EventDV magazine has opened the polls for the 2007 EventDV 25. Click here to go to their website and vote for your choice of the top 25 videographers.

I will be presenting an advanced DVD menu seminar at the upcoming Video08 in January.  We’ll walkthrough the whole process from idea to final output using Adobe Encore, Photoshop and, of course, After Effects.  Here is the full spiel from the program guide:

Menu Magic
Advanced DVD Authoring and Creativity

Take your DVD productions to the next level by learning advanced and creative authoring techniques! Josh Fozzard will showcase the possibilities for the newest and coolest features for your next DVD’s. Learn the step-by-step process of how to create Hollywood-quality motion backgrounds, first-play videos, and inter-menu motion that immerses the viewer into the DVD experience.

Explore the possibilities of Next Generation HD Blu-Ray formats and delivering your DVD experience to the web. Josh will showcase many samples of his most creative menus, while teaching the many merits of advanced DVD’s. You’ll also discover his techniques for getting ideas and inspiration, how to use storyboards, and how to best use Photoshop and After Effects.

Click here to view the website.

One of new features that has really caught my attention in the upcoming Adobe Encore CS3 is the ability to output your DVD projects to a webpage with embedded Flash video, complete with all the interactivity of a standard DVD. So basically you create your DVD in Encore and then, in addition to a Blu-ray or DVD, you can output it to a webpage where the user can interact with the video just as if they were watching it in a DVD player. Pretty cool stuff right there! I totally support all these new digital delivery options and think that this is the way of the future. Microsoft is even developing a new software that will allow the playback of HD video in a webpage! (Microsoft Silverlight) Pretty soon all of the format wars of Blu-ray and HD DVD will be a thing of the past because you can distribute your videos on the web in SD or HD.

Speaking of HD and digital delivery, I’ve been playing around with my Xbox 360 and I have discovered that it can stream HD content from your PC to the Xbox 360 and display it on your HDTV!! I have even been backing up my DVDs to my PC and now I can watch them anytime right from the Xbox. I’m telling you this is difinately the way to do it.

There are many sources of inspiration that I draw from when trying to develop a creative piece for my weddings or other video productions. Here are a couple links that inspire me. (more…)