Production Glossary
Audio Commentary
Audio commentary is a feature available on DVD and Laser disc technology. Audio commentaries can be broken down into two types: scene-specific or feature-length. Scene-specific commentaries provide analysis for a select number of scenes in the movie while feature-length commentaries cover the entire film, beginning to end. The supplementary audio track contains the remarks of the cast, director, writers and producers of a film or television show. The commentary plays in sync with the action and dialogue of the show. On occasion, extra features such as video commentaries and telestrator (this enables the speaker to “draw” on the screen) abilities are added to the original commentary.Commentaries are used primarily to give the viewer inside knowledge about the making of the film or show they are watching. Directors give insight into the technical and thematic aspects of filmmaking while the cast comments on their motivation or interpretation of their characters. Commentaries also provide the viewer with inside stories about the filming experience on set.
A Brief History
Audio commentaries were introduced for the first time on the predecessor of the DVD, the Laser disc. Laser discs that contained audio commentary were marketed as “special editions” and were often comparatively expensive in the laser disc market. The audio commentary was debuted on the Criterion Collection release of King Kong in 1984.
Eventually the DVD succeeded the laser disc and audio commentary features were transferred onto the larger storage device. Commentaries are now considered standard for films and television shows released on DVD. Around 2002, fan or critic inspired commentaries started to pop up in MP3 format. These commentaries are recorded individually, played through a computer or CD player, and synchronized with a feature film. One of the most popular fan commentaries available today is RiffTrax. Created by Michael J. Nelson of Mystery Science Theater 3000, these commentaries are sarcastic and humor-filled rants about the film or show they are based on.
The video game market has also utilized the audio commentary, but on a much smaller scale. Due to the fact that video games do not follow a standard script format, but change with the player’s choices, video game commentaries are specific to a certain section of the game, which can be selected by the player via in-game prompts.
