Webcinema
** Annual Awards 2007 **
for Independent Film-Makers

Welcome to the fourth annual Webcinema Web Site Review Of The Year, for 2007.
These awards are to highlight, promote and encourage independent film-makers throughout the world through the Webcinema network by acknowledging the best of their web sites. I hope that this will set an example to other film-makers and encourage the wider public and prospective investors to take a greater interest in the work and talent of new and upcoming film producers in every part of the world.
As you will already know from notices on the Webcinema list there were no awards in 2006 owing to technical and other problems at the end of 2006 and into 2007.  These have been resolved allowing me to complete this year's awards on schedule.

Michael Bond, Norfilms.

About Webcinema

Every site in this review represents a member of the Webcinema network of independent film-makers.   The network is a way for independent film-makers, whether solo producers, directors, film artists or small commercial or community production companies, groups, etc., around the world to meet, exchange news, views, help and advise each other via the internet and the webcinema mailing list server. 

Founded by film-maker Jonathan Sarno in New York in the late 1990s as part of the new wave of online digital filmmaking, the network has grown to embrace the world with active members in Europe, the Far East, India, the Middle East and America, and encourages new uses of the digital production arts alongside the mainstream film and television industries, with a special emphasis on merging digital production and internet broadcast.

In 2003 Norfilms offered its support to Webcinema members by hosting a link page through which every member with a web site for their work can promote themselves to the public.  This link page grew to include a frequently asked questions list and, most importantly, a link for anyone else interested in joining the Webcinema community.

The Review for 2007

Judging any awards is difficult if you wish to remain objective. We all bring our own opinions with us and I'm no different. However, with the experience of several web site designs I hope I've brought some clarity and objectivity to the results.

This year the Webcinema link list composed of 56 web sites for review. There were five sites identified as dormant/dead with links leading nowhere (Jaygeeoh | mitch moldofsky | fresh water films (Flash winner for the last review in 2005, the company has been dissolved and replaced with a new one who haven't registered with the list to-date) | meagerproductions | emission-control (password users only)).  As with the last review this shows that the number of active registered member sites has not changed substantially in the intervening period.

As is now a standard principle in making this review I have stuck to a couple of rules: (1) where an organisation has registered two or more sites, a main site and a site specific to a project I have chosen only to review the main site as representative of those film-makers; (2) where a member site is devoted to a non-film subject I have skipped it unless they have an independent film-oriented section - this is a review and award for film-makers and I have kept to that policy.

Finally, the review was conducted through a mixture of Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5, Netscape 7.2 and Firefox browsers on two PC's of differing ages and performance. This helped highlight the differences in performance of the browsers, with Internet Explorer revealing its continuing problems in rendering come small design details. Any designer wishing up up-grade their site ought to bear in mind the distinct ways it will be rendered on a mix of browsers and screen sizes and if it breaks in Netscape/Mozilla then you have a problem with your site.  I strongly suggest that all members test their sites with several different browsers to ensure that the widest audience in the world can enjoy your work, or provide links on their sites to encourage viewers to install an up-to-date standards compliant browser such as Firefox. For  more on this subject see below.

Site Styles and Contents

As normal with such a range of participants to the network there are many site styles on display. From those written by a single individual through to those clearly produced by graphic/web designers. However, this is not to say that "professional" involvement has had a greater, or lesser, effect on my decisions.  In some cases a professional site design exists more to show off the talents of the designers and this can result in something that a wider public will not appreciate.

To highlight this point there was one site written by a design company that placed the bulk of their page offset to the right so much that only a wide screen display could reveal the whole page.  While it may have been an exciting innovation by the designer I found it difficult to read using a small regular 17" monitor and was only able to view the page when scrolling to the right.  Making a visitor scroll horizontally goes against the natural tendency of most web site designs in being arranged vertically and against the way most visitors are now accustomed to operate.

Whether professional or not one of the deciding factors in judging the sites has been the consistency throughout a site.  In some cases a visually striking home page will veer off into wildly different directions as you follow the links to other pages.  This can cause confusion in any visitor of a site, who can become lost in the maze of styles and images.

Since the last review in 2005 there have been a number of remarkable changes to some of the sites on display.  This shows the continuing commitment those teams have for their web site as an integral part of their work and the confidence they have for their efforts.  In other cases a well-designed site noted previously hasn't changed, suggesting that the members are confident of their design and busy with their main work - making new productions for us all to enjoy.

Unlike the last last review the emphasis on using Flash for more sites seems to have waned a little with no major new innovations in this field and more attention paid to HTML-formatted sites.  This made it difficult to decide on a winner in the Flash category, especially as the last review's clear winner had now closed down.

You must still remember that many site optimisation "experts" advise against using Flash if you want your site to be indexed more easily on the web for search engines, and there is always to problem of a visitor not having a Flash plugin on their browser or a high bandwidth connection on their PC to download bulky flash content.   I can see that there is a good reason why Flash can help in downloading graphics, video clips, animation sequences.  If, though, you wish to reach the widest audiences then a coded site design will still outshine pure Flash sites for ease of search by web spiders and search engines.

