Best 'Behind the Scenes' Documentaries

[Justan Zimmerman]

I'd love to have the Alien set, but I refuse to buy anything that insults my intelligence. The word is tetralogy, and it will get my $69.99.

[Dan Goulder]

The director's/producer's commentary with Eli Roth and Quentin Tarantino manages to turn the "Hostel" DVD into an entertaining comedy.

[Patrick McGowan]

I think I still have my VHS of "The Making of Jurassic Park" narrated by James Earl Jones from when I was 10. That was the first time I had ever heard of CGI and it is still a good chronicle of where it all began. (The Abyss, Terminator II, etc.)

 

It also shows all of Stan Winston's wonderful model making and robotics. Not to mention some geat footage of Speilberg immitating dinosaur screams for the actors. There isn't too much about Dean Cundey though.

 

Definitley worth watching if you can find it.

Edited September 5, 2006 by Patrick S. McGowan

[Max Jacoby]

I'd love to have the Alien set, but I refuse to buy anything that insults my intelligence. The word is tetralogy, and it will get my $69.99.

You can get them for quite cheap now. There was one place in the UK where you could buy it for 17 or 18 pounds if memory serves me correctly.

[Sam Wells]

"Russian Ark" has one of the most interesting 'making-of' special features of any movie I've seen, I think. I enjoyed the special feature more than the feature itself. :P

 

In many ways I prefer "Hearts Of Darkness" to "Apocalypse Now" (or even "Burden Of Dreams" to "Fitzcarraldo") but the idea that you have to create a fiction in order to create a document somehow seems to open up parallel universes or something :unsure:

 

-Sam

[Morgan Peline]

Hi,

 

Billy Williams id teaching us in a Masterclass at the moment. He showed us a short cinematography feature on the new 'On Golden Pond' DVD. Short but very interesting especially when he was sitting right next to us telling us how he did certain things adding to what he was saying on screen.

 

Regards

[Dan Goulder]

Roger Deakins gives useful and interesting commentaries on both the "Fargo" and "Man Who Wasn't There" DVDs.

[Scott Larson]

The commentary by Haskell Wexler on "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" has lots of photographic information like how B&W allowed him to adjust light levels in scenes without worrying about the changing color temperatures. There's also lots of info on shooting night scenes including one scene where he had to dim the lights of a house in the background because lights can be distracting when out of focus since they take up more space on the screen (sort of counterintuitive that light sources become more vistible on the screen when they're farther away). He also describes how he used a technique he read in a Kodak "Learning to Take Photos" book to make a diffuser out of materials he got at a hardware store.

 

Wexler's commentary on "Medium Cool" is also excellent. It's incredible that he improvsed a film in the middle of a historical event. He describes many documentary techniques he used (mostly because he had no choice) which blurred the line between what was part of the fictional story and what real-life events were happening beyond the control of the film crew.

[Dan Goldberg]

any of the Lord Of the Rings extended versions have great behind the scenes stuff.

 

I must agree. I watched it all, me being a HUGE fan of LOTR. Plus it goes into so many details about everthing, not just one segment of production or pre-production. Highly recommended.

 

As well, the behind the scenes for Coppola's "Lost in Translation" was awesome to watch as well. Went very indepth and is quite long too. Really gives you insight on the difficulties and obstacles a crew might face through the filmmaking process.

 

Dan Goldberg..

[Michael Palm]

The Fountain

 

It has an interesting behind the scene documentary, some good talk from the DP.