Video

For my 1 minute video I wanted to create a short film that shows events that have led upto the zombie invasion. The basic story line of the the film is that the U.S military have created a deadly virus which is then released into the public and everyone becomes infected. To follow on with the military theme of my DVD cover I wanted to create a video that started off with a computer screen typing out significant dates and events of the zombie invasion i.e November 2011 - U.S Military create a virus. After the computer has typed out the first date and event the video will then cut to some virus footage. It will then cut back to the computer which will type the next event and then cut to more footage. Finally it will reveal the title of the film. 

My thinking behind this idea is that the computer typing out the text will make the viewer think that are reading some kind of military report. I will use some american style font and typewriter sounds to give it the military style. Once the typing has finished it will then cut to some footage relating to the event that has just been typed out. Having the footage playing straight after the typing lets the viewer easily visualise the event that has been displayed. 

To start out with I created a storyboard so that I could visualise what my video will incorporate and to gather ideas. 

I will be mainly using Adobe Premier to create and edit the video. Premier is excellent for editing and has a huge array of transition and audio effects which I will be able to use for my video. To start my video I opened up Adobe premier, I then clicked on new project then the general settings tab appears. Here i can adjust the acton and title safe areas, these are just like bleed areas in photoshop. The title safe area is the area of a video that is safe to put text and not have it cropped by a TV display. The action safe area is just the same but for action. The capture section allows me to change the options if I have recorded my own footage in HD, which I haven't so I will leave this option as default. Next I typed in the name of my project.

The next window that comes up is the new sequence window. Here you can chose from the available video presets. The most common presets are the NTSC which is used in america and PAL which is used mostly in europe. At this stage I will have to check the videos that I will be editing with and look at the frame rates and sizes, To do this I just need to look at the videos properties. Once I had found out what the frame rate and size was for my videos i was using I could chose which preset I wanted to use. For this video I will be using a custom frame size of 624x352 as this is the same frame size as the clips I will be using. If I was to choose a different preset then I may come across some frame rate issues, or the frame size may be wrong and the video will be cropped or look to small. This is why it is important that I chose the right frame size at this stage.

 Once I had configured the settings the main program appears. First thing I did was to import the video files that I will be using for my video. I will be using TV episodes from AMC's "The walking dead" (http://www.amctv.com/shows/the-walking-dead) I will be taking some clips from three episodes (Episode 1 - "Days gone by", Episode 2 - "Guts" & Episode 6 - "TS19") To import the video files I just right clicked in the left hand window and then clicked import. 

Once the video files had been imported I then doubled checked that all the videos were playing and that they were not corrupt by double clicking on them and playing them through the source window.

Now that I have my main video files imported. Im going to create my opening sequence involving the computer typing onto the screen. I will do this by using Adobe Flash. Now I could physically film a computer screen while typing out my text, But filming a screen is very hard as the film will produce some flickering unless your camera and monitor are at the same frame rate. Instead I will create a flash animation, This will have a much better resolution and look a lot clearer compared to if I filmed it from a computer screen. 

To start off with I opened up Adobe Flash, I then created a new FLA file. I then changed the size of the document so that it matched the frame size of my import videos. This is very important because if i was to use a different frame size compared to my imported video files then when i come to edit there will be a mix of different frame sizes and will not look very good. 

I then changed the background colour to black using the properties window. I decided to go with a black background so that it looked like a computer screen, It should also make transitions between clips easier.

I then added some more frames to the file. 

 I then went about creating the computer typing effect. To do this I simply put a new letter on every frame of the animation until the text was complete. For example I put "N" in the first frame then "NO" in the second frame and i kept going until I had the completed frames. When the animation is played it gives the impression that the computer is typing.

Once I had finished the animation I then had to convert it into a file format that was compatible with Adobe premier. I clicked on the export movie option, I then chose to save the animation as a GIF file. 

I then imported the GIF file into Adobe Premier using and dragged the file onto the start of the timeline. 

Once i had imported the typing animation, I wanted to add some clips to visualise the virus. The first animation tells the viewer that the military created a virus, So i wanted a clip showing the virus. I dragged one of the walking dead episodes and then began to edit the clip. I found a clip of a simulation recreating the virus attacking a human brain. To make sure i got the whole clip I used the jog wheel tool to precisely choose the start and end of the clip.

