DVD Menu Assignment

Week 1 Tuesday September 7^th

Today is the second day of college and this course. We have been told to create an account on blogger.com which I am currently writing on. We had also been instructed by Harry to send links to our bloggers by emailing him them. Which I have just done. Today we looked at a few film posters and annotated them pointing out things like the logo, the title being in the centre of the poster, if it says “In 3D”, the date, a website, previous credits from the makers’ other films such as “From the producers of THE RING and THE GRUDGE”, the slogans, actor credits, other credits at the bottom and quotes from film critics like “Katie Holmes does the finest acting of her career – The New York Post”.

Week 1 Wednesday September 8^th

Today we have just started to develop ideas for a movie that we are going to make a film poster for. This will only be an exercise but we are going to be making DVD menu’s and to make a DVD menu, we must first come up with a film idea and make a poster for that so we have a very good idea to know how our DVD menu’s will be like. I thought of three film ideas, The Immortal Girl, The App of Time and The Invisible Pervert.   

Week 2 Tuesday September 14^th

Today in the first 2 hour lesson, I was in E22, the lecture theatre. My class were watching on the big TV screen DVD menu’s. Andy put on loads of DVD menus and we had to take notes on the codes, conventions and elements in them such as the buttons, the rollover effects, the animations and if it’s on auto-play or on a loop. In the afternoon, we went into the computer rooms and had to do a task sheet where we looked at four different random DVD menu’s. We had to write the film name, the genre, the element(s), and what the element does and how it interacts with other elements. I wrote about The Breakfast Club, The Hurt Locker, Frost/Nixon and Fast Food Company.

Week 2 Wednesday September 15^th  

Today I have used Adobe Photoshop. I have used it before because last year, I did a media course  at this college that was First Diploma in Media which involved using Photoshop, I have since then known exactly how to use all the features on it but today I am learning a bit more on it unlike last year where I did not learn as much. Also today, Andy showed us a lot of convenient websites for us to use and told us to favourite them in internet explorer.

Week 2 Friday September 17^th

Today we looked at what are the most used/most viewed/most popular websites. Before we looked at them, we were put in pairs of three and discussed what could be the most popular ones. Then we got shown what are the most popular ones.

Week 3 Wednesday September 22^nd

Today, I did the film poster analysis on the computer so all I have got left to do now is to finish creating my moodboard which I will take home to finish. It will also be easier to do it at home because I have glue and lots of newspapers/magazines to use for my moodboard. I will have it completed by Friday for when I see Simon. And I also got a bit more experience with Photoshop.

Week 3 Friday September 24^th

Today, I brought in the homework that I finished yesterday where I had to finish making my moodboard so I could scan it on the College scanners today and upload it into Adobe Photoshop CS3. In Adobe Photoshop CS3, I had to annotate the moodboard to say the reasons as to why I put those images/text in there. I put them in because my idea was about a person who love music and magazines and finds out how to become invisible and uses his powers to steal things and scare people. I preffered doing my moodboard at home because here at college, there was not that much glue or magazines to go around but at home I had some magazines I could use and I also had glue at home. The one on the left is what is looked like first, the one on the right has the annotation I added.

Week 4 Wednesday September 29^th 

So far in the first hour in this class with Harry, we have been tested about the things we have learned in the last few weeks, we needed to write down 3 things that we need to write down in our blogs every week, 3 things that we have learned from the Adobe Photoshop tutorials we've done since last week, and 3 things that we needed to consider thinking about for our own film posters which would be about the iconography, colour & composition and the set up of the canvas. He timed us to write down/answer these questions for 15 minutes, I did ask for help with the iconography and what it means and colour and composition but it was still good to ask so I could have a clear understanding of these tasks.

For the rest of this lesson, I had to get started on making my poster for my movie idea. I got my images from Google images but there are some which I will need that I could not find on the internet so for my homework that I'm setting myself, I will do some original photography at home where I will take a picture of my iPod with headphones plugged into them. I will place the headphones in a certain place and take the picture from a certain angle, when I take the picture, I will edit it in Adobe Photoshop CS3. The main thing I will need to do when I edit it is to take out the background. So far I am half way finished making my film poster. I am also coming into College tomorrow even though I have no media lessons because I'm retaking my GCSE English and I need to come in from 1:15 - 3:45, I will stay after 3:45 in open access where I can use Adobe Photoshop CS3 to do my film poster. I may even come in earlier instead to get more done.

Week 4 Friday October 1^st

Today, I finished making my film poster for Harry and Simon, the film poster is "The Invisible Pervert". I came into College yesterday because I do English and after English was over, I went into Open Access to do some more work then. I stayed until 6pm because that was when my friend finished class. So I stayed in open access to do work for over 2 hours. I did some original photography for the picture of the iPod I took. I actually took a picture of it laying on the floor and I placed the headphones in a place where someone would hear it. I took the picture and when I got it in Adobe Photoshop CS3, I took out the background to make it look as if it's floating in the air being held by the invisible person (or should I say, The Invisible Pervert). Today, I completely finished the poster and now I have moved onto the part where I need to do research into the final product.

