DVD Authoring evaluation
To start this project I had to design some menus that would
be a plan for making the menus themselves. When it came to the planning stage I
looked at other DVDs which were both professionally made and made by other
students in the past. After looking at the other menus and deciding what menus I
can make given my skills with Photoshop, Encore and Premiere pro. In the end I decided
on simple designs which would be enough to look professional and enough to get
me the grade that I wanted.
I started by making a flowchart of what I wanted to create.
The flowchart was going to map out my DVD and show me where everything would go
for example I devised my scene selection into 5 different points and then
decided what times they would match up with on the film and subsequently on the
DVD. The flowchart was going to have a
few changes here and there by the time I’d finished the project and I would add
any changes at the end.
Once my flowchart was finished I then decided to sketch out
my designs onto a piece of A4 which will be used as evidence. My drawing skills
aren’t great but I still know that my drawings are accurate and anyone can tell
what I’m trying to make at the end of the project. To start I drew my DVD cover
which would consist of the main image on the front and back with the two images
being cut by the spine which I struggled for a design for so I settled on black
and that meant that I kept an colour scheme going although it was dull to just
keep a black spine but yellow and black seemed to work.
Then I worked on my DVD menu and this meant also working out
which image I would put on the background and then work out what button would
go where. I began by putting the picture which I had used on the front cover on
my DVD as the menu screen. The picture
would feature the name of the film on the top with the options to play, go to
scene selection and then to the extras below it and that seemed to work because
it kept the screen tidy and in order.
I started the DVD label last because it seemed like the
easiest thing to do because it was the smallest and there would be fewer
details on the disc. The image that I had chosen for this piece of art work
would be the stage at the Fleckt pets gig before they went on. The image worked
well and then I added a BBFC rating at 12 because my film contained some bad
language and I didn’t fancy making something that would be only a PG.
The difficulty’s I experienced were minimal. One problem
that I had was that I never took any pictures while I was out filming so that
meant that all the photos that I needed had to come from the footage I had got.
There were no real difficulties while I was making these menus and this meant
that I was able to complete them at a fair pace.
Using Photoshop,
Encore and Premier pro
I did the majority of my menu design using encore but in the
early stages of the design I used Photoshop to tidy up some images and then to
put them into encore I needed them to be Photoshop files. In the early stages of
using encore I was running like the rest of the class at a basic level but
after watching some tutorials on YouTube I was able to grasp more of the basic
and was free to have a bit more freedom on the software I was using.
Encore was the real challenge for me on this project as my
lack of knowledge about the software hindered me. Once I had my basic menus which
had been made using Photoshop I imported them into the program and then started
adding text which would later become buttons and one I had one page done I could
just continue onto other pages and get them done. Once all of my pages where
set up I then continued onto making the buttons for all my material I would be
using.
Once my buttons and pages where all set up that’s when I decided
to bring in the content that I would be needing for the project and this meant
that all the material would have to be exported on premier pro in the MPEG DVD
file format so they could be put onto the DVD. I had to also export all of my
extras as well as my main film to be put onto the project.
Once all the files where on the Encore project I could then
add them to the buttons that were set up already and then once I’d linked the
footage to the buttons and once I got all of the DVD working and going to the
right links and into the right places. After
everything was set up I could then take the DVD up to a more advanced level and
to try and raise the bar for the menu.
Linking up buttons to the rights pieces of footage and then
sound was the most difficult part of the whole project and the most difficult
part of the whole project was when it came to rerouting the directors
commentary because we couldn’t put the film on the disc twice so we had to set
the sound to match two separate pieces of audio to one piece of film. I have
managed to do it over the space of just an hour and a half after watching the
tutorial which was on the VLE.
The finished
project
In my evaluation of my final project is that my project is
good as it works and it is a fully functioning DVD that works with its entire
links and has some music to give the menu some life. During this project I learned
a lot about the different pieces of software that I used for example I used
encore and Photoshop to a good level and these skills will be useful to me in
the future.
Once i had the DVD back I made another normal copy and went down to the green room to test the DVD on the TV to make sure it worked on another piece of technology other than the computer. I have made sure that the DVD that will be handed in works and that the case and label are on properly and that it looks good enough to hand in.
