November 14, 2024 • 33 mins
Have you ever wondered what the people who record the audio commentaries of your favorite movies do to prepare? Well, even if you haven’t wondered, we take you behind the scenes with the audio commentary team of Dr. Steve Haberman and Constantine Nasr to get the real scoop on their process. This is a light-hearted and fun episode that I think you’ll enjoy.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's recording, right ?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Yeah, steve say hi, hi, steve, who Steve.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Hi, this is Steve Haberman.
Dr Steve Haberman, I'm a PhD,I'm a producer, I'm a writer,
I'm an author.
I'm too good to be with thesetwo other guys.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Yeah, that's right.
Well, this is just the warm-up.
Fortunately, this should never,you know probably get out to
the public.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
No, the public.
No, I want this all out.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
So what do you guys usually have?
Your coffee when you're gettingready for your commentaries
here.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Well, we always have coffee.
We have to be highlycaffeinated to get motivated to
do these things.
This is a lot of work.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
And I have three cups of, or three glasses of wine
and a few tequilas just toensure I'm happy and smiling.
And Steve's friends.
Yeah, I'd A few tequilas justto ensure I'm happy and smiling
in Steve's presence.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, yeah, I'd like to believe that that would be
fun, but I know that you producethese as well, so if all you
were doing was talking, I couldbelieve that you might do that,
constantine, thanks forappreciating that, but as a
producer.
You're like.
You got to like know that youhave what you need.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Constantine needs wine like I need coffee.
He really does, he does.
He needs to relax.
His inner talent comes out,otherwise he gets a little
nervous.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
But, as you know, I'm sitting here trying to actually
making sure that Tim's levelsare right and they're not right.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Hello, hello, how about now?
Okay, I'm close enough now.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Loto is a.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Galaala night.
There we go.
Hi, tim lard here.
Host of the extras podcast.
So, as you can tell, we'regoing to take a little behind
the scenes sneak peek with mygood friends steve haberman and
constantine nassar filmhistorians and writers
extraordinaire and they invitedme over to just kind of have
(01:49):
coffee with them before theydive into their audio commentary
one of many that they do eachmonth for various boutique
labels, including the WarnerArchive, as they recently did
one for the Beast with FiveFingers that came out in October
.
Hope you enjoy it.
Well, I thought I'd ask youguys a couple questions.
(02:10):
I know you guys are here.
What are you here to do,actually?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Oh, generically we're doing a commentary for a
classic Gothic horror film fromthe 1950s.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
So where are we, Constantine?
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Hi, this is Constantine Constantine Nassar.
I'm not a PhD and proud of it.
Anyway, I'm much younger thanSteve, by the way.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
And his mother says he's a very good eater.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So today we're actually going to be recording
in my home office thiscommentary track.
We're making adjustments as wespeak.
It's always a littlecomplicated when you're trying
to record and think of things tosay to catch up with Steve,
because he's very witty on hisfeet and a lot of knowledge in
that brain of his.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
I'm very witty on my butt too.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Well, what I was trying to get at is that you
have a home studio and it's agreat setup and that's where you
usually do your commentaryrecording for what you and Steve
do.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, I, when, when uh budget started going away, uh
, it just made financial senseto figure out how to do this
cheaper and faster.
Yeah, um, and I would hate to,you know, beg people for, uh, uh
, discount rates.
So, um, discount rates.
And this has actually happenedbefore COVID.
We were doing this before COVIDand I was also editing a lot
(03:28):
from home and doing a lot of mywork from my home studio, and
then it just seemed to be kindof the only way to do this,
especially the way we like to doit and the way some of the
talent that I work with were alot of retakes.
I mean, I've had people come inhere for a whole week trying to
get the commentary toperfection and I tend to indulge
(03:48):
my friends.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
You know one thing when I was doing extras, you
know, at Warner Brothers we'dsometimes go and interview the
people who did the music andthat's a great conversation if
music is an important part ofthe TV series or the film.
That's a great conversation ifmusic is an important part of
the TV series or the film.
And so many times we're endingup at a person's home studio
because with today's tools, youknow most musicians and most
(04:15):
people who are like in charge ofthe, the sound on these, would
do their first cuts or do theirinitial thinking or creating
everything.
So you have here in LA, you gotpeople who have houses and
they're downstairs is theirstudio or their guest cuts or do
their initial thinking orcreating everything.
So you have here in LA, you gotpeople who have houses and
they're downstairs.
It's their studio or theirguest house or whatever, and so
it works great.
But that's because we havecomputers and we have the
ability to do that and thingsare affordable and it's a great
(04:36):
way to do it.
And then you can go do yourfinal, you know, at the studio
or the stage or whatever youneed to do.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Well, clients never liked coming to my office that I
had to pay for.
So I figured why am I gettingan office so?
When I moved here, it was andnow people want to go back to
the office.
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Well, plus, it's better for the commentary,
because many times I've recordedat professional recording
studios in LA and Santa Monicaand so on, and what they do is
they just take the raw footageof my commentary and slap it
onto the DVD or the Blu-ray andit's got my frumpers and it's
got you know me starting overagain and all that kind of.
(05:14):
I try to do it as well as I canin one take.
But even Orson Welles has gotto be edited a little bit, you
know.
And this way I'm completelysecure that Constantine is going
to make us both sound reallygood.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah, yeah.
So people might not beinterested in knowing the
financial element of why we dostuff at home or in our own home
studio and stuff, but I thinkthey are interested to know why
do you actually do thesecommentaries?
What is it that interests youin getting together and doing
these for the fans?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Well, I personally think that my voice should be
commenting on every movie evermade, so that's my motivation.
I just think that everybodyshould hear my thoughts on
everything, just ask his wife.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
You are a PhD, I mean , you're a doctor Right, exactly
, you know I should be paid forthis.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
You guys aren't being paid, are you?
No, right, right, exactly.
You know I should be paid forthis, you guys aren't being paid
, are you?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
No?
Oh good, thank God.
But I did want to know, likewhat's the motivation?
Why get together?
Why do this?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Well, I actually like Steve's company.
That may surprise even Steve,mostly surprises Steve these
days.
It's nice to have a reason toget together and it's fun.
I mean reason to get togetherand, um, um, it's fun.
I mean, you know it's work.
I think people think it's.
It may not be, but I think ifeven in our uh, uh effort to
(06:32):
come off with um off the cuffcommentary or it's, it may sound
unplanned, but we've beenthinking and talking and
researching, not just maybesteve, but I I spent a lot of
time prepping this, so it soundsa little bit like I can catch
up with this guy Well, it's also.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
it's like writing a book.
