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 Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Visit to Geppi's Entertainment Museum Is Prize
Posted by maggie
Neat! I note from Gaming Report that the first HeroClix World Championship winner had, among his prizes, a replica of Thor's Hammer (from Diamond Select Toys & Collectibles) -- and a trip to Baltimore to visit Geppi's Entertainment Museum. I'm looking forward to visiting that establishment myself this weekend (as part of the delights of the Baltimore Comic-Con and, later, Retailer Summit). I know that winner is in for a treat. Meantime, I'm checking out the Baltimore weather for the weekend: Saturday high 89, low 76, cloudy; Sunday high 84, low 73, scattered thunderstorms. At the moment, I'm more concerned about the scattered thunderstorms predicted for Appleton and Chicago on my travel day: Friday. Ah, the delights of air travel!
9/5/2007 9:27:48 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Aha! A Partial Key to Heroes Commentaries!
Posted by maggie
When the discs with commentaries are loaded, go from "Play All" on the Menu to "Languages." Select "Subtitles: English SDH." Then return to "Main Menu." On the Menu, go to "Bonus Materials." Choose "Audio Commentaries with Cast & Crew."
Up will come an identification of commentators -- though not the extent to which they contribute. So, on Disc 5, we have:
Chapter 15 "Run," "With Greg Grunberg, Kevin Chamberlin, Adam Armus and Kay Foster (episode writers and supervising producers)"
Chapter 16 "Unexpected," "With Greg Beeman (episode director and co-executive producer), Zachary Quinto, Sendhil Ramamurthy and Jeph Loeb (episode writer and co-executive producer)"
Chapter 17 "Company Man," "With Jack Coleman, Allan Arkush (episode director and executive producer) and Bryan Fuller (co-executive producer and episode writer)"
Chapter 18 "Parasite," "With Allan Arkush (executive producer), Jimmy Jean-Louis and Christopher Zatta (episode writer)"
Then, if you want to watch the episode but focus on the commentary, you can return to the main menu, return to "Languages," turn off the subtitles, go to "Chapter Index," select the episode you want and choose "Play with Commentary," and watch the episode. You can also ignore the "Languages" step, if you want to listen to the commentary but pay closer attention to what the characters are saying.
You still won't know when they're going to come and go, but you'll have a better idea who they are. (An even better idea would have been to provide the information on, say, an insert sheet. Haven't we moved past the idea that we're living in a paperless society?)
9/5/2007 7:15:11 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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 Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Heroes Commentaries on Episode 16
Posted by maggie
Just in case you think I'm obsessing on these doggoned commentaries, let me say I'm offering them as a public service, because I haven't yet found a site that easily identifies who's talking when or where. (Watch: In one of the bonus discs or on some official site, all this information can be found effortlessly. But I haven't found it yet, and it's getting annoying. Apologies for those who don't care, but I forked over the cash to buy this set, and I'd like to know what it is I'm listening to.)
Episode 16, then, is called "Unexpected," deliberately identifying it as one in which many unexpected events occur. Expectedly, however, there are three guys in the commentary, and not one identifies himself at the start. It's not long before the listener can figure out that one is Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder) and another is Zachary Quinto (Sylar). But the third? Well, he keeps talking about lighting and camera angles, and it's even possible someone calls him Greg -- so it's apparently not Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman), but director Greg Beeman. And everyone is apparently getting so used to doing the commentaries that they've loosened up to the point of virtual incoherence at times.
I've lost track of how many times between this episode and the previous one that it's pointed out that Bill Fagerbakke (Gustafson) is the voice of Patrick on SpongeBob SquarePants, but that's OK.
[And this is the second time this software has glitched, doggone it, and deleted the entire post! I will learn my lesson. I will learn my lesson. I will learn my lesson. I had copied it to this point, so I was able to paste in what I'd done, but I was only partway through the commentary. OK, I'm posting this and then returning to finish it. Again. Expletive.]
