbusters came out a year earlier. Perhaps there shoudl also be something abotu visual commentaries that incorporate actual video footage through alternate angles, seamless branching or other methods. Examples include Mallrats, Glory and Finding Nemo. Ace of Sevens 05:17, 1 June 2006 (UTC)


 * I think a mention of the Goonies commentary, where it switches between strictly audio and audio/visual, should be included. Should it be noted in this section, or its own? Anyone? CleverTitania (talk) 19:15, 29 June 2014 (UTC)

Article rename
I notice that Audio commentary is simply a redirect to this article. With Blu-ray coming, and knowing that other high quality media will allow audio commentary to continue, is the (DVD) disambiguation tag not obsolete? Unless there is a use for Audio commentary as something other than a redirect, I think this article should be moved there. Another suggestion is Audio commentary (film). - BalthCat 23:45, 7 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Sounds fair, especially since one of the forms of commentary discussed in the article--the downloadable episode commentaries for such shows as Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who--already has nothing at all to do with DVDs. --Robotech_Master 06:18, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Film project
I added a film project tag to this as the vast majority of commentaries relate to film. I considered media and entertainment also, if anyone thinks one of these, or anything else, would be more appropriate feel free to change it. Crazymaner2003 20:54, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

Bill Douthett of The Spoilers commentaries has passed...
I don't know how to incorporate it, or even if we should but sadly, he has passed. I first learned about it at http://leoville.vox.com/library/posts/page/2/. (scroll down a few stories). Maybe someone can put it in the article?

Again,

http://leoville.vox.com/library/posts/page/2/

Does this put the spoilers on hiatus or not? I don't know. Something worth looking into.

EDIT: I found a direct link to the announcement at macmerc.

http://www.macmerc.com/news/macmerc/3531

Highest/Lowest Rated Commentaries
I don't see the purpose of that section other than as a "wow that's sort of interesting" novelty. Maybe the top 5 or top 10 would be okay but listing one hundred top rated commentaries is really pushing it and cluttering up the article. Personally, I don't care what some people on RateThatCommentary.com think, but maybe that's just me. --Rubber cat 08:57, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Most commentaries
Anyone reading this discussion will know of DVDs that contain multiple commentaries. It would be worth noting a release that contains the most commentaries, if there is one. I only know of DVDs that contain four commentary tracks (e.g. Hostel, Lord Of The Rings). Perhaps there are DVDs which contain five or even more? (A scary thought!)
 * The Rules of Attraction DVD contains six audio commentaries, including one from Carrot Top, who had nothing to do with the film. The maximum a DVD title can contain is eight (unless the video title is repeated more than once on the disc of course, though it would be rather compressed so I doubt any one would consider making a release like this. Kineticpast (talk) 08:00, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Stop removing alternate commentaries
re-removing external links to alternate commentaries: Wikipedia is not a link repository; if they become notable enough for articles of their own, links to those can be added

Remeber to EDIT other people's work, not DELETE it.

To suggest that Mike Nelson (a person who has just jumped upon the bandwagon recently to make money) and the creators of TV shows are the only alternate commentators is wrong and inacurate.

Do not try to rewrite history.

Alternate commentaries are fan-community driven. That is the history. That is the truth.

Many of these commentators have had articles written about them. I will leave it to them to link them.

Please discuss further BEFORE changing. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Crazymaner2003 (talk • contribs).


 * "Some external links are welcome, but it is not Wikipedia's purpose to include a comprehensive list of external links related to each topic. No page should be linked from a Wikipedia article unless its inclusion is justified," per WP:EL. If any of the alternate commentary producers have articles, an internal link to them is fine. (The only one I can find with an article is Wizard People, Dear Reader, and that's an alternate soundtrack, not a commentary.) &mdash;tregoweth (talk) 23:05, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Alternate commentaries and their linking in the alternate commentary area
I see some vast changes have been made to the alternate area - it now only seems to include commentaries from the film-makers themselves. Just because you download a Kevin Smith commentary rather than experience it on the disc itself does not make it an alternate one. Alternate commentaries are made by the fan community. It has been mentioned that none of the alternate groups mentioned are "notable" enough. It could be argued that due to the relatively small nature of the alternate commentary community they are all small. But within the community they are active and noteworthy. It seems ludicrous to talk about alternate commentaries without actually listing one single alternate commentary group.

I would ask for a revert back to the original version which was truer to the spirit of what alternate commentaries are. I would even go as far as removing mentions of Kevin Smith's downloadable commentary and the Battlestar Galactica downloadable ones, as they are not true alternate commentaries. The alternate commentary groups need to be mentioned to show that there is quite a distinction between what they do and what the film-makers do. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.9.186.134 (talk) 01:39, 23 January 2007 (UTC).


