Breaking Into Film

DVDs pose new challenges for graphic designers. We could seize new creative opportunities because a high percentage of the media's navigation fails in unity, readability, and aesthetic. Over the weekend I rented two DVDs from my library. Roma Coppola’s CQ and Neil Jordan’s The Good Thief. Rarely does my library have anything made after the 1960s, so I took advantage of these two titles with little expectations. Each film took place in a different time period, and their overall visual language reflected this. Even the DVD menus mirrored the film’s vernacular. However, I found the Good Thief fell short in two respects, unity and readability.

The Good Thief  DVD used a condensed typeface that had a swinging sensation to it. The menu’s face had clean lines, projected motion. For some reason, the marketing team departed from the packaging, poster, and DVD menu when it came time for the film itself. Like Nick Nolte’s character, the film’s opening titles looked like somebody had run Helvetica through a blender. If this was an artful move on the director or motion graphics team, they hadn’t considered one small detail: the rest of the film’s promotional material used a different face entirely. They failed to unify all degrees of the film 100%.

CQ on the other hand, tightly wove it’s vernacular from the film into the DVD menu and experience. I felt this disc was carefully considered. Coppola himself has an eye for details—much like his father, Francis. Posters, typefaces, books, album covers, and the like all influenced him and the energy he put into his first studio film, CQ. The DVD’s menu is ripe with bombastic typography, written in a lush calligraphic style. I saw influences of Barbarella and even Austin Powers. The color and flavor of the DVD interface made it easy to read and identify where I was and where I had been.

Like CQ, Mike Myers’s DVD for Goldmember recalls a style and vernacular of another era. However, Powers didn’t impress me as much as CQ. It fell short for a number of reasons. The navigational typography could hardly be read because of its small size, although a good level of contrast helped this somewhat. When it came to highlighting my menu selections, no standards were used. Sometimes a dingbat would call it out, on other occasions I’d have a bright yellow piece of typography turn orange—in effect, getting darker instead of brighter. I found this unconventional to say the least. Conventions appear problematic. After searching through my small library of discs, I came across a select number of DVDs that used a consistent scheme.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone immersed me in a navigational world very similar to the overall marketing aesthetic and film itself. Unlike most discs that jump you towards your next selection (much like hitting a link on a website), this disc used a wonderful series of transitions. Clouds roll in and out, taking you to the next area of navigation. It consumed as much time as personal interest. Eventually, I got bored of waiting for my selection to fade in.

Francis Ford Coppola's DVD for the Godfather trilogy took a "less is more approach." A monumental image overtakes the screen, with three subnavs at the bottom, called out by the marionette's hand and strings. Moving through the discs' other features appeared clumsy, but each time we advance, a new monolithic image appears in the background, with white typography on the left or bottom of the screen.

DVD production happens long after the film has been completed, released, and shelved. In time, this may change. Already studios have humored the notion of selling discs right after you see the film. Walking out the door, you could pay to own the movie, even at a discount for having paid in the theatre. At present, DVD menus and navigation contain minimal design consideration. The creatives that assemble DVDs are sometimes divorced from the principle production, working through the studio or even a third party. When this happens, visual decisions happen away from the director or art director. Even though this causes a break in unity, there’s no excuse for badly executed typography.

Anything smaller than 24 pixels will be hard to read on our television sets (one pixel equals one point). For those menus set in a graceful 12-18 pixel, I say, “Don't think like a web designer. Get away from your monitor and test this thing on a television screen. It’s all about context.” The farther away designers view things the better. Television quality does lag behind. Sometimes the pixels will flicker on screen, making edges blurred and fuzzy. Most discs fail in the contrast department because of such technical issues. But instead of coping with them, why do so many designers insist on masking the highlighted selection in a darker, denser, or semi-transparent color? If there’s a list of five menu items that are white, you’re making my selection less readable by placing a semi-transparent blue band on top of it. Blue recedes. Why not make the unselected units a cooler color, and use white as your call out? Just use design sense here.

Some would say that these shortcomings in DVD interface result from the technology used: poor software for design, lack of hi-def televisions in the market, or problems with DVD compression methods. I disagree. It’s not the technology; it’s the execution. Principles of visual literacy come into play here, not what tools are at our disposal. To those designers on the lookout for breaking into a new market, I suggest you read Donis A. Dondis's A Primer of Visual Literacy. Take note of the DVDs you like and dislike. Go forth and make something better. You don’t need fancy software. If you’ve got the proper visual sensitivity, Microsoft Word will even suffice.