But I'm thinking - it would also be worth scanning in the stills from NTV -
even though they're aren't many of them.
I.e. all the photos that have been used on the Monkey videos / DVDs, the photo
that was used on the front cover of The Big Issue In The North, the funny photo
of Monkey posing on the DVD Times online Monkey article etc. Even stills of the
monsters / demons would look good on the DVDs.
I was thinking of the photos / and slides you've received from NTV. I know you
said they aren't many of them, but there's all the ones that have been included
on The Associates web site for the media to use, including the one you sent to
The Big Issue In the North for them to use on the cover of their Monkey issue
cover, and the one on the press release on this page:
http://www.r2-dvd.org/article.jsp?sectionId=2&articleId=3707
I think you said there weren't that many pictures, so there weren't enough to split across all 13 DVDs (so you opted for screen captures from the video instead for the still galleries). But it would be good to have a one-off gallery on one of the DVDs - maybe a nice extra for DVD #13?
One of the best things about still galleries on DVDs is that they show photos of the characters posing for photos, not only scenes from the episodes.
Maybe, in addition to the regular still galleries, on one of the DVDs, you could add an extra "Publicity Stills" section, with the ones from NTV... just an idea :)
You could scan in all the photos / slides you've received from NTV. Very easy and cheap option! Lots of these are already scanned in hires, and are on The Associates web site.
Regarding stills, the only ones I have are on these pages:
1) 8 black and white stills from an NTV press pack:
http://www.monkeyheaven.com/pictures_page5.html
(click on them to see larger versions of them)
2) This wonderful on-set photo of Tripitaka:
http://www.monkeyheaven.com/masako.html
2) English scripts
I collected the scripts to the 39 English-dubbed Monkey episodes from Fabulous Films in August 2000. They're in paper form, and are quite faint. So to scan these in (around 2000 sheets) would be a huge task.
Maybe you could get them from NTV or the BBC in electronic form, to include them on the DVDs. You could include 3 scripts on each DVD, corresponding to the 3 episodes on each DVD.
I've not seen this personally, but apparently some DVD movies include the movie screenplay, in a DVD-viewable form (so you can page through it on your DVD player without needing to use a PC)
2a) English scripts for 13 unseen episodes
Take the electronic scripts done by Daigoro Films and convert them into a DVD onscreen presentable form.
3) Conceptual art
From NTV
4) Storyboards
From NTV
5) "Web site" pages in DVD-viewable form
E.g.:
- Character descriptions
- Song lyrics (I have all these on my site!)
- Episode synopses
- Narrator quotes
- Cast biographies
- Trivia
- Information about the people who did the English dubbing of Monkey
- Monkey Multiverse Article (this in an indepth article telling you
*everything* you ever wanted to know about Monkey, written by an Australian
Monkey fan, Nikki White, in 1981, for her "Multiverse" fanzine)
6) "Fan stuff"
E.g. pages from my web site.
Please feel free to take as much as you like from my Monkey! web site (as long as you credit me for them of course).
Things which might interest you are:
- Monkey drinking game
- Monkey Magic / Gandhara ringtones for programming into mobile phones
- Masaaki Sakai interviews in textual form
- David Weir interview (from Radio Times in 1979) in textual / image form
- Monkey fan art - see
http://www.monkeyheaven.com/gallery.html
- Information about the background of the Monkey story
- the original Chinese stories on which it was based etc.
- Monkey Magic / Gandhara ring tones for playing on mobile phones
- Monkey Magic / Gandhara guitar tabs for playing them on guitar
- The story of the day I met Masaaki Sakai in 1998
- Monkey Trivia / other information - see the Monkey Facts area on my web site:
http://www.monkeyheaven.com/facts.html
7) Theme tune "Monkey Magic" by Godiego as a DVD-Audio track
This could be played along with stills (Ash's new single "Burn Baby Burn" does this on the DVD-single). Future DVDs could have other songs from the Godiego soundtrack as DVD audio extras, such as Havoc in Heaven, Dragons and Demons, Gandhara, Thank You Baby etc.
8) A DVD player application such as PC_Friendly.
The Billy Elliott DVD has this and means at least for PC users it makes things a bit simpler.
9) Burt Kwouk reading the episode synopses (!?)
A strange one - someone suggested that when you show my Monkey episode synopses on screen, you could get Burt Kwouk (who did the narration for The Water Margin) to read them out to go along with the text on screen...
10) Masaaki Sakai text interviews
In the absence of new "video interviews" for the DVDs, maybe you could reproduce some of the Masaaki Sakai interviews that he did for Australian and British magazines / newspapers in 2000:
http://www.monkeyheaven.com/interviews_masaaki_actual.html
I.e. include them on the DVD in textual form.
The Masaaki Sakai interview from Front magazine (by William Chipperfield) is particularly impressive.
11) Trivia page
Have a Trivia page on each DVD, with just 3 or 4 snippet of trivia information about the show. Or a massive trivia section on one of the DVDs
Gradually, across all the DVDs, the viewer will find out loads of trivia about Monkey.
I could write these easily.
12) Quiz
Have a Quiz (multiple choice) on each DVD, with 9 or 10 questions about the episodes on the DVD. Given my notes from when I wrote all the episode synopses for the 39 episodes, I should be able to come up with 10 quiz questions per DVD very easily. Or a massive quiz on one of the DVDs.
13) Text of interview with David Weir
An interview with David Weir from the BBC’s Radio Times magazine around the time when Monkey was first shown on the BBC
14) Director commentaries
I wonder if commentaries on some of the Monkey episodes would work… since the directors of Monkey only speak Japanese... I wonder if a commentary with subtitles would work?
Here's a list of some of the Monkey episode directors:
Yusuke Watanabe
Jun Fukuda
Daisuke Yamazaki
It would be *great* to have one of these give (English-subtitled) commentary, if only for 1 episode! A rare insight into the making of Monkey – a real gem for Monkey fans.
15) Web links
Have a “Web links” section on the DVD, with links to Monkey sites, and also to web sites for the band members of Godiego (who did the music for Monkey) – a sort of “where are they now” type thing.
Note: This “Web links” section can be dual purpose – for people reading the DVD on their PC, they’d actually see an HTML page with actual links they can click on to go to the individual web sites - for people watching the DVD on their DVD player, they’ll see the URL text for each web site, so they can write it down and try it on their computers later
[note - if you need a list of URLs to put on a "Web links" page, I can send you one - for inclusion of the DVDs]
16) Cast biographies
For the main characters: Masaaki Sakai (Monkey), Toshiyuki Nishida (Pigsy, season 1), Shiro Kishibe (Sandy), Masako Natsume (Tripitaka)
17) Character descriptions
I can't write these for you - but I can tell you where to find them.
18) Episode synopsEs
On each DVD, have the synopsIs for each episode on it (i.e. 3 English-dubbed episodes and 1 undubbed episode)
19) Screensaver(s)
20) Wallpaper
21) Soundtrack music you can play without having to watch
22) DVD Credits page
A list of all those who created / contributed to the DVD presentation.
23) Where to buy the soundtrack
Link to an online CD store where you can buy the Monkey soundtrack CD by Godiego.