 * Except for Mike Nelson, I don't believe that any of the alternate commentary creators are notable enough to be included here. I do think you're right about the Galactica and Kevin Smith downloadable commentaries, as those are just filmmaker commentaries delivered a different way. &mdash;tregoweth (talk) 01:54, 23 January 2007 (UTC)


 * If the section is going to be about alternate commentaries, then how can it not mention those that are actually doing the bulk of the work in the field? Alternate commentary creators/podcast creators are all equally valid inclusions on Wikipedia, some even seem to have their own page even though they appear to be only as notable as others.  You do the section a dis-service by not including commentary teams with more prolific output than Mr Nelson. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.9.186.134 (talk) 03:14, 23 January 2007 (UTC).


 * I think the sticking point is probably the notability requirement that states topics must be "subject of multiple, non-trivial published works from sources that are reliable and independent of the subject itself and each other" to be considered "notable." The thing is that alternate commentators, while fairly active in their small little field, don't tend to draw a lot of attention individually outside of it. There just don't seem to be that many people outside of die-hard film geeks who have any interest in downloading what some other random person said about a movie and listening to it. It is a notable topic in and of itself. It's just hard to find anyone practicing it who meets those notability requirements. --Robotech_Master 05:25, 23 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Forgive me for being dim, but how can an alternate commentator be "independent of the subject itself and each other". And Just because we are a small field doesn't mean we should be excluded from Wikipedia.  Taking a purely random stab in Wikipedia and searching for chickens, the external links have references to sites which just happen to have pictures of chickens on them!  I mean for goodness sake!  We are alternate commentators, doing valid and worthwhile work.  The entries that are in the alternate commentators section now are not applicable, and at the very least it should be reworked to remove Kevin Smith and Co. It beggars belief that an article on Wikipedia about alternate commentators barely mentions them. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.9.186.134 (talk) 00:40, 24 January 2007 (UTC).
 * I think there ought to be something substantial about alternate commentaries as a phenomenon. Sharecrow and Zarban.com list hundreds of them—nearly a thousand, in the case of Zarban. --Tysto (talk) 01:26, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

Steven Spielberg
I have heard Spielberg state in an interview on one of his DVDs that he is not a supporter of commentaries as he feels that a different soundtrack detracts from the viewing experience he tried to create. However, I can't remember which one! I've added a tag until I (or someone) finds it. Chris 42 12:30, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Types of commentary
I removed some of the types of commentary. The fact that commentaries can have more than one person on it and it could be the director, writer, producer, or cast is pretty "no duh" obvious, but I worked it into the header of the article in case anyone feels it is important. I was surprised to see nobody mentioned "screen specific" or "scene specific" since I was to understand those were the "official" terms for the types of commentary. I also expanded the definitions to mention teleststrator, video and silhouette commentaries.

I also listed Kevin Smith, David Fincher, David Cronenberg and Terry Gilliam amongst the list of prolific commentators -- how about a new section that is simply a list of directors who have shown considerable support/gotten considerable respect for the audio commentaries they've done? Droidguy1119 02:28, 7 February 2007 (UTC)


 * It would be too hard to do, specially since there is a lack of good sources for it. I would erase that before users start adding their favorite directors to the list.190.161.198.196 21:24, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Introduction - Proposed rewording.
Currently the introduction reads "On a DVD (or laserdisc), an audio commentary is a bonus track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, who talk about the movie as it progresses. Depending on the nature of the movie, and upon the person providing the spoken dialogue, it can add a wealth of informative, entertaining information about a movie of which most audience members would not be aware."

New Proposed introduction: "On disc based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video. Commentaries can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add a wealth of information which otherwise would not be disclosed to audience members."

Proposed changes would address 1) Bias specifically to DVD format. While DVD is largely instrumental to the ubiquity of audio commentaries, there are multiple video formats in which audio commentary is presented. (Laser Disc, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, DVD, Web Video) 2) Audio commentaries are not exclusive to feature length films. They are now oft featured on televisions shows, short films, etc. Saying commentary provides "information about a movie" does not illustrate this change. AtaruMoroboshi (talk) 17:29, 18 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I've gone ahead and edited in the proposed lead, since this has been up for over month with no comment.AtaruMoroboshi (talk) 01:59, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Beyandonnie.jpg
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BetacommandBot (talk) 04:40, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Moved Dr. Horrible...
I've moved Dr. Horrible's Commentary! The Musical to the parodies section, and I added some details which should clarify why it belongs there. I figure any commentary which starts with a song called Commentary!, which makes fun of the tropes of DVD commentaries, belongs in that section.

I'm also thinking Joss Whedon belongs in the prolific list, but I'm gathering data on that one. CleverTitania (talk) 19:21, 29 June 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
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 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20120229165028/http://www.slashfilm.com/article.php/20060518045721680 to http://www.slashfilm.com/article.php/20060518045721680

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External links modified
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 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20061106030309/http://joblo.com/index.php?id=12487 to http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=12487

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VHS
Apparently there's been a VHS of Usual Suspects with a 2nd tape with audiocommentary 😄 <!

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71hWN-9rNqL._SL1128_.jpg

82.170.88.56 (talk) 19:41, 22 March 2017 (UTC)