WEBSITE

http://www.wix.com/vendettamovie/mediagroup5

Poster and Website designs

 Website initial ideas: Here are the original annotated designs of our website, promoting the film 'Vendetta'. After the research and gathering opinions of current film websites, we focussed on designs which would represent the villain as a menacing, supernatural being, whilst also keeping a user-friendly interface.

Poster initial ideas: Similarly to the website, our main focus was to attract the audience and create a teaser poster through the fearful representation of the villain. We also included designs with the protagonist the main focus, forcing the audience to empathise with the powerlessness of the victim. Here are the annotated  designs.

The Dark Knight - Website Analysis

 

 As the website loads, this appears on the screen. Although the colours/font used could link to the film, it doesn't hold the visitors attention. The website does take a while to load due to the complex graphics and animations, which could also lose the users attention. We would aim for this not to be the case on our website, as we would try to keep it simple to keep loading times to a minimum.

This front page of the website has the trailer playing, and the film that is "now available on blu-ray and dvd" clearly shown. It is clear and user friendly as all the links such as "enter the site" are on screen, without having to scroll down. 

If you click to enter the website, this is the next page that appears. The background image links to the film without distracting the user too much from the links, the dvd and any other information on the website. The menu that appears at the bottom has a button that you click to show all of the different options. The colours use link to the film well, and the text is clear to read. Other information such as the director, age rating etc are written at the bottom of the webpage, but the user would need to scroll down to see these. This is effective as it does not remove anything from the main part of the website, but still has any extra information clealy demonstrated.

Quarantine Website Analysis

The first screen from the Quarantine website has a link to buy the DVD and Blu-Ray. The image in the background is of the main character looking scared, edited to seem as if it has been captured through CCTV footage, which reflects the general nature of the film. The trailer takes up a significant portion of the screen, which will immediately draw people's attention to it. It plays automatically which increases the ease of use. There are links to photos, a game and a blog, among other things, which caters for everyone's interests.

The loading page for the website is the footage from the last clip in the trailer, played on a loop. This keeps the audiences attention and is much more interesting than just a black screen with a loading bar at the bottom. Once the page has loaded, the woman is dragged away and this is designed to shock people and to give an insight into the tense and scary nature of the film. For our own website, we are interested in playing an animation, because it will allow the audience to gain an insight into the genre and themes of our film, and offers a more interesting way to wait.

Once onto the main site, link options are displayed as soon as the mouse hovers over different sections. These include; video,  gallery, game, about the movie, promotions, downloads and social networking. These links are set on the backdrop of the profile image of an apartment complex, which is where the film is set. The image itself is creepy, with the inclusion of flickering lights and fuzzy TV screens. The idea of hovering over something for it to appear is quite interesting and would be good to include, but it should be made obvious where to look for the different options, or it will decrease the ease of use.

Our website

Our group quickly brainstormed what features we think would be effective in our website to ensure a simple, user-friendly design.

• Have the title positioned at the top of the page
• The teaser trailer embedded into the website on the front page, however not to be played automatically.
• An option to download the films poster
• Links to DVD's, downloads, merchandise and information about the film.
• Whilst the website loads, keep a black screen and then introduce the site with the short, snappy shot from the film. This will set the genre as horror for the consumer.
• On the home page, have the non-diagetic sound of a quite music box playing - it will create an eerie atmosphere and links perfectly to our film idea.
• Have the predominant colour of the website as black - incorporate and image from the film (our favourite idea so far is to have empty swings)  - relates to our narrative and genre.

Legality and websites

The more successful a film is, the more likely that fans would want to buy products which provide more information about the film; for example, interviews with cast, character profiles and merchandise. It is certain that companies do not just make money by selling DVD's - due to the developing nature of the media and easy access to the internet, websites are necessary for promotion and success.

There are certain requirements which websites have to follow and abide by the rules - this applies when the company advertises a product, has an online magazine and sells products.

• E-commerce and distance selling regulations may apply even if you are only using your website for promotion and not to actually sell products or services online – need to provide information about the business. 
• Data protection regulations apply if you are collecting information from your visitors through online forms, by e-mail or telephone – this is crucial when fans interact on the website in competitions, purchasing merchandise etc.
• Trade descriptions - If you are describing your goods or services online then your descriptions must be accurate and not misleading.
• Access for users with disabilities is an important issue, and parts of the Disability Discrimination Act of 2004 may affect websites – need to take in consideration to have a user-friendly website, with clear font style, size and colour with simple links.
• Intellectual property rights - have rights regarding the information that you publish on your site through international copyright laws. Cannot infringe anyone else’s rights – therefore will need permission to use other people's logos, images or text before you include them in your site. 
• The EU 'Anti-spam' laws - the 'Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003' only relate to web sites if 'Cookies' are used to track visitor behaviour. You have to tell users that you are using cookies, explain why and show them how to switch them off.
  
  
  
  

Websites

Websites are designed to advertise a product, and they are essential when promoting recently released films.

