Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Feedback programme

At the moment our school is taking part in an activity with other schools in which we exchange our teaser trailers so far, and send feedback to the other students based on the coursework mark scheme. This will be very useful for us as it is a source of audience feedback from people we do not know, and will help us to improve our trailer in terms of its effect on a 17-18 year old audience.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

How to create a professional movie website

This step-by-step guide to creating a film website has some useful pointers for our ancillary task. Of course some aspects of it that involve hiring a site-builder or crafting a site with multiple pages wouldn't apply to us because we our task is to create a single page and it will not be involved in the actual internet which rules out having a domain name.

Here is the list:

How to Make Your Movie Website

  • 1

    Identify your target audience and narrow down domain names based on tone, scope, and specificity. If the website is dedicated to a single movie, try to work the title into the domain name. Choose a web host that has hosted other movie sites with something in common with yours, such as genre or style.

  • 2

    Build the technical side of your website with a website building program or by composing HTML or CSS code yourself. (If you feel uncomfortable working with either a program or code, solicit the help of a trained site-builder who can give your site a professional sheen.)

  • 3

    Create an opening (or splash) page to not only greet visitors but clearly express the purpose the film and website. Some dramatic image from the film can only help. This page should include tabs that lead to reviews from reputable sources, videos including interviews and trailers, and, if possible, theater listings.

  • 4

    Insert all the information a casual fan would want to know on tab pages. This would include a list of the cast and production crew (with names spelled correctly), a well-written and compelling description of the premise, a professionally edited trailer, a summary of festivals or other places the film has or will play and production information.

    If your film has been rated, place it visibly, but not prominently, near the production information. If you get reviews, and they're positive, post quotes from them, giving appropriate credit to the reviewer and a link if possible to the full review. If the film has been nominated for any awards, or won any, that information should be on your opening page.

  • 5

    Convert any recorded materials (commercials, interviews, etc.) into a smaller, compressed flash video that will be easier and more convenient for viewers to see. Ease and quality will be very important values to keep casual viewers at your site. Create a design for your flash video player that fits well with your project.

  • 6

    Upload your website with a file transfer protocol. Many web hosts offer this feature, but if they don't you can download an FTP program yourself.



  • Read more: How to Make a Movie Website | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_5592722_make-movie-website.html#ixzz1AuiwmvI8

    The guide describes many aspects that are important for use in our task: Identifying a target audience; a 'splash' page to front the site; dramatic images from the film; tabs leading to reviews, interviews, trailers (and remember to convert these to a compressed flash file so it is quicker to load) and cinema listings (n.b. we do not have to create a target page for these to link to in our task, but it would make for a much more convincing homepage if we were to include pretend tabs); information about production crew and cast; a synopsis of the film.

    The above list details the elements of a proper film website that we can and should use in creating our ancillary task, and in conjunction with what we have learned from looking at existing websites we can arrange the features to be convincing and effective.