An authored DVD Video is simultaneously a very simple construction and yet filled with details and technicalities. There is however no denying the enormous power and flexibility of DVD – as a delivery medium for cinematic content it has enjoyed the fastest takeup of any technology of it’s kind and is now universal across the world

In the particular context of delivering a Showreel for a Director, Editor or DoP the DVD is arguably competing against the ubiquitous website but it still most certainly has it’s place for delivering a high-quality viewing product in the glorious art of self promotion.

But to leverage that power you have to embrace both the creative possibilities and technical nitty gritty. The best place to start on that is the very well written and thorough Adobe DVD Primer (which you can download here or form the Readings page)

Ive also included here and on the Production bible the presentation notes from the classes on DVD authoring. The PDF includes notes on the do’s and don’t for making a great showreel DVD. – dvd-and-showreels

Presentation of the DVD as a product cannot be ignored either and so I have provided here a downloadale PDF template file for designing a DVD cover – dvd_template