"Bridge to Terabithia" fan commentary

[G-Matt]

Now, first of all, let me tell you that this isn't my original idea. It was originally Kryptale's idea and, should he read this, he can tell more about the details, because I don't remember how the whole thing is done.

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a fan-made audio commentary for our favorite movie? I sure think so.

Here's the basic idea: All the participants would use a software/program like Skype so we can hear and talk with each other while we're watching the movie. We'd also use another program to record our voices, and then we'd send them to Kryptale who would then combine them all to one MP3 file that you can play during the movie.

So, what do you think? Anyone else willing to participate in this project?

P.S. Kryptale has told me that he'd want at least MadTom and IHateSnakes to be in the commentary. What your opinions on this, guys?

[madtom]

I'd love to participate. I've got Mac OS 10.4.11 Tiger and a 56K dialup. Not sure if there's software that my system can handle. I might be able to go to a public library or to a Kinko's and use one of their computers, but I'm not sure if I could watch the movie at the same time time under that setup.

[Kryptale]

The commentary can be recorded several ways, the best of which being all of the participants meeting in a VoIP (Voice over IP) application like Ventrilo or Skype so that we can all hear each other, and then everyone individually recording their own audio with a program called Audacity. After that, someone (probably me) nabs all of the audio from each participant and syncs them together. This is generally done for the best audio quality.

The other method is to use Ventrilo or Skype and simply record the audio through the applications. It won't sound great, but is the least complicated method as it records everyone's audio and requires no sync'ing.

I would prefer to do method number one, personally.

@ MadTom I'm not sure what software runs on Mac. I'm fairly certain you should be able to run Ventrilo or Skype, though I'm not certain about Audacity. The only issue we would run into is having you available for the duration of the movie and you not needing to use the phone line during that time. Also, using the Audacity method, audio files can be quite large to upload and could require several hours to complete.

[Steven]

Id be willing to participate if we decided to do this.

[madtom]

Does Skype require any new hardware? I have no idea if my built-in microphone even works on my computer if that's what it uses. I've never needed to record anything with that microphone or otherwise use it.

[Teranoid]

Oh man, I'd love to participate in this. I may not be as relevant to the community as most of ya'll ( ) , but I'm familiar with voice chat and wouldn't have much trouble getting set up for this.

The idea about syncing audio up with Audacity is definitely possible, but if you want to go an easier route I have a 25-person Ventrilo server with high quality voice enabled, and we can just record the conversation with the program itself. Of course, the only problem at that point is crosstalk (and could especially be a problem if people are using 56k, no offense Madtom. )

But to answer the earlier question, you absolutely can use Ventrilo on a Mac, and Skype is available as well, but I'm not as familiar with that program.

Skype doesn't really require much hardware beyond a sound card and yeah, a working microphone. If you aren't sure how to test your mic let me know, and I can try to help you out.

[G-Matt]

I've been thinking, and I think the most suitable time for most of us (I hope) to do the commentary could be at Christmas. I believe most of us will be on holidays etc. So, if you all are still willing to be in this project, what do you guys think?

[ihatesnakes]

I'm in! Rick

[Kenny]

What a cool idea!

It'd be a nice Xmas gathering.
Ventrilo sounds like a good idea and it's probably one of the easier programs to set up.

See you guys then

[Teranoid]

Count me in.

[Emily_McDonald]

That's BRILLIANT! Unfortunately, my computer is rather...stinky, and I doubt that I would be able to participate. (My participation percentage is about 2% out of 100. ) However, if you do it, I would love to watch it!!! Hope you do it!
--Emily

[G-Matt]

All right. Since there are now a few people who will participate, I think we should start planning this project while we still have time. I'm going to ask Kryptale if he could tell us in detail exactly what we need to do and so on. Or if somebody else here has some knowledge about this sort of stuff, feel free to give us advice as well.

[Teranoid]

Getting connected with voice chat and being able to record it, and add it as a commentary to the movie is fairly simple and is something that I, as well as I'm sure a number of others here can easily do. The tricky thing will be everyone trying to watch the video at the same exact time. I suppose the best thing would be to try and all hit Play at the same exact time.

[G-Matt]

Yeah, that's what I've been thinking. We need to make sure we start watching the movie at the exact same time. Another thing we have to be aware of is the length of the movie. I'm sure most of us have NTSC system, but others have PAL. In PAL the movie's length is a bit shorter than the "real" length in NTSC. We have to be sure that we all have the movie in NTSC format.

[madtom]

I've done a little research on Ventrilo and Skype. Looks like I can use Ventrilo but not Skype as my processor isn't fast enough for Skype.

This is all new to me. Still learning here. Does everyone have to be on the same system (Ventrilo vs. Skype), or can we all use different systems and still communicate with each other?

[G-Matt]

All right, I just downloaded Ventrilo for my Mac. I think we should try to test it some day soon. For me, the weekends, Monday morning, Thursday afternoon or Friday morning/afternoon would be suitable. Any other suggestions?

[madtom]

I'll download the Ventrilo Client program sometime soon. I'll have to play with it to see if I actually need hardware (earphone and microphone) for it to work on my computer.

Are we actually planning on doing this on Christmas Day? I'm not sure if I'll be home or at my lady friend's vacation home up in the Pocono Mountains, in which case I might have to use her computer which is much slower than mine. A lot of variables here.

[G-Matt]

Well, we haven't agreed on a specific date yet, but we are going to do the commentary somewhere during the Christmas holidays.

[Teranoid]

Ventrilo is a pretty simple program as far as how much of a toll it takes on your computer. As long as you can hear sounds and stuff normally, you'll be able to hear us talking after you set it up correctly (which I can help everyone with.) If you don't have a microphone, you can find them for $10 or less at many stores.

If you really don't want to get a microphone or have no possible way of getting one, if you have an extra pair of speakers or headphones, you can actually plug them into the microphone port and they *should* work. You just talk into the part you would usually hear from. That sounds insane but it's actually true. Who knew?!

We can't do cross-platform chat, ie. Ventrilo vs. Skype, but I'd say we should use Ventrilo solely because it's less of a toll on your system/bandwidth, and I am very experienced with Ventrilo, whereas I have very little experience with Skype.

I don't think we should do it on Christmas Day. Too many people will be busy throughout most of the day, myself included, so I think we should aim for something soon after.

Matt, why is the PAL version a bit shorter? Did they cut some stuff out?

[G-Matt]

Matt, why is the PAL version a bit shorter? Did they cut some stuff out?

No, the movie is uncut. The thing is that with PAL there's more frames per second than NTSC or something like that, and that makes the runtime a bit shorter.

And I agree. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day will be busy for most of us, so we should try to do the commentary sometime before or after.