Week Twelve

Week 12 was only a half week as on the Wednesday i was over in spain for a few days.  But what i did this week was burn my DVD to disc using Encore.

Once i opened Encore along from the project tab on the top left i went to burn.  I first did a test to see if the links and timelines had end actions, and linked to the correct menu / timeline.  Once this was conducted i proceeded to burn the disc.

The picture above shows what the screen would look like when you click on the burn tab, it comes up with check project which is what i did first of all.  Making sure there were no orphan timelines or dead end links.  Then under the write speed i changed this down to the lowest speed, i did this so that everything burnt clearly and correctly (including the rollover links).

Here you can see how much space you have left on your DVD, you can change the name that appears on the DVD when you place it into a computer, laptop or mac.  At this point you can pick what layer you want to record on if you have a dual layer DVD disc inserted.

I didn't want to make my disc a specific region, but if i wanted to have it so it could only be played in region 2 (Japan, Europe, South Africa and the Middle East) i could have done so at this point in the burn process.

At the bottom of the burn process you can choose to add an encryption to the disc to stop it from being illegally copied.  If you choose yes you need to choose the marcovision which is defaulted to off but can highlight either type I / II or III.

Once i had completed this process i then proceeded to burning the disc, as the total space used was less then 200mb it didn't take much time to successfully transcode and burn to the disc.  All i need to do know for my project is complete the evaluation.

My evaluation was completed on Tuesday November 30th, i wrote about the equipment i used and why we used it.  How i would have improved my work if i could start the project again, and with the feedback i was given i discussed how i would have responded to the feedback given more time.  Once thing that i did manage to change according to the feedback was the transitions, i managed to do the transitions after watching many tutorials on youtube.  Each link has got a traisition (exept the easter egg button on the main menu) which see's various elements of the text to fade out and move of the screen.  Which i thought was a great addition to what you would normally see on a DVD front end menu.

Week Eleven

This week has been spent getting all the final touches finished for my DVD menu.  I have had feedback about the menu and at this late stage would not be practical to get the changes done in time.  So i will just put these in my evaluation for improvements for next time.

I have now finished the product evaluation, i am just needing to complete a few more little bits that need to go into the folder ready for the 3rd December.

Over the weekend i will look over the production log and make notes on what i need to complete and will be working on these Sunday and Monday, ready for submission on the Friday afternoon.

Also over the weekend i will be looking at various different youtube tv adverts, so i can start to get an understanding of the way they are constructed and the subliminal messages that are placed within them.  Also looking at the power of 3's, and comparing these to the power the the recent cadbury's adverts where the product is not mentioned once.

Week Ten

This week was spent getting all the audio together and working on the animation for the DVD.  I got the audio form Youtube and just put them onto Encore after being imported as a timeline.

I will use this video and stagger it up into snippets and use these in Photoshop to create a animation that will be used in the DVD Menu.

I have got various sounds including;

• Heaving breathing,
• Footsteps,
• Male screaming, and 
• Heartbeats

Week Nine

This week has been spent completing my DVD Menu, getting all the designs put together with the images i have taken.  Below are a few of the menu designs i have made that will do in the final product;

As you can see in the image above there is a block of flats, these flats are where the film is based 90% of the time.  The film is based around the films paranormal activity and quarantine in the fact that strange things happen and are filmed on hand held cameras.  They all try to escape but the doors are locked and there is no way out.

All the links have a red underline, and there is an easter egg on the page as well where you see HELP written in one of the flat windows.  You will only be able to access that by pressing left on the bonus features button.

The image in this page shows the for sale sign, this is because the reason why the film is based in the flats is because a young couple buy the flat in the first place.  All the links have the same rollover as the main menu (generic theme throughout the DVD menu).  All the language links will then revert back to the main menu where those settings would have been made.

To get the image to blend with the background i used the masking tool, and then a brush tool with the hardness reduced and then blended along the edges to reduce the harshness.

The most technical menu on the DVD is the scene selection, i had to code the thumbnails using the (%) into the button (+) folder.  The way i layered the images in Photoshop that when you go to link the thumbnails in Encore you will have the numbers and the blood at the top of the images.

Week Seven & Eight

This week i had to present my presentation to the group, after correcting the problem with the videos i was ready to present.  I discussed the film i was to do, my initial ideas through to the final idea, codes and conventions of a horror film, as well as giving a couple of visual demonstrations of what animations i want to put into the final design.

I continued to design the DVD menus, and looking at tutorials online to help me in terms of using Adobe Encore CS5 effectively and efficiently.

By the end of this week i had completed the Main menu and the Bonus features as well as the button codecs (coded in Photoshop).

Next week i hope to have completed the menu designs and the links, i will then work on getting the audio for each page and then the images that i need to put into each slide.

Week Six

Week 6 has seen me start to put together my presentation for my DVD research, i have completed it using Microsoft Powerpoint 2011.

I decided to make the presentation more about the visual work i would do instead of the verbal.  I put together 3 video slides that had both examples of what i would do for the DVD menu and also some current Horror film trailers, using them to discuss the camera shots i would use, transitions and type of audio that would be fitting.

When i came to presenting my presentation, the .mov files didnt work.  So i had to wait til after reading week to complete my research part of the unit.

In the mean time i started to do some planning work for my DVD menus, i put together a flow chart so i knew what menus i needed to design and also what linked to where.

OVER THE READING WEEK I WILL CONTINUE TO DEVELOP THE DVD MENU DESIGNS  USING THE CODES OF CONVENTIONS AND RULE OF THIRDS.

