In part 1 of this project diary series, I discussed the idea for my DVD project and looked at the initial research, securing a domain name, along with hosting, and writing the script for the DVD.

In this article I discuss the filming formats, retail point of sale (POS) DVD box and CD designs and basically where we're up to now.

You will recall in Part 1 of this article that I paid particular attention to the format and scripting of the DVD, and I'll say it again that time spent on pre-production is time well spent as your scripting will take you right through to the editing process and onto completion.

Armed with my reliable camera man Adam amd my mate Al to help out, we began filming after setting up our set and sorting the lighting.

One additional point to having prepared well was that I was able to rehearse what I was going to say on camera, and as such most of the takes were complete in 1-3 takes, some of course were longer and were changed to sound better, but I have spent hours in front of my camera in the past and been unable to deliver some simple lines because of lack of preparation!

What I did was to group all the presentation shots, for example filming group 1 shots in group 1 location, group 2 in the group 2 location and so on, ensuring that not only do I not forget to shoot something striking a mild panic in the edit suite, but grouping shots like this ensures continuity, and thus increases credability.

When on set you have to make sure that in addition to having quality shots, you have to have a pace and make progress with what you are doing, keeping everyone including yourself in that positive frame of mind, will lead to a much better production overall.

Over our two & a half days filming we managed to capture over 7 hours of quality footage and a number of digital still photos, which I prefer to use compared with using frame grabs from the edit timeline, just my preference.

Back in the editing side of things using Sony Vegas pro 9, I began creating VT segments along with section introduction stings which work very well with the whole feel of the DVD. I also made a 55 second trailer for the DVD to get some unsolicited feedback which prodved positive..

Music

As far as the music tracks were concerned I wanted to keep the budget low, and could have done with some free royalty free music from incompetech.com, but I decided that my DVD production was going to look like it came straight from the Discovery Channel so I licenced a few tracks from Audio Network PLC which in my opinion is the place to get your music from if you want a quality production.

The licensing costs will be no more that $240 per production for a sale of 1000 units.

DVD Graphics

With any product that you create and sell, you will need good product graphics, and the last couple of days I have been doing that.

As this is the first DVD in what will be a series it took a bit of time getting the design right ensuring the DVD has enough information to look appealing without being overcrowded.

My "scientific" formula for assesing whether the design is right, is firstly look at the rules of marketing, secondly give the design to average Joe Bloggs to see what they think, and take note of any comments, then print out the artwork in a printer and stick it on or in where it's supposed to go, whether a DVD or DVD cover, then take a break, and come back to it, and over time you will make minor changes until you have the finished product.

For me, the DVD cover as with any of my products have to be retail ready, so putting the prototype on a shelf and looking at it when it catches your eye is a good test for me.

Next Steps 

Today being Sunday, I will be back to the edit tomorrow morning, and getting excited about finalising the DVD and watching it back.