Favorite DVD Extra

[TheEditor]

A question courtesy of the wonderful Calena:

What is your favorite extra on a DVD box set? Feel free to be as general or specific as possible.

To start things off, I will say that Joss Whoden's commentary track on "The Body" is the best I've heard. The episode by itself is, in my opinion, the best single episode of TV I've ever seen, but his commentary explains so well the layers he was working with and the reasons for his choices.

A lot of commentary tracks are just actors or directors watching an episode and telling a few humorous anecdotes. Butt for this one, Joss truly commented on his philosophy of film-making on that episode.

[Calena]

Wow, that question was picked up quickly! And I am wonderful!

My faves in general are the gag reels - they generally are so hilarious, they always put me in a good mood.

Specifically I loved Jared's original screentest in the box set of S2 of SPN (that I don't really have, but will buy when it comes out here. I saw the clip on youtube). I would love to see Jensen's screentest, too.

I actually also like the funny annecdotes audio commentaries of the actors, as I do the making offs and the deleted scenes. Ok, I admit it, I am a real sucker for extras on DVDs, the only ones I could do without are the "technical ones", where the computer guys explain how they did the effects.

[TheEditor]

Deleted scenes are hit-or-miss. For the most part, they're terrible. But on a show like The Office, every episode has about 20 minutes of genuinely funny stuff obviously cut just for time.

Speaking of The Office, those commentaries are great because they get a lot of people together and they're very talkative. The best is Mindy Kaling asking Harold Ramis about doing blow with Bill Murray.

[BuddyD]

The Body is definitely the best TV episode ever.

The Office deleted scenes are great, but yeah, deleted scenes in general are hit or miss. I guess I dig commentaries the most, though I rarely get around to listening to them.

[adiafaith]

I love the audio commentaries. Not the ones where the actors and directors/producers/writers are just giving a play-by-play of what we can see in the scene or the ones where they're just fawning all over each other over how great the actor or director is....but the commentaries where the cast and crew really talk about what was going on on the set or between the actors when filming particular scenes (the stuff we wouldn't get to see). Call me geeky, but I really like hearing actors talking to each other about what they were thinking during a scene or how they prepared for the scene, the whole creative process.

And I love gag reels as long as they're actually funny. I think the Seinfeld DVDs have some of the best gag reels I've seen in awhile.

Oh yeah, and some DVDs have really amazing interactive menus. The Matrix wins hands down...I love playing the games on that one.

[Calena]

Originally Posted by adiafaith

Oh yeah, and some DVDs have really amazing interactive menus. The Matrix wins hands down...I love playing the games on that one.

I have to say I really don't get the interactive menus on my SPN box sets. It does want passwords ... I have no idea.

[AKalel]

For the sake of being different I like alternate beginings and endings features. Also depending on the movie art gallery that displays sketches used in storyboards including stuff that did not make it into a film. Lastly again depending on the movie but music videos especially how it seems like alot of songs used in movies nowadays are more commercial.

[lila]

I think most things have already been mentioned, like gag reels or deleted scenes. As for the latter, I often find it pretty interesting to see what was cut or left out. Sometimes I can see why the showrunners didn't include certain scenes in the aired episode, other times I feel like a scene would have really added something to a particular episode.
And this is a bit similar to deleted scenes but I really liked the extended cut of the Pegasus episode on the BSG season 2 DVD since it was really interesting to see the deleted scenes in context and to compare both versions of the episode.

As for audio commentaries: They can very hit and miss, like already mentioned. If the person(s) doing the commentary just basically describe what happens or just talk about how great the cast/crew is I don't find them that interesting. But a good audio commentary can definitely add a lot of interesting points and insight to an episode or movie, like when they talk why a scene was shot in a certain way, why certain acting/directing/writing choices were made and so on.

[TheEditor]

Yeah, so if anyone has any, let's expand this question: What is your favorite audio commentary track. I already mentioned The Body, but another Joss Whedon speciality is the Firefly finale, "Objects in Space." Joss spends the whole time talking about the philosophy of the episode, and it's fascinating to anyone who wants to understand what Joss was trying to say with the episode. I love commentaries like that which add enjoyment to the understanding of an episode.

[LovelyLene]

I love gag-reels/bloopers on DVD's! LOL! I love it when things go wrong...

My favorite extra's are on the Stargate SG-1 DVD's. They show EVERYTHING! From how things are made (scenes, special effects, monsters, explosions, etc.) to what they're all like on set, during conventions, etc. etc. I love watching it. I love the way they make fun of the show, of themselves and each other; it's simply hilarious. The atmosphere is so great; it makes me wanna be part of the cast and crew.

XXX