alt.soundtrack

The Times has a great story about Kevin Smith and the upcoming Clerks II, including this little tidbit about what he's doing with director commentary...

In an ingenious new ploy, he has recorded a commentary for "Clerks II" that will be available for free download on iTunes, encouraging viewers to take their iPods to the theater for a second viewing.

Brilliant.  Multiple viewings, reward your best fans, etc., etc.  Why hasn't this been done before?

Comments

[whump]

It has. See the podcast commentary track for the new Battlestar Galatica you can get through iTMS or SciFi.com.

[Steve Rhodes]

It has been done a lot for tv shows, and there have been alternative commentary tracks for DVDs.

But this is the first time it has been done for a film in theaters.

Smith embraced the internet (and made fun of it) long before many filmmakers even hiring someone who did a fan site to do his own site and putting the creators of another fansite on his payroll.

And he has fans who actually will see his films multiple times (well, maybe not all of them).

[Byrne Reese]

This is going to sound kinda of high-schooly, but "dude, I was just thinking about that the other day."

And then I thought, "man, if I was the guy sitting next to guy listening to the audio commentary, and I could hear his frick'n iPod through his cheap-ass headphones because he felt it necessary to turn his iPod up to 11, then 'aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh'!"

And then I said, "thank god."

But yes - it is brilliant. As much as I fear sitting next to "that guy," deep down inside I would love to be "that guy."

[Joe McNeely]

I see that THE BOTANY OF DESIRE is on your nightstand. Why not just listen to the audiobook?