You know?
I mean Orson Welles again.
He said nobody in the cave,when we were cavemen, ever said
to anybody get up and act out aplay for us.
One guy, one caveman with ahuge ego, decided that he was
going to get up and do apresentation in front of
(07:09):
everybody else in the cave andthat was the beginning of
theater.
And that's sort of what we dowith these commentaries.
You know, we're veryself-important and we just think
that what we have to say may beof some value.
And so you know it's.
And also we love these movies.
I never do a movie that I don'tlove or at least like, or at
(07:32):
least have been blackmailed intodoing.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
So you know, Well, going back in the time machine
is there?
Is there something you canremember?
Like you heard an audiocommentary, maybe early on, and
you're like ha, I could do thator I want to do that, anything
like that that you guys recallno.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Well actually I can't .
Speaker 1 (07:52):
I can say that I mean , look, I mean I started my
career producing commentaries,or earlier in my career where I
was just a producer, so I'veproduced arguably like probably
a thousand commentaries, andafter several years of working
with people that I thought wereamong the best in the business,
um, I certainly found myself,especially when you end up
(08:13):
interviewing people and thenthey die, and then you end up
being like one of the lastpeople that spent time with with
actors or directors Um, youbecome the one that carries on
the knowledge, because there'snobody left from the golden age,
and so if I've spent time withKirk Douglas, I guess I could
(08:33):
share those stories because Iwas in the aerial realm of that
famous actor.
So Steve's in probably the sameboat, but I, at a certain point
, just thought I can do this aswell because I know what it
takes and I'm a writer as well.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
You're both writers.
Right, yeah.
Well, like I said, it's likewriting a book.
You know, instead of doing that, writing a book is a lot of
work, it takes a long time, butdoing a commentary you can do in
an afternoon, yeah, and you canget all of your thoughts out,
or at least as many as you canremember at the time.
And you know, maybe it is ofvalue.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Steve, what was your very first commentary?
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Well, I did comment.
My first commentaries weremovies that I wrote.
I did a commentary for LifeStinks with Mel Brooks, because
I wrote my Life Stinks with MelBrooks and I did Dracula, dead
and Loving it, and Constantinewas the producer of that
commentary, it was me and Meland Rudy DeLuca.
I enjoyed doing it and I guessConstantine thought that maybe I
(09:36):
would be good at doing moviesthat I didn't write.
So he asked me to do Village ofthe Damned.
Yeah, village of the Damned.
I think that was the first one,and so I did it and I enjoyed
it.
And then, you know, the peoplejust asked me to do them people
(09:57):
just asked me to do them.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
We, we, we.
We got along because we alsohad a lot in common, not just in
a superficial way, about I lovehorror movies and you like this
or that it was.
It was much deeper and I couldget into these, uh, uh, I think,
rich conversations with Steveand, um, even even though he had
more experience in other areasI think he had just written his
book, I had read the book, Iknew of him from that capacity
(10:19):
as well and we just struck up afriendship.
And then it was sometime in themid-2000s I think, we were
doing the Fox box set which Ihad suggested to my friends over
at 20th Century Fox because itwas a weird experience.
We've got three films.
(10:40):
It was like Chandu the Magicianwhat was it?
Chandu the Lodger andDragonwick.
Can we put those three in a boxset?
Hangover Square no, no, thatwasn't part of the set.
I had them switch it up.
Yeah, it was like three randomfilms and I said, well, why
don't you do a John Brahm setand why don't you do this?
And we took actually Chandu.
Anyway, dragonwick was up forgrabs and there was not a lot to
(11:06):
the budget.
So I said to Steve.
Can we do a commentary?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
And I threw it in for free, so is that the first one
you guys did together, the firstone we?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
did together.
I was very nervous.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
That was back in 2000-ish.
You said 2000?
Speaker 1 (11:19):
I remember, yes, 2007 or something, and I had all
these pages and notes andeverything and Steve was like
just don't worry about it.
Don't worry about it.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
I said, have fun, nobody's going to listen to this
anyway.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Just say what you want to say who cares?
Speaker 3 (11:31):
How?
Yeah, just say what you want tosay, who cares?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
How many do you think you've done over the years?
Speaker 3 (11:36):
70.
I have done 70.
I know that there's a greatwebsite on the internet called
Discape and a guy named PatrickMullins does it.
Look that up, google Discapeand it has lists and the posters
and everything of all thecommentators that work regularly
(11:56):
and it's pretty impressive.
And that's how I know I've done70.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
And you've done 70, but how many have you guys done
together?
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I hadn't counted those.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
We probably have done over 30.
I think I've done over 40.
And some of them, like Draculaor Never Take Sweets from a
Stranger those are solo, but Ithink together and this goes
into, like Dr Fives and the Poefilms, and so we've done a
number.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
So you talked about it or touched on it briefly.
But how do you prepare when youknow that you've got a film and
you're going to be doingcommentary?
What's your process, Steve?
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Well, I watch the movie.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
And then I read up on it, and then I take a bath and
while I'm in the bath I thinkabout an angle, I think what has
not been said about this movieHopefully something that's
really key.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
And the angle you want to look for is something
that has to do with the actualauteur of the movie, be it the
director that's ideal or thescreenwriter, or the producer or
whatever.
And you think about what doesthis movie have in common, in
terms of themes and style, withthe other work by this auteur?
(13:12):
And you start mulling that overover and pretty soon, you know,
the light goes on and perhapsyou'll come up with an original
thought that hasn't been in anyof the books that you've read or
any of the comments that you'veseen, and you know
encyclopedias of film and stufflike that, and that's pretty
much my pre-production process.
My pre-production process.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Constantine.
Well, despite having a criticalstudies degree from USC, I
actually come sorry.
I'm just looking at the levels.
I come to it knowing he's goingto be doing that approach Right
and I'm trying to just makesure I have all the facts ready
to go.
I like to, whenever possible,and particularly with these old
films, get access to thescreenplay and try to understand
(13:59):
what the writer was aiming for.
And when I say writer in thegolden age, certainly they were
crafted between the writer, theproducer, sometimes the director
, but oftentimes it was theproducer telling the writer what
is what we want to do and thengo make something.
(14:19):
And luckily with these filmsthere's in the horror and
science fiction genre so muchresearch, so much material has
been unearthed.
It's hard to find stuff thatyou can wedge into a 90 minute
film that hasn't been sourcedsomewhere else.
But sometimes and I think withwith the curse of Frankenstein I
mean, I was holding onto ascript that I had found for
(14:40):
about 10 years to releaseinformation.
