Website advice

[deltoidjohn]

I'm in the process of putting together a new website. I'd love to see what styles everyone else has for their websites if you're able to share, or otherwise get your tips.

I do end-to-end production (often hiring other freelancers) as well as being a freelance cam-op & editor, so am particularly interested in seeing how people in a similar position market themselves. I know there's been similar discussions about this in the past (ie this one about what one-man-bands should title themselves as on their business cards), but I'm particularly interested in how people balance the weight between "production company" and "freelancer" on their website.

And, of course, I'm trying to avoid using that hideous word "videographer", and all the connotations that go with it.

 

[Bassman2003]

Tough to know the best direction these days. I went with a straight forward approach with a lot of examples. I do not think people read very much on websites so easy to follow images and videos with short titles were the intent. I try to list services as the customers would recognize rather than how we speak of them. I am no expert in web design but I do my own work and try to stay sort of current with a "scroll-y" type of site which is popular these days. Don't forget the cell phone variant is probably more important than the desktop variant!

These are my two companies. The websites are always a work in progress but this is how they have been for a year or so. I work on them for a while then get overwhelmed with actual work. They could be a full time pursuit but that is not beneficial. Sometimes I think a Facebook presence is equal or more important these days...

http://www.metroplexmultimedia.com/

http://www.championshipfilms.com/

Any CC would be welcomed.

 

[IronFilm]

Mine is very plain, I really should overhaul it:
http://ironfilm.co.nz/sound/

I'm basically close to 100% freelancer though, and focused on sound work, putting mostly behind me the days of being a "production company".

 

[abreu-canedo]

There is no one right answer to how to weight yourself as a person or as a company. It'll depend on your own personal clientele, etc.

But I find that the square space templates are very pretty and have all the latest trends. You just have to be careful because everyone ends up going for the same few templates and the websites can start to look alike after a while.

I made mine myself. It's not as up to date with the latest parallax images and such, but since my artistic style is more simplistic, I think it's ok.
http://abreu-canedo.film

When I do door to door production, I use the name Lumen, but it's still a work in progress.
http://lumen.film

Best of luck, and keep us posted with your progress!

 

[deltoidjohn]

Thanks all for sharing.

Bassman: Good point about the mobile compatibility - I hadn't thought too much about it and certainly never considered that it might be the primary viewing medium.

David: Sometimes simple is best. I like the BTS/headshot you've got on your homepage - I think I might actually hire a portrait/headshot photographer to get a few similar shots as all the BTS stuff I have is more "editorial" than "artistic".

Rafael, your site looks very similar to what I had in mind - landing on a full screen background video with minimal text, and then scrolling down from there. Is this one of the Square Space templates? I am going to have a solid attempt at using Wordpress and premium templates, but if that all goes pear shaped it would be good to have an easier fall-back plan.

I'd don't think I necessarily want to split it into two websites but I had thought about having a secondary domain name which simply redirects to the main website; does anybody know if this is possible? So, for example, if someone types in johnsmith .com, it simply redirects them to johnsmithproductions .com?

 

[Bassman2003]

Yes you can do that.

 

[NorBro]

You have to obviously own both though.

 

[deltoidjohn]

You have to obviously own both though.

Ah darn, you mean I can't just redirect all the traffic from apple-dot-com to my website? :grin:

For fifteen dollars or whatever it costs for a domain name, I think I'll have two different ones so when I talk to people I can steer them towards the same website but with a different sales pitch/introduction and also by handing them a business card with a particular web address & title on it to give the impression I want for that potential client.