Directors Commentary
One of my favourite features of most DVDs is the director’s commentary (excluding the awful commentary on Terminator 3).
Which is why I’ve been agitating for a similar feature in our FLFBs (full life flashbacks).
You know how people say they can see their lives flashing before their eyes when they have near-death experiences? Well, we were so fed up with the cliché that we got the boys in R & D to develop something that would give people the sensation of their lives flashing before them.
It worked so well in the limited release trial that we’re rolling it out existence-wide. I’m pushing the development team to put commentary into version 2. I’m envisioning a (probably slightly tweaked) internal monologue, akin to the devil / angel conscience that we definitely haven’t ever used. Seriously, where did that cliché come from? That would never be effective at all… People learn from the consequences of their actions, having some weird sanctimonious sod sitting on your shoulder all the time telling you to be nice is far too much work for us. People would get dependant on guidance one way or the other, and then - bang! - freewill has evaporated.
No, this idea is much more subtle, making someone them re-live past mistakes is a great teaching tool. But having them say to themselves “Well, that was a fuck-up” while they’re doing it; well, let’s just say it should help re-enforce the point. I was all for including alternative endings too, but that was rejected by the early review team as being “liable to cause proof of religion” which is a cardinal sin.
The only problem so far with development is that it would requires us to fool someone into thinking that they’re genuinely thinking the thoughts on the commentary; and I suck at impersonations.