Ep. 52 Building your film website

Welcome back filmmakers! it's now time for you to start thinking outside of your film... I’m not trying to be deep or metaphorical here! 

Your documentary is the centerpiece of a network of different materials that all compliment each other, and one element of this network is the website. 

And yes! You do need to start thinking about your website in pre-production. You can never be too careful when it comes to website development. Maybe it will take weeks or maybe it will take months. But it will definitely be a gamble. 

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hello filmmakers, welcome back. Can you believe it? We are almost through your pre-production phase, and you're probably pretty relieved to hear that because if you've been creating as we go, you are probably pretty excited to get your camera out and finally start making that documentary. Now, that's good news then. Pre-production planning is coming to a close. Almost, almost. If this is your first time listening, well, of course, big huge welcome. Be sure to check out the previous episodes as they may help provide some great background to bring you and your project up to speed. And for our Moonshot regulars, it is time for you to start thinking outside of your film. Now, what do I mean by that? I'm not about to get all deep and metaphorical, but your documentary is the centerpiece of a network of different types of materials that all complement each other. Think about it as a big, lovely ecosystem. And one of the elements in the ecosystem that revolves around your documentary is the website. And yes, you do need to start thinking about your website in pre-production. You can never be too careful when it comes to website development. Maybe it will take a week, maybe it will take months, but you just don't know how long it's going to take. And so getting started in pre-production means that it's just one less thing that you have to worry about while you're actually producing your fabulous film. Now, if you're shrugging your shoulders and reaching for the skip button because you think websites, yeah, whatever, just look, please, don't do the thing of thinking that your Facebook page will do the job of a website. I need a website, not social media, is what you've got to be thinking, because I'll explain why. You can get into a lot of trouble just using a Facebook page because Facebook can change their algorithms, they can close your page down, your page can get hit by all kinds of other problems like spammers and yada yada yada. And because it's living on Facebook, you have no control or ownership really over who's looking at the site, all those analytics, any of that stuff. Facebook owns all of that. Whereas if you have your own really simple and effective website, you get to own that real estate and you can do with it what you like. So this is also where having your graphics organized is going to be really useful. So if you hadn't had a chance to listen to that lesson yet, after this, you can skip back to episode 47 on using graphics in your documentary because they can be really useful for actually designing a website as well. And if you're new to this podcast altogether, you are listening to the Moonshine Moonshot, and it is named for its aspirational reference to the original Moonshot from JFK Putting a Man on the Moon, because filmmaking, in my opinion, is also somewhat of a moonshot. And I am sharing this with you because, well, I'm Sue Collins and I'm your host, and I'm part of the team behind Moonshine Agency, which is an impact production house producing multi-award-winning films that have positive social impact. Now, impact films are films that are designed to take on audience from passive viewing to being an active participant. It gets them doing something, getting involved, being part of a solution. Now I've recognized that learning how to craft films is a challenging process. And when I was just starting out, it was really hard to find information and learn filmmaking without doing formal study or without being under the wing of a mentor. So avoiding pitfalls, being pigeonholed, running out of funding, or simply not understanding the business side of the industry has meant that over the years I have seen many people with a lot of talent simply give up or move on to more stable work. So my hope is to see the industry thrive here in Australia and beyond. And I recognise that to do that, I've got to be more open with my skill sharing. So I've decided to share what I have learned through many years of filmmaking through this podcast, The Moonshine Moonshot, and also through online courses at the Moonshine Communications Academy. So be sure you check out the Academy, particularly the resource section, where you can access free downloads and check sheets and ebooks, etc. And if you haven't come across them already, there are some great online courses available through the Academy, such as Define Your Ideal Audience, which helps you figure out who your project's best suited to well before you even roll camera, and that is gold for any filmmaker. But back to today's episode on how to create a website for your film. Now, if you really want to do this filmmaking gig as a career, it is on you to develop the skill sets required to sustain filmmaking as a career. And yes, websites is a factor in that. Doesn't mean you're gonna have to build all the websites yourself for the whole career you've got going ahead, but it does mean probably for your first film, maybe a second, possibly a third, you probably will have to be the one leading the website development. Whether you physically do it yourself, you hire someone else, whatever it is, you're still gonna need to know and understand a little bit about websites. So, first step is first, claim that name. Now, have you named your film yet? The second you have locked in a name for your film, jump on and check that the URL is available. You know, you need to own that real estate, even if you buy the URL and don't do anything with it for six months. At least you know you've got it. And the same thing goes with your social media pages. You've got to own that name, or if it's not available, that could actually mean that you change the name of your film. So, really important to check out if the name is available that you want for your social platforms and your website. Now, once this is all organized, you have to start thinking about whether you're gonna build yourself, hire a developer, or outsize, outsource, should I say, the whole build to a third party. And it's probably going to come a bit depending on your budget and what sort of website you want to build. It could also impact your schedule because websites take time and depending on who and how you're building it, just need to factor in the time involved. So, biggest things that I would consider when it comes to the very beginning of your website is what do you want your website to do? Is it simply a place where people can find your film online and it houses the trailer, the about, and where to find you on social media? Because in the very first iteration, that's probably actually all you need. And you may not even have a trailer yet if you haven't started filming. What you really need is probably just owning that real estate