So from a I come to add it.
I come to this more from a filmhistory standpoint so that I
can at least compliment or havesome other things that that
Steve is, you know, compliments,what Steve is bringing to the
table and sometimes we get itright.
I think or at least we I thinkthat most of the times we add to
(15:03):
the conversation, to the valueand to the history of the legacy
of the film we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
So what's the hardest part of the commentaries?
Is it the preparation, or is itthe editing, or what is it
Keeping?
Speaker 3 (15:14):
him sober.
It's very hard because youdon't want to hurt anybody's
feelings, but you know it'scertain things professionally
you have to do Steve can't hitme anymore like Bud Abbott
because I had neck surgery.
So if he hits me, my head mightfall off Exactly.
What was the?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
question what was the hardest part, or what is the
hardest part, of you know, doingthis?
Speaker 3 (15:42):
There's no hard driving down from Crestline, I
guess I don't know.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Dealing with tele-traffic.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Yeah, this is all joy Once we get in here and we're
doing it, it's fun.
I mean, for me I wouldn't blameKonstantin if he disagreed, but
I, I enjoy the process, all ofit.
I enjoy, you know, researchingit and thinking about it and
saying it, and then listening toit later, and then you know so
that leaves the door wide openfor you, constantine, you can.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
You can say what's hard about working with steve,
you know you know actually thething about what steve likes to
record and then after about fiveminutes like let let's take it
from the top.
I want to hear the whole thingover again, what we just
recorded, and I get kind ofannoyed by that.
but I know why he's doing it, Iknow but you know it, it does, I
think, set the stage, even if90% of it is Steve talking of
(16:30):
where we're going with the thingand thing and and uh, from from
my, from my aspect, because I'malso like the engineer and the
editor uh, I'm thinking about,I'm looking, actually, as we're
recording, making sure, rightnow the the microphone is
picking up my voice clearlyenough, I'm looking at it.
So these are the things I dowhen I'm trying to think about,
you know, watching Steve.
Is he going to stop talking?
(16:50):
So then, is it?
Am I jumping in?
I don't know, but I you know.
So there's but, yeah, it'smostly enjoyable.
Usually when we hit the halfwaymark, we're halfway there.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Yeah, that's true.
You know, we're always sayinghow much more of this movie is
there left?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
We've said it all we're going to have to start
making stuff up now.
Talk slower Right, all right,so you just mentioned the
hardest part, which there'snothing for you, steve.
So what's the most enjoyable oryour favorite part of it?
Speaker 3 (17:27):
That's a very good question, you know, I, hmm, I I
guess hearing it.
Maybe tub time, tub time there,yeah, tub time is good, but I
think, uh, no, I think I thinkhearing it for the first time,
because what he does is, youknow, two or three days later
he'll send it to me, um on emailand, uh, I listen to it and
it's always better than Ithought it was, because when you
finish something, especiallysomething like this, it's very
(17:49):
handmade, it's very analog, youknow, and you think about, oh, I
should have said this, or did Isay that?
Or, you know, did I say that atthe right time?
Did I mispronounce that?
You know, you think about stuffand then you hear it again and
it's pretty good.
It's usually pretty good, and Ivery seldom asked to redo
anything or change anythingbecause, you know, I mean, we're
very much on point when we dothis.
(18:11):
It's a concentrated day.
We do all these in one day.
We, you know, I come down fromthe mountain and then we have
lunch, and then we talk abouthow we're going to approach this
, and then we do it.
We just start doing it and thenI go home, which is another two
and a half hour drive, and andso hearing it for the first time
, I think is is is exciting.
How about for you, constantine?
Speaker 1 (18:35):
I actually feel relief when we're done and then
I feel relief when the edit isdone, because it takes a lot of
time and I, I admit here on theon the podcast, I mean I I
rerecord a lot of myself becauseoften I come off like an idiot
when I'm you know trying to likecome up with a you know word
like now and steve's like here'sthe word you want okay, thanks
(18:58):
thanks, um, but when I'm able tonot be intimidated, um, no,
actually, when, when I'm I'mable to not be intimidated, no,
actually, when I'm able to relax, when the whole session is done
, it's a lot easier for me tolike, edit something, see how
much time I have, fill in a gapor move a few things around,
usually what I say, so thatthere is something of substance
to bounce off of Steve.
(19:21):
So I mean, that's where mypost-production skills come in.
But yeah, it's a challenge, butI'm happy when Steve is happy
and I'm happy when, hopefully,we get good marks.
If the reviews come in andpeople listen to this and
usually we've gotten some verynice compliments from people I
really respect that make thewhole thing worthwhile make the
(19:45):
whole thing worthwhile.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
I mean, you basically are kind of like doing a
rewrite of yourself and justkind of making polished and
everything.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
My, my, one of my favorite experiences was
recording, uh, my, my dearfriend Frank Darabont, for the
commentary session for the greenmile, which took 120 hours to
record, cause he was, he, was,he.
He really enjoyed theexperience and he's, he, he's,
he's proud of that numberbecause he came in day after day
, week after week, to polishthis commentary.
(20:13):
I've been around seeingfilmmakers.
They take their time and somepeople come in and just wing it
and don't care.
So, um, I like to take time andI'm not charging myself, but
time is money, so my time isvaluable.
I try to respect Steve's timeand make sure he sounds as good
as possible.
And then, of course, lastly,the audience's time.
So if they're listening andwe've done well for some
(20:37):
filmmaker that we love, that'salso good.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Well, I'm glad you mentioned Frank, because I was
just about to ask you.
The next question was thedifference, what's the
difference between producingthese and then when you were
just the producer for Frank orfor, you know, many of the other
directors you've worked with?
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Well, you know, I'll just go back to my first time
with Steve.
Steve and Rudy DeLuca and MelBrooks came in to record for
Dracula, dead and Loving it, andI think they came in and it was
the two hours of the runtime ofthe movie.
Maybe you took a bathroom break.
There are definitely some timeswhere I've worked with
filmmakers where they want itover longer stretches.
Some people come in scripted.
(21:18):
Everybody's got a differentmethod and I just actually, as
intimidated I might sound, likeit's intimidating to do it with,
with, with steve, because we'rejust what are we saying today?
What are we saying in this thescene?
It's actually a lot of fun.
So I, I think we, we make itfun.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Some people come in and it's a real obligation and
it's and it's like a a challengefor them to do it, even
filmmakers today, yeah, yeahyeah, well, uh, I think audio
commentaries continue to be verypopular and I know a lot of the
boutique labels they want thatthese commentaries so they can
have you know hours that theycan say are of new content and
(21:58):
everything.