Once I had found the start and end points of my clips using the jog wheel, I used the razor tool to cut where the clip starts and ends.

I will be adding my own music track over the video so I disabled the audio from the walking dead clips. I did this by clicking on the audio clip and choosing to bypass the audio. 

For my typing animation I wanted to have some typing noises so that the viewer knows that the text is being typed onto the screen. To do this I went onto the internet and managed to find some typing sounds. I then imported the audio and dragged them onto the audio layer. The audio files were quite short so I had to duplicate them so that they would last the entire length of the typing clip. I also arrange the audio so that the sounds start as soon as the first letter appears on the screen. If I was to start the audio at very beginning of my video then the typing sound would play but there wouldn't be any typing on the screen so would not look right, this is why i have delayed the sound to play when there is typing on the screen. 

I wanted to add a song to run the entire length of the video. I wanted to add some atmosphere to the video so I chose to go for a song that didn't have any words in and was just instrumental. Having an instrumental song means it won't take any focus away from the text on the screen. I also wanted the song to build up, so that it started out quiet then finished with lots of different instruments. This will build up tension and suspense within the video. Once I had chosen my song I imported the audio into Premier and then dragged it onto the second audio channel, this is so it doesn't interfere with my typing audio that i had placed earlier. Once I had dragged my audio I started to edit it down to size as it was too long for my 1 minute video. I used the razor tool to cut away and edit the audio track. The song started off quietly and then kicks in after a few seconds, So i wanted this part to sync up with my first virus clip to it more presence. To do this I simple looked at the audio waves in the audio channel and looked for when the waves peaked indicating that the audio part i wanted had kicked in, I then listened to the audio to double check. Once i had found the point I then lined up where the audio waves peaked and the start of the virus clip so that they were in line with each other. Now when the virus clip starts the audio track gets louder which gives more emphasis to the clip. 

I didn't want the audio to come in loudly straight away or end suddenly, So i decided to add some fade in and out effects. To do this I went into the effects tab and then the audio transitions folder where i chose the Exponential fade effect, I then dragged the effect and placed it at the start of my main audio track. I wanted the fade to be quite long so i adjusted it by clicking and dragging the end to where i wanted the fade to end. I did the same to the fade out also. 

While playing back the two audio tracks that I had entered. I noticed that the typing audio was a lot louder than the main audio track and this was overpowering the song. I wanted the typing sound to be more subtle and the main audio to be more noticeable. To do this I double clicked on the typing audio and then went into the Effect controls in the source window. I then adjusted the dB level of the audio by changing the values from -6dB to -10dB, this is a subtle level change but makes a big difference when the main audio track is playing. 

Once i had sorted out my audio, I wanted to add the other typing animations into the video. To start off with I went into flash and made two more animations in the same way I made the first animation, I then exported them as GIF files. 

I then imported the two GIF files into Premier and dragged them into the timeline. I wanted a gap in-between the two typing sequences so that I could add some more video clips. I then used the same typing sound as before and placed them in the audio channel. I then adjusted the timings so that the typing sound started when the first letter appeared on the typing animation, Just like I did for the first animation.

I now wanted to add some more virus footage after the second typing animation. The second animation tells the viewer that the virus is released into the public, So I wanted some clips to show this. I found some clips of a lone man wondering through an abounded hospital, there is then a mysterious door and then hands start to appear through the gaps. I thought these clips worked well as it shows a human encountering the zombie virus for the first time. Like I did with the first set of clips, I used the razor tool to cut down the clips that i wanted to use. I then editing the clips and placed then after the typing animation.

For my main title of my film I wanted the title to stand out and be very noticeable. In the final typing animation the text says "70% of the population have become.." I done this half sentence on purpose as I wanted the viewer to be in suspense as to what was coming next. I then wanted some clips to come in straight after the animation and then the main title will appear saying "Infected". So the typing animation, virus clip and final title image are all linked in. The typing animation will start saying the "population have become.." the viewer is expecting the sentence to finish and then some footage of the zombies appear and then it cuts straight to the words "Infected". Then the viewer can see that 70% of the population have become infected.

