EL MASCARADO MASSACRE Movie Trailer
Moxie Online - Alternate Downloadable Commentary Tracks
Moxie Online - Alternate Downloadable Commentary Tracks
In 2002, Slashdot covered alternate-fan-commentary site DVDTracks.com, which had been inspired by a column by Roger Ebert suggesting that anyone with an audio recorder and an opinion could record his own alternate DVD commentary track and distribute it as an mp3, to be played in sync with a separate DVD player. This site subsequently inspired me to try my hand at an audio commentary of my own, for the Hayao Miyazaki film Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro. The track was generally well-received and I've been given some great feedback about it. Considering the recent popularity of "podcasting," and the availability of creator-made downloadable commentaries for shows like Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek: Enterprise, and Doctor Who, it is arguable that DVDTracks was a couple of years ahead of its time.
But where is DVDTracks now? Apparently the owner lost interest and let the domain name registration lapse in early 2005; it is now in the hands of a scalper who wants $3,100 for it. But in the interim, plenty of podcasters started doing their own audio commentaries, and Renegade Commentaries--one of the largest contributors to the original DVDTracks site--kept going with a commentary site of its own. Renegade recently opened a sister site, Commentary Central, where everyone else can host or link their own commentary files. And watching these third-party commentaries just got less annoying thanks to Sharecrow, a DVD player for Windows that synchronizes a third-party commentary track with the DVD so that the DVD and track can be paused, fast-forwarded, and rewound simultaneously. (Their site also includes an index of third-party commentaries--which they call 'crows,' for 'Commentaries Released On the Web'--from other commentary sites.) Unfortunately, there is still no tool to make it easier to record a commentary in synch with a movie, nor is there a Sharecrow for non-Windows operating systems yet.
In 2002, Slashdot covered alternate-fan-commentary site DVDTracks.com, which had been inspired by a column by Roger Ebert suggesting that anyone with an audio recorder and an opinion could record his own alternate DVD commentary track and distribute it as an mp3, to be played in sync with a separate DVD player. This site subsequently inspired me to try my hand at an audio commentary of my own, for the Hayao Miyazaki film Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro. The track was generally well-received and I've been given some great feedback about it. Considering the recent popularity of "podcasting," and the availability of creator-made downloadable commentaries for shows like Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek: Enterprise, and Doctor Who, it is arguable that DVDTracks was a couple of years ahead of its time.
But where is DVDTracks now? Apparently the owner lost interest and let the domain name registration lapse in early 2005; it is now in the hands of a scalper who wants $3,100 for it. But in the interim, plenty of podcasters started doing their own audio commentaries, and Renegade Commentaries--one of the largest contributors to the original DVDTracks site--kept going with a commentary site of its own. Renegade recently opened a sister site, Commentary Central, where everyone else can host or link their own commentary files. And watching these third-party commentaries just got less annoying thanks to Sharecrow, a DVD player for Windows that synchronizes a third-party commentary track with the DVD so that the DVD and track can be paused, fast-forwarded, and rewound simultaneously. (Their site also includes an index of third-party commentaries--which they call 'crows,' for 'Commentaries Released On the Web'--from other commentary sites.) Unfortunately, there is still no tool to make it easier to record a commentary in synch with a movie, nor is there a Sharecrow for non-Windows operating systems yet.
