Kevin Powell

“When it boils right down to it, we’re creatives. We get paid to be creative.”

In the world of home media, there’s a lot of chatter these days concerning the leap from Standard Definition to High-Definition. It’s not the only discussion, but currently the most common with both consumers and content creators. Hopefully, you already own a TV with an aspect ratio more like a movie screen than a coaster. And maybe, just maybe, you had some common sense & bought a Blu-ray player over that format Microsoft was pushing. Congratulations. You’ve taken the first step into a much larger world. Although SD DVD’s look pretty good on new TV’s and in new players, BD looks better. It’s the future, for the time-being anyway.

There’s an entire team of people that create the DVD’s you enjoy. There are producers, compressionists, authors, designers, a slew of behind the scenes artists make it happen. All of these people should be considered artists because, well, there’s an art to doing each of these jobs well. For a designer in the realm of SD DVD’s there’s a pretty simple set of rules. You know the limitations & you design with those in mind, pulling from your bag o’ tricks when necessary, & attempt to create something fresh & compelling within a fairly restrictive environment. There’s only so much you can do with SD DVD’s. But this shouldn’t be stifling, it should motivate you to be more creative with the choices you make. Which is ultimately what we do right? When it boils right down to it, we’re creatives. We get paid to be creative. Having a limited set of tools shouldn’t restrict creativity & it doesn’t.

Now we’re in the world of High-Definition & more often heard uttering magic words like resolution, interactivity, HDMV, BD-J, video codec & compression. These are all very important things. We must understand them. These things are our friends. But the technical stuff is more or less a transparent part of what we do. A DVD designer juggles many things like deadlines, client expectations, brand, & message. Yet, all the while you’re creating something that’s visual cool, engaging, & balances itself nicely with functionality. Ultimately, it’s a big ‘ol “Play the Damned DVD” button wrapped in a pretty package. Really, it is. Only now in Blu-ray land, we have a galaxy of pixels to push around. The DVD has been in the shop & it’s not just the package that’s been overhauled. We’ve got an entirely new engine under that cowl-inducted hood. It’s pretty badass for sure compared to Standard Definition. It’s a 1920×1080 progressive, High-Definition, Java powered muscle car compared to SD DVD’s mid-nineties-somewhat cool-whatever you were driving back then-car.

What does all this mean for the DVD designer? Well, it means a lot & it means nothing at the same time. There’s some new tools to learn & a new rule book. But, any solid designer in any medium knows that frequent research, continued education, & even experimentation is vital to stay competitive. It’s necessary to stay on top of the newest technical aspects of any business. I’ve always preached “The tools are just tools, good design comes from good ideas”. And, this still holds true with Blu-ray DVD design. But with that said, I’m pretty excited about this new world & these new tools. The level of detail we now have to work with is beautiful. The amount of interactivity that can be achieved is vast compared to Standard Definition. For the DVD designer, not much has really changed though. Ultimately, we still have to be creative. Because that’s really what we do.

-KP

Here’s an example of the level of detail possible with Blu-ray in this unused popup interface I designed for HBO’s Rome.