  For the make the main title of the film I wanted to use a photoshop image. This is so i can use the same font that i have used with my DVD cover & label, this then gives some symmetry between all aspects of my design. I wanted the title image to be plain but still have an impact on the viewer. I opened up Photoshop and created a new document with the same size area as the rest of my video and animation clips. This is so when the title image appears on screen it won't be bigger or have the edges cut out. I then wanted a black background and white font.

I then created another title image this time with a bloody hand behind the text. I wanted the hand to be red so this is why I chose to use white font in the first image so the two won't clash and the text is clearly visible. I wanted to use the same hand print that I used for the DVD label, Using the same hand print gives a nice continuity to the whole design. 

Once I had completed the two title images, I then imported them into Premier and dragged them onto the end of the timeline as my film will be ending with these title images.

I wanted the title to look as though a bloody hand was slowly appearing behind it, this will make the title look more menacing and fits well with my horror genre. To achieve this I added a cross dissolve transition effect from the video effects folder, I then dragged this onto the start of the second title image. Now when the video is played the first "Infected" title is shown and then the blood hand slowly appears and fades behind main title text

I next wanted to add the final footage of my video. I wanted some clips that followed on from the last typing animation. In this animation the text states that 70% of population is infected, so i wanted a clip that visualised this to the viewer. I found a clip from the walking dead that shows a mass of zombies walking around and some on top of a tank. Once I had found the clip i wanted and using the jog wheel and razor tool I carefully cut away the rest of the footage that I didn't need. 

Now that I have all of clips and animations for my video in place I decided to start adding transitions effects to the clips. I wanted the clips to slowly fade in and out in between each typing animation. To achieve this I went into the Video effects folder and chose the cross dissolve effect. This effect dissolves the video from black, so this fits perfectly with my typing animation which has a black background. So now when my typing animation is finished instead of a sharp cut to the footage, it has a nice smooth fade in from black into the footage. I added cross dissolve to the start and end of the first two lost of footage. 

For the last piece of footage showing the mass of zombies I added a fade in using the same technique as above. Although I didn't want to have a fade out, Instead I wanted the title image to appear very suddenly and surprise viewers. Without a fade out effect at the end of this footage, Now as soon as the footage has stopped the main title image will appear straight away. 

Once I had completed the transition effects I was now ready to export my video. To do this i went into file, then export media. It was very important that i export the video using the right presets and format otherwise this may cause issues when I come to watch the video. The first thing I did was to tick the match sequence settings box. Match sequence settings copies the source file information such as the frame size and frame rate and then applies that to the output file. This means that the output video should look exactly the same as the original source file with the same size and frame rate. I then clicked on the "Use maximum render quality box, This means that the video will be exported and should have the best quality possible. 

That is my 1 minute video completed. Looking back at what my video I am very pleased with the outcome. I wanted a video that looked like a military video, I think i achieved this well with the typing animations. I also wanted the video to bring across the genre which is horror, I think i also achieved this well using well timed cuts and music spikes I created an menacing atmosphere to the clips. Also having the title image suddenly appear with no transition effects gives a nice edge to the video. If I was to do anything differently I would reconsider the type of font I used within typing animation. To me it doesn't look military enough, so I would look for a more official font type or something that looked more like a typewriter. 

DVD Label

I wanted my DVD label to be simple in design yet still show the genre and title of the film clearly. I took an Idea from my design sketches that I drew earlier and choose to use the blood hand print that I drew. This clearly shows which genre my film is and shows the title of the film.

To start off with I setup the guidelines for my dvd label. I used the dimensions on the VLE and setup the guidelines, I also included a 3mm bleed area. This bleed area allows any printing errors that may occur when I print out my design.

I then used the elliptical tool to create the DVD outlines and also the 3mm bleed area. 

I decided to use the same image that I have already used in my DVD cover design to continue the flow of the whole DVD. Using the same background image on my DVD label as well as my cover gives the whole design symmetry. Once I uploaded the image I then used the free transform tool to resize the image. 

