The Director's Commentary Edition
On how good it feels when podcast-style banter meets focused reminiscing.
Louis here. The other night, YouTube served me up a ‘Director’s Commentary’ episode of The Simpsons. The people in the audio booth included show creator Matt Groening, and Conan O’Brien, who wrote the episode in question.
It was a great twenty-three minutes, and when it ended, YouTube suddenly offered me a trove of full feature films with director’s commentaries. There was Fight Club—with Fincher, Pitt, Norton, and Bonham Carter—The Godfather Part II, with Francis Ford Coppola, 28 Days Later, Superbad (with everyone, again).
I’ve never added so much to my ‘Watch Later’ playlist at once.
Why is this interesting?
This is a still-developing thought, so go with me, but director’s commentaries feel like they could be the answer to a frustration I’ve been having with some podcasts recently. Namely, that sometimes the hosts have become so familiar with their audience over time, that they’ll openly joke about how they’re “really phoning it in this week.” The show hosts have committed to uploading weekly, even if they really don’t feel a need or desire to on that day, and you can feel it in their energy.
Director’s commentaries, on the other hand, are always incredibly focused. They’re watching scenes happen in real time, so there’s always something to talk about, and it almost becomes a competition among the assembled group to have the richest, funniest anecdotes.
But they often also combine that targeted intent with all the warmth and familiarity of your favorite podcast. After all, these people worked together on the episode or film in questions for months (if not years) of late nights, so are very happy to joke around and mess with each other.
When I texted Colin Nagy about this, we realized he’s also been thinking about the incredible amount of footage—old interviews, great speeches, etc.—that are just chilling out in obscure corners of the internet, and never really resurfacing, because they’re just twenty seconds harder to find.
He’ll be writing about this soon. For now, with the darker, cozier months bearing down on us, I know how I’ll be spending some evenings. Roll tape! (LC)
Spot on. I also think that it's much more easy and casual to consume Director’s Commentary now in the era of many screens and multi-tasking, vs 20 years ago, when you'd have to put in the DVD and make a commitment.
I haven't googled it, but guessing that there exist online shorter versions of the commentary edited together for Top 5 Scenes from Movie X or Top 10 Scenes from Director Y.