They are judged in 5 categories:

Functionality

• Access - how easy it is to get what you want?
• Speed - how compact is your web design?
• Legality - Copyright and law-awareness of boundaries

Design

• Typography - font styles and the range of fonts for different information
• Artistry - needs to suggest the genre
• User friendliness - the ease of use, simple and straightforward links
• Clarity - easily read and followed
• Aesthetics - colour harmonies and relations to genre of film

Content

• Purpose - freebies, merchandise etc.
• Fan base - link to downloads and memorabilia
• Information process - need synopses to link to film and give people a taste of the film to come
• Verbal expression - quality of grammar
• Attention to detail - create a unified, not dysfunctional website, where the sound links don't sound intrusive

Originality

• Quality of predictive research - find out what people like from existing websites

Overall effectiveness

• Where the strengths lie

We were able to expand this and find out what our media class thought about existing websites - the strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths

• Search box
• Clear headings and links
• Special visual effects
• Colour which relates to the genre
• Connotations and links to genre through imagery and animation
• A user friendly page

Weaknesses

• Blocked links
• No imagery
• Not user friendly
• Pop-ups
• When the trailer starts automatically
• An introduction
• Advertisements
• Sounds from other websites
• Not enough links - specifically a 'home' link
• The design doesn't fit on to a computer screen, which requires the user to scroll horizontally.

Saw 6 - Website Analysis

As you first open the website, an image appears as the website loads. This is effective as it intrigues the viewer, and doesn't allow them to become bored of waiting and leave the webpage. This would be something we could use on our website. The black background clearly highlights the image and text used. These are placed directly in the middle of the webpage, as this is where the viewers eye falls.

This is the main page for the website. It is effective as the trailer is playing, with an option to turn audio off. As it plays automatically there is no option for the user to play it. On our website, we would prefer the user to be able to choose whether to play the trailer or not. There are no links to other pages on the website, and you have to scroll down to look at the rest of the page (with links to facebook, and links to the official store etc)

The Grudge - Website Analysis

As you first click on The Grudge website, this title screen appears, with the DVD cover on show. The links down the side of the page allow you to "Enter the site" or visit other pages such as the "Trailers and Clips". There is also a link which allows the visitor to read a little about the "Synopsis". All of these links are easily accessible and user friendly.
The colours used are colours typically associated with horror, with a black background and red text colour. The lighting used in the photo suggests a dark side to the film.

As the user clicks on "Enter the Site", the full website launches and an intro to the film beins. The screen is completely black, and images appear with flashes (similar to camera flashes) along with text to introduce the storyline of the film.

Following the intro, the interaction with the viewer continues, as they put in their name and initials.

There is very little information on the screen. The use of a completely black screen with a focal point makes it very clear, and is very effective in conveying the genre and general theme of the film.

Following this, the user is then introduced to a game, and given instructions to complete a game.  They are presented with a photo, and have to choose the correct place to go by clicking. This website is very interactive with the user, and allows the user to have a real insight to the film.

The Ring - Website Analysis

The Ring has an unusual website design, with the title not being present. The audience can only grasp the film’s title from the bottom right corner, with the trailer link – an image of the distinctive ‘ring’.

The website follows a gothic style colour scheme – the predominant colours being white and black; with the use of a black background leaving a sense of the unknown danger. The audience’s eyes are drawn to the syringe in the centre of the page due to the red shadowing. The hyperlinks at the bottom of the page are also emphasized by the red underlining – which looks as though it has been hand drawn.

The audience is not able to understand the narrative of the film from the website, with the background being just random, eerie objects which leaves a sense of confusion and uncertainty amongst the audience. 

The typography has been drawn with the letters being odd sizes, whilst not following an exact straight line. This could bring ideas that the film is different, with unusual consequences.

Once hovering over the hyperlinks, the typography turns red – bringing connotations of blood and death. When the mouse leaves the hyperlink, the font size suddenly increases and the font shakes, creating an unsettling effect.

The Crazies - Website analysis

The trailer is embedded into the website, immediately allowing the audience to grasp the genre and style of the film.

Hyper-links are in white typography, allowing the title ‘The Crazies’ to stand out due to the red typography. In addition, the date of the DVD release is in red. The colour red brings connotations of blood, death and danger – stereotypical of a horror film.

The large, photographically represented image of the sign ‘Welcome to Pierce County Friendliest Place on Earth’ has been transformed into a warning of danger and disturbance. The sign has been attacked with gun shots and ‘Help us’ looks as though it has been scratched in blood. It brings an unsettled era amongst the audience; whilst creating intrigue about what the film entails.

The background is of an isolated area - Isolation = target for victims, with no way of escape.  In addition, the weather is dark, gloomy and worrying, adding to the atmosphere of fear.

Nearing the bottom of the website, reviews are given, in the same style font and colour scheme as the hyperlinks and title. It allows the audience to have an insight of what they are to expect if they watch the film – an exciting horror scare, with suspense.

Amongst the black footer, the website advertises the Iphone application –‘The Crazies Tower Defense’. By creating other merchandise, the film has a larger fan base.

Using convergence, the website links up to pages on facebook and twitter; allowing the audience to access information for the film from popular social networking sites.