During my earlier years of education, I understood narrative to be simple. A written form of a story depicted in a book or magazine. My knowledge has evolved and I have learned of narrative as a whole new "world," one in which someone other than the author has the ability to influence the plot in many respects. The idea that a reader is allowed by the author to interact with the story with out changing the overall outcome is fascinating and exciting to think about. I fully agree that the telling of a story and the presentation of that story are welded together in a method of creating one interactive narrative form.

On the subject of personal opinion and perspective, for a few years now I have been a firm believer in the truth or lack of truth presented in the media. The idea is to appeal to a specific audience and give that information in which they want those viewers to hear from a specific perspective and not others. And although I understand that perspective allows the existence of a narration, I do not feel that one perspective or a few that agree on the same idea should be all that is presented.

If the individual perspective is what allows perspective to exist at all, then no one person can ever understand or view another's perspective in the same way; this means, that no one can every truly agree one hundred percent with one another. But nowadays, since their no longer seems to be a single authority (Meadows Pg.16), we can all communicate and interact by simpler methods globally and can attempt to at least join together our perspectives in order to generate an interactive narrative.

Apple Pro Training: Lesson 18

In lesson 18, using alternate angles, I learned about various ways of creating alternate video streams along with the main one. I will also need to read through this chapter a few times, but for my portfolio DVD I will not be needing any extra video streams such as alternative endings and the like. However, possessing knowledge of this kind can lead to a large capacity for creativity and will only benefit me as I progress.

Apple Pro Training: Lesson 17

In this lesson I went over advanced MPEG encoding using compressor. The chapter was long and complicated, even sounding like a foreign language at times. As usual, I will need to spend a lot of time reading through and doing the tutorial over and over if I am to avoid major complications and roadblocks in my work.

Stargate

Today's blog is on the action adventure, Stargate! This movie was from the year 1994, however, the DVD release and design was generated in 1999 (so the DVD design is more up to date than the original movie design).

The DVD menu begins with the producing companies logo, a pause, and then a quick motion graphic movie. The motion graphic begins with a black background and the title of the movie "stargate" in white text fading into the center of the menu screen with a technical motion of gray and white colors behind the text and only behind the text. Suddenly a white dot from the center of the menu grows to encompass the entire screen, sort of like a bomb going off or more specifically a flash of blinding light.

Once the light flashes, or "blinds" the screen, the background becomes black once again and soon after a bunch of little white lines come from the outside of the screen to the middle, they then turn after the reach the middle and appear as though they are heading for me; from the background to the foreground. Once this occurs I suddenly feel like I am flying through space on some type of supernova path with flashes of lights and little dots that seem to have lens flares around them as I continue to travel through this path for a few more seconds. Finally, I come to a stop at the main DVD menu.

When I come to a stop at the main menu, what I notice fist is the voice of a woman talking over the music/special effects sounds. She seems like a computer voice or someone who has been on the adventure. The music is composed of low dramatic instrumental sounds and louder explosion and movie effect sounds. The background of the menu is a motion graphic, it never stops moving but from what I can make out, it seems to be the shadow of ancient ruins or maybe the surface of some wall. Aside from the one consistent background graphic, there is one more motion graphic in a drop zone to the top left hand side of the menu screen. It displays short clips from scenes of the actual Stargate movie.

In the foreground, there is a box to the left, middle side of the menu screen. In this box are the menu buttons for the movie, "Play theatrical version, play special edition, scene index, special features, cast & crew, and production notes." It seems that rather then have a special features menu, they kept all of the special features on the main menu, leads to less navigation and maybe an easier time with the DVD.

When a button option is chose, a dull brownish-yellowish colored line appears under the button. When you click on the button the line turns a dull blue (which seems to match closely to the dark blue background of the button box).

Next to the button box, is a still image of three different sized rings intertwined with each-other, I know from watching this movie that the rings represent a portal in which the characters in the movie used to travel to a different world. The rings on the menu do nothing but stay where they are, perhaps used as a space filler.

Below the button box and the rings graphic, is the title of the movie "Stargate" in a dark blue bar (same color as button box background) and below that in a black bar are the words "special edition." Which represents the last of the Stargate DVD main menu. The color scheme to this menu is dark, shadowy orange/yellow with some dark blues and a little white for the type. I basically would get the sense that this is an action filled thriller movie of some kind if I didn't already know that that is exactly the type of movie Stargate represents.

28 Days

OK, so the DVD of choice for this week is the movie 28 Days staring Sandra Bullock. The movies is about a woman who struggles with alcohol abuse and the challenges she faces while being forced to live and participate in a program for those who struggle with substance abuse issues.

The beginning of the movie opens up with a standard industry motion graphic for the Columbia Tristar DVD Company. Once this introduction of the company who produced 28 days is finished… a wipe transition occurs in the background. The wipe is composed of numerous squares and rectangles moving into the scene and then moving to the background.

The squares and rectangles continuously move through out the DVD menu beginning from the middle and appearing as though they are moving forward and then backward a few seconds after. They seem to slow like they are suspended in the air, however, the background music to the DVD sounds like a wind chime with subtle hints of win and a constant piano rhythm. So, it would seem that the squares and rectangles might resembles parts of a chime lightly blowing in the wind.

