[Cliffs]

I really appreciate the support guys. But is there anyone here who doesn't really care about special features? If so, how do you react to things that go "above and beyond" the norm. Do they sway you one way or the other given the fact that you generally don't care about them?

I agree with you guys completely. I can't stand discs where they just throw a bunch of pre-fab'd EPKs and other superficial stuff on a disc. I always go into a project with the attitude of "If I wouldn't want to watch it, I don't want to produce it." Creating this stuff takes a lot of my time (sometimes 100+ hours a week) and I can't spend that kind of time on something unless I feel it's going to be worth it.

As for cover design jobs for the studios, I don't really have that much interaction with those areas of the studios because they're completely separate from the departments that handle the actual disc content. If you've seen the cover for Waiting..., you can safely assume that none of us (the director included) liked that cover, but all of that stuff is done in a completely separate world. Unfortunately, it's also done almost completely by marketing (thus tons of huge, ugly, marketable heads that are everywhere). BUT, that doesn't mean that I can't poke my nose around and see what I might be able to dig up.

Cliff

[JupiterPrime]

I like special features to actually be SPECIAL....commentary by cast, and directorial staff, gag-reels - I love gag-reels, and topical discussion dealing with the real-life subject of what the film was based on - like Chaos Theory in the ButterFly Effect, and here's another thing.....how come THEY dont come in 16x9?

Sounds like you have good ideas, I like the Madden screen-drawing idea (Look you see right here? this is where the car is gonna come out from behind the building, spin out towards, us, hit this waa in a fishtail - Boom - clip that shopping cart - doink - and scream past us and fly in the air in true SanFrancisco style), but I dont particularly care for them pausing things on me that I didnt pause myself.

typically for me, just gimme a commentary track, a gag-reel and maybe one or two topical pieces relative to the movie's subject matter, and IM good.......oh and uuuh,......stop putting trailiers FOR THE ACTUAL MOVIE on that movie's disc - waste of bandwidth...ill never understand that, and never understand why having one, you need t0 have them all, and then 4 or 5 more for other movies.

Good luck on MirrorMask - looks really cool and Im in for a watch (after it comes home)

[invisigoth]

Personally i could care less about (the cookie cutter)Special Features only because we've been trained to dislike them since they suck for the most part. The mold needs to be broken, fresh ideas like what you're doing now. Get rid of all the crappy dry self serving interviews, telling us how hard it was to make this movie and no one has ever done a special effect like this, and the training was so hard, and they made sit there for 16 hours to do makeup...etc, etc..special features should be fun & interesting, if they're not then like you said they're a waste of time..



I'm looking forward to this movie...Anna Faris rocks.

[Darkhaven80]

I enjoy the effort of original ideas. Phantasm SE R1 (OOP) had an amazing special edition. The footage of Angus speaking at the Fangoria convention was great as he has a good sense of humor. The TV spots were also hysterical. Those are actually rewatchable. The things I tend to bleh more over are the poster and concept art work (nice touch but nothing big) and the fluff short promotional features - nothing special there. Interactive quizzes or games would be fun, sort of like they do in the Boogeymen Flixmix disc

[thomkai]

I love commentaries. I know many people that find them boring, but they can be great. I actually have thought sometimes that I wish the commentator could pause and rewind a scene, because he was finishing up a thought, and I KNEW that a scene passed where he would have more to say.
I also dislike trailers, and especially trailers for other movies thrown a the BEGINNING of the the disc. I lose a lot of respect for a disc right off when I can't access the menu right away. And yes, I can respect DVD's, shuddup
So, the more inventive and creative the better.

[michael]

I love it when you find things that are on the same topic as the film but are not from/for the film itself. Examples are "These Hills Have Eyes" they should include a documentary of the real leagend from scotland. Or "Jaws" some documentary that is all on killer sharks and shark attacks but never mentions the film. Those are to lazy examples I just came up with off the top of my head, but i think you get what I mean. Things are are on topic but separate from the film itself.

[Mr_Bombdiggity]

I love innovative special features. Haven't seen too many of them, though. I never would have rented Waiting... but now maybe I will just to check out this commentary you did. You're right, though, the vast majority of dvds I see simply have the deleted scenes, some trailers and maybe a commentary track. You look at it once and then you never watch it again. I think Lord of the Rings Extended Editions are probably the best done dvds I've seen. They're loaded with content.

[rickssg]

I am going to sound like a parrot, but I like good quality extras as well. I'm not so much into commentary tracks, although I have watched them, but I really love "behind the scenes" kind of stuff, and I never get tired of gag reels. In fact, my biggest complaint about most gag reels is that they're too short. I also agree that the best extra features that I have seen so far are the appendix discs from the LOTR EE. I also like the short film (and "making of" documentary) by Sean Astin the was on the Two Towers theatrical release. Good stuff.