Reply to Topic
The More Extras, the Better, Director Says
source: VideoStore Magazine pg 10
Director Michael Apted doesn’t know why studios so often release movie-only DVD editions on the initial go-round, only to follow them with extras-laden special editions. Maybe it’s because it takes so long to prepare a special edition that studios don’t want to risk missing the theatrical-to-video window, he surmised.
“But what do I know?” Apted said. “The more stuff you put in a DVD, the better.”
And that’s exactly what will happen with two of the British director’s most recent films, Enigma and Enough, which Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment is releasing first in extras-light versions (Enough streets Oct. 8, Enigma Sept. 24), then in special editions.
Apted clearly prefers the latter because of the insights they provide into the movie-making process. “I think it adds a whole other dimension to seeing the film,” he said.
Both Enigma, a drama centered around World War II code breakers, and Enough, which stars Jennifer Lopez as a young wife who flees her abusive husband with her daughter, will arrive in spring of next year sporting loads of extras, including audio commentaries, deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes footage and other content, such as Enough’s material about battered wives, he said.
Apted is no stranger to DVD, as a host of his feature films and documentaries have made it to disc, from the nonfiction Forty Two Up to the James Bond flick The World Is Not Enough. He recently completed work on Thunderheart, a 1992 mystery set on an Indian reservation starring Val Kilmer and Sam Shepard, which will contain deleted scenes and a commentary. And he’s preparing to do Coal Miner’s Daughter, which earned Sissy Spacek the 1980 Best Actress Academy Award, and for which he hopes the actress will join him for the audio commentary.
In fact, Apted prefers to record commentaries with someone else involved in the production, as he did with screenwriter Nicholas Kazan for the Enough special edition. He had wanted Enigma screenwriter Tom Stoppard (an Academy Award winner for Shakespeare in Love) to participate in the commentary track for that special edition, but the famed playwright was not available.
“I prefer doing it with a writer,” Apted said. “It’s a bit burdensome on my own.”
Not all of Apted’s movies are released on DVD with extras. The director is disappointed that his 1983 feature Gorky Park hit stores sans extras.
He regrets it when studios release older films in movie-only editions.
“Just to bring it out without a special edition, you’re missing an opportunity,” he said.
And given the format’s flexibility, studios can include several versions of a film to suit differing consumers’ tastes -- which he finds relevant in light of the litigation between video rental company Clean Flicks’ and the Directors Guild of America over the right to edit films for family consumption.
Apted said he “sort of suggests privately” that a disc can contain an expurgated version of a film in addition to the original, rather than leaving the cuts up to “any old fool” who makes the edits and puts them in stores for profit.
“Maybe the DVD could contain the TV version if the material is volatile,” he said.
So my question, sparked byt the above article.... how do you like 'em?
source: VideoStore Magazine pg 10
Director Michael Apted doesn’t know why studios so often release movie-only DVD editions on the initial go-round, only to follow them with extras-laden special editions. Maybe it’s because it takes so long to prepare a special edition that studios don’t want to risk missing the theatrical-to-video window, he surmised.
“But what do I know?” Apted said. “The more stuff you put in a DVD, the better.”
And that’s exactly what will happen with two of the British director’s most recent films, Enigma and Enough, which Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment is releasing first in extras-light versions (Enough streets Oct. 8, Enigma Sept. 24), then in special editions.
Apted clearly prefers the latter because of the insights they provide into the movie-making process. “I think it adds a whole other dimension to seeing the film,” he said.
Both Enigma, a drama centered around World War II code breakers, and Enough, which stars Jennifer Lopez as a young wife who flees her abusive husband with her daughter, will arrive in spring of next year sporting loads of extras, including audio commentaries, deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes footage and other content, such as Enough’s material about battered wives, he said.
Apted is no stranger to DVD, as a host of his feature films and documentaries have made it to disc, from the nonfiction Forty Two Up to the James Bond flick The World Is Not Enough. He recently completed work on Thunderheart, a 1992 mystery set on an Indian reservation starring Val Kilmer and Sam Shepard, which will contain deleted scenes and a commentary. And he’s preparing to do Coal Miner’s Daughter, which earned Sissy Spacek the 1980 Best Actress Academy Award, and for which he hopes the actress will join him for the audio commentary.
In fact, Apted prefers to record commentaries with someone else involved in the production, as he did with screenwriter Nicholas Kazan for the Enough special edition. He had wanted Enigma screenwriter Tom Stoppard (an Academy Award winner for Shakespeare in Love) to participate in the commentary track for that special edition, but the famed playwright was not available.
“I prefer doing it with a writer,” Apted said. “It’s a bit burdensome on my own.”
Not all of Apted’s movies are released on DVD with extras. The director is disappointed that his 1983 feature Gorky Park hit stores sans extras.
He regrets it when studios release older films in movie-only editions.
“Just to bring it out without a special edition, you’re missing an opportunity,” he said.
And given the format’s flexibility, studios can include several versions of a film to suit differing consumers’ tastes -- which he finds relevant in light of the litigation between video rental company Clean Flicks’ and the Directors Guild of America over the right to edit films for family consumption.
Apted said he “sort of suggests privately” that a disc can contain an expurgated version of a film in addition to the original, rather than leaving the cuts up to “any old fool” who makes the edits and puts them in stores for profit.
“Maybe the DVD could contain the TV version if the material is volatile,” he said.
So my question, sparked byt the above article.... how do you like 'em?
__________________
it's better to have loved and lost
than to live with the psycho
for the rest of your life
it's better to have loved and lost
than to live with the psycho
for the rest of your life
) extras. Although, the only thing that I really look out for and enjoy, would be director's commentary. Thusly, Pulp Fiction would be a definite DVD dissapointment, whereas Cq was fantastic. However, I can't stand most of the crap that they just throw on those things nowadays.