But why do you think these uhcontinue to be so popular with
the fans?
Speaker 3 (22:03):
well, I like listening to the commentary.
I mean, if it's a movie that Ilove, I want to experience it in
many different ways.
You know, usually movies that Iloved I've seen a million times
, and so it's a new experienceto hear somebody else's
commentary on it.
And if somebody can bringsomething to the movie that I
didn't see myself, or maybe evenjust agree with um, agree with
(22:25):
me, you know, that that's fun.
I don't like commentaries wheresomebody is just telling me you
know the all the credits ofsome minor actor or you know
stuff like that that you canlook up on on the internet.
But if, if, if, there's somekind of real insight about a
film or a filmmaker that I love,that's time well spent for me.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Yeah, I mean there's some films out there that I wish
had commentaries and that ifyou, you know you look at films
of, let's say, the 60s, well,there's not going to be a Star
Wars commentary without GeorgeLucas, right, like Steven
Spielberg does not wantcommentaries on his films, we're
getting to a point where therewill be a time where someone
(23:07):
else will get to do a Godfathercommentary and really reveal all
the stuff.
I think the history of cinemahas been allowed opportunities
thanks to the studios themselves.
As Leonard Maltin once put itto me, the studios have, by
default, paid for the recordingof their own history and somehow
(23:34):
you can get away on some ofthese boutique labels without
having legal departments tellyou you can't talk about a
budget, you can't talk aboutsomeone got replaced or fired.
In many of the cases where wewant to go deeper, you sometimes
just can't.
But, um, I think there's a justan inherent nature of history.
There's a value of commentaries, uh, when they're done well
(23:57):
with thought and the work is putinto them.
Um, and I think sometimes youknow more often than not, uh,
you're going to glean somethingfrom a filmmaker, even if
they're just sitting theretalking.
It's their movie and they'retalking about something that's
on screen and it sounds obvious.
You may not know what and why,but that that commentary is,
(24:20):
you're getting special time withthat filmmaker for that two
hours.
Historians, you know, um, thereare some that are better than
others, and if we can bringsomething to the table
eventually, the films thatdemand a historical track or
just, uh, demand context.
You know whether it's pulpfiction, where's our?
You know, tarantino, why didn'tyou do a commentary?
(24:42):
You know it's his, hisprerogative not to, but I'll
tell you, I really appreciateddoing a commentary with Mel
Brooks, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Steve and Rudy.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
And Steve and Rudy.
As a fan of history, I feellike life goes by and so you're
living history and if you filmhistory you saw a movie this
(25:20):
year, you saw one this month,this week it goes by.
It's when you take the time toevaluate history, or somebody
does, who starts to bring backto your attention hey, while you
were to watch this movie andthis TV show this evening with
your kids or whatever, life wenton and yours have gone by, and
now you revisit something andthe person who knows the history
of that film, that TV show orhistory itself brings back to
your attention something andyou're like, oh my gosh, I
didn't even realize theimportance of what I was seeing
(25:41):
at the time, because I didn'tknow that we were breaking new
ground with this movie.
I didn't know that this TVseries was breaking new ground.
People who then can look backon these things and dig in film
historians, film critics help us, I think.
Reevaluate a film, reallyreevaluate a TV series,
re-appreciate it, and you mightsay, well, yeah, I liked it when
(26:06):
I first saw it, but now I'mre-watching it.
And I'm re-watching it now,hearing somebody bringing me
some new information that helpsme appreciate the work that went
into it and I think that's whatI've enjoyed.
And we work in the behind thescenes and the extras and the
supplements whatever you want tocall that stuff for the films
and TV shows, and commentaries,I think, are a key part of that,
because it's something you cando while you're watching the
(26:26):
rest.
You're watching that feature,you're watching that interview
this you can listen to whileyou're watching the film and
it's unique.
I think it's pretty unique andit's great that you guys are
doing these, yeah, well that'sone of the things that
commentaries do.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
It gives you perspective because, like you
say, you'll take a work forgranted because you know it's
contemporary with you.
You're swimming in the samewater as they are and you know
you can't see it.
But with time and the rightcommentator, you know it can be.
It can give you perspective andyou see value in a work that
(27:04):
wasn't apparent at the time.
That's why history is writtenyears later, not while it's
happening.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Because you don't know where it's going.
Yeah, and that's hopefully oneof the things that commentaries
do.
But you know, a commentariancan't just be well, they can,
but should let's say should, togive that kind of perspective
should have be familiar withdisciplines beyond film history
and film criticism.
You know, I used to tell mystudents that if you want to be
(27:31):
a filmmaker, learning how tomake a film is just step one.
You know that's easy, andlearning the history of film is
something else.
But you also need to be intopsychology, into philosophy.
You also need to be intopsychology, into philosophy,
into history, into science.
The more you know, the moreyou're going to bring to the art
, and that's true of evaluatingart as well.
(27:53):
You know, even you know we seemto specialize in horror films
of a certain type, classichorror films, we'll say, or
gothic horror films.
And you know they were productsof literature, they were
products of philosophy, theywere products of their time,
which is history.
And the more you know about allof those, you know satellite
(28:14):
disciplines, the more you'regoing to bring to that
commentary and then the morethat, hopefully, the listener
will appreciate that work andsee.
You know how it's like buzzingthe lights of all these other
disciplines.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Yeah, yeah.
And there's so much psychologyin horror films.
Oh yeah, very much.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
You know, so the more that you understand.
Exactly Right.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Jungian, freudian, whatever you know.
That influences Exactly and youthink back to the 20s, 30s, 40s
and all the change that washappening in the world and
sciences and psychology, and theart world too.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Art world, yes, you know I mean, the first great
horror film, arguably, is theCabinet of Dr Caligari, which
was basically you know you couldrename that movie.
This is Expressionism.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Because that's what they were doing is they were
sort of like revealingexpressionism, which was a very
esoteric art movement of thetime and shortly before the time
, and now we have cabinet of DrCalgary that preserves it.
Not only that, but uses it forartistic reasons, to you know,
to explore a horror story.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
I've held you back long enough from diving into
your project, but thanks fortaking a few minutes to talk
about doing audio commentaries.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
I'm always interested in talking about myself.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Hey, I hope you enjoyed that little peek behind
the scenes there withConstantine and Steve.
It was a lot of fun for me tojust go over and talk to them
and it's a little bit different,something a little lighter here
to enjoy here on the ExtrasPodcast.
