Ancillary Task: Website - Design Process

For one of our auxiliary tasks we decided to create a website as a form of promotion for our trailer ‘North Chamber’. It was created by Hannah Boardman, Sam Duxbury and Rebecca Ainsworth.

We used a website called Wix to help create our website because it allows us to use a template which is very useful especially because none of the production team are web designers and therefore using wix was simple to use and allowed us to easily create a professional looking website.

Once we had chosen the template we then needed to decide how we wanted our website to look, we decided that it would be more professional to have the website in-keeping with the colour schemes used for the logo, billing block and titles in the trailer and therefore changed the writing of the navigation toolbars to red and changed the background colour from a musky grey to black.

This black and red colour scheme keeps the website within the horror genre, you would not find a romance or comedy using these ominous colours and therefore when the audience opens the website they instantly get a scary and mysterious atmosphere.

We then had to choose which sub-heading to have in order to write detailed yet interesting pages for the viewers to read through.  To do this we drew out our options on a large piece of A3 paper. At first we wrote down all the possible pages that are usually found on a website but we then had to look at these ideas realistically, for instance we do not have the knowledge or equipment to create an interactive game.

Looking back at the common conventions of a website we had researched earlier we decided to use our production logo ‘Red Herring Productions’ as the header. This not only gives credit to the production company but also allows the audience to know that what they are viewing is official and professional.

This will be the header for every page. Along the top right there are links to Twitter and Facebook in which the viewer can get involved with our online presence.

We then needed to look at the footer of the website. Once again we looked back at our research and decided that the best items to put on the footer of the website we further links to Twitter, Facebook and Google+ along with our created hashtag ‘#NorthChamber’ so that the audience know that they can search the hashtag to keep up to date with the trailer and the film.

We also wrote a little credit sentence to promote Red Herring Productions and also to thank Wix for helping with the website.

In a website for a real movie you would usually find awards and ratings here too however we have not received any awards because our movie is not real.

Once we had decided on our sub-headings, header and footer we then had to look in detail at each page. Firstly we looked at the home page. This had to be eye-catching and appealing for the audience because this would be there first opinions of the website and perhaps the production as a whole.

Therefore we chose to display the trailer on this page as the viewer can watch this as soon as they open the website and hopefully become excited about the movie and wish to explore the rest of the website. 

We then realised however that the homepage doesn’t promote the actual film because the movie title is nowhere to be seen. 

I personally think that this looks much better now and more professional.

The next page is the ‘story’ page, here the viewer can read a little about what the movie is but without giving away any secrets or endings. For this page we used the synopsis that we had written prior to filming. 

We also used a picture from the journal that is featured in the trailer as through we are reading from this journal.

Originally we entitled this heading ‘Synopsis’ but we later decided that to an audience who do not use film terminology they would not know what this means and therefore perhaps not click on the page.

We then decided to write up a ‘cast and crew’ page, it is always exciting to be able to read about the actors and other people involved in the film and the audience might also feel a connection with the film more. 

We then added a gallery page in which the viewer can see film stills, behind the scenes photos and other exciting images and a behind the scenes page which show behind the scenes videos that we have filmed. 

For the reviews page we have asked friends and family to watch the trailer and send us a short sentence or paragraph about what they thought it was like and whether or not they enjoyed it and for what reasons. 

For an actual movie you would probably find that these reviews would be from newspapers or critics and would probably include ratings and/or awards.

Finally we decided that everyone loves a good competition, for this they simply had to share the website online on Twitter or Facebook and one person would get picked for the prize, this is a very good competition because it involves giving our film more promotion online. 

After having designed the website we then went on to look at the website on a mobile platform because we know that mobile devices are being a much larger platform for viewing on the internet and therefore the website should be compatible for mobile devices.

Overall I am very pleased with the website I think it looks quite professional and we have used a number of common website conventions in order to create a website which is fun and interesting as well as being informative and simple to use.