With some time in hand before the next pair of episodes that I’ll be revisiting I thought I’d spend some time saying how these image capture files are created.
My main piece of equipment, in fact something that has made the entire project possible, is my Cannon IXUS 801S digital camera from which I can transfer photos directly to computer ready for use.
Now the first priority was a suitable background and for the first season of ‘Wish Me Luck’ the opening titles silhouette images of Liz Granger and Matty Firman either side of a large central space made this perfect. However getting the correct brightness resolution for photographing was very difficult resulting in a late night positioning of the camera, in a darkened room, fixed to a tripod to capture this image. Even then I had to make considerable adjustments to the televisions brightness and contrast settings to gain the perfect black and white result. Back on the computer and the only adjustment that was required was to edit the image where I carefully drew a centrally located wire frame square where images will be inserted.
When collecting images it initially begins with a case of having a ‘pencil and paper’ on hand to jot down potential suitable captures whilst watching the episodes on television. Subsequently I return to the episodes on computer with camera on hand and, usually relying on patient freeze framing over specific points, I capture the images I think will work best. There is, on occasion, lining picture distortion from this, so further patience squeezing the cameras photo capture button is required when doing this. From camera back to computer these images are resized before the next stage of preparing them for use. For the best results I find that with opening a blank Microsoft Word document I insert each image and crop, adjust brightness and contrast as required ensuring the best possible clarity. From here it is directly ‘copied and pasted’ into the ‘background template’ format where dimensions are altered so that it comfortably fits into the central wire frame square. I’ve certainly been pleasantly surprised that doing it this way I seem to have avoided the usual pixilization/lack of resolution that usually befalls the usual means of image manipulation.
I use another Microsoft Word document (which I call ‘quotes’) when I make another computer screen visit to the episodes looking for text/wording that I think will best support each image being used. This typed text is then copied and pasted in Microsoft WordArt which is set against a rectangular shape and then these two items is grouped together. This object is then copied and pasted from the Microsoft Word document into the next relevant background and image file. Keeping a count on where the relevant file sits within the series episode I’ve done another Microsoft WordArt object although this one had Season, Episode and Capture details.
So there you go, the way that I have found to further express my fan appreciation of this series. Of course the second and third seasons of “Wish Me Luck” had slightly different titles which don’t, on first glance appear to lend themselves to offering a suitable background image. Well I’ve had a look at this and I believe I’ve come up with a pretty good format to cover this change. It will be a while before I hopefully get to use these but this time I’ve got a pretty good transition of six images leading to the title logo across the top with greater central space given over to the captured image this time with a dark blue frame. In addition to the usual ‘quotes/supporting text’ and numbering wording this should work pretty well, but in the meantime there’s a couple more Season One episodes to be considered.
Hope to come back soon with those, till then best wishes one and all!