As always, if you're enjoyingour podcast, be sure and
subscribe and join our Facebookgroup if you'd like to do that
(29:57):
and, as always, stay slightlyobsessed about audio
commentaries.
It's recording, right ?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Yeah, steve say hi, hi, steve, who Steve.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Hi, this is Steve Haberman.
Dr Steve Haberman, I'm a PhD,I'm a producer, I'm a writer,
I'm an author.
I'm too good to be with thesetwo other guys.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Yeah, that's right.
Well, this is just the warm-up.
Fortunately, this should never,you know probably get out to
the public.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
No, the public.
No, I want this all out.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
So what do you guys usually have?
Your coffee when you're gettingready for your commentaries
here.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Well, we always have coffee.
We have to be highlycaffeinated to get motivated to
do these things.
This is a lot of work.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
And I have three cups of, or three glasses of wine
and a few tequilas just toensure I'm happy and smiling.
And Steve's friends.
Yeah, I'd A few tequilas justto ensure I'm happy and smiling
in Steve's presence.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, yeah, I'd like to believe that that would be
fun, but I know that you producethese as well, so if all you
were doing was talking, I couldbelieve that you might do that,
constantine, thanks forappreciating that, but as a
producer.
You're like.
You got to like know that youhave what you need.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Constantine needs wine like I need coffee.
He really does, he does.
He needs to relax.
His inner talent comes out,otherwise he gets a little
nervous.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
But, as you know, I'm sitting here trying to actually
making sure that Tim's levelsare right and they're not right.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Hello, hello, how about now?
Okay, I'm close enough now.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Loto is a.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Galaala night.
There we go.
Hi, tim lard here.
Host of the extras podcast.
So, as you can tell, we'regoing to take a little behind
the scenes sneak peek with mygood friends steve haberman and
constantine nassar filmhistorians and writers
extraordinaire and they invitedme over to just kind of have
(01:49):
coffee with them before theydive into their audio commentary
one of many that they do eachmonth for various boutique
labels, including the WarnerArchive, as they recently did
one for the Beast with FiveFingers that came out in October
.
Hope you enjoy it.
Well, I thought I'd ask youguys a couple questions.
(02:10):
I know you guys are here.
What are you here to do,actually?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Oh, generically we're doing a commentary for a
classic Gothic horror film fromthe 1950s.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
So where are we, Constantine?
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Hi, this is Constantine Constantine Nassar.
I'm not a PhD and proud of it.
Anyway, I'm much younger thanSteve, by the way.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
And his mother says he's a very good eater.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So today we're actually going to be recording
in my home office thiscommentary track.
We're making adjustments as wespeak.
It's always a littlecomplicated when you're trying
to record and think of things tosay to catch up with Steve,
because he's very witty on hisfeet and a lot of knowledge in
that brain of his.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
I'm very witty on my butt too.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Well, what I was trying to get at is that you
have a home studio and it's agreat setup and that's where you
usually do your commentaryrecording for what you and Steve
do.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, I, when, when uh budget started going away, uh
, it just made financial senseto figure out how to do this
cheaper and faster.
Yeah, um, and I would hate to,you know, beg people for, uh, uh
, discount rates.
So, um, discount rates.
And this has actually happenedbefore COVID.
We were doing this before COVIDand I was also editing a lot
(03:28):
from home and doing a lot of mywork from my home studio, and
then it just seemed to be kindof the only way to do this,
especially the way we like to doit and the way some of the
talent that I work with were alot of retakes.
I mean, I've had people come inhere for a whole week trying to
get the commentary toperfection and I tend to indulge
(03:48):
my friends.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
You know one thing when I was doing extras, you
know, at Warner Brothers we'dsometimes go and interview the
people who did the music andthat's a great conversation if
music is an important part ofthe TV series or the film.
That's a great conversation ifmusic is an important part of
the TV series or the film.
And so many times we're endingup at a person's home studio
because with today's tools, youknow most musicians and most
(04:15):
people who are like in charge ofthe, the sound on these, would
do their first cuts or do theirinitial thinking or creating
everything.
So you have here in LA, you gotpeople who have houses and
they're downstairs is theirstudio or their guest cuts or do
their initial thinking orcreating everything.
So you have here in LA, you gotpeople who have houses and
they're downstairs.
It's their studio or theirguest house or whatever, and so
it works great.
But that's because we havecomputers and we have the
ability to do that and thingsare affordable and it's a great
(04:36):
way to do it.
And then you can go do yourfinal, you know, at the studio
or the stage or whatever youneed to do.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Well, clients never liked coming to my office that I
had to pay for.
So I figured why am I gettingan office so?
When I moved here, it was andnow people want to go back to
the office.
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Well, plus, it's better for the commentary,
because many times I've recordedat professional recording
studios in LA and Santa Monicaand so on, and what they do is
they just take the raw footageof my commentary and slap it
onto the DVD or the Blu-ray andit's got my frumpers and it's
got you know me starting overagain and all that kind of.
(05:14):
I try to do it as well as I canin one take.
But even Orson Welles has gotto be edited a little bit, you
know.
And this way I'm completelysecure that Constantine is going
to make us both sound reallygood.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah, yeah.
So people might not beinterested in knowing the
financial element of why we dostuff at home or in our own home
studio and stuff, but I thinkthey are interested to know why
do you actually do thesecommentaries?
What is it that interests youin getting together and doing
these for the fans?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Well, I personally think that my voice should be
commenting on every movie evermade, so that's my motivation.
I just think that everybodyshould hear my thoughts on
everything, just ask his wife.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
You are a PhD, I mean , you're a doctor Right, exactly
, you know I should be paid forthis.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
You guys aren't being paid, are you?
No, right, right, exactly.
You know I should be paid forthis, you guys aren't being paid
, are you?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
No?
Oh good, thank God.
But I did want to know, likewhat's the motivation?
Why get together?
Why do this?
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Well, I actually like Steve's company.
That may surprise even Steve,mostly surprises Steve these
days.
It's nice to have a reason toget together and it's fun.
I mean reason to get togetherand, um, um, it's fun.
I mean, you know it's work.
I think people think it's.
It may not be, but I think ifeven in our uh, uh effort to
(06:32):
come off with um off the cuffcommentary or it's, it may sound
unplanned, but we've beenthinking and talking and
researching, not just maybesteve, but I I spent a lot of
time prepping this, so it soundsa little bit like I can catch
up with this guy Well, it's also.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
it's like writing a book.
You know?
I mean Orson Welles again.
He said nobody in the cave,when we were cavemen, ever said
to anybody get up and act out aplay for us.
