Tags: Comedy, Directors, Filmmaking, Networking, Supergun Projects, The Interweb
When you’re an indie filmmaker with no budgets or big names, every little bit counts. One of the most important things (in my opinion) in the independent filmmaker toolkit is a snazzy website. Think about it- there are MILLIONS of people crawling around on the internet RIGHT NOW!
They’re right the fuck out there… in fact, you wouldn’t even KNOW how many people are reading this VERY sentence AT THE SAME TIME YOU ARE! (probably no one, ’cause you’re HERE)
Point is- 15, 20 years ago, there was no Internet; there was only Al Gore. But with this amazing medium for entertainment and promotion, indie filmmakers around the cyber-globe have been clamoring for the “me” spotlight to fall on their websites… Supergun included. And why not? People get 100,000+ views on Youtube if they get the timing right! With other sites like Revver and Metacafe, you can even earn ad/view based revenue… that means MONEY! Money? What is this you say? I am an independent filmmaker and have no need for this “money” you speak of!
Well, fine. If you can pay the rent by leasing out your body parts in order to make zero-budget films that die in post-production, then fine. But if you want to start making films that LITERALLY make people gizz in their pants and run out of the cinema in search of napkins, then you need to make some money… but there’s that ol’ catch-22… if you don’t HAVE money, you can’t make money…
Well, that’s where the internet saves the day… using a combination of ads, knowledge, search engine optimization and whatnot (like, actual, GOOD movies), it is completely possible to begin making money ONLINE (jury’s still out on our efforts, hence the maybe)… and then translate that into movie-money!
Which is why every indie filmmaker needs a website!
But half the problem with these websites is that, to be blunt, they suck. They fucking suck stupid motherfucking balls in their motherfucking suck-holes. Well, OURS did, anyway. Most of the time you look at an indie film site, and it looks like it was put together by a retarded two-year-old with a Spielberg fetish and a Geocities template (anyone remember how SHITTY geocites was in the 90’s???).
Anyway, I spent hours and hours redesigning the website and I’m happy to say it’s FINALLY done… well, not done, but ONLINE… I still have to do two more pages to write and fix any errors that pop up, but the design and the style is pretty much closer to where I wanted it to be… but you tell me… Superguncinema.com…. crap or not?
So I figure I should list a few things I feel are necessary to a GOOD indie film website… aka TIPS:
- Embed the Videos ON THE PAGE, as opposed to downloadable content. Put it on Revver or Youtube and have it play ON your site, so people don’t just leave after watching it to see the latest “Cat Eats Bug” video…
- Keep the colors simple and in the same ilk. Don’t go nuts with an orange/blue/brown/red/move/teal/yellow/red/pink combination. Then, use the colors you haven’t been abusing to draw attention to the primary content (aka, your films)
- Keep MOST photos SMALL, except for the best ones. They take long to load.
- Test your site on multiple browsers, lest you find yourself checking the site on your friend’s computer only to discover that there’s poop everywhere that you never put it… except in your pants.
- There’s loads of free “widgets” out there that syndicate similar content and whatnot… search around for neat little gadgets on the web and add them to your site to improve the navigation and look of your site.
- List your cast and crew. Ok, so maybe you couldn’t afford to pay your crew… but at least if they Google themselves, their name will come up, and that’s KIND OF like payment. Right?
- Link love… link out to as many related sites as you can! Like, for instance, LINK TO SUPERGUN CINEMA! Who wouldn’t link to us?
Alright, well that’s all for tonight… I gotta write a couple pages for the screenplay and export a few videos… it never stops…
Leave a Reply