DVD Research for Interface Brief

Im looking at mostly British horror DVDs but also some non-British ones for my research into DVD interfaces.

Nightwatch
The opening sequence shows moving blood vessels flying passed you as if your going through the body. Its really flashy with the colours changing to red then black and white. On the menu a splattery shape indicates what option you are on and changes colour when you press play. This makes it clear to see where you are and what your selecting. Nothing moves on the different menu screens and there is no transitional sequence which makes it quite boring. The writing is blurry and yellow on red which is hard to read. What is amazing about this film is the subtitles which interact with the movie. The words appear in loads of different ways like fading, flashing and even turning into blood. It would be interesting to see this done on the menu of a DVD.

Severance
For the opening sequence the head of an office guy falls off and blood spurts out. This dark humour goes with the mood of the film. Then it goes to the menu screen and every so often splatters of blood fall out the body which is swaying. The sound is like wind blowing and squelches as blood comes out. I like the way the screen slides to the side when you select something. The scene selections menu shows clips from the chapters in polaroid photographs which are hanging from swaying meat hooks. Here there is the sound of blades being sharpened. A blood splatter is the shape which moves to select a chapter. There is a simple white background throughout.



The Descent
Spooky cave wall for menu background with a spotlight hovering over the different options. The noises are of running water, screeches from the monsters, rocks moving beneath feet and echoey drips. You can't get anywhere without waiting for the torch light to go over that option then you have to quickly press before it goes onto something else and this is quite annoying. When you choose something you spinny round to a different cave wall in a fast swooshy motion. Drips of water fall down in some of the menus.





From Hell
Spooky echoey noises. Low opacity photo in the background of a street. Misty. Italic font to symbolise 1888. Everything is to do with anatomy and every page has got a different diagram of a body part. the text on the menus is all staggered and not on a baseline.






Slither
Alien slug slithers across screen to reveal the title. American typewriter style font is used which is slightly blurry and white. There are squelchy sounds with plinky plonky music. In the transitional sequence skin splits to reveal the chapter selections which are on a gross fleshy background. The screen has got black edges as if there is a spot light on it. Special features menu is a tree and every so often a slug crawls out. An out of focus family garden is in the background with kids laughing.


28 Days Later
Numbers count upwards on a black and red background til it reaches 28. On the menu there is the sound of wind and the scene is a deserted london street. Every so often a split second flash of the movie will appear. The only things that move are smoke going across and a newspaper blowing in the wind. The film's logo (similar to a toxic symbol) indicates what option you are on. There are no transitional sequences between menus.


Creep
Scene of inside an underground train. The picture is jolting around. A hand comes up very suddenly and slides down the screen leaving behind a blood stain. Cursor for selection is a blood splatter and there are train noises and screams. Text is written around the title. Transitional sequence - the lights go out on the train one by one until its black then the next menu comes up. This DVD one was easy to use with clear type. it uses different type sizes for different words which looks interesting. One menu features a wall with an eerie shadow on it.




Dog soldiersThe opening sequence happens too quick and there are too many things going on .The title is ripped with claws to reveal menu. Picking an option makes gun shots be fired through the background so the next menu can be seen. The different options are all over the place and not great for userbility because you don't know which direction to press on your remote.




American werewolf in london
Not a British film but set in London, the menu shows London bridge, the sky is misty and the moon rises up into the sky. The song 'Bad moon rising' by CCR makes it ironic, quirky and not cheesy, which I think is what makes British horrors so good.

Film titles/credits

YouTube - Casino Royale Title Sequence




The Casino Royale title sequence was done by UK based Framestore.  http://www.framestore-cfc.com/  Theire website displays other work they have done including the polar bears in Golden Compass and the famous Guiness advert.
 

With the help of Daniel Kleinman, the director, they produced this animated intro to the James Bond film. They used card motifs such as suits, Kings and Queens, to suggest the theme of the film and teamed this with imagery like cross hairs and blood to signify the violent nature of the film. Crosshairs turn into roulette wheels, Hearts and Diamonds appear as blood as they pour out of decorative vessels. Kleinman says "The titles have been a defining element of the Bond films for decades, and a defining feature of the titles has been the girls. Given the spirit of this new film, that simply no longer felt appropriate."
I like the fact that this is different to the other bond titles and I think it demonstrates how duplicating quite simple shapes and symbols can make a visually stunning animation.


Another great sequence is the credits from 300.  The company that did these  is Yu  +  Co  who said the look of the credits was intended to pay homage to the graphic novel at the end of the movie.

The only colours used are red black and yellow. The figures are silhouettes but are not completely static - a horses tail might move or a soldiers cape. The imagery is on layers  which are zoomede in and out, scaled up and down. and this seemingly simple movements actually give a dynamic end product. Splatters of blood go across the frame and the flat shapes in the background morph into objects. The type used is Frank Millers own artistic alphabet which helps to refer to the novel.
Yu + Co artists have edited the movie down and created what Yu calls "an echo of the whole story." In explaining the blood  Yu says "We wanted the blood to be like a volcano. Theres a lot of 2D blood in the movie and we ran with it as a unifying motif for the end crawl." On their website http://www.yuco.com/ their splash page is amazing in itself - a dandelion of animated seeds looks like its blowing in the wind while every so often type gets blown out of it. They also do the title sequence for desperate housewives which adopts a montage effect of images, taking you through the history of female anguish in different period art styles.

DVD Menus

I chose three Tim Burton movies to see what the DVD menus look like, how they are laid out and how you navigate around them. They all use elements of the film for example in Sleepy Hollow, you appear to gallop towards the tree, suggesting the horse which features in the film. A pumpkin and a sword are used in different areas of the DVD, and are animated when you press something. In the Nightmare before Christmas DVD the options are on a background scene of towers and pumpkins which is appropriate to the movie. These scenes are still images and the only moving parts are the flickering of light in the windows and pumpkins and the smokey sky, yet these small movements make the whole thing seem animated. The corpse bride is slighty different because the options are set over parts of the movie playing in the background. The type in all three is typically Burtonesque - like a horror font- which enhances the mood of the films. Looking at these has helped me think about the new brief because I have cosen to do a DVD skin and although I might not do something in the same genre as these films it is clear that the imagery and type has to be appropriate and engaging for your film. Also I have learnt that in the transitional parts when you press things on the menu you can be very experimental with what happens in these couple of seconds. These three DVDs were very computer based in their menus but I may consider using hand drawn/ written things in my work.