One guy, one caveman with ahuge ego, decided that he was
going to get up and do apresentation in front of
(07:09):
everybody else in the cave andthat was the beginning of
theater.
And that's sort of what we dowith these commentaries.
You know, we're veryself-important and we just think
that what we have to say may beof some value.
And so you know it's.
And also we love these movies.
I never do a movie that I don'tlove or at least like, or at
(07:32):
least have been blackmailed intodoing.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
So you know, Well, going back in the time machine
is there?
Is there something you canremember?
Like you heard an audiocommentary, maybe early on, and
you're like ha, I could do thator I want to do that, anything
like that that you guys recallno.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Well actually I can't .
Speaker 1 (07:52):
I can say that I mean , look, I mean I started my
career producing commentaries,or earlier in my career where I
was just a producer, so I'veproduced arguably like probably
a thousand commentaries, andafter several years of working
with people that I thought wereamong the best in the business,
um, I certainly found myself,especially when you end up
(08:13):
interviewing people and thenthey die, and then you end up
being like one of the lastpeople that spent time with with
actors or directors Um, youbecome the one that carries on
the knowledge, because there'snobody left from the golden age,
and so if I've spent time withKirk Douglas, I guess I could
(08:33):
share those stories because Iwas in the aerial realm of that
famous actor.
So Steve's in probably the sameboat, but I, at a certain point
, just thought I can do this aswell because I know what it
takes and I'm a writer as well.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
You're both writers.
Right, yeah.
Well, like I said, it's likewriting a book.
You know, instead of doing that, writing a book is a lot of
work, it takes a long time, butdoing a commentary you can do in
an afternoon, yeah, and you canget all of your thoughts out,
or at least as many as you canremember at the time.
And you know, maybe it is ofvalue.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Steve, what was your very first commentary?
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Well, I did comment.
My first commentaries weremovies that I wrote.
I did a commentary for LifeStinks with Mel Brooks, because
I wrote my Life Stinks with MelBrooks and I did Dracula, dead
and Loving it, and Constantinewas the producer of that
commentary, it was me and Meland Rudy DeLuca.
I enjoyed doing it and I guessConstantine thought that maybe I
(09:36):
would be good at doing moviesthat I didn't write.
So he asked me to do Village ofthe Damned.
Yeah, village of the Damned.
I think that was the first one,and so I did it and I enjoyed
it.
And then, you know, the peoplejust asked me to do them people
(09:57):
just asked me to do them.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
We, we, we.
We got along because we alsohad a lot in common, not just in
a superficial way, about I lovehorror movies and you like this
or that it was.
It was much deeper and I couldget into these, uh, uh, I think,
rich conversations with Steveand, um, even even though he had
more experience in other areasI think he had just written his
book, I had read the book, Iknew of him from that capacity
(10:19):
as well and we just struck up afriendship.
And then it was sometime in themid-2000s I think, we were
doing the Fox box set which Ihad suggested to my friends over
at 20th Century Fox because itwas a weird experience.
We've got three films.
(10:40):
It was like Chandu the Magicianwhat was it?
Chandu the Lodger andDragonwick.
Can we put those three in a boxset?
Hangover Square no, no, thatwasn't part of the set.
I had them switch it up.
Yeah, it was like three randomfilms and I said, well, why
don't you do a John Brahm setand why don't you do this?
And we took actually Chandu.
Anyway, dragonwick was up forgrabs and there was not a lot to
(11:06):
the budget.
So I said to Steve.
Can we do a commentary?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
And I threw it in for free, so is that the first one
you guys did together, the firstone we?
Speaker 1 (11:14):
did together.
I was very nervous.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
That was back in 2000-ish.
You said 2000?
Speaker 1 (11:19):
I remember, yes, 2007 or something, and I had all
these pages and notes andeverything and Steve was like
just don't worry about it.
Don't worry about it.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
I said, have fun, nobody's going to listen to this
anyway.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Just say what you want to say who cares?
Speaker 3 (11:31):
How?
Yeah, just say what you want tosay, who cares?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
How many do you think you've done over the years?
Speaker 3 (11:36):
70.
I have done 70.
I know that there's a greatwebsite on the internet called
Discape and a guy named PatrickMullins does it.
Look that up, google Discapeand it has lists and the posters
and everything of all thecommentators that work regularly
(11:56):
and it's pretty impressive.
And that's how I know I've done70.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
And you've done 70, but how many have you guys done
together?
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I hadn't counted those.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
We probably have done over 30.
I think I've done over 40.
And some of them, like Draculaor Never Take Sweets from a
Stranger those are solo, but Ithink together and this goes
into, like Dr Fives and the Poefilms, and so we've done a
number.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
So you talked about it or touched on it briefly.
But how do you prepare when youknow that you've got a film and
you're going to be doingcommentary?
What's your process, Steve?
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Well, I watch the movie.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
And then I read up on it, and then I take a bath and
while I'm in the bath I thinkabout an angle, I think what has
not been said about this movieHopefully something that's
really key.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
And the angle you want to look for is something
that has to do with the actualauteur of the movie, be it the
director that's ideal or thescreenwriter, or the producer or
whatever.
And you think about what doesthis movie have in common, in
terms of themes and style, withthe other work by this auteur?
(13:12):
And you start mulling that overover and pretty soon, you know,
the light goes on and perhapsyou'll come up with an original
thought that hasn't been in anyof the books that you've read or
any of the comments that you'veseen, and you know
encyclopedias of film and stufflike that, and that's pretty
much my pre-production process.
My pre-production process.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Constantine.
Well, despite having a criticalstudies degree from USC, I
actually come sorry.
I'm just looking at the levels.
I come to it knowing he's goingto be doing that approach Right
and I'm trying to just makesure I have all the facts ready
to go.
I like to, whenever possible,and particularly with these old
films, get access to thescreenplay and try to understand
(13:59):
what the writer was aiming for.
And when I say writer in thegolden age, certainly they were
crafted between the writer, theproducer, sometimes the director
, but oftentimes it was theproducer telling the writer what
is what we want to do and thengo make something.
(14:19):
And luckily with these filmsthere's in the horror and
science fiction genre so muchresearch, so much material has
been unearthed.
It's hard to find stuff thatyou can wedge into a 90 minute
film that hasn't been sourcedsomewhere else.
But sometimes and I think withwith the curse of Frankenstein I
mean, I was holding onto ascript that I had found for
(14:40):
about 10 years to releaseinformation.
So from a I come to add it.
I come to this more from a filmhistory standpoint so that I
can at least compliment or havesome other things that that
Steve is, you know, compliments,what Steve is bringing to the
table and sometimes we get itright.