The various shaped boxes have colors, somewhat like city lights at dark in them, they are all blurry but basically blue in color. But, the blurriness makes it impossible for me to make out if they represent anything or are simple design patterns.

Continuing back on the transition into the menu, the second noticeable feature is the number 28, which wipes in from the top left side of the screen, settling on the top left section. Then the word “days” joins it wiping in from the top right side of the screen and meeting up with the right side of 28. Both 28 and “Days” are in a light blue color and they are both in large font, however, the number 28 is the largest font of them all.

As the word “days” is wiping in, a still picture of Sandra Bullock from the movie fades into the bottom left of the screen. Her picture is in normal colors from the movie, however, the main color pallet of this DVD menu is blue and various shades of it.

Moving on, the last to appear are the menu buttons, they fade and wipe in from the right middle section of the screen and settle next to Sandra’s picture. The buttons are simple horizontal boxes with a glow around them and white text in the middle. They are masked because inside of them you can actually see the background of the DVD menu (which I think looks nice). There are five buttons, play movie, audio set-up, subtitles, scene selections, and special features.

When you mouse over or choose a button, the entire button glows a pasty while color; this makes it hard to see the text and covers the background within the button but seems manageable. When you click on the button to activate it, it turns a pasty green color and quickly jumps to the next scene.

That is it to the DVD menu of 28 days; the last detail to blog about would be the reload of the menu. It last for 29 seconds and the music simply lowers and disappears for 2 seconds while the menu button that is selected jumps for 1 second. The music doesn’t seem to cycle, the reload is clearly visible and it doesn’t seem like great effort was placed on hiding the load.

Apple Pro Training: Lesson 16

In this lesson I learned about creating transitions and found the information to be very useful. Many of the transition options provide me with a way to closely match my menu design with the transition design. I have already worked a bit with transitions, so some of this lesson reinforces what I already know, but, I can always use and will always need to research and study so that I can continue to improve myself and my design abilities.

Apple Pro Training: Lesson 15

In this lesson we learned about creating menu elements such as drop zones and button shapes. It all seemed a bit complex but in time I will become more efficient with this chapter; just need a bit more time. Overall I am confident in my knowledge of the technical side to DVD interface design, I just need to work on the DESIGN part a lot more!

Apple Pro Training: Lesson 14

This lesson wasn't too bad, contained a lot of content but we went over the lesson on video so I was able to understand the information provided. I think I will be all right with this lesson and the new information, might have to go over it a few more times but, trial and error could also do the trick.

Apple Pro Training: Lesson 13

This lesson was extremely complicated and I felt that the book did not do a good job at explaining what all the options were and what they did in Scripting. I am going to have to read over this lesson many times over if I am to retain the information. I will need to contact sources other than the book to explain what the book doesn't.

Apple Pro Training: Lesson 12

For lesson 12, I learned about working more with chapter markers and stories. I like the concept of stories and making them doesn't seem to be too difficult. The chapter markers seem easy as well, Final Cut and DVD Studio do a good job at making things less difficult than they may seem to be.

Josie and The Pussycats

Josie and The Pussycats is a fun, comedy filled DVD meant for both children and adults. The movie itself is about a group of three girls who dream about going big and becoming a famous rock band and all the trials and tribulations they go through to accomplish their dream. Josie and The bond of friendship and the integrity of the music business will be tested.

As for the DVD interface, the movie begins with a typical copy-write page warning against illegal copying of the DVD. There are no transitions into the main menu area, no motion graphics or anything else. When the main menu is displayed, I notice first the music that is playing. The music is a song from the movie and sound track as well. It represents a song from Josie and The Pussycats; the band. The music cycles every 51 seconds, but it isn't easily noticeable because it seems like the same verse is playing over each time and works well.

The second thing about the main menu I notice is that the menu itself is just a brightly colored still image. The background is all purple with three patterns separated by light purple horizontal lines. The top section is a chetah pattern, the middle is a dotted patter with a picture of the three band members laid over it. In this section, the band members are in color, but all you see is from their upper chest to top of the head region.

Lastly, the third sections is of a white tiger pattern and this is where the title of the movie and buttons are "housed." The movie title is the second largest of all images, second only to the large image of the band members. Directly under the movie title are the buttons. They choices are scenes, bonus materials, languages, and then play. The user knows the selection they are about to choose by a yellow underline that appear when the button is moused over or the remote is currently on it. This yellow underline is a good idea, it is a contrasting color to the all purple (and shades of purple) background and can easily be recognized. This same yellow underline is the only noticeable indicator that the DVD is cycling through the music, it blinks for a brief second when the reload occurs.

The last component to the Josie and the Pussycats DVD are the seven "stars" randomly spread throughout the menu. They don't do anything, no blinking or motion, but they seem to be a good fit since the movie is about making it big in the music industry and what better to symbolize show-business then stars.

That is it for the Josie and The Pussycats DVD menu, there isn't much to it, the movie is was made in 2001 and doesn't appear to have a very low budget, but most likely isn't very complex since it is originally geared towards young teenagers.

Apple Pro Training: Lesson 11

Before beginning this lesson for Overlays, I had already known about them through trial and error when building my first DVD interface project. By doing the lesson, it reinforced what I already knew about overlays and hopefully will improve my ability to work with DVD studio in the future.