DAA: DVD Addicts Anonymous

Hi, my name is Debi and I’m a DVD addict. 

One great resource for any sequential art buff are the DVD commentary and extras.  Be forward though, there are great commentaries and there are horrible, horrible commentaries that make you want to hurl things at the TV while you scream ever curse word you know.

To help you all avoid that pain, here are some of the best of the best.  All are chockfull of info and very entertaining.   And feel free to add your favorite ones in the comments! 

Suggested Commentaries:

X-Files, commentary by Kim Manners (Director/Producer)

He’s very technical and gets into what lens they used, lighting, and other camera equipment used.

Season 4:

"Max" (The X-Files Mythology, Volume 2 - Black Oil)

"Patient X" (The X-Files Mythology, Volume 3 - Colonization)

Season 6:

"Two Fathers" (The X-Files Mythology, Volume 3 - Colonization)

"Milagro"  (The X-Files Season 6 DVD)

Season 7:

"Closure"  (The X-Files Mythology, Volume 3 - Colonization)

Season 8:

"Existence" (The X-Files Season 8 DVD)

Season 9:

"The Truth" (The X-Files Season 9 DVD)

Buffy and Firefly, commentary by Joss Whedon (Director/Writer/Producer)

He’ll walk you through his decision-making process for scenes.  He explains why he shot and wrote things the way he did.  Great look inside his film making process.

Buffy:

Season 1

"Welcome to the Hellmouth"

"The Harvest"

Season 2

"Innocence"

Season 4

"Hush"

"Restless"

Season 5

"The Body" - (A must!)

Season 6

"Once More, With Feeling"

Season 7

"Chosen"

Firefly:

"Objects in Space" - (A must!)

Supernatural, commentary by Eric Kripke (Director/Writer/Producer) 

Like Joss’s commentary, his passions and knowledge of the medium oozes out of his commentary.  It’s a joy to listen to.  He also goes over a lot of his decision-making process about his shots. 

Season 2:

“What It Is and What Should Never Be”

Season 4:

“Lucifer Rising”

Farscape, Commentary by Ben Browder, Claudia Black, Rockne O’Bannon, and David Kemper

While this is my all time favorite show, this commentary is special because it’s not about how good the episode was, but rather, about how everything went wrong!  They even titled the commentary “When Bad Things Happen to Good Shows”.  It’s great to hear how bad decisions were made and how they piled up.

Season 1:

"Jeremiah Crichton"

Suggested Extras:

Pleasantville: The Art of Pleasantville, The Storyboards: An extra shows you the books they made from all the storyboards in the film. Director of photography, John Lindley flips through the books while talking all about the boards and the process.  The commentary with director Gary Ross is also great on this film.

Seabiscuit: Anatomy of a Movie Moment: An extra of director Gary Ross talking his way through his decision-making process for a whole scene. Very in-depth and educational. The commentary with director Gary Ross and filmmaker Steven Soderbergh is also great on this film.

Wally Wood’s Talking Head

What site about sequential art wouldn’t be complete without the famous Wally Wood’s 22 Panels That Always Work graphic.

For those new to this graphic, it’s a quick reference guide of ideas on how to make people talking not look boring.

Apparently along with these 22 images taped near his desk, he also had this quote:

"Never draw anything you can copy, never copy anything you can trace, never trace anything you can cut out and paste up."  

As a purest myself (everything must be drawn!), it's an interesting viewpoint and one I think has merits. Only, maybe one needs to have mastered drawing before they go the copying route.  A shortcut, not a cheat. What are your thoughts?

Lovely, Wonderful Dead Trees

Before moving onto close ups, I thought I’d share some of my favorite books on visual storytelling.  

Good starter books for any sequential art:

Comics and Sequential Art

By Will Eisner 

(Considered the Father of Comic Books. It’s sad that a lot of people don’t know of him.)

Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative

            By Will Eisner

From Word to Image: Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process

By Marcie Begleiter

Visual Storytelling: The Art and Technique

By Tony C. Caputo

More advanced books:

Film Directing: Shot by Shot

By Steven D. Katz

Comics Above Ground: How Sequential Art Affects Mainstream Media

By Durwin S. Talon

If you can find any used film directing text books, those are usually golden too.

These focus on comics, but are also very good for any visual storytelling:

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

By Scott McCloud

Panel Discussions 

            By Durwin S. Talon

            (Very good book!  In depth interviews with many comic artists explaining their work) 

Artists on Comic Art

            By Mark Salisbury

Reference:

Setting Up Your Shots: Great Camera Moves Every Filmmaker Should Know

            By Jeremy Vineyard

            (Good reference book with all the different types of shots)

Random:

Fight directing for the Theatre

           By J. Allen Suddeth