[And -- just to let you know that I will not be deterred -- it refused to let me post three times. So I had to delete two versions and start again from scratch. Said the Little Red Hen. Snarl.]
At any rate, 29 minutes in, the episode's writer (and co-executive producer) Jeph Loeb joins the commentators (and I think Beeman leaves), and topics range from who Stan Lee is (one of the commentators apparently really didn't know) to the incredible acting ability of Hayden Panettiere (Claire Bennet, as if you didn't know by now) up to and including the ability to cry out of both eyes or one eye or the other eye (though that's hardly the limit of her abilities).
In the course of things, Loeb does point out one major continuity flaw, which I'd missed in two viewings of the episode -- though I did spot it, once he said there was a continuity flaw coming up. Keep an eye out, folks -- though by that point, events were so piling up on each other that noticing a background detail wasn't foremost in my mind.
Excellent episode, but the commentaries ... Well, the only real flaw would have been easily fixed. Which is what I'm aiming to do here.
(Copying now before posting. I've learned my lesson.)
9/4/2007 7:28:17 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Kring and Oka on the DVD Bonuses
Posted by maggie
I just came across an Aug. 9 interview at IGN Entertainment that provides some background on the Heroes DVDs -- especially the HD version (which is not what I'm watching). Both Tim Kring and Masi Oka discuss the bonus material on the DVDs. Kring says they started planning the DVDs from the very beginning -- which makes it even less explicable why the commentaries are handled the way they are. Raising a question that was also raised recently on this blog, the interviewer asks, "Are the commentaries the same as the ones that were available online during the season?" Kring replies, "No ... There may be a few that are the same, but also a lot of different ones."
9/4/2007 5:08:49 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Son Stephen's Song of the Day
Posted by maggie
A few readers of Beautiful Balloons are aware that my son, Stephen, is a music producer for National Public Radio. A few of those are aware that he watches over the "Song of the Day" feature on the home page of NPR. Just thought I'd alert you to that, in case you were yearning for tips on what's fun on the new-pop-music scene. And today, "Song of the Day" actually features a review by Stephen, with the headline "The Bright Side of the World's Annihilation." Check it out.
9/4/2007 10:58:56 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Doctor Who Will Skip a Season
Posted by maggie
Argh! My enternal recommendations for the BBC SF series Doctor Who notwithstanding, it's been announced that, after David Tennant's third season as The Doctor, the series will go on hiatus. From an assortment of recent reports: 1. His third season will be broadcast (in the UK, at least) in spring 2008 for a 13-week run, but the following season will wait for release until 2010 (which, at least, does confirm that the series will return). 2. 2009 will feature three Doctor Who specials, each written by Russell T Davies. 3. There's no confirmation regarding whether Tennant will continue to play the role. 4. Tennant's third season (the fourth for the revived series) went into production in July, featuring Catherine Tate as Donna (who appeared in the 2006 Christmas special), a new Companion. 5. But Freema Agyeman (the most recent season's Companion) will return, too. 6. David Tennant won the Best Actor Award and Doctor Who won Best-Loved Drama at the TV Choice and TV Quick Awards. The Torchwood DW spinoff won Best New Drama. And Doctor Who recently won Best Program (well, then, Programme) at the Edinburgh TV Festival. 7. Felicity Kendal will be one of the guest stars in Tennant's third season. She played Barbara Good in the 1970s series called The Good Life in England and Good Neighbors in America. Another guest will be Tim McInnerny (best-known in America for his roles in Blackadder). Fenella Woolgar (recently in Jekyll) will play Agatha Christie in an episode. And Grammy Award winner Kylie Minogue will appear in the 2007 Christmas special, involving the Titanic.
9/4/2007 9:36:46 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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 Monday, September 03, 2007
Heroes Commentaries on Episode 15
Posted by maggie
OK, I'm clearly not going to get through all of the DVD set this Labor Day Weekend, so let's wrap up Monday night with a quick evaluation of "Run!"
