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A
DVD projects usually falls into one of two categories: 1)
a simple transfer to disc, or 2) a professional release
to be sold commercially (music and film) or used for training
or marketing (corporate DVD).
For
a simple transfer to disc many of our clients utilize our
DVD Direct service. For a "start
and stop" video with no menus this is a good economical
choice.
Creating
a professional DVD is a complex process and requires a fair
amount of planning. The authoring process can be broken
down into 3 stages:
1)
Encoding of video - conversion of video
2)
Design - creation of interactivity and menus
3) Mastering - testing and delivery of final DVD
The
Design of your DVD project is by far the most labor
intensive. You can save a lot of time and money by planning
the flow of your DVD. It is important to look at other DVD
releases to see the different possibilities for menu design
and user interactivity. Don't expect to be able to replicate
a large budget Hollywood production, but you can learn some
tips on how to organize the flow: the way your DVD starts
(intro) and the user interactivity of the menus can ensure
user satisfaction and enhance the success of the main video.
Here
are some initial planning steps:
1.
Create an outline of how you want the DVD to flow. Here's
a hypothetical outline of a marketing DVD for a resort area:
| 1.
Intro - 20 to 30 " |
| 2.
Main menu |
| |
|
Sub Menus |
|
| |
Golf |
| |
|
18
hole course |
main
menu |
| |
driving
range |
|
| |
Swimming |
| |
|
main
pool |
main
menu |
| |
|
water
slides for kids |
|
| |
Tennis |
| |
|
courts |
main
menu |
| |
|
instruction |
|
| |
Dining |
| |
|
dining
room |
main
menu |
| |
|
special
food services |
|
| |
Social
life |
| |
|
live
music |
main
menu |
| |
|
special
events |
|
| |
General
Information |
| |
|
rates |
main
menu |
| |
|
directions
& location |
|
| |
|
facilities |
|
The
Main Menu (yellow highlight) is set up so that the
user can click directly to the activity that appeals to
them and then in the Sub Menu (pink highlight) click
on a video within that activity. Notice that there are always
buttons to let the user navigate quickly back to the previous
menu or the main menu.
DVD
structure can be very similar to a website, except
for this major difference: a website's purpose is to give
you lots of textual information, whereas a DVD's purpose
is to give you lots of compelling moving images. The pictures
and video supply the message that you want to convey. Therefore,
the menu structure should not be too deep - you want to
lead the user quickly to the appropriate videos and avoid
filling the screen with lots of text, which is tedious for
the user to read on a TV.
2.
Begin appropriating assets for your menus. They can
be either still images or motion video. What fonts do you
want to use? Do you have logos or graphics that represent
your project? The overall menu design should be consistent
in style and look to your website and any printed materials
that you disseminate.
3.
Consider whether the end user will also be viewing the DVD
on a computer. If so, you should consider making your
DVD web compatible. WebDVD can combine the information
of a website with high quality video from a DVD.
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