Six DVD Designers to Watch

Mike Goedecke, Belief

At times, Mike Goedecke, creative director and partner at SantaMonica-based Belief, sounds a bit like a DVD evangelist. “DVDshave proven themselves--they are going to be around for a longtime,” he expounds. “Now, it’s a matter of gettingstudios involved and rethinking the way marketing is done for a film,to take some of the budget and apply it to DVD. Studios have to thinkmore proactively about DVDs.”

Admittedly, Goedecke and his cohorts at Belief have been fortunate.They have had the bread-and-butter of broadcast design to support them,and a history of landing the choicest A-list DVD projects--with amplebudgets to boot. The company’s recent DVD titles includeNightmare on Elm Street, Seven, The Doors,Buena Vista Social Club, and Cecil B. Demented.

But, says Goedecke, Belief owes its success to more than just luck.“We have the ability to produce our own materials, andwe’re going to approach a project from a point of view that goesbeyond the cookie-cutter mentality of menu design. A studio can trustus.”

www.belief.com

Dan Fenster, Crush Digital Video

Dan Fenster, designer and animator at New York-based Crush DigitalVideo, says he got involved in DVD design because he liked the userinterface of the medium. “I come from a broadcast designbackground, where you create things that are seen, but not used byanyone,” says Fenster. “With DVD, you get to involvepeople.”

Fenster often works on titles for music and recording agencies,including Arista Records, for whom he recently completed menu designfor the company’s Platinum La Face DVD. He is especially proud ofhis design for that disc’s video-breakdown menu, which he feelsaddressed much more than just aesthetics. “When we design menus,we like to think of our client’s needs beyond just DVD, and wethought for [Platinum], Arista might want to have the DVD menus playingas an in-store promotion. We came up with an interface scheme where youcould preview all of the songs at once while easily navigating to eachindividual song. Whichever video the user highlights will play threerepeating shots within its box, while the other unselected videosremain frozen.”

Such usability, says Fenster, represents the authoring house’soverall approach to DVD. “At Crush, we’re very consciouswhen we put a product together that it makes sense, not just lookspretty,” Fenster concludes. “Everything is done for theuser’s sakes.”

www.crushdv.com

Sean Donnelly, Metropolis

Sean Donnelly, director of creative services at New York-basedMetropolis, says he crossed over to DVD from broadcast design becausehe enjoyed the wild west feeling of the medium. “There are stillnot a lot of people doing DVD, so you’re able to define themedium,” he notes. “You get a lot of creativefreedom.”

Recent releases that Donnelly has worked on include magician DavidBlaine’s Mystifier, recording artist Brandy’s videocompilation DVD, and the latest Spinal Tap edition. The designersays that on all his releases, he enjoys working closely withMetropolis’ authoring department.

“The menus have been getting tighter and tighter because weall work so closely with the authorers here,” he says.“They can tell you where the skips are going to happen and whatcould go wrong. We’re all very involved from theget-go.”

www.metropolisdvd.com

Vicki Shively, New Wave Entertainment

Vicki Shively’s initiation to DVD design was a baptism byfire. The senior graphic designer, who had previously been involved inmain title and trailer design, cut her teeth in the DVD world on a veryprominent release: David Fincher’s Fight Club.

“I like to think it turned out so well because I didn’tknow what I was doing--the sky was the limit,” laughs Shively.“Those discs had everything you could possibly include on a DVD,so I learned almost everything I needed to know.”

Since then, Shively has built up the portfolio and confidence of aseasoned DVD professional with releases including The Beach andBuffy The Vampire Slayer under her belt.

As far as her philosophies go, Shively says she loves the rush ofcreating a project from the ground up. “I like getting as muchmaterials as I can, but I also love the challenge of creating thingsfrom scratch,” she states. “I think you can come up withmore interesting designs that emit a feeling of the film, withoutgiving everything away.”

www.newwaveent.com

Concetta Halstead, Freelancer

Thanks to a lucky break from the state of California, independentdesigner Concetta Halstead broke out of a strict print-designenvironment and started on her path to becoming a DVD pioneer.“The state was offering multimedia classes so that designerscould keep up with technology,” Halstead explains. “I waspart of a very intensive, free program for six to eight months in 1992,where I learned Director and Premiere and got familiar with CD-ROM andWeb sites. Then DVD took off, and I got involved with that.”

Halstead’s main clients include Quickband Networks, WarnerBros., Universal, and Urban Vision Entertainment, and she has diverseexperience in creating design for everything from mainstream featureslike The Matrix to Japanese anime for niche markets. In someways, managing her own business has forced her to be more organized inher creative processes, as well. “I always design for content,but I’m never just so free form that I’m missing deadlinesand not keeping things within spec and budget,” Halstead states.“For me, it’s really about being organized overall in termsof both my design and my business.”

www.quickband.com

Mike Rivera, Sony Pictures DVD Center

Mike Rivera has come a long way since the 80s. The current creativemanager for Sony Picture’s DVD center got his degree incomputer-based art back when CG artists were still working pixel bypixel. Later on, he started designing for CD-ROM, which he feelsprepared him for his work on DVDs. “I think the CD-side preparedme for what DVDs could do, but DVD is so much better as far as nothaving to worry about compression as we did before,” says Rivera,who laughs when he recalls the “discombobulation machines ofcompression” that so often destroyed his artwork for earlyCD-ROMs.

Now for DVD releases such as Pink Floyd-The Wall, IceCube’s Greatest Hits, and La Barracca, Rivera hasconsiderable freedom and the significant resources of Sony at hisdisposal. All of this makes him optimistic about the future of DVD.“I think more and more, people will start to look at menus beyondjust places where you say ‘play movie' and ‘here are somescene selections,’” Rivera states. “You have theopportunity, because it’s such a big storage medium, to make itan entire entertainment package.”

www.dvdctr.com