Special Features

[Edward]

I love special features. Save on the rare occasions when I want to see something so much and have only the option of buying the DVD (my local rental place is a chain that keeps very very little that is over six months old), or when buying the DVD is actually cheaper than renting, I only buy DVDs of films I love and know i will watch over and over. If I really like a film, I want as much information as possible. Otherwise, if i hire, the standard two night rental charge works nicely - watch the film one night, the commentary the next. Helps sweeten the expense of hiring too (as much as going to the cinema here - per head savings make no odds as I live alone). One of my favourite extras was on the Hedwig and the Angry Inch DVD - before the show the film was based on, the writers workshopped the character at an open night mike, so Hedwig's first ever "performance" was captured on film for their own use, and consequently became a DVD extra.

 

[Haversack]

One of the best (and oldest) special features I've seen was on the VHS tape release of Douglas Fairbanks' 1926 _The Black Pirate_. It was a feature made at that time on how they did all the stunts, to include the one where he is on a yard, puts his knife through the sail and rides it to the deck. [They had to perforate the sail])

Haversack.

 

[dhermann1]

Michael Powell's 1946 film "I Know Where I'm Going" is set in Scotland. The DVD has a lot of fun stuff. One interesting fact was that the male lead, Roger Livesey, never was on location in Scotland. All his shots were in the studio in London, because he was in a play in the West End at the time. All shots of his character on location were very distant shots. They also explain how they created those great foggy effects that look so natural. All blue smoke and mirrors, folks! The DVD also has some terrific home movies that Michael Powell made in Scotland.

 

[nyx]

My most recent fave special feature was for the animated film, "Flushed Away." One of the modelers shows you how to make a screaming lady slug from plasticine. It was very cute because kids (or adults!) can try it themselves.

I also liked the behind the scenes from Jim Hensen's "Labyrinth." I discovered that Dr. Beverly Crusher from Star Trek was the choreographer for that movie. At the very end of the behind the scenes it shows them calling cut in the big ballroom dance scene, and you can see her pop up from behind a table where she was hiding during the filming. Although, I actually had that one on VHS, not DVD.

Finally, I thought the special features for Lord of the Rings were incredible. And the expanded movies were really so much more cohesive than the theatre versions.