Poll: Best supplement:

[thaggas]

After reading the Criterion thread, I'm curious: What is the best supplement for a DVD? When you come to the home page and you see that long awaited title in bold print, what do you hope to find in the specs?

Those of you who can't live without more than one, feel free to rank them. I know you all love lists!

[Marq]

When a new title is released I am usually most excited when a filmmaker's commentary is announced as a supplement. Not all a great listens, but as a whole I find them to be the best add-on to a DVD.

Also a big favorite of mine are lengthy behind-the scenes documentaries or retrospectives on the films (documentaries, if you will). The ones on Taxi Driver, Blue Vlevet and especially Magnolia serve as great examples.

[LBPound23]

Behind-the-scenes Making-of documentary/featurette always seem to be the most watchable. Commentaries are good, but always seem like a chore to listen to, as if I have to listen. They're usually interesting, but I find the information much more enjoyable in documentary form. It doesn't even have to be a long documentary, but something in the area of 25-90 minutes can be exciting, visually interesting, informative, and enjoyable.

Of course, I like commentaries too, as well as deleted scenes and the trailers/TV ads. Outtakes too, where applicable. Some of the SFX and storyboard stuff is pretty boring nowadays, but I don't object to it being included....as I'm sure there are people who like that stuff. Maybe.

New featurettes that tackle the movie and its themes from different angles are cool. Also very cool is new material created for the DVD. Of all the upcoming releases, Monsters Inc. looks like it should be great, with its new shorts, etc.

At this point, the studios have shown they can really raise the bar in terms of quantity...but I really prefer quality over quantity in terms of supplements anymore. The more mundane extras don't have the "wow" factor they possessed when we first got hooked on DVD. The more, the better, but I always enjoy featurettes/documentaries as much as any supplement.

Also worth mentioning...I enjoy Production Notes and Cast/Crew Bios/Credits. These things, along with original theatrical trailers, have been noticeably missing from many recent releases. The thing that ticks me off is it takes so little effort to put together a complete filmography and bio (they can just take from IMDb for crying aloud), and yet studios either don't do them at all, do Selected Credits, or just list the Cast (wow, that's great...if I wanted that, I could watch the End Credits). When studios leave off the original theatrical trailer, that really ticks me off, because that's another thing that takes no effort to put on DVD.

[robarnold99]

Film-maker commentary. After watching a movie I like to listen to the director talk about specific points or ideas he or she was trying to get across. This is always helpful especially if I don't understand it, or it points something out that I didn't notice before.

[tomdkat]

I vote for clean and error-free DVD authoring so the Glitch Exhaust would NOT have to exist....

Peace.....

[Marty McFly]

I always enjoy cast commentaries the best. I like deleted scenes too, but most tend to be pointless (which is really the reason they were cut from the film in the first place).

[SilentBob]

I always like my deleted scenes on the dvd. I would like to listen to more commentary tracks but its hard enough for me to find time to watch the movie in the first place. After i would say trailers(in 5.1, upset Moulin Rouge wasn't in DD as the trailer kicked ass when i saw it at my theater), outtakes and snazzy box art.

[retroboy]

I'm a fan of filmmaker commentaries (especially when I'm hung over Saturday morning and I'm lying on the couch, immovable).Commentary highlights:

Kevin Smith and his merry gang are fun to listen and you feel like you're almost part of the gang (any of his films except JSBSB--it lacked Affleck and Lee).

Steven Soderbergh's commentaries are always good, but I love his collaborative commentary with screenwriter Lem Dobbs for The Limey--you almost wince at their not-so-friendly jabs.

PT Anderson's commentaries for Hard Eight and Boogie Nights are, um, interesting. Whenever he's not employing his potty mouth, there's always a phone call or an actor friend dropping by to liven things up. Good filmmaker, but he needs some ritalin.

Cameron and Alice Crowe's commentary for Almost Famous. Cameron's mom is cool.

Deleted scenes can be fun, but often they're deleted from the film for a very good reason (though I really liked the deleted scenes for High Fidelity).

I also like a good documentary, not one of those EPK pieces where everybody says, "______ is the best film yet" blah blah. The truncated Jaws documentary for DVD was excellent , as was the piece on The French Connection.

[Avid]

Best Supplement? One you can watch on your TV set.

I love trailers. They get me excited about the film I am about to watch. Love 'em!

I have found I enjoy documentaries more than commentaries. The ones on Rear Window and Taxi Driver are great. I am looking forward to the one on American Graffiti. Also, video journals can be excellent such as Magnolia.

I do like commentaries, but they can turn into a chore. Two or three commentaries wear me down. I think having two people can keep things moving easier than one; the Soderbergh commentaries are good and so is Big Trouble In Little China. First time filmmakers are usually good, I like the commentaries for both The Brother's McMullan and Fresh. I was disappointed there was not a commentary for The Virgin Suicides. I think the most enjoyable solo commentaries were on Pretty Woman and Bring It On. I don't enjoy screen specific commentaries too much. I don't care if that telephone booth was across from the production office, if that extra is the director's cousin's neighbour from fifteen years ago, or if the corn field was five miles away from the main set.

I also love watching audition tapes. Almost Famous Bootleg, good as it is, left me disappointed because they talk about different actor's auditions tapes but don't let us see any. I guess they were part of the first release, and I wish they had brought those over.

I like short picture galleries when they include music and you don't have to hit the remote to move forward yourself. A few story-board to screen comparisons are okay, but not too many. I don't like 300 storyboards you have to toggle through yourself.