Again, there's a switch-out. Commentary starts with Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman) and Kevin Chamberlin (Aron Malsky), who work well together and are logical voice-over choices, since much of the story focuses on their adventure together and they comment well together. Nice moment: "Wow!" says Malsky, "I was actually the lead-out shot!" Malsky comments, too, that he is The King of Failed Pilots, having appeared in eight.
26 minutes in, Grunberg is gone ("Greg was called back to the set"), replaced by the episode's co-writers, Adam Armus and Kay Foster. At least, everyone's identity is clear from the outset, for once, and it's a nice commentary, all in all, though the switch means that an anecdote about a Ramones shirt worn by Zane Taylor and Sylar is told twice.
Time to re-watch Episode 16, "Unexpected," but the commentary will wait till tomorrow.
9/3/2007 7:29:16 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Heroes Commentaries on Chapter 14
Posted by maggie
The title of the episode is "Distractions" -- and how appropriate that is for the commentary track of this excellent chapter!
I know I cite Doctor Who from time to time as an example worthy of attention and imitation -- and that's certainly true in this case. There are, obviously, several ways to put commentary tracks together, even ignoring the extreme of creating a new entertainment (as was done with the magnificent Spinal Tap DVD). In the case of the Doctor Who material, there are "making of" videos put together for release following each episode (not seen in the U.S. till condensations are appended to the DVDs). And, apparently at the conclusion of the season, commentary tracks are made with carefully considered participants. So, if special effects are vital in an episode, one of the featured actors might be chosen to discuss the acting and a special-effects worker chosen to discuss what was done to produce the work.
This can produce especially appealing commentaries. Billie Piper, for example, hadn't seen the final cut of "Father's Day," and her spontaneous shrieks at some of the footage added to the enjoyment of the episode, while her remarks about having a cold making it easier in the weepy scenes were illuminating behind-the-scenes details.
To top it off, the DVD set of the first Tennant season had one episode per disc with a picture-in-picture commentary, which worked wonderfully. (Best moment: when Tennant didn't notice that co-star Sophia Myles was brushing away tears.)
How to confuse the viewer: Do the commentaries on the fly with people who are not clearly identified. How to confuse the viewer more: Change the speakers in the midst of the episode and mumble who they are.
I think the commentators for "Distractions" were as follows:
The first 20 minutes: Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli) and Zachary Quinto (Sylar).
Then, the comment is made, "Milo is working," and Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman, who isn't in the episode) joins in.
But 27 minutes in, "Zach had to go to work," and Jack Coleman (HRG-Bennet) and episode director Jeannot Szwarc are on board. Szwarc gets to make a comment about using a Kurosawa style on the Japanese scenes, and then ...
36 minutes in, Ventimiglia is back with Michael Green, who wrote the episode.
Folks, this really is appropriate for "Distractions" in a strange and twisted way -- but not a boon as far as commentaries go. They were being recorded as the show was still in production (The commentary for Episode 13 was made while they were filming Episode 17.), and I'm sure there was pressure to put the package together in a timely fashion for an on-sale date preceding the start of Season Two. But wow.
[By the way, Quinto comments at one point, "Tim Sale is like an extra cast member -- seriously." Huzzah for recognition for outstanding work!]
9/3/2007 11:20:12 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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A Convention a Month in 2008?
Posted by maggie
Looking ahead to 2008, I began to construct a schedule for the first few months of the year, and it seems to me I'm already penciling in an average of one convention a month, starting in February.
For example:
February 22-24 is both MegaCon in Orlando, Florida -- and Wondercon in San Francisco, California!
March travel is, admittedly, of a more personal level, with granddaughter Grace's 4th birthday and grandson Devon's 5th birthday, not to mention Easter on March 23. But then:
April 18-20 is New York Comic-Con.
