Creating a cover for this movie:

[Doc]

Today on Turner Classic Movies, 8:30am Pacific:

Based on the memoirs of Captain Ted Lawson, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo is a documentary style re-creation of the first American strike on Japan in retaliation for the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Following Capt. Lawson, played by Van Johnson in his first major screen role, we watch the flight team, which includes Spencer Tracy as Col. James Doolittle, and Robert Mitchum in his last minor role as Bob Gray, prepare for their dangerous mission. Because island bases near the target were unavailable, twin-engine bombers, in a historic first, had to take off from the deck of an aircraft carrier. When a storm forces the mission to depart ahead of schedule, an unpredictable situation occurs after Capt. Lawson and his crew complete their mission. They are forced to crash land in Mainland China where they become dependent on Chinese guerillas to smuggle them to safety.

I'm in the process of creating a dvd cover for the movie now. Below is a comparison between the VHS cover and my work in progress.

Comments are welcome as usual...thanks

Movie Trailer

 

[Sean]

Pretty good, Doc.
Looks like the title is too close to the right (personally I don't like the creamy yellow color of the font), and I'd change the color of the actors names, maybe even a different font. Also adding a border around the cover might look nice, but that's optional.

 

[Doc]

Patrick,

Thanks for the comments. I adjusted the location/format of the Title and the color (it looked golden on my monitor) and changed the color of the charactor's names too. I wanted to keep the font, a stencil style, to go with the military theme. The top, bottom and right edge of this image will be at the edge of the dvd case so a border may not look quite right.

When I get the back cover and spine complete, I'll post it here for further 'analysis'. \:]

 

[Sean]

Hmmm, either my monitor or your monitor is off, because the red looks kinda pink, and the yellow before looked light. I don't know a way to figure out which is right, except to print it out. \:]

 

[Doc]

Wow, weird that the colors you see are so different. When I print out my cover labels, the colors match my monitor screen very closely. I'd be curious to know how other members here see the colors.

BTW, I am now re-rendering the movie...and have created a 'Bonus Feature'. It's a slide show of actual photos taken on the 'Hornet' around the time of the beginning of the raid. Here's a low res version to give you an idea what it looks like. The music is "Moonglow" by Artie Shaw. I thought the juxtaposition of that song and the images went well together...comments?

Slide Show

 

[Sean]

Great slid show, Doc. I like the music as well.
An Idea: I think it would be cool to inter-mix the slid show with real video footage (if you have any). Just an Idea.

 

[Welles]

Hey Doc.

On my monitor I see the orignal title as a light golden color, not nearly as saturated as the gradient just above (Vintage Calssics). The red on your version comes across as a solid red on my screen.

The one big thing I noted was the difference of the faces. It is particularly noticable in the jaw lines. The faces on your remake are wider, due to resiziing I guess.

Your Bonus.wmv is very apropos being, Memorial Day.

 

[Doc]

Welles,

Thanks for the 2nd opinion on the text color. I was getting concerned. [saywhat]

I purposely widened the faces as they looked too narrow to my eyes on the VHS cover. Hopefully, without that image right next to mine for comparison, my version won't look too 'fat'.

Here's an update on my cover...still not sure about the blockout on the back for text...and I plan on adding some stills above also.

And, a shot of the completed dvd's menu.

(Kept almost fully B&W to go with the movie)

Finally, for now, here's a link to my annual Memorium to those that have fallen.

HONORS

 

[Welles]

Without the two images, side by side, the depth of the faces is not an issue at all.

 

[Doc]

Just a quick update. I've now rendered the movie along with the 'Bonus Material' slide show to dvd and have completed the cover label. I'm pretty pleased with how everything turned out...but I already see where I need to make improvements.

I've also updated my menu. I now have a way, using different software, to add a 'first play' video before the menu starts. When the dvd is inserted to the dvd player, it begins with a zoom out of a photograph and then goes right to the menu using the same photo as a background (music starts to play in the background as well). The menu text looks much clearer in the full dvd sized version.

This is a simple rendition of the kind of menu done on such dvd's as 'Harry Potter', 'Chicago', etc. I'll be playing with this idea in future movies I convert to dvd. Here's a sample of how it looks:

Sample Menu

Thanks again to lily for divulging what font she used for her Movie Posters.

 

[dochappy]

loving the new cover something about it just clicks for me. Mind me asking what software you are using to make the menus and such ?

 

[Welles]

Looks great, Doc! You're DVD collection is going to be something special. B7

 

[Doc]

dochappy,

Thanks for the kind words (Nice handle by the way )...When it comes to 'consumer' video editing and dvd authoring software, it seems that each does some or all things to some degree but none do it all. I have several programs that I use for different tasks. For example. I have Pinnacle Studio 9 with it's 'Movie Box USB' capture device for my video captures. I also use it for rendering small clips for motion menus. I use TMPGEnc DVD Author to create menus and render the video to dvd file format. Then I use Nero 6 to burn the dvd to disk.

That is until a couple of days ago. I finally broke down and purchased a more 'professional' video editing/authoring software...Vegas 6 + DVD. While I still use the Movie Box USB device to capture, it looks like Vegas will finally be a 'do everything' piece of software for me. That is the program I used to create the menu for this project. It's kinda like comparing PhotoShop with it's counterpart, PS Elements. While Elements can do a lot, there is just so much more that can be done with PS. I'm looking forward to discovering the possibilities with this program. I'll keep you posted on my journey.

Welles,

Thanks...yes, my collection is coming along nicely. 8))