I am completing the DVD package for ‘Gone Fishing’. I already have a DVD mastered, which looks and sounds as good as any DVD I have ever seen (in both Dolby Digital and DTS). In my office I can duplicate DVD’s, four at a time, and I also have a colour robotic DVD face printer, so making disks is not a problem.

But, as anyone who has ever done it knows, making the paper inserts for the DVD boxes is a real pain in the butt. It never comes out the way you expect and trimming paper down to size usually ends up looking a bit wonky. So I have opted to get them printed professionally.

And I have a cunning plan too. One of the problems I have is that I would like to add any festival wins to the DVD cover (should we collect any awards), as well as press quotes and the like. Of course, once it’s printed, doing this is normally a problem. So I have opted for standard DVD cover (with the slimline case) and I will print a generic background on the reverse side. If I then use clear plastic cases, I can use my office laser printer to add any quotes or awards onto that reverse side – and that text will be visible inside the DVD case through the clear plastic. This means I get the convenience of full colour, professionally printed and trimmed covers, that I can modify and add to at a later date.

I am doing the layout myself and sending a PDF to a printers called Kellmatt, who can do 500 copies, double sided, for £120 (speak to a guy called Matt, who is very helpful), and a thousand for a few quid more. It's a a pretty good deal, but if you know any better, please drop me a line.

Onward and upward!

Chris Jones, Film Maker and Author
www.livingspirit.com
mail@livingspirit.com