Another problem I have seen on a few of the sites has been the use of colour schemes that make them difficult to read.  While I can see it's popular amongst film web sites to adopt a white text on black/dark background to mimic the theme of the cinema, some has adopted a gray/faded text on a dark background that can make it far more difficult, even impossible in one case, to read.

Standard advice for your own web site is to adopt founts that are clearer, cleaner, in outline, to make them easier to read, and use a sharp contrast in colour, black/white rather than black/gray to make them easier to read.  The ideal for most sites is black on white for best contrast, for example the text you are currently reading on this page.

One point I continue to remain critical about is the use of gateway or welcome pages.  These pages just provide a visitor with a logo or graphic, causing them to click further to enter the proper site.  Most optimisation advice throughout the web design community is to avoid such pages as they do little to enhance a site, giving no information and forcing the user to wait for a second page to read about the nature of the site.

A gateway page can be useful if you are redirecting a visitor to a new section or a new location of your site, but that is a different issue from placing such a page as the main pont of contact for your visitors, forcing them to click again to enter your site, if they can be bothered to do so.

Navigation within sites still remains problematic for a few unchanged since the last review, with the issues of very long pages there were difficult to move through (no up/down links to move to different sections of a page) or, in one case, a menu at the bottom of a long page, counter to the norm for most sites with menus at the top or top-side of a page.  This could be very irritating and have the adverse effect of driving your visitors away in frustration when they can't find the menu easily.

A site remains a way to reach your community, your customers, your prospective partners or employers.  Many new and young film-makers haven't established a career big enough to justify a large site, but some have shown remarkable innovation in conveying even a handful of paragraphs. A review of the current membership list will show you how this has been dealt with in various formats.

As with the last review a problem that continues to appear is the intrusion of site design by adverts from the site host.  If you have a web site hosted on some internet services they can splatter your own pages with adverts for products and services and this has disrupted a couple of the member sites, obscuring text, menus, headers, etc.  I appreciate that you do have to cover the cost of your site hosting and the host will insist on placing adverts on your pages, but this could be dealt with by designing your site around the adverts, be redesigning banners and other features to by-pass rather then being blotted out by such adverts.

While adverts can be managed in some cases this should be explored in as much depth as possible to ensure that they are not damaging your site's presentation.  Several times I came upon advertising banners from Tripod which destroyed the site design and any sense of a smooth experience for the visitor.

Conclusion

The quality of sites from Webcinema members has much to offer.  From the simplest to the most sophisticated there are lots of ideas to view and through every site you can see the talent, skill and work that everyone is putting in to their main work - new generations of film makers and artists.

Finally, as a warning of what not to do, unchanged since the last review is one site which locks you in once you've clicked on it the way old style porn sites tried to seize your browser.  Looks like they haven't rewritten it yet.

** Awards 2007! **

This year has seen some remarkable and surprising changes to the list, one excellent site has been lost, but there have been a couple of remarkable changes in member sites.  Many sites remained unchanged and I do know that their owners are too busy with productions to undertake work on their site at the current time (I hope we can all look forward up-dates in due course).

This year, because of the long period when I haven't been able to encourage everyone to push their sites and take up the challenge I haven't really been able to select either notable or runners-up sites.  So I've decided to go directly to identifying the winners and give everyone a chance to spend the forthcoming year making ready for my next review (you have been warned!):-

Best Flash
kbroFILMS
With only one new entrants this year it was a case of deciding which amongst a small collection of sites deserved the Flash award.  Although a difficult decision I wanted to encourage more people to look at imaginative, informative and entertaining ways to use flash to promote your work.  This is why I choose to make this awards once again to kbroFILMS.
Winner in 2004, the site remains unchanged in showing how you can package a small site in an entertaining fashion that says right from fist appearance here is a film-making resource.

Best HTML
Help Make My Film
A long time member of the list, this production web site began as a personal appeal by artist Evann Black for support to produce her film.  Following a couple of years when it remained neglected and effectively dormant the site has undergone a remarkable transformation into one reflecting Evann's professional ambitions.  Anyone who had visited the site a few years ago will recognise the exciting transformation the justly deserves this year's award for HTML sites.

Congratulations to everyone.

Film-makers Join Webcinema Today - It's FREE!
If you're an independent film-maker and want to exchange news and experiences with others around the world the webcinema list server is open to any new applicant.
FREE Registration with the list server allows you to post your news, notes and questions to other film artists sharing your own interests.  The more people who join and use the network the greater the benefit for all concerned.

Don't forget -
Investors WANTED!
Yes, like any good independent film-maker Norfilms is always looking out for a good healthy investor or ten looking to enter show business! Unlike most Norfilms has have associations with leading UK Bank and finance sources to reduce your risk to nothing (100% principal protection guaranteed by a leading European bank) contact Norfilms for more details and how to become involved with tax benefits, escrow management of funds and a wide slate of commercial productions.

Contact Norfilms and Webcinema
Mail To: The Little FAQer
NORFILMS.com
copyright, Michael Bond
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