Prelude To A DVD - My Pet PeeveDec 07 '04 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Ever get annoyed by the useless crap DVD's make you sit through before you can see the movie? Here's what I think of it all.
I tend to write reviews about DVD's more than anything, and I've noticed a topic to which I keep coming back: the stuff I have to sit through before the movie. You know what I'm talking about: FBI warnings, disclaimers, previews, etc. So often do I talk about having to wade through several minutes of useless crap before a movie that I thought I'd write one big rant and refer to it rather than repeat it every time the subject arises. Maybe if I can get enough "Amens!" some DVD design exec. will stumble across it and take note. I approach the issue from the viewpoint of a DVD collector rather than someone who rents movies once and doesn't bother with them again. That's why it bugs me so much. I'm paying good money to own these releases most of which will go in and out of the player multiple times. What a pain it is to want to put in a movie real quick but have to wait 5 minutes before I can get to what I want, particularly if I have to stop it for some reason then restart it from the beginning only to have to waste another 5 minutes. Call me impatient if you wish, but I'm paying for the convenience of having unlimited access to these movies; it's not that much of a stretch to also want immediate access. I'm not so impatient that I'm going to make a fuss over 20 seconds worth of material, but some of this stuff can add up to several minutes, particularly with previews and ads. That's when it starts getting on my nerves. Some companies allow the viewer enough control to skip the introductory material. I appreciate that. I'd still rather not have to do that, but it's better than nothing. Others make sure the whole thing plays through: no skipping, no fast-forwarding, no menu button. Placement of the material can make a difference in that case. If it plays before the interface loads then I might put the disc in and find something to do for a minute or two: make some hot green tea, change clothes, or just get comfortable. When I get back, if the menu is up, it's usually just a matter of getting past a logo or two before the movie. If the stuff plays after activating the movie from the interface, however, it's a lot more annoying because leaving may mean missing the beginning of the movie. Sometimes the chapter selection menu can get me around that but not always. Can I get a witness? Am I being too anal about all this? I'm going to point out some of the things I see on DVD's and talk about their inclusion. Chime in. What gripes you? Let's raise our voices for a more collector-friendly DVD! Animation: This is not a bad thing. In fact, it adds a lot to the feel of a DVD interface when it ties into the background images. I love the lead-in animation on Star Wars, Futurama, ALF, and others. A ship flies in and the menu selections are written on it, or a pencil draws the characters on the menu, or view screens drop down and open up; those are the types of things I'm talking about. Some releases go overboard by having long and/or slow animation before allowing access to the interface, but that is always a minor complaint from me. I say keep up the creative animation!! This is the only thing on my list I think actually adds to a release which is why I started with it. Logos: Logos don't bother me unless they are long or numerous. Most times they are too short to worry about skipping past them. I don't care to sit through that. The company wants the viewer to know who they are; I can appreciate that. When I created DVD's for my own movies, I included an original animated logo at the beginning. So include your logos if you wish, but keep them short and don't take away our control to get past them. FBI Warning: You can count on every release having an FBI Warning somewhere. It's a legal thing. Fine, put them in if you have to, but there's something you designers need to realize. The people to whom this applies aren't going to care and the rest of us shouldn't have to be tortured with it. In other words, nobody cares!! Has one single person reading this ever actually read through the whole warning? Anybody? You hear that you DVD design-type people? We're ignoring you anyway so you might as well quit annoying your consumers! DVD pirates already know it's wrong. They scoff at you trying to shove these warnings in their faces. The reason it bugs me so much is that some releases keep these screens up for nearly half a minute then display it in 2 or more other languages without any capabilities of getting past them. For a while Warner Bros. was putting their warnings at the end of each movie. Was that so bad? Did it cost them billions of dollars in lost revenue because when people didn't see that warning right off they said, "Well, gee, they must not care about prosecuting me if I copy THIS movie!" The company is covered legally, if anyone is really interested in reading them they have easy access, and the rest of us don't have to deal with it. At the very least don't display them so long at the beginning, there's no point, and it's annoying. Rhino (who released Transformers episodes) added a little humor to theirs. A few others have worked them into their introductory animations. So if you're not going to put them at the end or not going to shorten them even though there is no good reason not to, then do something entertaining with them. Previews: If you want to ensure that I do NOT watch the previews on a DVD, make them play automatically before the movie. I will skip past them every time or walk away until they are over. That is the absolute worst thing to play at the beginning because they are always so long. Even skipping past them can take a while sometimes. This is where my argument from above really comes in to play. If I've bought a DVD to have for years to come, I don't want to be sitting through the same outdated previews over and over. I don't at all mind previews being included as special features, in fact, if they are included in a menu I'll usually watch them if I have any interest whatsoever in the movie. Some releases open to a menu allowing the viewer to choose to go to the main interface or to the previews. That's better (because it's shorter) but pointless. Why not just open to the movie menu in the first place and give me a link from there to the previews? It's less annoying and therefore more productive. Ads: I don't consider ads as annoying as previews because they are shorter and more rare. Fox was bad about including those "Are you ready for Fox DVD?" ads for a while. We're not watching a free broadcast supported by advertisements here. We paid good money for the movie; we shouldn't have to put up with ads unless they are placed on the menu so that we have the option to watch them or not. Maybe I'll watch it, maybe I won't (I did watch the Cingular commercials on the Spider-Man DVD), but I will make it point to not watch the ones that play automatically just because of the annoyance. Disclaimers: I've started seeing commentary disclaimers lately. This commentary is not necessarily the views of the film company, blah, blah, blah. Who cares? And if that wasn't bad enough, now there are some that display the disclaimer in multiple languages! What's next, making us sign waivers absolving the company of all content responsibility before we can watch it? It's not even so much the disclaimers themselves that bug me (although I do think they are pointless) as it is them being accompanied by all the warnings, logos, and such. It all adds up. Rating Screens: Maybe someone out there has a use for these, but I think they're a waste of space. If you think you might not want to see the movie based on questionable content, look at the rating before buying or renting! Maybe they really aren't useless. After all, I still remember the first time I played "Movie Roulette" where I pick a DVD off the rental shelf at random. Imagine my utter shock when I got it home and saw on that rating screen that it was PG13! Thank God they told me that before it was too late! I got up right then and took the movie back to the store without having to sit through a minute of it! Seriously, though, I could see them being useful in the case of a teen renting an R or NC17 rated movie, the parent seeing the rating screen, and not letting the kid watch the movie based on that. However, since they are on some releases but not others a viewer can't actually plan beforehand to use them to make a decision so chances are the very one a parent might find objectionable if shown the rating screen won't have it. Besides I see these screens as much or more on PG movies than R. I'm sure I'll see or remember more that could be on this list, but I think I've covered the most common ones. Maybe all my griping will amount to nothing more than me listening to myself or a bunch of readers thinking I'm a wacko. For all I know my pet peeve here is not one that many other people share. But if you do agree with me shout it out! Let 'em know we're mad as fire, and we're not going to take it anymore!!! OK, so that's a tad bit dramatic, but we would like to call attention to it before it gets any more out of hand, let them know that we're taking notice and we care.  |
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