How does a family evening watching a Blu-Ray disc become a night class in film making? By turning on the director’s commentary!

Today’s DVD’s and Blu-Ray discs, with their extensive behind the scenes material and director’s commentaries are essential learning material for up and coming film makers and a valuable if unofficial film school. The extended versions of The Lord of the Rings trilogy included appendices which charted the making of the films in extraordinary detail. Whilst watching King Kong tonight, Peter Jackson’s director’s commentary I picked up so many valuable tips, including an important consideration for Amiri’s Child: Peter Jackson always has his principal cast available for a week during post production to reshoot any scenes which are not working in the editing. This would be extremely valuable for my work and something I hope to adopt, starting with Amiri’s Child.