Like LBPound I like quality over quantity. I would rather learn about the development of the story and see actors develop their character, than see another extra about how the special effects were done.

[John D. Moore]

I personally love to see a really well-done filmmaker commentary. They can be good or bad (Tykwer's on Run Lola Run was awesome, I thought).
Deleted Scenes are good to have, but I much prefer them to have a director's commentary or introduction of some sort. Shyamalan does a great job of this I think.

[Eric]

I voted for filmmaker commmentary, but I've got to say that it was a close one. Cast commentary didn't get it because, while sometimes you've got actors with interesting things to say (Ed Norton on Fight Club) there are other times when they add nothing (I remember thinking when Marky Mark embarked on his acting carreer that he'd be horrible. Then I saw Boogie Nights and said to myself "Wow, he does an incredible job of acting like a complete fool." Then I listened to the cast commentary and said, "Wow, he wasn't acting.")

After the commentary, I'd say it's the deleted scenes and outtakes. It's gotten to the point (and I'm glad!) that these are almost expected on a major release. Documentaries are great for putting older films in context, discussing the changed viewpoint on them after a number of years, or detailing a particularly interesting production, but most of the documentaries on newer films feel like they're pretty padded out (the documentary from the Star Wars Ep I disc is an exception.)

I don't really care one way or the other about storyboards, and some other galleries of production photos have been really interesting, but most have bored me to death. The only things I really am not too happy with are DVD-rom features; like others, I like to be able to watch all the special features on my TV.

One last note: possibly the best special feature ever was the "subtitles for people who don't like the film" feature on Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Hilarious.

[LBPound23]

Originally posted by Avid
I have found I enjoy documentaries more than commentaries. The ones on Rear Window and Taxi Driver are great. I am looking forward to the one on American Graffiti. Also, video journals can be excellent such as Magnolia.

I do like commentaries, but they can turn into a chore. Two or three commentaries wear me down. I think having two people can keep things moving easier than one

Agree with your thoughts on commentaries completely! As for the American Graffiti documentary, it's top-notch. Like many of Universal's early Collector's Editions, it's over an hour long and very engaging and informative.

[MrTony]

I love deleted scenes because I like thinking about why the scene was deleted. Did the scene include redundant information? Did it cause pacing problems? Did it spoon-feed the audience themes or concepts that they should be left to figure out on their own? Did they try to pack too much information into the overall story? Or did the scene simply not turn out the way the filmmakers hoped? It's like a small insight into the editing process.

[limacharliewhiskey]

I just love watching the outtakes or gag reels. It was just too funny watching R2-D2 fall over or bump into things on the Phantom Menace gag reel.

I'd have to rank filmmaker's commentary next, but sometimes it's hit and miss. Ones that tend to be more interesting are the commentaries with comments pieced together from cast and crew, as there tend to be no dead air time. Phantom Menace was like this, as was Terminator 2 and the Rock Criterion.

Deleted scenes are OK, but sometimes they're boring because they're simply extraneous. In a few instances, they're more interesting if a certain subplot is cut out simply because the original cut of a movie is too long. When the scenes do add substance to the movie or to the characters, that's when they're worth watching.

Most worthless supplement: for me, it's the storyboards. It's intriguing to see the process, but everytime I try to step through them, I get bored quick. I usually just look at the first 5 or 10, and then skip the rest.

Trailers and TV spots are cool, but I just need to see a few, not every version ever created, especially for TV spots. By the time you watch the 10th or 15th one, it gets tiresome.

[dvdjedi]

I'd have to go with Deleted Scenes followed by Filmmaker's Commentary.

[John Yaya]

My favorite is a filmmaker(s) commentary... I just enjoy listening to the Director and/or his crew talking about the behind the scenes stuff, funny anecdotes, insights on the film's production. Most cast commentaries are worth listening to as well.

Last night I listened to the Paul Verhoeven/ Jan De Bont track on the Basic Instinct reissued DVD. At first I thought I was listening to Hans & Franz (remember the SNL skit?) great commentary...all sorts of insightful stuff on the film's production and funny little things that they reflected on back when they filmed it in 1991.

Deleted scenes are a nice little addition whenever possible

[Scourge]

A perfect DVD for me would have:

1) Director Commentary

2) Cast Commentary

3) Isolated Music Score

4) 'Making of' featurette

5) Deleted Scenes

6) Blooper Real

You put those six supplements on every dvd and make sure the movie and supplements are 16X9 encoded and the feature is in DTS and everything would be oh so cool.

--Scourge .

[Jerm]

I want a good "making of" documentary. Not the 5-10 fluff piece that we normally get, but something like we got on Superman and Star Wars. Those are always cool.

[CompressedGravy]

you've left of all of my favourites ....

anamorphic video
widescreen presentation
audio: english 5.1 (dolby digital)
interactive menus
scene selections

[Donkey]

Dealted/Alternate/Extended Sceens
Making-Of/Behind The Scenes/Featurres
Outtakes
Music Videos
Commentray
TV Spots/Trailers
Still Gallery
DVD-ROM
Isolated Score


in that order is how I rank the features on DVDs!

[Ant f/ England]

for me....a good example of a great dvd title always tends to include Ridley Scott. Clearly someone committed to the round shiny disc. The commentaries on Alien & Gladiator anyone? Pretty sure you've got 'em already and you know what i mean.

Roll on the new Blade Runner release.......