To remove the extra bits of image outside of the label area, I used the elliptical marque tool to select the middle circle and then removed it. To remove the outside of the label area, I used the same elliptical marque tool. Only this time I had to invert the selection so that everything outside of the label area was selected, I then removed the selection.

To make a blood hand I decided to take a picture of my own hand using a digital camera. I felt that using a real hand would make the blood print look more realistic and more horrifying.

Once I had taken a picture of my hand, I then imported it into photoshop where I used the selection tools to get rid of the background behind the hand so that only my hand was left on a white background. I then used the Hue & Saturation window to adjust the values of the image until they looked a nice deep red colour. 

To make the hand look more like blood and more realistic I used the vibrance window to adjust the saturation. This will make hand look more darker and look more like blood.

Once I had adjusted the values, I went about placing the image onto my DVD label.

I then added the title onto my label. I wanted to use the same font as I used on my dvd cover to keep the symmetry and flow of the DVD going. Instead of using red colour font this time, I used black so that it would not clash with the red of the hand image. 

I wanted the text to wrap around the label and curve around the edge. This will look a lot better than horizontal text and will flow better with the shape of the label. To do this I used the warp text tool. I opened up the warp text tool and then adjusted the bend, horizontal and vertical distortion of the text until I was happy with the curve of the text.

At this point I wasn't happy with the way the design was going. I felt as though the hand was ruining the design as it didn't look like a blood hand print. So I decided to keep the rest of the design but find an alternative hand print. I managed to find a photoshop brush pack on the internet (http://zeds-stock.deviantart.com/art/Bloody-Hand-Prints-Brush-Pack-134526043) The brushes in the pack will allow me to use the paint brush tool in photoshop and then just select which hand print brush I want to use. 

 I deleted the original hand print layer and then deselected the text title layer so that it would not interfere with me placing the new hand print onto the label. I then selected a colour which looked the most like red blood and then placed the hand print onto the label using the paint brush tool.

Finally I used the elliptical marque tool to select the inner circle area and remove the part of the hand print. I then reactivated the text layer so that the text was visible and the label was complete. Overall I am very happy with the final design of the DVD label. It goes well with my original idea which was to create a simple label which shows the horror genre and title of the film. It also fits in very well with my DVD cover as it uses the same background image and font, so both elements tie in nicely and have design symmetry.

DVD cover.

Now that I have setup my work area, I can now make a start on designing my DVD cover. Following on from my sketches, I started by inserting a scratched metal image I found from the internet (http://tinyurl.com/c9tfxjs) I would've found it hard to replicate a scratched metal effect in photoshop, so instead I opted for this image which looks a lot more realistic. This image will form the background for my entire DVD cover.

I then started on the "protective" cover of the DVD case. I want this to look like the metal case is covered in some sort of aged paper, to give the effect that this is an old cover. I started off by creating a plain white rectangle on a new layer, I wanted to create a new layer for each piece of the ripped area so that I could apply different effects to each layer if needed. I then dragged it so that it covered most of the front of my case, I wanted to leave a gap at the bottom of the cover so that i can put the title of my film there. To make it look like the edges have been ripped/destroyed I decided to use the Rubber tool to gradually rub away the edge of the rectangle. To give the effect of ripping I choose a different brush type from the usually circle rubber, I went for a jagged edged rubber.

(Shown here)

Once I chose my brush type I proceeded to start to delete the bottom edge of the rectangle to produce the effect shown below.

I created another plain white rectangle on a new layer for the spine of the DVD case. But i decided not to rub away the edges like the front cover as this is where i want to put the title of the film.

I created another plain white rectangle on a new layer, and then started to rub away the edges like with the front cover. This time instead of rubbing away the bottom. I also rubbed away some of the middle of the back cover, This is so I can put the films plot summary, age ratings and other information into this cleared area.

To give the protective cover the look of old paper, I chose to colour each section using the fill tool. I chose a yellow/whitey colour to give the effect of aged paper.

At this stage it was looking a bit too flat, So i decided to add some filter effects to see if this would help. I went into the filter gallery and then started to go through all of the effects to see which one would look most like aged paper. I found an effect that looked the best which was a sponge effect, I then changed the brush size, definition and smoothness to make it look like my desired effect.

