The Final Chapter

This is probably the last time I will get the write in here before I attempt to print it all off from here and hand it in on thursday at the crack of dawn.
I am, in fact, not in possession of the completed product however :o :o

I have a few things to tweak in the documentation and I need to print off the DVD covers tommorrow. But other than that we are there! Done! Finit! So this will be my final entry I would have thought... SO....

It has been great fun... but chao for now ;)

Looking Back

I think that I have been very good at keeping this blog going. It is the kind of thing that I would have been likely to have forgotten after the first week or so, but I have kept it going and it correlates well with my written reports. WHICH, by the way, I still need to finish of for this time next week. There is just a few final touches that I need to look into. I also need to set up a Poster Day. that is pretty easy for a DVD though - set up my laptop and loop the play-all section of the DVD and then smile at everyone walking past. And maybe give out sweets.

But all in all I think this project has been a success, I wish I could have included all of the videos in the DVD (which I will do but not in time for the assignment deadline) which was the original plan. But the DVD does, however, demonstrate that i can mix videos well and take a project such as this through to completion.

Don't be surprised if I use a lot of this blog pasted into my evaluation ;)

Finishing off the designs

I have been working on the DVD cover today. It is looking good. Once again, I have tired to accommodate all of the options and expressions that were retrieved from marketing research and kept it looking as appealing as possible. It would have been good to have used bright and vibrant colours to draw the user in, but in order to keep in tone with the logo and them of the Church's logo and current designs, I needed to use the blues and rectangles theme.

I have saved the files ready for printing off, but I want to make them look really good and therefore print them off on a colour laserjet and since it is the easter break from Uni, I can't use that prnter for a week or so. I will print it off when I go back on the 31st.

>>remember to print off the covers!!!<<<

I have baught some blank DVD covers for when i do get the printouts.

DVD Officially burned off!!!

We have a master DVD people!! A fully working and generally beautiful creation that took flipping ages to produce!!!!

*pause for the masses of crowds to celebrate*

But seriously, I have burned off three copies and will hopefully get to print on them at some point int he next few days (considering I don't have very long left until the due date). I just need to get the cover completely finished and pronted off and then it will be just a matter of tweaking the documentation to cover these latest developments....

Give Me An Adobe Encore

Ok, i really like Adobe Encore because of the complete control over the DVD creation that you get.... ON THAT NOTE.... I really want to buy the Apple equivilent, it looks SO much better... I can;t remember what it is called though. I wish the university has that (and Final Cut for that matter)... but anyway Adobe Encore is still good, but it does take a while to get it looking as good as you want it.

So basically I have it how I want it (the first menu) but I need to add in the secondary menu (you know how my DVD will have two menus?) I have already made the second menu, but I need to import it into Encore and make it look the same as the last one. It shouldn't take as long now what I know exactly what i have to do but it is ten to five and i think that they are going to be locking up soon so I will need to come back and do some final touches either tommorrow or wednesday....

DVD Menus

So today i worked on the DVD menus in photoshop (you can see them on the final DVD or in the documentation or if you are reading this somewhere else... you can't see them so you will have to trust me that they are good).

I took into account the information and results of the research that I retrieved at the start of the project. With this in mind, I have tired to make the DVD look as proffessional as possible without losing the stylish factor. I have completely gone down the route of branding the project with the CityCoastChurch logo and colour scheme. the CityCoast Church font in century gothic so i have used that throughout too.

My plan is to go down the church within the next day or so and put the photoshop files into Adobe Encore. And from there - make the DVD :)

Surviving D-Day

Ok that wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I have have done it :D :D

I can now go away and work on the menu system and the cover for the DVD. Along wit hthe documentation, the last thing I need to consider is the possibility of printing onto a DVD, literally. There are machines that do it and I know that the church owns one that does CD's for thier meeting recordings, my question has to be does that include DVDs? Does it even work with DVDs? It must do surely. I need to remember to ask Simon if it works and more importantly if i could use it for the final DVDs.