Week Five

Monday i started to carry on with my research into the DVD menu, i spent the first lesson researching existing and similar films.  This week we have the following;

• The Last Exorcism
• Devil
• Buried

Week Four

Week four was spent completing the research element of my DVD front end design work, i spent most of the week sending e-mails and making telephone calls to various companies including DVD duplication, film crew hire, recording studio time, SFX supervisor and catering companies.  This was done so i can get a accurate budget together for my proposal and pitch.

I also spent the week completing my contingency plan, i used elements from the production budget to form a contingency plan for example delays in editing post production.

THURSDAY


We were given a separate assignment from Andy to do an 'idiots' guide to digital imaging on Photoshop.  This included different file formats and colour modes.

Over the weekend i have been completing the final parts of my DVD menu design, ready to pitch my proposal Tuesday.

Week Three

FREE TIME:

This week i will be looking at the basics of Adobe Encore in my own time, browsing YouTube videos about DVD front end authoring.  I will them start my own little project to see if i can put these basic skills into practice.

I have now completed my Unit 58 assignment about DVD front ends and regioning.  This is ready for submission on Thursday AM.

COLLEGE TIME:

This week we will be completing the film posters ready for handing them in at the end of the week, once this is complete we will be starting to do sketches for our DVD front end design.  I have already started to look at encore and after effects tutorials to get a basic understanding of the new pieces of software.

Last week we did our first photoshop workshop in which i learnt a couple of new things, the first thing i learnt was that you can backtrack so if you make a mistake you can press Ctrl + Alt + Z this take you back more than once.  the second thing i learnt in the workshop was the Background Eraser Tool this is much better than the magic wand tool, you can change how much tolerance you get, ranging from just the 1 colour through to many.  The last thing i got taught was the difference between RGB and CMYK Colours the RGB is geared for web / internet and the CMYK is for print.

The things i have considered when i have been designing the poster is the iconology such as the font, background images, and colours.  Also a very important thing that needs to be considered is the rule of thirds, and the colour composition.

The canvas type as its for print is it needs to be between 150 - 300 dpi, this is so the clarity of the picture is higher and reduces the chance for graining.  The colour ratio needs to be set up as CMYK and not RGB.

Film Poster


After alot of different ideas, i have finally completed my film poster.  I will not be making any adjustments to it as i feel the composition of the poster fits in with the Rule of Thirds.

We have now moved onto DVD Menu design, looking at getting an initial idea and researching existing horror films (horror is my choosen genre), i have started to do a brain storm and look at ways in which i can gather information together for my proposal.

Over the weekend i will try and find out more about film budgets and what exactly is included in them.  So by monday i will have a better idea when it comes to my proposal to put to Simon, Andy or Harry.  I will also be making some phone calls and e-mails to film production companies in terms of how much camera crews, boom mics, and recording studios will cost for making the interactive dvd menu.

I will update any findings and additional information on either the Week 4 blog or in a specific DVD menu blog that will be updated weekly.

Week Two

We were given the second part of the DVD menu analysis to complete this week, ready for official handing in on Thursday 30th September at 9.15am.  I have already completed part one, and just need to put abit about the advantages and disadvantages of different blank media burn speeds.

I have already spoken to Pixar about answering a couple of questions i have since e-mailed there publiciy team and are awaiting a response, i have also tried contacting LucasFilms (George Lucas Productions) and Dreamworks.  I will keep you posted when i have got replies.

This sesson we spent the first hour finishing off our moodboards, film sketches annotations, photoshop skills profile and film poster analysis.

I started off by completing my moodboard, scanning it onto the computer and annotating it via photoshop.  I choose the 3 film posters.  The Other Guy, Resident Evil Afterlife 3D and Bonded By Blood, i will complete the annotation of the moodboard at home tomorrow ready for printing Wednesday.  Below is the final moodboard that i have had scnanned in and started the annotation.

Friday afternoon i will be putting the final touches including various screenshots from other action films over the years, i will blend them in so they seemlessly go with the images that were scanned in.

My final printed moodbard is this.....

We have action shots from multiple action movies, as you can tell alot of the photos have dark colours on them, this is why i used Yellow for the annotation font colour.  This was done so it could stand out against the background.

Over the weekend i will complete my sketch annotations for my movie poster, and will complete the final copy (i hope) of my movie poster.

I have completed my film poster, this is hopefully the 3rd and final draft, i have used the rule of thirds to place the actors and also the action iamges behind.

Week One

Week One update, we have made a start on our Moodboards, i have based the board around a film poster template but i have got rid of the images that were there and am including various different fonts, colours, actors and action shots that are relevant to my film poster.

I have managed to remove a couple of the photos, but the rest of my time has been spent looking for various fonts and making sure they blend in with the background more.

Over the course of the weekend i will be adding more to the Moodboard with hopefully the completion by Saturday evening.  The final moodboard will be uploaded on here alongside todays work. 

  

 As you can see, i still have the picture at the bottom to remove from the board, i will do this with a mixture of blending and borders (using outer shadow).  I will have colours as the background with annotations in red, i will have action shots in the top and actors in the bottom area.  All actors, colours and fonts will be appropriate to the Action genre.  So to include films like Die Hard, Training Day, 7lbs and Fast and the Furious.

I have had a change of plan when it comes to my moddboard, below is the graphic design one, the organic one will follow over the weekend.

I have used a Die hard wallpaper as the background as one of my favourite action films, i have then included 3 snippets of a action film poster.  This shows and demonstrate the colours and font sizes and types.  All these will be considered when it comes to my final film poster.

The only difference in this is the inclusion of different fonts that could be used on a action film poster.