Directors Commentary

A directors commentary is an account coming from the director of a media product/ performance, allowing them to look back and analyse their final product. Indentifying what has worked well and also not so well.

There are many different ways that a directors commentary can be made:
One way is to have a video interview with members of the cast and the directors. This would be interrupted by sequences from the product (music video) by using the technique of split screen or a screen in the corner of the frame playing the video. This is a more engaging type of commentary as the viewer can see the director’s reactions to the video whilst visually seeing the section that is being discussed. A group interview is also helpful as many different people’s opinions can be considered, giving a wider range of feedback.
Another way to create a directors commentary is to have the video running, whilst there is an ongoing voice over talking through sections of different sequences. This is a successful way to produce this as it ensures the viewers attention is completely on the footage; therefore they can have a deeper understanding of the points the director and or cast are trying to make.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKXDRt8nzSA

Above is and example of a directors commentary one of the many Miley Cyrus's M and M dance crew battle videos. A series of her videos posted on youtube. The idea of this commentary was to provide the viewer with a commentary of a youtube video, something that is very rarley done. It also explains the difficulties they have had to deal with such as copy right and time managment issues, giving the viewer their side of the story, as this action could of portrayed bad publicity towards them. This commentary uses the second technique i have discussed of a constant voice over talking through clips from the video and also various parts from her other videos. This can be a very effective technique as it means the viewers attention is visulaly on the video, but can relate to what the director/cast is explaining. However the video playing is quite fast paced and very busy, meaning whilst watching it i found myself getting distracted by the constant footage, therefore at times i was not taking in the analysis of the video. I think the video would be more effective if there was clips of backstage/behind the scenes footage as the clips shown do stay the same throughout.