Week 5 Wednesday October 6^th  

Today, I spent the first two hours making my moodboard and printing it out, that is now complete. My moodboard was relevant to the type of genre for my film poster, a type of Comedy/Drama/Thriller. I now learned how to use Adobe Encore and mess around with it. Adobe Encore looks easier than I thought it was going to be and I have got an idea on what I am going to do for my DVD Menu, I just need to do my planning & sketches for my menu.

Week 6 Wednesday October 12^th  

Today, I continued to use Adobe Encore. I learned more about how to use the software and Harry was giving us some tutorials on how to do certain things, we got shown how to make the homepage of a DVD menu by using Adobe Photoshop CS3. We also had to get our note taking material out and list down all the things that should be in our red production folders right now. I also continued to do my "Research into final product" and I finished the planning bit where I had to do 6 sketches for my DVD menu. When we were making homepages for DVD menu’s, it was just a test and could be as basic as possible. I just got a random Simpsons picture of Nelson Muntz and made “play” text with some random font. When we label layers, we had to put a “(=1)” at the beginning of the name of the label so that Adobe Encore will read it as a button editable in Adobe Encore. I managed to link it to another page and link it back to the home page.

Week 6 Friday October 15^th

Today I have been continuing doing the planning, sketches and my PowerPoint presentation for my DVD menu. I scanned my sketches on to the computer by using a scanner and changed the settings to make it viewable and then I got it into Microsoft PowerPoint, I can now talk about the sketches I drew in my PowerPoint when I present to the class my idea for my DVD menu. I’m mentioning in my presentation how these will not be 100% accurate to the final product.

Week 7 Wednesday October 20^th 

Today, I started to do my proposal, I have currently not finished it yet but I am going to do it for homework. Today was the last day and this Friday is an inset day so we do not need to come in for that day and we also have half term next week so we do not return to college until Tuesday November 2nd. This will mean I have almost 2 weeks off and I can use that time to catch up on any outstanding work I have yet to complete. After going to break, we all got a tutorial by Harry to show us how to make animations on Adobe Photoshop CS3. I managed to make a fish and a snail race each other and just had this on a loop. I originally put just an apple and then I saved it, then an apple racing a snail but never saved that but then I made a snail racing a fish. I changed it from an apple to a fish because it made more sense. It was strongly amusing to me and my peer. The videos are available to view on my blog.

These are screenshots of my animations I made in Adobe Photoshop CS3.

Week 8 Tuesday November 2^nd

Today I uploaded my photos on to my computer and added them into Photoshop to use in my DVD menu. During my week off at half term I took some original photography with my camera. I uploaded them today and I have now added some text for buttons like "play", "scenes", "set up" and "extras". I also finished my proposal during half term and what I need to do now is to make these into buttons for when I add them into Adobe Encore. So far, I think that all of my work in my red folder for Simon & Harry is up to date.

Week 8 Friday November 5^th  

Today, I continued adding images into Adobe Photoshop CS3 and added text for the buttons that I would use in my DVD menu, for the main menu I have now added some animation of an iPod floating in the background from the left side of the screen to the right side of the screen. The image of the iPod I used was the same iPod I used in my film poster of The Invisible Pervert. I was actually the one who took that picture of that iPod and edited it out in Photoshop and I have mentioned this a few weeks ago in a previous blog post, I did not take any images from Google Images like I did for all the other images that I used in my film poster because that was an exercise. Because I took the photo of my iPod, that is original photography that I can still use in my DVD menu. My DVD menu is only allowed original photography and no images on the internet. I have not yet finished doing all of this and I will be doing it as homework to be done before next Tuesday. The font that I have used for all the text in this is Kristen ITC. The Image that I took was an image that I took during my week off at the park as I have explained before that in this imaginary film that I have created, The Invisible Pervert goes to the park with his iPod while invisible.

Week 9 Friday November 12^th  

This week, we have been creating our DVD menu pages in Adobe Photoshop CS3 and have then added them to Adobe Encore to link together. I found this enjoyable but there were a lot of problems. I found it hard to follow the process of adding the codec’s but I asked for help and read the booklet numerous times and eventually got it, I added buttons and I got them working in Encore by linking them to other pages but the rollover effects didn't work. I tried everything but it was still not working, I asked for help but even Simon couldn't figure it out. Eventually, we realised that it was because of the blending options. So I removed the blending options and it worked but it wasn't the colour I wanted it. After doing a few more adjustments, it stopped working again and I don't know why. For now I'm going to work on the rest of the menu and save the rollover effects until last.

Week 10 Wednesday November 17^th  

Today I did some more work on my DVD menu and focused on the animation. I have almost figured out how to do it and I am learning more how to use it. Because of this I will need to ask for more help on exporting the animations I make in Photoshop into Encore.

