a lot of the first releases the cast and crew are all a little 'What is this commentary thing? What are we allowed to say?
Very true. And I think that at first the cast was encouraged to do no preparation, but simply sit down and watch and react naturally, which does sometimes give you some great moments -- Tom and Lis' interactions on "The Hand of Fear" commentary make me smile every time -- but it also, and inevitably, I think, means there will be long stretches of not-much-to-say-for-this-scene. The commentaries I enjoy most are the ones where the person has obviously prepared and thought about what anecdotes they can tell for various points in the story. I think it also takes a certain skill, an ability to think of interesting things to say off-the-cuff, and that skill is, as far as I can tell, completely unrelated to acting ability. Which is why some of the best commentaries I've listened to weren't done by actors at all -- e.g., Phil Collinson, and as I said in the post above, Andrew Cartmel and Ben Aaronovitch.
By the way, I don't blame the people who aren't good at it -- I'm sure it's hard, and personally, I'm pretty sure I would suck at it.
I don't have any Davison episodes in my to-be-watched queue, but now I'm going to have to put some in just so I can hear Janet Fielding. She sounds like the best kind of commentator -- the evil instigator. : )
no subject
Very true. And I think that at first the cast was encouraged to do no preparation, but simply sit down and watch and react naturally, which does sometimes give you some great moments -- Tom and Lis' interactions on "The Hand of Fear" commentary make me smile every time -- but it also, and inevitably, I think, means there will be long stretches of not-much-to-say-for-this-scene. The commentaries I enjoy most are the ones where the person has obviously prepared and thought about what anecdotes they can tell for various points in the story. I think it also takes a certain skill, an ability to think of interesting things to say off-the-cuff, and that skill is, as far as I can tell, completely unrelated to acting ability. Which is why some of the best commentaries I've listened to weren't done by actors at all -- e.g., Phil Collinson, and as I said in the post above, Andrew Cartmel and Ben Aaronovitch.
By the way, I don't blame the people who aren't good at it -- I'm sure it's hard, and personally, I'm pretty sure I would suck at it.
I don't have any Davison episodes in my to-be-watched queue, but now I'm going to have to put some in just so I can hear Janet Fielding. She sounds like the best kind of commentator -- the evil instigator. : )