Onto the DVD marketing....

D-Day

Today is the day I am determined to finish my youth video.

That is all I am going to write until I have finished it!

MENU PROBLEMS!!!!

Today I thought i would try and be clever and start the DVD menu but there was a problem. I can't get the videos to the university since the files are so large :p

So, using my iniative, i decided to take my laptop (with the videos... not including a completed youth one as of yet) to the church where they have an external hard drive and the software to make the DVD menus (Adobe Encore) and started to make it there. I taught myself how to use it during the Time Based Media module in year 2, so i know that the easiest way to create a design is the use a photoshop document and convert certain aspects of it into buttons. I used a basic template to test it worked and it did. So now I know that when i have all the videos that I need I can come down to the church to make the menu rather than the university. With this in mind i need to go away and make a menu system in Photoshop...

...I also need to finish the youth video...!!

March already!

And here we are in march. Luckily I am reasonably on top of the work-load (for this project anyway....). My aim is to get started on the DVD menu and cover within the next week which means I need to finish the youth video before then so that the menu can work properly. From here I need to finish off the order in which the middle clips progress and potentially change a few of colourings (maybe add a bit of sepia tone? I am thinking perhaps where the guitars kick in on the audio parts).

Pointless but cool entry

I just wanted to write something today coz it was feb 29th and since students for the next three years won't be able to include this day in thier assigments, I thought that I would make the most of being able to include it in mine.

:)

Finishing before the end of Feb?

I wanted to try and get the video completely done by the end of february but realistically that doesn't look like it is going to happen. So, instead I have been putting more time into it to make it look good rather than worrying about rushing it. I managed to add in a cool filter today, playing with the hue and saturation of the video footage at the end of the video. I'm pretty proud of how that bit has turned out.

At the start of the youth video there I have used a piece of video that plays photos really fast, the problem is that they were to the rhythm and beat of the music that it was created for (obviously) which isn't the music that i have used. For this reason, to get it perfect I would have to go through the video and cut each frame at the photo and then remix it to the beat of my music. This isn't completely undo-able. It is in the time that I have. Simply becuase I will need to put time into doing all the other wonderous things that this project requires from me. Not to even mention the rest of the assignments that other modules are starting to introduce (i don;t even want to think about them right now...)....

So anyway i have edited the pictures as best that i can and made it fit to the music as best that i could. It looks really good but to ensure that everyone doesn;t pick up on the slightly-different-beat-to-cut-ratio, i have put titles over the top of it (which works really well having made all the pictures widescreen...).

Onto the final cut!!!

I opened final Cut this morning to start the youth video and i realised how much work i still had to do :( I hadn't even accomidated for the DVD menu and cover (both of which are integral parts of the product, as the researching proved). But undetered by this minor hiccup in my confidence in getting this project done in time... I continued anyway and have been working on it solidly for about two hours!!!!

Firstly I imported the audio track that was created for the video. I am very happy with how it has turned out. It seemed to fit the style for a youth video. The next part was to assign the different segmants of the video that I have been given to different parts of the project. This isn't too difficult, but it is difficult to do well. Anyone can drag and drop video clips into random positions, but I want it to look really good. Not least beacue this is my final year project and I want it to look awesome!!!

The difference between documentation and examiners report

I admit i am not a fan of all the written work but that is what I have been working on for the last day or so. The documentation and the examiners report. I have read up on them both and gotten a better understanding on exactly what and how they differ. The documentation is to go with the DVD itself as part of the product deliverables and the examiners report is for the (obviously) the examiners and will consist of all the interesting stuff like why i chose a DVD and what research methods i opted to use.

Looks like i will be writing them up for a bit longer :p

Two Down!!!!

I FINISHED VIDEO 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I now have two videos that have been completed. They look good and show off my camera skills mostly. The next challenege is the youth video which involves making old footage look cool and new using cool effects. Fortunatly for me, all of the footage i have been given to use for the youth video is very usable and campletely adaptable to whatever order or layout i see fit. There are a few issues which i can see arrising - for example the strange motion lines that appear on the screen after a lot of movement.

