DVD Authoring evaluation

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.