Website

My final website (click to enlarge)


In order to complete my website, the first of the two individual coursework tasks, I had to set aside time outside of lessons. This was because the group tasks - both the trailer and the radio advert - were what our group felt were most important to focus on in class time together. I think this was the right decision as the individual tasks are much less demanding than the group tasks.
To create our websites, we used Photoshop, which wasn't much of a problem for me as I have experience using this programme within my other studies. Although this was the case, I still feel that I learnt many new skills from the workshops we did in class, as with this subject I have used Photoshop for different things than I do normally in my other studies. With this new knowledge and also my skills that have been previously acquired, I have produced a website that I am happy with, and feel portrays the best of my skills.

Before I created my own website, I researched other films of a similar genre to our own - thriller. The main two films I chose to focus my research on were 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' and 'Shutter Island', both of which are new films. At the time I looked at these two websites originally, both were waiting to be released into cinema, however when I looked at them during the production of my website, 'Shutter Island' has been released into cinemas, whereas 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' was still waiting to be released. This meant that the focus of the 'Shutter Island' website was to encourage people to go to the cinema to watch it, whereas the focus of the 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' website was to encourage people to take an interest in the film before it is released. As well as looking into other websites that are of a similar genre to my own film, I also conducted a SWOT analysis.

Here is the research I did on each of these two websites, with notes about aspects of each website that stood out to me when I first looked at each site. Click on each image to enlarge it and read my notes.









After looking at these websites, I started to create my own, with aspects of the sites from my research in mind. I decided to use a black background as I thought this suited the genre of our film, because a dark colour scheme or background usually connotes that the film is also 'dark. I also thought this colour would work well with the photo I had decided to use. In order to reflect the tagline of our film - "Some truths are better left in the dark" - I feathered the edge of the photo. This makes it look as though something is being concealed, and further plays on the idea of the tagline that some things shouldn't be known by either the characters within the film, or the audience intending to watch the film, which creates a sense of curiosity with the audience, because they want to find out what it is they don't or shouldn't know. To further emphasise the meaning of the tagline, I also only decided to use one photo, and have the left half of the homepage very dark and quite bare in comparison to the right side of the page. This makes the audience believe that there is something they don't know, and it is intended that they will be encouraged to go and watch the film to find out what this is. By choosing a photo where one of the main characters of the film is clearly in a bad situation also helps to evoke the idea that there is something the audience doesn't know about and will need to watch the film in order to discover what this is. I also decided that I wanted to put the rating of the film onto the website. This is because it is a legal formality, and was also on both of the examples I looked at in my research. Before I started to create my website, I decided that any legal information that I was going to include should be at the bottom of the page, and should be relatively small. This is because when a potential audience look at a film website, they are more interested in the content which is directly about the film rather than the legal information that they don't want, or necessarily need, to know.

I have annotated each screenshot I took during the process of creating my first website draft. Click on each photo to enlarge it and read the notes I made.








Here is a screenshot of the first draft of my website (click to enlarge).



Although I was happy with the work I had produced for my first draft, I wasn't convinced that it was effective and worked as a website for a thriller film. The main element that cast doubt in my mind was the positioning of each thing on the page. I felt that I had included all the correct elements within the website, but wasn't happy with the way in which each one was laid out. For example, I wasn't happy with where I had placed the title and release date, as I felt these were less noticeable than other, less important elements, such as the photo. I also wasn't happy with the way I had faded out the edges of the photo, and so later went on to change this. As well as this, I thought that certain things, such as the social networking links at the bottom of the site, looked out of place and didn't work in the places that I had put them.

With all of this in mind, I decided to play around with the layout of the website, changing a few things and trying new things out in order to make sure that my website promoted the film in the best way possible.

Here is a screenshot of the second draft of my website (click to enlarge).



To try and improve my website from my first draft, I firstly put the release date and film title together and made the text slightly bigger, which made it more dominant on the page. I also resized and moved the photo, as well as doing the fading effect again. By moving the photo to the right and also making it higher in the page, I think it conforms closer to the contemporary codes and conventions of film websites. It is also less dominant in the page, which I think is a good thing because it means that more attention is focused on the film title and release date. I also decided to move the photo to the right of the frame because I think it further reflects the tagline of the film. This is because the left of the frame is black, reflecting that "Some truths are better left in the dark". As well as making these changes, I also decided to move the 'toolbar' of links so it was above the credits instead of at the top of the page because I think it looks better when it is grouped with more text. By changing the logos of the social networking sites, as well as their positioning, I think, again, that I have achieved a more professional look.

I think the second draft of my website is an improvement on the first draft, however after looking at this one, I still felt that there was room for improvement, mainly in terms of the title and release date of the film. After moving and changing elements, I still thought that the title and date could still look better, and so decided to carry on moving them around and changing them until I was completely satisfied that they were in the right place on the website.

Here is a screenshot of the third draft of my website (click to enlarge).



The main thing I changed on this draft was the title and release date, as I was relatively happy with the other elements of the website in the previous draft. In order to make the film title and release date look better on the website, I looked again the website of 'Shutter Island'. When I specifically looked at the title on the website, I noticed that it had the name of the director, as well as the name of the lead actor directly above it, and then information saying that the film is in cinemas now directly below it. Because of it's effectiveness and professional look, I decided to try this with my own film title and release date, and think this worked really well. I decided to leave this information in the top left of the frame to continue with the idea of the rule of thirds. I also changed the logos of the social networking sites and the 'toolbar' of links around, to see what this looked like.

Here is a screenshot of the fourth draft of my website (click to enlarge).

I was still unhappy with the positioning of the title and release date of the film in my third draft, so this was the element I focused on getting right in my fourth and final draft. I swapped the tagline and the title elements around because I wanted to see what it would look like if I took it away from the top left of the frame. I think the website works much better when the title of the film and the release date etc are in the centre of the page because I think it becomes the most dominant aspect within the website, which is good because it means it is the first thing that the audience will notice when they look at the website. This positioning also reflects the contemporary codes and conventions of film websites, and is similar to the website of the film 'Shutter Island'.


Overall, I was really pleased with the outcome of my website, and think that my film has been advertised in an effective and appropriate way, through the use of text, colours, and by conforming to the codes and conventions of real media products. In order to extend this website and improve it, I would ideally like the make the links live, and be able to include other elements, such as being able to embed the finished trailer and radio advert, as well as create other pages with different information on.