>>note to self.... research those lines!!!<<<

i will try and find out what they are and if there is any way of getting rid of them ready for when i am re-mixing the video.

Nearly there!

I added some slow motion bits and fast cuts into the meet to eat video today and it is looking really good. the most important thing about this video is that it needs to show off my camera work since the mixing and effects will be better show-cased in the youth video.

I added in the music today too.

Getting back to basics

The next step for me has been to create the Meet To Eat video. This is pretty simple considering the music i will be using is roaylty free part strung together...
>> note to self - i need to put the long and short versions of the audio clips into one file for the final mixdown of the meet to eat video<<
... and the footage was controlled completely by me and therefore has been created to my exact specifications and matches the rough stoyboards that were created for the videos.

The basic 'story' to the video is that it starts off by walking into the room and then it just shows old people talking and having fun for a bit. Somewhere near the beginning is some text explaining what meet to eat is.

Getting there slowly

Well we are now in February and i have a lot of stuff to show for it but none of which is particularly presentable. The documentation is coming along slowly but at least i have one video completed and "in the can".

The only problem that I have now is all the other assignments. Most of them have all been handed in and completed but it has slowed me down quite a lot. I have just over two months to finish this project.... :p :p :p

Documentation!!!!!

Today was a very boring day as it involved the 'fleshing out of the documentation'. Where i go back through all the written work i have done and make it presentable instead of a bunch of random information spread across the pages like a scrapbook...

This may take a while since i started it today and i have only just explained the change of plan from doing all the videos....

Back on set

I went in to film the over 50's club today. Since it is such a mellow and calm environment, i doubt i will be doing much to the footage itself other than cutting it down and putting it to some royalty-free music. I will use the home-made music for the youth video.

Making Sounds

I am working in a studio today to get the music for the youth video. Since I have all the footage i need for that video, i will make the music and then put the video to it rather than the other way around. This is because there is no need for a particular 'soundtrack' as there is very little plot to he short film.

For the short videos, there will be subtitles to explain what the different events are and what they achieve.

ONE down TWO to go

First video officially mixed !!!!!

It took long enough but I am happy with how it looks. I would like to have used a bit more inspirational music for it but for legal reasons i can't :p for example I would have liked to have added in a U2 track over the top. It doesn't matter though since it could be changed at a later date. The full break down of the video production is in the documentation to assist the final product. I would write down the page number but the pictures keep shifting the page numbers around so best check the contents page lol.

On to the next video....

Making the first video

Having reviewed the research that has been obtained, the most important thing that i have observed is that the external presentation of the DVD has got to be appealing (along with the menu system). There were other, small things, about the way that the video is produced etc, but not enough to particularly hinder my working on the footage. For this reason I have started to mix the videos!!!!

FINALLY!!!

I am behind schedule according to the original plan that was written for the planning and research document but that isn't so much of an issue considering the amount of changes and developments that have occurred since then.

I have started with the opening video. Using the shots that I filmed a while back (before i even started this blog). The footage has come out well and speeds up nicely.

i will use royalty-free music for the audio.

Happy New Year!!!

first of all happy new year :)

Basically I haven't done any work since the questionnaires since it was christmas lol. But having looked through them i can see some very interesting trends that i will write up in the examiners report. The most important one to take into account at this stage is that the front cover of the DVD is very important and therefore I must ensure that adequate time and effort is put into that along with the general videos and DVD production itself.

Something else that i thought of over the holidays was that the music may be an issue. I intend to produce one piece of music for at least one of the videos to show that i am capable of making music (using the skills learnt from the TIME BASED MEDIA module in year 2), however, the chances of me finding enough time to produce three bits of music along with the video may be an issue. For this reason i may use some royalty free music so that it doesn't infringe on any copyright laws. I will go into this in more details in the examiners report.