and just having it look a little bit, you know, the way you want it to, so that you can engage people when they're looking for your film. So I would suggest designing what's often called a wireframe or a blueprint, for want of a better word, that outlines the bare bones of your website. It's like a map. And naturally, you would want to start with a home page, then more than likely, an about page and a contact page. So if someone lands on your home page, what do you think they're gonna do next? What button would take them where? Just map it out. And with those pages published, it's official. Your film has officially claimed its spot on the internet. So now it's completely understandable for you to be thinking, how am I gonna do any of this if I don't even have a logo? Look, just keep it simple. Think about the colours, fonts, and styles that best fit your production and just build it up from there. And if it changes in future, that is fine. When you begin to work on the graphics with your designer or work up your poster, you'll be able to update the look and feel of your site. Especially if you've been really smart and you've built it in a platform that can easily be updated like WordPress. That is another big thing, really want to emphasize. No matter who or how you build your website, make sure you have the ability to do updates yourself. You do not want to be at the mercy of having to pay your developer every time you want to correct a typo or change an image or add a page. If you use something like WordPress, it's just so much easier for you to manage yourself if needs be. So communication is always the key to success. Hence, I started the Moonshine Communications Academy because your website is the home base that communicates with your audience. People who find you through social media can be redirected there. They can find all the information they're looking for about your film, and they can get a really good feel for your film. And it's also one that isn't clouded by the design choices of Mark Zuckerberg and all the advertising that they're going to cop when they go to your page. So it's also important to remember that you don't own social media. I mentioned that earlier, and it is a really important lesson. You have no control on social media. Your page on Facebook could just get shut down and you have no control over it. So having your own website to direct people to, it also looks more professional, having that URL, and it adds a level of credibility to your film. So highly recommend having your own site because it also means you collect the analytics and you get people to sign on to your mailing list if you wanted to do that, because that is awesome for marketing your film downstream. Now, if you've never built a website before, as I said, I do recommend using something like WordPress. It's what we've used for all of our websites, and we have actually got quite a few of them, I think well over 15 or 20 over the past 15 years that we've developed and built. It's a user-friendly website builder and has hundreds of tutorials available on YouTube for just about anything you want to do. Of course, you can use whatever platform you want, whatever website builder you want. I'm just saying WordPress simply because it's what I'm experienced with and I find it really user-friendly. So helpful tech hint make sure your website is fast. Once it's all built, even if it's only three pages, and I know it seems obvious that you want it to load quickly because when it's running slow, people are just gonna click away. And there's something called GT Metrics, and it's a great little app that you can use that tests the speed of your website. And you know, frankly, often if your website's running really slow, it's simply because you haven't done the latest WordPress update. So think about site speed. Helpful tech hint number one. Tech hint number two. People won't be viewing your website necessarily on a computer. So it's really important to check how your website looks on phones and tablets and make sure it can resize itself and it's set to do so. This is pretty standard these days. Make sure your website looks good on a mobile phone. Helpful tech hint number three. Watch out for those sneaky hackers. Yes, don't think it could never happen to me. Trust me, no matter how many security measures you have in place, websites can go down. So make sure WordPress and all of your various plugins are up to date. It's the best way to keep your site secure. And whatever platform, as I said, if you don't use WordPress, just make sure it's secure and that you're protecting your site from getting hacked and making it go down because it would be a disaster. Now, the other thing I really want to bring up is the call to action. When people are on your website, what do you want them to do? Is it to see the film? Is it to join the mailing list? Is it to click through to social media? Whatever it is, the actions need to be clear and simple. Really clear language, really visual, make it easy for people. I really do push this idea of a mailing list because it's a great way to get people on your website to follow through, then you know who they are, and then you can communicate with them in future. So with a mailing list, you can start to build a community around your film. And no matter how many groundbreaking marketing ideas there are out there, email is still the best marketing tool and it helps generate word of mouth. And anyone who says email's dead, well, frankly, do you use email every day? Do you use your email address for pretty much everything you log into? Let's get real, email is going to be here for a while. So just embrace it. The more people you have engaged with your film that are talking it up with their friends, the better. And because that's what friends do, they will talk to other friends about it, and then they will all want to go and check out your website so that they can find out more about your film. So I hope you've convinced that having a website is worthwhile. Just remember it does not have to be crazy over the top. It can be really, really simple: a home page, an about page, and how to contact you in the first iteration. That really is all it needs. You can check out one of our recent films, Takeheart Deadly Heart. That's just www.takeheartrhd.com. And that's a good example of a film website. Or if you jumped over to Moonshine Agency, moonshine. You can find all our impact films there, and most of them have websites, and you can have a look at how we design them. You'll see it's actually pretty simple and it's totally on your wheelhouse to do this, and it will make you and your film much more discoverable. So I hope I have convinced you. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you've got any questions about this episode. You can contact me at pretty much any of the Moonshine Communications Academy social media places or just email me at support at moonshinecommunicationsacademy.com. Anyway, back next week. It's the final episode in the big picture of making your film. So until then, good luck with your website building, good luck with your pre production, and I can't wait to hear how everybody is going. So please do reach out and let me know. Hit subscribe on whatever platform you're on, and I will speak to you next week.