hoDS, DC & DVD

[Mysterious Benefactor]

One of the DVDs that I was given for my birthday last week was '71's "Play Misty For Me," a personal favorite, with Clint Eastwood, Jessica Walter (one of my favorites), and Donna Mills. While the forum was down earlier today (because our host was tinkering with their server) I had the opportunity to watch it, and it gave me some ideas of what might be nice to see on a hoDS DVD (are you paying attention, Darren?  ):

• First off, they chose to eschew the typical director's commentary for an hour long featurette that consists of interviews with Eastwood, Walter, MIlls, and some of the production staff, intercut with scenes from the film and production stills. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy all sorts of DVD commentaries and look upon them as one of the biggest selling points when purchasing a DVD, but this featurette was really very interesting and quite enjoyable. And considering what DC's "Burnt Offerings" commentary is like (check out reply #1 in "Why J Frid Should Do a Commentary When There's a HODS DVD," on page #1 on Current Talk IX in the General Discussions Archive), doing something similar with the hoDS actors (and even DC, if someone insists ) could prove to be a lot more interesting than simply doing a director's commentary.
• Another interesting extra features a montage of publicity and behind the scenes stills from the film. And while that's something many DVDs include, it could be an interesting way to present stills from some of the deleted hoDS scenes, with perhaps a short overall commentary or a commentary for the individual scenes.
• And finally, the DVD includes another montage entitled "The Evolution of a Poster," which features, well, the evolution of the "Play MIsty For Me" posters from the first conceptions to the final versions. Something like that might be interesting to showcase the various hoDS posters, both domestic and foreign.

(I won't even get into what I think could be done as DVD ROM features because I could probably go on and on for days about that.  )

[Gothick]

Yes to all this.

I just purchased the DVD edition of the cult 1973 Robert Fuest film "The Final Programme."  Apart from a beautiful presentation of the movie in the correct screen ratio, the DVD includes a great commentary with the director (who also wrote and designed the movie) and Jenny Runacre who was the female star.  A group cast commentary for hoDS and NoDS would be a wonderful idea.

I also love the idea of a stills selection.  Another extra that would be wonderful is if any video footage could be recovered of the many TV interviews Grayson and Sam did in a tour of the country in August 1971.  I suspect they're all gone, but if any do surface, what fun to see this as part of the movie viewing experience.

G.