Best Technical "Behind the Scenes" List

[puredrifting]

The Sound Design section of The Sixth Sense was awesome.

Sin City has got some cool stuff including a super-speed version showing exactly what was filmed on set (with green screen and in color).

Fatal Attraction has a lot of great stuff including footage from rehearsals and notes about the visual style choices.


Also, does anyone know of DVDs where you can hear the director talking to actors about the scene on-set? There was a small bit with Spielberg talking to DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can, but I'm looking for more.

Hi Gohanto:

I produced and shot piece for the NYPD Blue Season 4 DVD called "Through the Lens: The Look of Blue" I brought in the DP from NYPD Blue, Stephen Crawford, along with one of the camera operators and writer/producer/director Mark Tinker. We shot this at Panavision in Woodland Hills. Tinker and Crawford talk us through exactly how the look of the show was conceptualized and evolved. We have demosntrations of the actual camera packages along with Tinker directing the camera operator through a scene re-creation with two actors to get the famous NYPD Blue camera moves. The show was unique in that for a filmed show, Tinker used a microphone to talk the camera operators to do specific moves. The cam ops wore headsets. This is common in live TV shows but was unique for a filmed, narrative series. The piece also features Tinker directing the actors through the scene along with the camera ops.

I think you would find the piece interesting, it's one of my favorites I have produced. There is also stuff about lighting, sets, production design, etc. I always was impressed by the photography on NYPD Blue, it was fun to learn exactly how it was done by the guys who did it.
http://www.amazon.com/NYPD-Blue-Complete-Fourth-Season/dp/B000EXDS0C

Best,

Dan

 

[Andrew McCarrick]

Star Wars Episode III has by far the best BTS doc I've ever seen. It's called "Within A Minute", and it breaks down a 1 minute section of the film (from the "Mustafar" lava-planet battle sequence) into every element in its creation. It's 2 hours long, and goes through *everything* involved, and I mean *everything*...from catering to final print and everything between - casting, FX, model making, script, green screen, compositing, shooting, locations, gear...the works. It's narrated by the film's producer, Rick McCallum, who does a great job.

Highest possible recommendation...

Wow, somebody else has actually watched this.... I watch it over and over, there's just so much information there, you need to re-watch it (actually, I just got finished watching it for about the 8th time an hour ago.). I was actually searching the thread specificaly to see if somebody listed this one.

I second it.

 

[Blaine]

Blade Runner (Five-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition) I've just start to watch the BTS. Some really great stuff here.

 

[Gohanto]

Thanks for the recommendation Dan. That does sound interesting I'll check it out.

 

[drcheese]

Not Fincher's finest work, but the Special Edition of Panic Room has an entire break down of the film, including some Pre-vis work that more or less proved to be useless (Kidman being replaced by Foster = height issues and shot changes). I really liked the DVD treatment of Fight Club and Se7en as well. Those commentaries are great.

 

[dlang]

I posted this awhile ago in the lighting section, but here goes again. I rented the Dead Poet Society, the re release, and it had a cinematographer master class on it. The cinematographer literally re lights a scene from scratch....pretty sweet, man they used a lot of 5k's

 

[vertigoanton]

This isn't quite a BTS, but Requiem for a Dream has an awesome cinematographer's commentary with Matty Libatique. He explains the approach he and Aronofsky took to create some of the imagery of the film - really cool stuff if you're into cinematography.

Also, the Capote DVD has a great BTS about the Production Design for the film...again, if you're into that.

 

[Chuklz]

I really dug the commentary track from Scream. It has Wes Craven and Williamson talking about the production as they watch it. It's a bit of an education into classic horror, a bit anecdotal, and has lots of useful tidbits I utilized on my subsequent shoot.

I like the BTS of the 4th season of 24. They do a break down of an action scene. They build the new set, and show you all the hows and whys and take you through the first day of shooting on it. Then they do a couple of action shoots with the B-Units, one with a train collision, one with a marine assault unit including helecopters and a squad. First time I saw both a director and a 1st AD in a BTS doing their respective jobs.