DVD 'extras' changing way people watch films

By Anthony Breznican
Associated Press

"Superman: The Movie" DVD gives viewers the inside skinny about how flaming tennis balls helped the planet Krypton explode. Advertiser library photo

• What was it like on the set?
• How were the special effects created?
• Which scenes were cut? And why?
• How did the public respond when the film debuted?
• What do the filmmakers have to say about the movie?

DVD, the burgeoning home video format that fits hours of supplemental information and behind-the-scenes footage on one tiny disc, can supply the answer to all those questions.

"A good DVD is like film school in a box," said 29-year-old film lover Richard Kaponas, who has collected nearly 300 films in the format.

DVD sales and rentals more than doubled from $1.6 billion in 1999 to $4.1 billion last year, according to Adams Media Research, which tracks the home video market. By the end of 2001, the market is projected to double again to $8.5 billion. Meanwhile, VHS rental and sales revenue fell from $17.7 billion in 1999 to $16.9 billion in 2000 and is expected to drop to $14.7 billion this year.

The superior images, myriad behind-the-scenes documentaries, collections of deleted scenes and audio commentaries from critics and filmmakers are changing the way audiences watch films. (Most DVDs range in price from $14 to $30 — often depending on the number of extras.)

"It's turning everyone into an expert," said Kaponas of Burbank. "The average person who watches DVDs has a little more appreciation for the films they love and a better handle on how to criticize the films they don't like so much."

Troy Sutton, who has 400 DVDs in his collection, thinks people shouldn't check out the extra features before seeing the movie.

"I think that would ruin the experience," said Sutton, 35, of Portland, Ore. "But once I've already seen the movie, that stuff is just going to enhance my overall impression of it."

Many filmmakers have been some of the strongest supporters of the DVD format. Scenes they reluctantly cut resurface on DVDs, while the multiple audio layers that fit on the discs enable cast and crew to record discussions that can play during the movie. These commentary tracks frequently resurrect forgotten details and anecdotes from Hollywood lore.

"Later, when Krypton explodes, don't forget to mention the burning tennis balls," writer Tom Mankiewicz said to director Richard Donner as they discussed the special effects for 1978s "Superman: The Movie."

In the DVD for "The Conversation," writer-director Francis Ford Coppola offered his solution to an enduring mystery from the 1974 thriller: Where is the hidden recording device that frantic amateur musician Gene Hackman could never find?

"The possibility may be," Coppola said, "that it's in that little saxophone (strap) that hangs around his neck."

What doesn't make it onto the discs?

Some filmmakers are uncomfortable with showing too much of the filmmaking process and prefer that their films stand alone.

Clint Eastwood, for example, refuses to do audio commentary on his movies, and Stanley Kubrick was known for ordering aides to burn negatives of cut scenes so they would never resurface.

"Some directors feel the film they put out in the theaters was the film they wanted," said Paul Hemstreet, an executive at Warner Home Video. "The deleted scenes are sort of their mistakes, and they don't want people to see that."

And something studios might not want people to see are controversies connected to the film.

Warner's DVD of last year's thriller "Proof of Life" never mentioned the romance between stars Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe that led to her messy public divorce.

"There's a big difference between a DVD and a news expose," Hemstreet said. "Maybe the public is interested in it, but ... we have to respect the integrity of the actors and whether or not they want to have that aired on the disc."

The studio's upcoming DVD release of "Citizen Kane," however, tackles head on some of the ugly history behind the film: newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst's vendetta against Orson Welles, who based the 1941 movie on Hearst's life.

"If that was going on currently and 'Citizen Kane' was a new release, you probably wouldn't see much about it on the DVD," Hemstreet acknowledged. "With time comes some distance from those issues that enables you to go back and talk about them."

Possibly the greatest battle in the DVD marketplace as its popularity rises is the debate over widescreen versus formatted versions of films.

Widescreen editions feature the entire rectangular frame of the movie as it was originally viewed. But black bars take up the empty space at the tops and bottoms of square television screens.

Film buffs prefer this version, but most mainstream audiences are annoyed by the black bars and prefer the formatted version, which crops off the sides of the movie so it covers the entire TV screen.

Viewers also complain about "vanilla editions" — DVDs that have almost no extra features.

"People want to see the film in context. It's important to establish what the culture was like when the film was released," said Jeffrey Schwarz, who produced the recent DVD for "The Silence of the Lambs."

Still, some DVD buyers care little for the so-called "added value" material.

Tom Williams, 32, has hundreds of movies in his collection, but rarely watches the bonus features.

"It's not necessarily the special features that do it for me," said Williams of Heywood, Calif. "I like DVD because it tends to have better video and, in a lot of cases, better audio."