Week 10 Friday November 19^th  

Today I came into College an hour late because I had to go to the doctors. When I arrived, Andy told me the work I needed to do, he also noted that "I had not been keeping up to date at all with my blog", I knew this was untrue because I know I have been writing on my blog every week. However, when Andy went to my blog, nothing appeared. I realised all this time I have been writing on this blog but nothing has appeared because I made the blog wrong and gave a wrong blog address because I made a brand new blog for every day. So all the stuff I did write, I copy & pasted it into a new blog post with a new link. I have now sent an email to Harry and Andy asking them to delete the current link to the blogger under my name and replace it with this new blog link.

Later on today, I had my feedback from Simon for what I need to do or improve. Simon showed me my production diary and made me look through my red folder which had all my work and tick off everything I have done. The things I have not done were what I had to write down in my action plan. These were to write about "Initial aims - final idea (detailed)" which was where I was supposed to write last September about my final idea for a movie idea/film poster idea. I won't have a problem writing that because I know exactly what I am going to say in it. I will say a summary about The Invisible Pervert. I was also told by Simon that I need to update my contingency plan document because since I write that and printed it out, I have faced a few problems since that I didn't think of or wrote in my contingency plan document. I also got told to expand more on my blog (Simon saw this entire blog after I sorted out the problem and rewrote it) by adding more detailed information and screenshots or just images of my work such as my film poster and screenshots of my DVD menu so far. I also finished my animation for my DVD menu.

The last thing I was told to do that wasn't in my folder and have not done at all was a moodboard for my DVD menu where I make a moodboard based around DVD menu's. I am going to write up my initial aims - final idea, update my contingency plan and re print it, expand a bit on my blog and find images to use from Google images or from screenshots of some of my DVDs for homework to be done by Tuesday. I will make the moodboard in class next Tuesday once I get some images to use over the weekend. I also don't have Photoshop at home.

Week 11 Wednesday November 24^th

Today in Harry's class we have been learning a few things about keeping on track and up to date. He has said to us about how we need to find help for ourselves instead of ask him, for example, if we were stuck on adding animation from Photoshop into Encore, we should go to Google and look it up, watch video tutorials about it online, read Photoshop/encore guide books, take notes in class etc. I found a website to help me with my rollover effects which is http://digitalproducer.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=25879 Harry has said about if we ask him or one of our classmates for help on doing things like these, that is a form of plagiarism because it is them doing the work not me. It is like saying you can't write something so you get someone who can to write everything for you.

I think that at this point, I will not be able to finish everything in this unit by next Friday, December 3rd. So this is why I am going to come into college on my days off and do work then. I am already coming into college tomorrow anyway because I do GCSE English from 1:15 - 3:30. I may come in either a few hours before 1:15 or stay behind after 3:30 in Open Access to do work.

Week 13 Wednesday December 8^th

Today, I took notes about what is going to happen next week. Next week is review week. It was going to be this week however, there was snow last week making college closed because of the weather. And we weren't told about review week because we didn't attend last Friday plus we weren't able to submit our DVD menu work last Friday, but now, review week is going to be next week and we have got until this Friday to submit this work. I am going to come into college tomorrow to finish off everything that needs to be done for this assignment.

In review week, I will need to come in to college at 11:15 to E22 to have a 1 to 1 with the teachers and they will tell me about how I can improve on my work. We will also need to come in on Friday at 11.15 in E22 to resubmit work, EMA signing and the Christmas assignment. E21 will be available on Monday & Tuesday at 2:15 - 5:15 and Wednesday & Thursday all day. All that I need to do is get my rollover effects done and the evaluation then I can submit everything. And I will need to burn it on to a DVD disc in the correct format which would be PAL/Region 2.

Friday December 10^th

Today was the deadline to submit all of our DVD menu work. I still had to finish my DVD menu but I left that until last and I did all the paperwork for the first 3 hours, printed it all out and put it all in a folder in the right order. I looked at the production schedule on Chi Online to see what order all the work needs to be in. I am also printing out this blog as a hard copy, but I’m not just going to my blog and click print pages. I copied and pasted it all into Microsoft Word to make it all look neat and it would also be in order of date, the dates of the entries I made in my blog were backwards. As in September posts being at the bottom and December posts being at the top.

When I got on to a computer that had Encore, I got my external hard drive and started to check everything was ok and ready. But before I did that, I decided to add an image of a smiley face and said “under construction” so I could use it for buttons that would not link to anything. I remember learning about this last Wednesday because Harry said “this is what professionals like to do”. When I linked the image to the menu buttons I then redirected the page to the last page it was on. I also had a problem with rollover effects, only 1 button would have a rollover effect but none of the other buttons would, however, Simon assured me it was ok because I have showed that I have learned how to use rollover effects.

The big problem I had was my project in Adobe Encore became corrupt because a file got corrupt and I couldn’t delete it. I asked Simon for help and he said I would have to start a new project in Encore and add all the images, menus, videos, layouts etc. in again and link them all up. After doing this. I updated my contingency plan and added this issue, updated and printed my blog for the last time.