Looking at the cover once i had finished using the filter effects, It still did not look how I wanted as it didn't look like old paper. So to save me time and to get a better effect, I chose to search the internet for an image of old worn paper. I came across this image. (http://tinyurl.com/5sueztj) This is exactly what I am looking for so I saved the image and then pasted it into photoshop, I then had to resize the image as it was far to big to fit onto my cover so i used the transform tool.

Once i had resized the image to fit onto my cover i then went about replicating what i did with my first cover attempt. I done this by using the same rubber tool as I did before, and then carefully rubbing away the edges to give a torn and distressed look.

Once I had finished rubbing away the edges, I then decided to start naming my layers. Giving my layers meaningful and simple names such as "Metal background" means that when I come to the end of my project and I have multiple layers and groups, I can easily find the layer I want just by looking at the name.

Once I had renamed all my layers, I started to rub away the rest of my cover using the same tool as before.

To make the cover look more realistic and like it was on top of the metal background, I chose to add some drop shadow. I went onto layer styles and then started to experiment with different angles, distance, spread and size of the shadows until I found out what I liked. 

Once I had completed the front cover, I then added more shadows to the back cover. 

Now that my background and old paper cover layers have been completed I can now put them into a group. This means that all of my layers will be in one group which will make it easier for me to navigate and find layers later on in the project. I decided to name the group "Background" 

Once I had finished the main background image for my DVD cover I wanted to start on the main title text. I wanted the font to say a lot about the type of film, so being a zombie film I wanted the font to look menacing and automatically remind the viewer of a horror film. Looking back through the look and feel of the film and the mood board I created, I decided to go with bright red font as this will make it stand out and look like the writing is made out of blood. Now I have chosen the colour of font I needed to choose a style. I started to look through photoshops library of fonts but couldn't find anything that would look right on the DVD cover. So instead i decided to look for fonts on the internet, I came across this website. (http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=110) And I found a font which looked like dripping blood, which I thought fit in very well with the theme of my DVD. I used the font and put the name of the film onto the DVD cover, I wanted the font size to be quite large so that it could be easily seen with everything else that is on the front cover, So I used 125pt font size. 

I wanted to add some logos like you have on most real DVDs, such as the age rating, barcode and DVD symbol. To do this I went onto the internet and got pictures of all three things and then put them into place on the back of my DVD cover. 

DVD symbol - http://tinyurl.com/bujnt5r

Barcode -  http://tinyurl.com/cyyogh9

Age Rating - http://tinyurl.com/d2pu2fp

I then wanted to create a classified file stamp to go onto the front of the cover, So that it looks like the DVD is a top secret military file. I felt as though the best way to create the stamp was to use Adobe Illustrator as I needed to combine lots of different shapes. Illustrator allows me to create vector images, these images can be resized and not lose any quality so this will be perfect for creating my stamp. I started making the stamp by creating a circle using the elliptical tool, I then added a rounded edge rectangle. I wanted the circle to look like it was overlapping the rectangle, so to do this I used the razor tool and cut out the bits from the rounded edged rectangle. 

I then added some stars using the star shape tool and some lines to give the impression of military hand writing. I did this using the pen tool and then adjusted the vector points so that it all lined up and fit into the circle. Finally I added the classified text using the text tool. 

I then had to go about adding the vector image into photoshop. To do this I selected all of the layers in Illustrator and clicked copy. Then I opened the DVD cover in Photoshop and clicked Edit and Paste. I then selected the paste as smart object option. This option means that all of the layers from Illustrator are copied into Photoshop and none of the quality is lost in the process. 

At this stage the classified logo didn't look aged or anything like a real stamp. So to change this, I first used the blur tool to blur some of the edges and to get rid of the sharpness that the stamps edges had. I then used the delete tool and changed the brush type to a similar one that I used to delete the edges of the old paper background. Using the delete tool made the stamp look more aged and realistic. Finally I adjusted the transparency of the layer so that it looked faded and old. This makes the stamp look like it has been on the cover for years.  

Next up I wanted to add the film synopsis onto the back of my DVD cover. I wanted this to look like an old military report which had been typed up on a type writer. To do this I found some typewriter font and then started to write onto the back cover using the text tool. 