I think or at least we I thinkthat most of the times we add to
(15:03):
the conversation, to the valueand to the history of the legacy
of the film we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
So what's the hardest part of the commentaries?
Is it the preparation, or is itthe editing, or what is it
Keeping?
Speaker 3 (15:14):
him sober.
It's very hard because youdon't want to hurt anybody's
feelings, but you know it'scertain things professionally
you have to do Steve can't hitme anymore like Bud Abbott
because I had neck surgery.
So if he hits me, my head mightfall off Exactly.
What was the?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
question what was the hardest part, or what is the
hardest part, of you know, doingthis?
Speaker 3 (15:42):
There's no hard driving down from Crestline, I
guess I don't know.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Dealing with tele-traffic.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Yeah, this is all joy Once we get in here and we're
doing it, it's fun.
I mean, for me I wouldn't blameKonstantin if he disagreed, but
I, I enjoy the process, all ofit.
I enjoy, you know, researchingit and thinking about it and
saying it, and then listening toit later, and then you know so
that leaves the door wide openfor you, constantine, you can.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
You can say what's hard about working with steve,
you know you know actually thething about what steve likes to
record and then after about fiveminutes like let let's take it
from the top.
I want to hear the whole thingover again, what we just
recorded, and I get kind ofannoyed by that.
but I know why he's doing it, Iknow but you know it, it does, I
think, set the stage, even if90% of it is Steve talking of
(16:30):
where we're going with the thingand thing and and uh, from from
my, from my aspect, because I'malso like the engineer and the
editor uh, I'm thinking about,I'm looking, actually, as we're
recording, making sure, rightnow the the microphone is
picking up my voice clearlyenough, I'm looking at it.
So these are the things I dowhen I'm trying to think about,
you know, watching Steve.
Is he going to stop talking?
(16:50):
So then, is it?
Am I jumping in?
I don't know, but I you know.
So there's but, yeah, it'smostly enjoyable.
Usually when we hit the halfwaymark, we're halfway there.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Yeah, that's true.
You know, we're always sayinghow much more of this movie is
there left?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
We've said it all we're going to have to start
making stuff up now.
Talk slower Right, all right,so you just mentioned the
hardest part, which there'snothing for you, steve.
So what's the most enjoyable oryour favorite part of it?
Speaker 3 (17:27):
That's a very good question, you know, I, hmm, I I
guess hearing it.
Maybe tub time, tub time there,yeah, tub time is good, but I
think, uh, no, I think I thinkhearing it for the first time,
because what he does is, youknow, two or three days later
he'll send it to me, um on emailand, uh, I listen to it and
it's always better than Ithought it was, because when you
finish something, especiallysomething like this, it's very
(17:49):
handmade, it's very analog, youknow, and you think about, oh, I
should have said this, or did Isay that?
Or, you know, did I say that atthe right time?
Did I mispronounce that?
You know, you think about stuffand then you hear it again and
it's pretty good.
It's usually pretty good, and Ivery seldom asked to redo
anything or change anythingbecause, you know, I mean, we're
very much on point when we dothis.
(18:11):
It's a concentrated day.
We do all these in one day.
We, you know, I come down fromthe mountain and then we have
lunch, and then we talk abouthow we're going to approach this
, and then we do it.
We just start doing it and thenI go home, which is another two
and a half hour drive, and andso hearing it for the first time
, I think is is is exciting.
How about for you, constantine?
Speaker 1 (18:35):
I actually feel relief when we're done and then
I feel relief when the edit isdone, because it takes a lot of
time and I, I admit here on theon the podcast, I mean I I
rerecord a lot of myself becauseoften I come off like an idiot
when I'm you know trying to likecome up with a you know word
like now and steve's like here'sthe word you want okay, thanks
(18:58):
thanks, um, but when I'm able tonot be intimidated, um, no,
actually, when, when I'm I'mable to not be intimidated, no,
actually, when I'm able to relax, when the whole session is done
, it's a lot easier for me tolike, edit something, see how
much time I have, fill in a gapor move a few things around,
usually what I say, so thatthere is something of substance
to bounce off of Steve.
(19:21):
So I mean, that's where mypost-production skills come in.
But yeah, it's a challenge, butI'm happy when Steve is happy
and I'm happy when, hopefully,we get good marks.
If the reviews come in andpeople listen to this and
usually we've gotten some verynice compliments from people I
really respect that make thewhole thing worthwhile make the
(19:45):
whole thing worthwhile.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
I mean, you basically are kind of like doing a
rewrite of yourself and justkind of making polished and
everything.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
My, my, one of my favorite experiences was
recording, uh, my, my dearfriend Frank Darabont, for the
commentary session for the greenmile, which took 120 hours to
record, cause he was, he, was,he.
He really enjoyed theexperience and he's, he, he's,
he's proud of that numberbecause he came in day after day
, week after week, to polishthis commentary.
(20:13):
I've been around seeingfilmmakers.
They take their time and somepeople come in and just wing it
and don't care.
So, um, I like to take time andI'm not charging myself, but
time is money, so my time isvaluable.
I try to respect Steve's timeand make sure he sounds as good
as possible.
And then, of course, lastly,the audience's time.
So if they're listening andwe've done well for some
(20:37):
filmmaker that we love, that'salso good.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Well, I'm glad you mentioned Frank, because I was
just about to ask you.
The next question was thedifference, what's the
difference between producingthese and then when you were
just the producer for Frank orfor, you know, many of the other
directors you've worked with?
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Well, you know, I'll just go back to my first time
with Steve.
Steve and Rudy DeLuca and MelBrooks came in to record for
Dracula, dead and Loving it, andI think they came in and it was
the two hours of the runtime ofthe movie.
Maybe you took a bathroom break.
There are definitely some timeswhere I've worked with
filmmakers where they want itover longer stretches.
Some people come in scripted.
(21:18):
Everybody's got a differentmethod and I just actually, as
intimidated I might sound, likeit's intimidating to do it with,
with, with steve, because we'rejust what are we saying today?
What are we saying in this thescene?
It's actually a lot of fun.
So I, I think we, we make itfun.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Some people come in and it's a real obligation and
it's and it's like a a challengefor them to do it, even
filmmakers today, yeah, yeahyeah, well, uh, I think audio
commentaries continue to be verypopular and I know a lot of the
boutique labels they want thatthese commentaries so they can
have you know hours that theycan say are of new content and
(21:58):
everything.
But why do you think these uhcontinue to be so popular with
the fans?
