sholio: Elizabeth from White Collar, smiling (WhiteCollar-Elizabeth smiling)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote2011-08-24 01:03 am
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SHINY!

My season one White Collar DVDs came today! Which means ... commentaries yay!

I watched the commentary for Hard Sell and just a few favorite bits from Vital Signs (I'll probably go back and watch more later, but I had trouble with parts of that episode so it's hard to rewatch the whole thing, even though I loved the parts I loved ...).

The commentaries are all Jeff Eastin with various combinations of the actors, and they tend to home in on, and talk about, the scenes that were most pivotal for the characters ... which usually translates to favorites of mine, as well. ♥ I'm all too accustomed to the frustration of watching commentaries in which they'll get to the scenes that I really want to hear them talk about, and they'll be going on and on about the catering truck or whatever instead ...

But one thing that is really neat about WC is how invested in the characters the writers and the actors are, in the characters and in the show in general. They like talking about the little character moments -- the first time Peter openly refers to Neal as his friend, all the trust issues in "Hard Sell". And, just as I've noticed in their interviews, they spend so much time praising each other and the people they work with. I don't think I've encountered a cast who spend so much time saying nice things about each other, nice things about the makeup people and the directors and just ... everyone. It's so sweet. ♥

In Hard Sell, the shot of Matt flipping up the shotgun and shooting the first clay pigeon is apparently real -- he's from Texas and really good with guns. (The second clay pigeon, the long shot over the water, is CGI.)

Another thing that came up when they were talking about that scene is that Matt, Tim and Jeff Eastin all grew up around guns (in parts of the country where guns are common, I mean) and are pretty good with guns themselves, which might explain something I've noticed about White Collar: that the show is really consistently good about the way that it portrays characters handling guns -- the way they hold them is very believable. (I think I was even talking about this when I was watching it with [personal profile] xparrot and [personal profile] gnine -- that the FBI characters on the show always keep their finger off the trigger when they're carrying the guns around.)

In the commentary for "Vital Signs", they talked about some of the ad libs in the scene with drugged!Neal -- apparently the actors ad libbed quite a bit there. Neal's drunken "Hey buddy!" and "You're strong!" were ad libs; so was that bit later on when Peter pets him on the head.

Apparently there was also an entire scene they wrote with Peter stealing the tape that they weren't able to film for time reasons (but personally I think that it's more effective to just have him reveal that he's stolen it).

They don't have commentaries on very many episodes, but the ones they have are good, and they got most of the actors for them. Tomorrow I'll get around to the pilot & finale commentaries -- I'm especially looking forward to the pilot, because they have the entire cast for that one. :D

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[identity profile] anniehow.livejournal.com 2011-08-24 11:01 am (UTC)(link)
Envy. Ennnvvvyy! *dramatic music*
aelfgyfu_mead: Aelfgyfu as a South Park-style cartoon (Peter & Neal)

[personal profile] aelfgyfu_mead 2011-08-24 11:31 am (UTC)(link)
We watched the commentaries because we first saw s1 last summer on DVD and had time to watch. I love the commentaries for those two episodes in particular.

[identity profile] wildcat88.livejournal.com 2011-08-24 01:17 pm (UTC)(link)
In Hard Sell, the shot of Matt flipping up the shotgun and shooting the first clay pigeon is apparently real -- he's from Texas and really good with guns.

ROFL! "He's from Texas" so of course he can flip a shotgun and shoot a clay pigeon. *wipes eyes* I understand what you're saying - guns are common in Texas - but for the record, I'm a 3rd generation Texan. I don't own a cowboy hat, a horse or a gun. I've never fired a shotgun, and I've never seen a clay pigeon. (I'm not sure we have real pigeons here, much less clay ones. Rabbits and squirrels, on the other hand...)

*still giggling*
Edited 2011-08-24 13:17 (UTC)

[identity profile] wildcat88.livejournal.com 2011-08-24 09:03 pm (UTC)(link)
And what do you mean, no cowboy hat - don't they kick you out for that? :D

Are you kidding? That's how everyone knows you really are a native. Only the transplants try to look the stereotype. :D

[identity profile] kriadydragon.livejournal.com 2011-08-24 07:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Interesting stuff. I love to bits how they always seem to incorporate Matt being from Texas into the show - his accent in one ep, shooting guns in another. I always love it when an actor gets to use something or do something that's actually a part of their life and not just something they learned for the show (like Tim dancing. Was it you who said he could dance in real life? Someone did).

[identity profile] swanpride.livejournal.com 2011-08-24 07:36 pm (UTC)(link)
*sighs* I have to wait a little bit until the DVD's are available in my country...they don't sell them (at least not in my language, and I like to compare the original with the dubbed version) before the show was in TV...which will happen in three weeks!!!! *celebrate* Can't wait to share my love for white Collar with the internet shy masses!

[identity profile] swanpride.livejournal.com 2011-08-24 10:39 pm (UTC)(link)
It is often weird, but dubbing is kind of an art form here. There are actually some movies I very much prefer in the dubbed version, because the voices show more emotion or the scenes are snappier. It depends. I really don't care much for the dubbing of Psych (because of all the references they missed out an awful lot of them, although the voice actors do a great job)or Leverage (there the voice actors were cast very poorly - Sophie has no accent at all, Eliot's voice is way to high, Parkers voice has to much emotion (and happens to be the same one the used for Megan Reeves in Numb3rs, which really throws me off) and on top of it, most of the catch phrases were lost), but with Numb3rs, I actually prefer the dubbed version - partly because it makes it much easier to understand the math, but mustly because the voices have more act, if you get my drift, especially the one of Megan Reeves I mentioned before, but also Don's and Charlie's.

I admit I don't have high hopes for Numb3rs, because Bomer's voice is so much part of his charme, and the original voices are already top notch concerning emotions (you would be surprised how much better Keving Costner's acting is if your get it with a different voice, btw), plus, the voice actor they have used for TT before has a pitch which is not really annoying but somehow doesn't ring true.

[identity profile] swanpride.livejournal.com 2011-08-25 06:59 am (UTC)(link)
It's logical that Disney dubbings have a decent quality, because they dub all the time. It's the same here: Normally, the dubs are very good, because the people who do them know what they do. Sadly there are some cases - *sigh* - in which a original dubbing was lost or got replaced for some reason or another. It's especially a problem with Disney movies. And it's very rare that the new dubbing is better than the old. But especially with Disney movies, it's interesting how much of a difference the voice makes. I so prefer the German version of Skar in "Lion King" (The adult Simba on the other hand is horrible, especially the singing voice).

I tend to watch in english, because the original version tends to be the better one, but not always. But if I buy the DVD, I want the complete package.