Initial D DVD Analysis

The Initial D Volume 4 DVD opens to its first menu with two main options, either a vintage Japanese license plate with some Japanese writing and the word “Classic” or a newer looking American plate that says, “Tricked Out.” Underneath the words on the plate it says the audio setting, the type of video it is, and the subtitle setting. There are two active selector areas on each plate where the license plate expiration sticker goes. It is a red circle on the ‘classic’ plate and a red rectangle on the ‘tricked out’ plate. When the selection is made it turns to a pale reddish color.

The main menu for each type of video is the same. The top 60% or so of the screen is short clip in what looks like a night vision setting with a car’s speedometer and tachometer overlaid. The dividing line is a faded yellow and black construction bar. Then there is the menu off to the right with the front of a car on the left. The background is an asphalt color. The menu has four items, “play, setup, scenes, and extras.” The selector for each one is a three sharp turn arrows pointing to the item. It turns to a red when selected. The setup menu is the gauges on the car. The item you want selected will highlight in red and when it is selected the needle on the gauge will point to it. There are audio, video, and subtitle settings. To go back to the main menu the odometer becomes highlighted. There are short little motion clips leading into each menu. The scene selection menu has a background of a moving wheel with all the scenes in a line and at a slight perspective fading off to the right. There is an “Opening, Part A, Part B, Ending, and Preview” for each episode. There are also three episodes to choose from. When selecting a scene there is a huge sharp turn arrow in white above each scene.

The color palate is dark, using greens, red, white, and grays. The audio is the sound of a car on the road with a slight beat in the background on the main menu. There is no sound on the other menus. The sound is, however, from the clip taking place on the top portion of the screen. The typography consists of a lot of all lowercase words and white font. The text is sans serif that is kind of blocky but with rounded edges. Overall, I like the menus a lot and the first menu that is seen is rather creative. This type of menu is definitely something that our class could do.

Analysis of Anchorman

The main menu screen of Anchorman has a dark blue channel 4 news-like wallpaper in the background. In the center of the screen is an old television set with dials. Displayed on the television are all the four team news members jumping up and down making silly looking faces. At the bottom of the screen are yellow bars with the thickest being at the bottom containing the menu items. The text is in white and all caps. Not quite italics, but slanted to the right. The menu items consist of “Play Movie, Scene Index, Setup, and Special Features.” The music in the background the theme music with a slight news like feel and a 70s beat.

The transition to the setup menu has the same yellow bars at the bottom and has two of the main characters slide across the screen. There is no transition going back to the main menu. The transition to the Special Features menu has a video clip of one of the news team members doing a dance and then stopping with the yellow bars sliding in along with the menu. When selecting something there is a little white arrow pointing to it and then the arrows change to black when selected. The audio has a very news-like feel on every scene and it varies. Each menu has the yellow bars slide in. The scene selection uses a white border to highlight each scene.

Overall, this menu works really well and is very easy to read.

IDD 300 DVD Project Due Date

Just a reminder, the DVD project must be completed to be turned in for Wed. March 9th. Don't forget to blog as well on a DVD.

Analysis of "The Bourne Supremacy"

When first coming to the menu in the DVD movie “The Bourne Supremacy” it appears to look like a computer interface with computer-like text. There is information or data scrolling to the far left of the screen. In the middle of the screen are clips from the movie with visible interface lines. There are also two smaller clips of equal size playing just to the right of the main clip. They are stacked one on top of the other. The top one is a monochromatic black and white. The bottom one is monochromatic blue of the same thing with a tiny delay from the first one. After it runs through the clips you see Jason Bourne’s bio stats. The menu is at the bottom in a small font, I wonder if it would be too hard to read on a smaller TV. The music is a slight techno, intense, upbeat feeling. There are sound effects going on in the background for some of the scene changes.

The selection of each menu item is a yellow box with a heavy left side of the box around each item. The main menu includes, “Play, Scenes, Bonus Features, and Languages” all in caps and all in white. The title of the movie is not displayed anywhere on the main screen. At the top of the screen it says, “Wanted: Jason Bourne” with a flashing cursor over the last letter of his name. The activation of a menu item is a red box. The transition to the Scenes menu is a sequence which deletes all the text from the menu and then enlarges the main clip playing in the middle and then it splits into four windows with stills from each clip. A yellow border shows which scene is selected. In the middle of the screen is where the user can jump to a different group of four scenes. The background music is fast paced, low toned piece. There is no transition when heading back to the main menu. The background of the scenes menu was dark blue computer image. The text is a very modern, sans serif font.

When switching to the bonus features menu, it uses the same transition as before but then comes to a yellow, green, and black color palate in its background. It has Bourne in a fight with all sorts of effects, colors, and feathers around it. It uses the same text, but the menu is at a negative angle and has an oval around each menu item in gray with a lighter gray border. The border changes to yellow when it is selected. At the bottom of the screen is a “Menu” button and a “More” button with a dark red background. Each background on the bonus features section is different but sticks to the original theme. The music is fast paced and lively, but still feels like the same genre as before. There are no transitions in between each page.

Overall, this a descent interface. I think they should have kept a closer relationship with the backgrounds in each menu to the first. It loses the computer feel for it a little in each sub menu.

Analysis of "Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark

The DVD for Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark starts with an opening clip that goes to a brief title screen then the appears across the bottom of the screen. Going on in the background is a composite of several scenes form the movie with transitions consisting of things like an airplane, truck, boats, etc. The composite seems to have paintbrush effect over everything with certain things like characters standing out more with more vibrant color scheme. In my opinion, the paintbrush effect seems a little cheesy. The audio clip in the background is the theme song for the movie.

The menu at the bottom looks like a strip of paper from a map with torn edges. The menu text is in all caps and in a black text. The menu consists of “Play, Set Up, Scene Selection, and IndianaJones.com.” The highlight text color is red. When transitioning into the Scene Selection menu, there is an airplane that flies in and off to the right. When transitioning out of the menu it flies out to the left. The name of this menu appears in the Indiana Jones title font in the same orange to yellow gradient. This menu has four different small clips running with the name of each scene under each. Off to the left hand side is list of all the scenes broken into groups of four with a Main Menu, menu item. The highlight text is still red. Each of the scenes displayed appears to have a mask over it to give the edges a look like they are displayed on a piece of canvas or something. In the background is a side scrolling map that fades into what loks like a temple. The color scheme consists of yellows and browns. The audio in the background is a short, mysterious sounding clip. The text on this menu seems a little small, but readable. On a smaller television this could be a problem.

The transition to the setup menu also has an airplane, but a different one and a short clip that goes into what looks like the fountain of youth. The Set Up text is in the same Indiana Jones font, but the sub menu items are in a dark red. Audio Options and Subtitle Options are here, the end of “Options” on “Subtitle Options” is a little difficult to read, as well two of the subtitle options.

The menu for this DVD could have been a little fancier, but it works, and the main menu is really simple and straightforward.