Speaker 3 (22:03):
well, I like listening to the commentary.
I mean, if it's a movie that Ilove, I want to experience it in
many different ways.
You know, usually movies that Iloved I've seen a million times
, and so it's a new experienceto hear somebody else's
commentary on it.
And if somebody can bringsomething to the movie that I
didn't see myself, or maybe evenjust agree with um, agree with
(22:25):
me, you know, that that's fun.
I don't like commentaries wheresomebody is just telling me you
know the all the credits ofsome minor actor or you know
stuff like that that you canlook up on on the internet.
But if, if, if, there's somekind of real insight about a
film or a filmmaker that I love,that's time well spent for me.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Yeah, I mean there's some films out there that I wish
had commentaries and that ifyou, you know you look at films
of, let's say, the 60s, well,there's not going to be a Star
Wars commentary without GeorgeLucas, right, like Steven
Spielberg does not wantcommentaries on his films, we're
getting to a point where therewill be a time where someone
(23:07):
else will get to do a Godfathercommentary and really reveal all
the stuff.
I think the history of cinemahas been allowed opportunities
thanks to the studios themselves.
As Leonard Maltin once put itto me, the studios have, by
default, paid for the recordingof their own history and somehow
(23:34):
you can get away on some ofthese boutique labels without
having legal departments tellyou you can't talk about a
budget, you can't talk aboutsomeone got replaced or fired.
In many of the cases where wewant to go deeper, you sometimes
just can't.
But, um, I think there's a justan inherent nature of history.
There's a value of commentaries, uh, when they're done well
(23:57):
with thought and the work is putinto them.
Um, and I think sometimes youknow more often than not, uh,
you're going to glean somethingfrom a filmmaker, even if
they're just sitting theretalking.
It's their movie and they'retalking about something that's
on screen and it sounds obvious.
You may not know what and why,but that that commentary is,
(24:20):
you're getting special time withthat filmmaker for that two
hours.
Historians, you know, um, thereare some that are better than
others, and if we can bringsomething to the table
eventually, the films thatdemand a historical track or
just, uh, demand context.
You know whether it's pulpfiction, where's our?
You know, tarantino, why didn'tyou do a commentary?
(24:42):
You know it's his, hisprerogative not to, but I'll
tell you, I really appreciateddoing a commentary with Mel
Brooks, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Steve and Rudy.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
And Steve and Rudy.
As a fan of history, I feellike life goes by and so you're
living history and if you filmhistory you saw a movie this
(25:20):
year, you saw one this month,this week it goes by.
It's when you take the time toevaluate history, or somebody
does, who starts to bring backto your attention hey, while you
were to watch this movie andthis TV show this evening with
your kids or whatever, life wenton and yours have gone by, and
now you revisit something andthe person who knows the history
of that film, that TV show orhistory itself brings back to
your attention something andyou're like, oh my gosh, I
didn't even realize theimportance of what I was seeing
(25:41):
at the time, because I didn'tknow that we were breaking new
ground with this movie.
I didn't know that this TVseries was breaking new ground.
People who then can look backon these things and dig in film
historians, film critics help us, I think.
Reevaluate a film, reallyreevaluate a TV series,
re-appreciate it, and you mightsay, well, yeah, I liked it when
(26:06):
I first saw it, but now I'mre-watching it.
And I'm re-watching it now,hearing somebody bringing me
some new information that helpsme appreciate the work that went
into it and I think that's whatI've enjoyed.
And we work in the behind thescenes and the extras and the
supplements whatever you want tocall that stuff for the films
and TV shows, and commentaries,I think, are a key part of that,
because it's something you cando while you're watching the
(26:26):
rest.
You're watching that feature,you're watching that interview
this you can listen to whileyou're watching the film and
it's unique.
I think it's pretty unique andit's great that you guys are
doing these, yeah, well that'sone of the things that
commentaries do.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
It gives you perspective because, like you
say, you'll take a work forgranted because you know it's
contemporary with you.
You're swimming in the samewater as they are and you know
you can't see it.
But with time and the rightcommentator, you know it can be.
It can give you perspective andyou see value in a work that
(27:04):
wasn't apparent at the time.
That's why history is writtenyears later, not while it's
happening.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Because you don't know where it's going.
Yeah, and that's hopefully oneof the things that commentaries
do.
But you know, a commentariancan't just be well, they can,
but should let's say should, togive that kind of perspective
should have be familiar withdisciplines beyond film history
and film criticism.
You know, I used to tell mystudents that if you want to be
(27:31):
a filmmaker, learning how tomake a film is just step one.
You know that's easy, andlearning the history of film is
something else.
But you also need to be intopsychology, into philosophy.
You also need to be intopsychology, into philosophy,
into history, into science.
The more you know, the moreyou're going to bring to the art
, and that's true of evaluatingart as well.
(27:53):
You know, even you know we seemto specialize in horror films
of a certain type, classichorror films, we'll say, or
gothic horror films.
And you know they were productsof literature, they were
products of philosophy, theywere products of their time,
which is history.
And the more you know about allof those, you know satellite
(28:14):
disciplines, the more you'regoing to bring to that
commentary and then the morethat, hopefully, the listener
will appreciate that work andsee.
You know how it's like buzzingthe lights of all these other
disciplines.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Yeah, yeah.
And there's so much psychologyin horror films.
Oh yeah, very much.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
You know, so the more that you understand.
Exactly Right.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Jungian, freudian, whatever you know.
That influences Exactly and youthink back to the 20s, 30s, 40s
and all the change that washappening in the world and
sciences and psychology, and theart world too.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Art world, yes, you know I mean, the first great
horror film, arguably, is theCabinet of Dr Caligari, which
was basically you know you couldrename that movie.
This is Expressionism.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Because that's what they were doing is they were
sort of like revealingexpressionism, which was a very
esoteric art movement of thetime and shortly before the time
, and now we have cabinet of DrCalgary that preserves it.
Not only that, but uses it forartistic reasons, to you know,
to explore a horror story.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
I've held you back long enough from diving into
your project, but thanks fortaking a few minutes to talk
about doing audio commentaries.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
I'm always interested in talking about myself.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Hey, I hope you enjoyed that little peek behind
the scenes there withConstantine and Steve.
It was a lot of fun for me tojust go over and talk to them
and it's a little bit different,something a little lighter here
to enjoy here on the ExtrasPodcast.
As always, if you're enjoyingour podcast, be sure and
subscribe and join our Facebookgroup if you'd like to do that
(29:57):
and, as always, stay slightlyobsessed about audio
commentaries.
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