May 16-18 is Motor City Comic-Con in Novi, Michigan -- and the SF convention WisCon 32 is May 23-36 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Even the Madison show tends to have a comics connection of some sort.) (And, of course, May 3 is Free Comic Book Day!)
June 26-29 is Wizard World Chicago.
And life in Iola is disrupted by the Iola Old Cars Show July 10-13, which brings something like 110,000 people to our town of 1,500. But more disruptive for us is departing not long after to attend Comic-Con International: San Diego, which runs July 23-27.
Of course, that's not all such events in the first part of the year. Luckily, there's a convention supplement in the issue of Comics Buyer's Guide that will go on sale shortly. Check it out.
9/3/2007 9:36:13 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Glanzman Art to Support Willi Franz
Posted by maggie
I tend to assume visitors to this blog do what I do and link to the other blogs I check every day: blogs linked to on this site. But I don't necessarily do that with other folks' blogs, so let me call your attention to Mark Evanier's posting regarding a current eBay sale.
Artist Sam Glanzman is selling the original art from four complete stories he drew that Willi Franz wrote. And the goal is to provide money for Willi Franz, who produced the Charlton series "The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz" with Glanzman.
The seller opens the benefit auction, "I represent Sam Glanzman for original art sales. Sam called me a few weeks ago and told me his good friend and former collaborator, writer Willi Franz, was in bad health and broke (Sam's exact words)." The four stories on sale separately each came from Glanzman's collection. One of the stories was even pencilled by Franz.
Check out the listings. The sale ends Sept. 9.
9/3/2007 7:40:01 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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 Sunday, September 02, 2007
Heroes Commentaries on Chapter 13
Posted by maggie
It's titled "The Fix," and, again, uncredited commentaries. Just so's you needn't wonder, then:
Commenting through the entire episode is Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman). Co-commentator for the first 16 minutes is Hayden Panettiere (Claire Bennet). Co-commentator for the rest of the episode is writer and co-executive producer Natalie Chaidez (who does introduce herself at the beginning of her remarks; thanks).
Details from the show: Mr. Muggles has a stand-in for the episode. (The "real" MM is named Lestat. Or is it LeStat?) And, according to the commentary, Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli) disliked the floppy hair as much as the snarky folks at televisionwithoutpity.com. Hee.
Grunberg provides a constant stream of gags. Much fun.
9/2/2007 7:44:38 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Nearly Halfway through Heroes DVDs
Posted by maggie
The 12th episode of 23 ("Godsend") has a commentary track, and it demonstrates once again the way in which the Doctor Who DVDs Get It Right -- and others don't, quite. At least in the Target special edition, there's no clear information regarding the commentary, when one could have easily been provided onscreen. And there are three people talking. And they're all men. But who are they? The writer? The director? Special effects guys?
Oh, maybe they're the characters with special talents. So you can go to epguides.com, find the ongoing characters, and try to deduce them from the ongoing remarks. But golly. Maybe the information is hiding somewhere, but I'll just note it here for everyone's convenience. The conversation participants are Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder Suresh), Jack Coleman (Horned Rim Glasses, aka Mr. Bennet), and Leonard Roberts (D.L. Hawkins).
And the commentary is fun, clearly being recorded before the shooting has wrapped for the season. They discuss uncertainty over pronunciation of Ted Sprague's last name, the quality of Adrian Pasdar's haircut and tailoring, whether people actually think grammatically, and whether Bennet and Suresh might actually be on the list of those with special talents -- and hoping not.
They add that some of the moments when Hiro Nakamura stops time are done in a low-tech fashion: People just stand very still, while Hiro moves. Ramamurthy comments that the scene on the subway train in which Peter Petrelli meets Future Hiro was uncomfortable, as the scene went on and on and he had to keep his eyes wide open without blinking.
So, yes, the episodes are great and the "Godsend" comments are delightful -- but holding the identification of the commentators till the last voice-overs in the episode: not as much fun as identifying them from the start would have been.
9/2/2007 5:32:54 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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