This is a blog post to outline and explain my website and why I made some of the decisions that I did during its creation, in order to make it professional and in order to sell myself as a director within the industry. So without further ado I would like to take you through a few key sections of my site and what they are for and why they are the way that they are.
This is the first thing you see when you open up my site on a desktop.
I went for the image of me using the camera mainly because it gives a clear indication that I am a film maker and have made films without them having to investigate further, if there were to be any early confusion at all about me they would leave my website and I would lose a potential opportunity or client. However this is eliminated swiftly with this picture. On top of this with the font I have chosen and the layout I feel it looks very professional and sleek. In addition to this you may notice the chat box in the bottom corner, this allows visitors to message me directly, admittedly this was added under advice of my lecturer but that doesn't mean its value is underplayed, it is immensely valuable that if a client would need to they could message me directly at any point, this gives me opportunity to show how committed and available I am to potential viewers of my site by replying quickly to their chat messages.
This is on the home page and is a tool to build a database of contacts.
This is the last section of my homepage showing screenshots from my work.
The two above screenshots are from my homepage and are examples of the two things my website is designed to do, firstly sell me as a director, and secondly to build up a database of contacts that I could potentially draw upon for work and/or to help me make my films in future. With regards to my previous works section I decided to split into two sections: commercial work and creative work, the reason I did this is to make it easier for the two types of clients I expect I would work with, people who want adverts and other such commercial work made and then there are people who will want me for creative works like dramas or perhaps television, it is this line I would rather specialise in, however, it would be naive to limit my scope by only doing the one thing.
This is my about me page.
This is a whole page to talk about myself, if people have gotten this far enough that they are interested in me as a person it means that my home page was successful and they are in some way inclined to want to know about me. The about me page is then very useful because it is my main way to sell me as a person. With regards to the content itself I wrote it somewhat like a covering letter for a generic job, however, having done this I then decided to make it a bit more personal and add something of my own voice in there which may come across as a bit pretentious to some but at the same time I do feel it distinguishes me and sets me out, the quote I used from myself really sells my vision as a director and as such sells me as a product for people who may want to hire me. That being said I am still not selling a lie because I am still marketing myself as a graduate because I feel like if I was to simply call myself a director then it would be spotted as a lie and I wouldn't have much chance at all of getting any work.
This is my showreel page.
There is not a lot to say about this page as the main attraction of it is the showreel itself which will have its own post so there is literally the motive of this as well as its layout. It is now worth me mentioning why the constant theme of blue and grey with the diagonal lines, this is to tie in with my business cards and other promotional materials as they feature the diagonal lines from the top of a clapper board to push home the film aesthetic and the blue is purely a preference thing, I like the colour and how it goes with the grey, I like my colour scheme and will hence use it to promote myself in a way like a brand. Anyway, to go back to the page itself, the showreel page is important because it sells me based upon my work, unlike the about me that sells me based on me, and it is important to sell me based on my work as well as on me because some potential employees will look for a specific style or theme, this is my chance to portray my work and basically show them what I can do. On top of this, it would be naive of me to think that producers with tight schedules will have time to read my about me or even for that matter want to, whereas they can watch my showreel or more importantly part of it and get a feel for what I am about from that.
This is the fourth and final page, the contact me page.
The final page is the contact me page, this is done through a contact box rather than handing out my details simply so that I can stop myself being susceptible to spam, if data farming companies were to get my email from my site there is a good chance I would be inundated with spam and miss potentially important messages or have to change email address as a result. As such, a contact box is much more handy because I can go to them once contact is initiated through the box, they aren't initiating personal contact without my consent. In addition to this a contact box will store their information and because of this they will be added to my database of contact which in theory I will be able to draw upon as I have mentioned previously. To summarise this, I must ask myself whether my website does what I need it to do, does it sell me to people, only time will tell, but I feel it does. And does it allow me to build a database? Provided people go on my website and engage with it, it definitely works as a platform for this, whether it will prove fruitful remains to be seen.
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