The first that I looked at was the website for the film documentary that I have mentioned in previous posts, "Picture Me".
This website is very minimalistic, with a clean layout that makes the information available easy for the audience to consume. The homepage features the film's title, summary and background, release dates, and promotional posters. I like that all of the vital information for the audience is available upon first entering the website, and, thanks to the clean layout, can be consumed even subconsciously. Should one want to find out more, there are tabs at the top leading to content specific pages such as "Press" and "Bios", and at the bottom are links to the international release posters for the film. Whilst I like the minimalism for its ease of navigation and information consumption, I do wonder whether it could be a little plain which, despite their having all the information about it, may not not entice our audience to come and see our film.
The above screenshots are from the website for the film "The Social Network", which differs quite a lot to the website for "Picture Me". "The Social Network" is another film that targets our demographic in terms of age, but with less gender specific targeting; the website's much darker theme could even suggest more of a male gaze. However, the darker theme of the website could also be a reflection of the darker themes within the film, such as those that our group has in our film.
The first page one is directed to is not the homepage; it is a long list of awards the film has won and its positive reviews. This is a quite effective technique for interesting an audience IF one's film has a plethora of awards and reviews to post; in our case, our film is a new film using unheard of actors etc, hence, this is not a technique we can draw any inspiration from.
Clicking through to the homepage presents a tiled layout, with each tile linking to a section on the actor shown or the area of production shown (e.g. filming locations, editing, etc.), and hovering over the tile before clicking brings up a brief summary of the section. I do quite like the tiled layout; it's almost like a mood board, hence gives the audience an overall "image" of the film. Its main downfall is that it doesn't make vital information like the film's/the film's DVD's release date clear, the audience has to click through the tiles or the tabs at the top to find everything.
I think this is an excellent website for a film which has a star studded cast and an anticipated release without as much need for promotion. I like the use of the tiled layout, and could see it incorporated into our website somewhere, but not covering the entire homepage for our site; as less well known filmmakers, we need to use an approach more similar to the "Picture Me" website, making our film's vital information very clear on the homepage and easy to consume.
This website is for the film "Twelve". "Twelve" targets our demographic both in terms of age and gender, and approaches many of the same deglamorizing themes that we will be representing in our film/trailer. "Twelve", based on a book of the same name, is about a group of privileged teenagers in Manhattan who's obsessive focus on outward appearance and reputation, and the resulting reliance on party drugs like Twelve, has horrifying consequences. The film's dark themes have been reflected with the website's color scheme; black background, blood red detailing, and a stark white font that contrasts and stands out. After seeing a dark theme used on both this website and the website for "The Social Network", I think it could be used on our own; but, with a more minimal aesthetic, as we are not making a borderline horror film like "Twelve" or a male targeted film like "The Social Network".
As with the website for "Picture Me", this website includes all of the vital information information on the homepage, which I think is something that we definitely need to do on our film's website. Unlike the "Picture Me" website and more like the "The Social Network" website, this website uses a collage effect with cast pictures and the trailer in the middle; I like the use of the trailer as part of the collage, and think this could be a good idea for our website as, of course, our trailer will be the main component of our promotional package and we should feature it as much as possible.
This website is a little less disorganized to the eye than the "Picture Me" and "The Social Network" websites, which is something that I would like our group to avoid as much as possible as it does make information more difficult to consume.
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