It appears as if Gina, An Actress, Age 29 is set to be included on a DVD supplement to the 2nd edition of Richard Barsam's Looking at Movies
. (My agreement with the publisher is non-exclusive, so Gina will still be for sale on its own even after the book/dvd come out.) If you want to get the book with the DVD it will be out sometime... in the near future. That's all I know at the moment.
Anyway, as part of all this, yesterday I got an email from the publisher asking if I want to do a director's commentary for the DVD. I've always been reluctant to do something like this because I think they have the risk of coming off as boring or pompous or both. (Exceptions: Anything by Paul Verhoeven, most of the stuff on Criterion, and a few others.) But since this is for "educational purposes" and, I guess, since someone has requested it from me, I'm weighing it out now.
So, dear readers, what do you think? Has anyone done one? Was it fun? Worth it? Do you cringe when you listen to it now? Also, how did you do it? Was it just you blabbing away, or did you have a sidekick feeding you questions and lines like "It's a genre film, but it's very untraditional."? Anyone have any inventive ideas about how to make it interesting? If not, maybe I'll just politely decline. I'm not sure I even have the time -- it has to be done by the beginning of April and I'm pretty busy right now.