Once I had added the text, I realised that it wasn't very clear to read and didn't stand out as much as I wanted. This was due to the dark background and black font colour. To fix this I decided to add a background image behind the text. I found an image of some old paper on the internet and then adjusted the angle using the free transform tool so that the dark edges were not visible. If the dark edges were interfering with the black font then you would not be able to see the text clearly. Once I had positioned the image I then placed it into the right layer. So that it was in front of the metal background layer, but behind the old paper foreground

I then re-entered the text using the text tool. I was much happier with the look this time as the whole text was a lot clearer to read and the black font stands out much clearer on a lighter background.

I wanted to add some warning tape to the DVD cover, as was shown in my design sketch earlier on. Warning tape is associated with danger and it is a very recognisable image. I wanted the tape to look old and covered in dirt so that it looks like the tape has been on there for sometime. I wanted some realistic warning tape, So I went onto the internet and found this image. (http://tinyurl.com/cg37uko) 

Once I had the warning tape image I then copied the image three times and placed them on my dvd cover and adjusted the angle using the free transform tool. I didn't want to cover the whole DVD in warning tape, so I used two images on the back and one on the front. This means that the synopsis, classified stamp, logos and title can still be clearly seen. To make the tape look older and more destroyed, I decided to use the delete tool to make the edges more rugged and destroyed. I chose a staggered brush type and then started to slowly rub away some of the edges of the warning tape to make it look like it had been torn away. Once I had done this to all of the images I then wanted to add some drop shadow to make it look more three dimensional. Adding a drop shadow to the warning tape made it look a lot more realistic and made it look like it is actually wrapped around the case.

There was still a gap on the front of the DVD cover, looking back at my design sketches I had a biohazard symbol in this empty space. The biohazard symbol is recognised around the world which means a wide audience will understand what the symbol means. The symbol primarily gives you a warning of a infectious hazard that is harmful to humans. I went onto the internet and found a suitable biohazard logo with a white background (http://tinyurl.com/cnc8sp). Finding one with a white background meant that I could easily make the white transparent and place it straight into my DVD cover.

Once I had added the image I was concerned that the image didn't look old or faded like the rest of the cover. So I decided to add some filter effects, I used the rough pastels filter which gave the image a nice grainy effect with some blurred and burned edges. This made the symbol look old and worn away. I then adjusted the transparency of the layer so that the symbol wasn't overpowering any other images on the DVD cover.  

At this stage I noticed I had a lot of layers and it wasn't very organised. So I decided to put the layers into simple groups. Putting all my layers into these simple groups means I can easily switch and choose layers quickly and efficiently. This way anyone else who wants to view or edit my photoshop image can easily navigate through all of the layers. 

For the spine of my DVD cover I wanted something simple. Going with what I did for my design sketches, I wanted to add some text that included the title of the film. First I flipped the whole image horizontally so that it was easier to work with. I then added some text using the text tool. 

I then added the same biohazard image from the front cover and put one either side of the text to make the text stand out more. I used the free transform tool to adjust the size so that it fit into the guideline area.

At this point I thought that there was too much empty space between the biohazard symbol and the spine of the cover. So I decided to add some more text in the empty space. I wanted to go for the words top secret like you would get on military files, to achieve this I went onto www.dafont.com  and found a font style that I thought would fit. The font I chose looks like it has been stamped on which gives nice symmetry with the classified stamp, combined with the paper background it makes the whole DVD cover look like a military document.  I then added it to my front cover using the text tool. 

Below is a JPEG of my complete DVD cover. Overall I think i have accomplished what i set out to do, which was to create a cover that looks like it a top secret military project. With the use of the classified stamp, top secret writing and biohazard symbols this makes the case look like it is from the government or military. The warning tape and caution text around the cover makes the case look menacing and dangerous. The ripped paper makes the case look like it has been torn into by something and the blood font gives a clear indication that this is a horror film. If i were to change anything about this design, I would probably make more of a realistic torn edge on the old paper. As it is, it doest look like it has been torn in real life. But due to my time constraints I will not be able to amend this, but i will take note of my mistakes and learn for future projects.