DVD Instant Private Film School

Well, the Olympics are over, school has started, including Intro to Film classes and a Creative Movie Production class at UND and a full film studies program at MSUM.

However, you don’t have to spend the outrageously high tuition fees at a big-name film school or even the substantially less but ever-increasing tuition at MSUM or UND to get a respectable education in film.
For the same amount of money, you can buy yourself some used film class textbooks (especially those that include companion DVDs or CD-ROMs with movie clips), build a collection of well-chosen DVD titles, and invest the rest in your own digital camcorder, computer video editing workstation, and basic movie production equipment like lights, microphones, etc.
Then just start making movies, learning as you go. (Note that there’s nothing stopping you from doing this even if you are enrolled in official film classes.)

A modest but representative variety of DVDs can serve as self-paced course that will provide a reasonably well-rounded foundation in cinema and should inspire you to search out additional titles. The audio commentaries are like having renowned guest lecturers come to a film study class to give their reactions.

Watch each title first for the film itself, again (at least once) with the commentary track, and then a third or fourth time, after exploring all of its bonus features thoroughly.

Screenplays for many films can be purchased separately or even found online for free download. Their differences can be fascinating to compare with the final finished movies, especially if several drafts can be found.

Below are some DVDs with special features that should prove both entertaining and instructive for aspiring filmmakers or just anyone who likes movies.

People hoping to make their own movies really need to get seasons 1 and 2 of the reality TV series “Project Greenlight” to see the process of how professional movies are actually made, and then watch the completed films “Stolen Summer” and “The Battle of Shaker Heights” (along with their commentaries and all the bonus features).

The 1999 documentary “American Movie” is another good choice, with its chronicle of an eccentric and struggling Wisconsin indie filmmaker (plus a commentary and copy of the film he’s shown making).

To make movies, it helps greatly to be familiar with what has been done throughout the past century of filmmaking around the world. Modern filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino have been heavily influenced by numerous directors of the past, such as Sergio Leone, whose Italian-Spanish-made westerns were heavily influenced by classic Hollywood.

The double DVD-set of Leone’s epic “Once Upon a Time in the West” (1969) is often available at bargain prices and is a great resource to start studying both cinematic technique and direct inspiration by other films. It has several documentaries and the audio commentary (by several different people) explains much of its style, as well as pointing out numerous references to moments in previous films that are worth tracking down.

“Singin’ in the Rain” (1952) is a much-beloved MGM movie musical that has a superior double-disc special edition with a wealth of material for film students and movie buffs. The story itself is a heavily fictionalized but reasonably accurate comic retelling of Hollywood’s transition from silent to sound filmmaking.

The DVD includes an audio commentary as well as two documentaries on movie musicals, excerpts from the original movies whose songs are used in the film, outtakes, scoring session recordings, and stills, plus bonus clips from pioneering early sound films, such as “Easter Eggs.”

A good companion would be the three-DVD set of “The Jazz Singer” (1927), the film that started the “talkie” revolution, with bonus discs packed with an excellent documentary and numerous early sound films.
A couple of must-sees from the golden age of Hollywood include the double-disc sets of “King Kong” (1933) and “Casablanca” (1943).

“North By Northwest” (1959), Alfred Hitchcock’s classic suspense thriller, has a large helping of sophisticated romantic comedy and remains an audience-pleaser to this day. The DVD is an excellent study aid, with a revealing commentary by the film’s screenwriter Ernest Lehman, a behind-the-scenes documentary with interviews of Lehman and two of the stars, a selection of production stills, and a music-only audio track that highlights the effective score by Bernard Herrmann (who also scored “Citizen Kane”).

Master Japanese director Akira Kurosawa first achieved international fame with “Rashomon” (1950), still the definitive exploration of the nature of truth, attitudes, and human nature, with its story of a murder and rape told in flashback from several different points of view.

The Criterion DVD includes numerous valuable supplements, with a video introduction, an audio commentary, portions of a documentary on the film’s cinematographer, and a printed box insert containing the two original short stories that were combined and adapted into the screenplay.

If you can find it, follow up with the American remake, “The Outrage” (1964), moving the Samurai tale to the American Old West.

“Nosferatu” (1922) is the original silent version of the “Dracula” story by German director F. W. Murnau. It’s a visual treat blending stylization and realism (and inspiring the recent cult favorite “Shadow of the Vampire”).

Available in numerous editions, Image Entertainment’s release includes two different music scores, as well as a good critical audio commentary track and a few other extras.

Another DVD release of “Nosferatu” from Kino Video has two other alternate musical accompaniments but no commentary.

Kino’s recent “Ultimate Nosferatu” double DVD set has a new recording of the film’s original score and the best available picture quality, along with a 52-minute documentary, stills, and clips from many other Murnau films.
For comparison be sure to get the special edition of Werner Herzog’s 1979 remake with both the German and English-language versions.

“The Man With the Movie Camera” (1929) is a experimental Russian documentary by Dziga Vertov, a celebration of the possibilities of cinema to communicate visually, using sound but no dialogue. The silent film chronicles one day in Russian city life, with a powerful new musical score composed from Vertov’s notes. Again, there is an informative audio commentary on the Image release version.

“The Seventh Seal” (1956), Swedish director Ingmar Bergman’s dark, brooding, yet optimistic allegory about faith and despair as the black plague ravages Europe, is perhaps the textbook example of movie symbolism. Its chess game between a medieval knight on his way home from the crusades and Death himself has become a cinematic icon.

The insightful audio commentary brings out the film’s less obvious parallels with the Cold War fears of nuclear annihilation. This is a also a Criterion Collection release.

“Citizen Kane” (1941), a staple of virtually any film school, is an influential feature by a 25-year-old first-time director, who also played the title role and co-wrote the script.

The “Citizen Kane” double-disc DVD set with its two fascinating but very different audio commentary tracks and other supplementary materials, is a cornerstone of a do-it-yourself instant film school. The DVDs have tons of extras, and about the only thing missing is a copy of the screenplay.