Understanding the applications and practice of DVD menu design and authoring

Conventions

+R- DVD+R are recordable only once so once they have content on them they can’t be used again.

+RW- DVD+RW are rewritable which means can be used multiple times by the user.

-R and -RW- DVD–R and –RW have a quicker write speed. Apart from this they are fairly similar to the other plus DVDs.

Dual Layer: This is an upgraded disc with a higher capacity of storage size within the DVD. Storage is up to 8.5GB per disc which is almost double the amount on a standard disc. Although because these discs can store more information they don’t burn as fast as the other formats may.

Writing Speed – Writing speed is the speed that the disc will burn at for example a disc could burn information at so many megabits per second. Writing speeds differ on what format you use for example if you use a DVD or CD the information will burn faster than a Blu-Ray.

Audio – There are a few formats of audio. The most popular are Mono or Stereo or Surround Sound. Mono is routed through one channel, stereo is routed through two. The quality of the DVD is key to the quality of sound.

Video –Depending on the quality of the film and the size of the DVD the film may need a higher sized format. For example the more information being put on the DVD will affect the quality of the film.

Menus – When you play a DVD you are handed options for example there are the play button, scene selection, extras and in some cases an interactive side of the DVD (This is more common on children’s DVDs). They are created to help sell the film and to offer more to the DVD buyer.

Additional Features – Things like subtitles are common place now on most DVDs if not all and allows the viewer who may be hard of hearing of if the film is in a different language to at least enjoy the film like everyone else. Different languages are something that would take a lot of time for the production company to do but it has the advantage of selling the film on an international scale. Easter Eggs are little surprises placed into a DVD by the film maker maybe the director and are like a reward to the customer for buying the DVD. Animations are the first thing that you see when a DVD menu comes up – The animation can be anything from the animation of the ‘play’ and other buttons available for you to press, or what’s going on in the background. Animations can be used to keep the audience interested before the start of the film. Digital Theatre Systems The first commercial use of digital sound on a large scale, this was first used during the release of Jurassic Park. It’s a digital surround system that offers up to six channels HD audio. The first use for this technology was in the film Jurassic Park, but since then the technology has been applied to DVDs and Blu-Ray. Dolby is the sound used to bring a DVD menu to life. This is a sound system that makes the sound quality much better, reducing unwanted noise or ‘hiss’. Printable discs are a common place on all DVDs that are professional produced; any movie that you buy from the store will more than likely have a print already of them showing the poster of the DVD itself. Regional codes were designed for Film Distributors to protect content, release dates, and change prices according to a certain region. For example a film bought in the US can’t be played on a UK DVD player as the American DVD is Region 1 and the UK is region 2. Copyright protection is put in place by the makers of the film to prevent thief’s having their work for free and this means that the film can be protected by law. Parental Controls are a relatively new thing and are used now there is even a special DVD player specifically designed to stop anything you don’t want your child to see.

Functions and elements within DVD menus

I have started my DVD analysis using the DVD menus for Inglorious Bastards and No Country for old men. All the screenshots have all have decriptions of why there are there along with the different functions the buttons offer.

 

 

 

 

Unit 31 Task 5 - The Evaluation

Unit 31; Task 5

My Contribution

Over this project I was in the roles of first assistant director and camera operator. My first contribution to this project was in the idea generation process because as a group two of us had similar ideas but none of us could have agreed on one set idea. Once we had a basic idea we all decided to make into a comedy sketch sort of video which was to prove to be a good idea but it all depended on whether or not we could make a funny video. My contribution to this part of the work was to make several comedy sketches that we could put into the film and make it funny but serious at the same time.

Once we had a few ideas on what we were going to do us then had to put them into some sort of order and make sure that they are all making a point and are making sense. After that we had to knock out a few problems most notably if we were doing a grim reaper style comedy we needed a grim reaper outfit, which lead to my next contribution to this project as I knew a friend who had one and this meant all that was left to solve were locations. We didn’t have to use locations in and around the college or its grounds it was just that they were there and it would have been pointless to look for somewhere we didn’t need.

When it came to filming as a camera operator I worked closely with our director to make sure that we get the best quality film. We have made sure that the shots look nice enough and that all the shots are carefully shot.

When it came to the finished product I had to work on getting music along with editing the film. Finding the right music was the hardest part of the whole project.

The first survey

I started by posting a survey on Survey Monkey to see what might make people quit/not start smoking. I gathered a total of 17 responses to this survey and the results that we got helped to plan what we would include in the video. This research was also quantitative research and not qualitative since it was a survey. 

The research showed that the majority of people knew different signs and way that smoking effects health which is good because then we can put more messages into the film and this means that the film has more of an effect.
 

What did the final survey show?

The film has been placed on YouTube and using social networking site Facebook I am going to gather more research using survey monkey, which will gather quantitative research for my film. So far the film on YouTube has achieved over 100 views on the master copy online but my survey has got 11 responses.

When I look at my research I can see that almost all the people who watched my anti-smoking film found that they could tell all of the messages presented in the film. This is good because it tells us that what we set out to do worked and the audience could clearly tell every point we were trying to make.

In the research we could see that there was a fairly even split between male and female that took the survey. This is good because it gives more of a variety to the survey. We can also tell form the survey that the majority of people who filled it out were in our target audience and this means that we get more of a split in the audience.

 

Matching the Cut films criteria

Relevance to theme – I think that the film is relevant to the theme because it’s a smoking film obviously. I would say that the message is clear as you can tell that ‘death follows the smoker’. From the research we have we can tell that the film dos persuade people not to smoke. The film doesn’t contain anything about the financial cost of smoking but it does include the physical cost of smoking.

Impact – The films effect is stretched out over the film and this has worked for us as we can tell from the survey research. The film I think does grab the attention of the viewer and makes the viewer think about smoking and its actions. I think that the comedy of the film stays with the viewer and I found this out using the survey in which people did say the film had a lasting effect on them. We have taken an original way of looking at smoking and make it into an unoriginal idea.

Appeal to target audience – The majority of people who filled out the survey were of the age of our target audience as they were aged between 17–21 and the results showed they understood and enjoyed the film. I feel young people would share it again, although we got no research on this from my personal experience people are more likely to share something they enjoy and the survey showed young people enjoyed the film.

Technical experience – The quality of the filming was to a regular standard in some shots it’s a little dark or a bit grainy and they should have been shot in a better way and better thought through. The storyline is clear and the idea comes across well on the screen and the structure follows a linear set up from when he starts smoking to following him through his day. We only used music in our film so sound quality wasn’t an issue for us. The imagery was given added value with us deciding not to use sound on our production and I think that the imagery provides a good enough message to the viewer.

Research – We researched enough to make the film and some more. With the film we felt that we needed to show the effects of smoking on the body and we found these by going on to the NHS website and reading some of the books in the library but the books used can be trusted as they might be American books and not relevant to UK research.

My Conclusion

In conclusion I would say that if I judge the film’s success on the results received on the survey I can concluded that the film delivered the right message to the right audience. Although only qualitative research was carried out it gathered a fair amount of responses which means that the research carried out is more accurate to what the audience thought of the film.