Teaching Media - which DVDs have good info and examples of how films are made?? (1 Viewer)

[Ruslan]

Sorry for the long thread title! I'm an English teacher but am covering Media as part of the UK exam course. I managed to get our department a multi-region DVD player and would like to screen some DVD supplements to help pupils (aged 15/16) to understand how film are made and edited.
Can anyone suggest which DVDs have the best practical information on this topic.
Thanks for any help

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

T2 has an excellent mixed text/multimedia presentation of the making of film, that covers EVERYTHING very well, including editing.

-V

 

[Michael Harris]

The commentary tracks on the "El Mariachi/Desperado" set are excellent especially for the first film. The director perfectly describes the techniques he used to make his movie appear "bigger" then his miniscule budget would allow. Also there is a wonderful featurette called "10 Minute Film School" that demonstrates his cheats.

 

[MarkHastings]

The Disney Special Editions are GREAT as far as explaining the process and considering your audience is teens, the Pixar ones (especially A Bugs Life) do it in a fun/easy to understand way.

 

[Richard Smith]

The Criterion version of Traffic has got some fascinating and quite in-depth supplements on film and sound editing.

And if you're after something a bit more interactive how about the editing demonstration on the Fellowship Of The Ring EE? And both Die Hard 5 Star Collection and Men In Black have editing workshop features.

 

[Ed Bishop]

Two of the best commentaries I ever heard about how filmmaking works are, unfortunately, on LD: Criterion's THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD(CAV edition)and THE GRADUATE(also CAV). Roger Ebert's commentary for DARK CITY is a good start, though, and all the extras on T2--most taken from the LD box set--are amazingly thorough, even going into the Super 35 process which is used for some films(as it also was for DARK CITY). One of the positives of the DVD era has been not only the common use of widescreen, but the LD staples commentary, bonus material, etc., all there for those who want it, and easy to ignore if you're not interested(though I can't imagine why one wouldn't be).

And, as noted, the edit workshops of MIB and the DIE HARD's are a great education in and of themselves.

 

[Jonathan Burk]

May I highly recommend "Project Greenlight" as extra credit? It's very long, but contains all the politics they don't teach you in film school.

Also check out "Los In La Mancha". It's a great documentary on how not to make a movie.