[skotk1]

... wasting space....

[Hunch]

Since you seem like a sincere guy and you've asked the question in good faith I'll try and respond in kind.

To be brutally honest, the site needs a lot of work until it could be brought up to what could be deemed a 'professional' standard. I'm not a flash expert myself but from an aesthetic point of view it needs something of a re-think.

On the positive side, it's relatively uncluttered and you haven't loaded it up with too much crap, but the image quality, particularly the logo fall somewhat short. Additionally the photography of some of the key staff is risible (blurred, dark images, or something that looks like the product of a photo booth). Having said that, the shots that look like they were done in a studio aren't much better. This is probably not your fault though - it's a case of garbage in , garbage out - you can only work with the assets you have.

In truth though, the main question you need to ask yourself is "why am I using Flash?" There's little there to justify it, and the image/text effects that are in evidence detract rather than enhance the overal design. I'm sorry if this somewhat rains on your parade, but truthfully, I'd go back to the drawing board and work on a clean, simple HTML based solution within your capability at this stage in your 'career'.

[seen.to]

Doesn't fit the page in FF or IE7. $3.50

[skotk1]

...

[Hunch]

Originally Posted by skotk1

BUT, let's just say you were happy with the site, as the customer is. With the content that's there, music, video, photo gallery, there will be a contact form, and the paypal store, what is that worth??

It's an impossible question. I couldn't imagine being happy with it. If you want advice from designers on a design forum, that's what we'll give. If you're not really that interested in taking it, that's up to you. Genuinely -and I promise I'm not trying to deliberately annoy you- if someone came to me with that site I'd refuse to pay.

If your client is happy with it that's great. But seriously, if that's the case, I would also question their own judgement and whether they have what it takes to succeed in movies. I used to work in the industry myself, and honestly your site wouldn't have passed muster even back in the 90s before I got out.

[seen.to]

Here's a screenshot from IE7. No navigation and no way to stop the music... Only way I got to it, since I figured it must exist, was to zoom in, then zoom out, then drag the screen to show them.

This is how it looked prior to any zooming. Would have made the image smaller but I'm on my wife's laptop with nothing other than paint on it.

[Hunch]

Look at your buttons as well (e.g. the Paypal button, add to cart, view cart etc.) They're distorted and badly rendered. Compare them to the buttons on this site which are clean, undistorted and well defined.

[Hunch]

And you are?

Mine was a throwaway comment suggesting that they didn't have a lot of creative judgement which one would assume is important in movies. Look at their promo shots for fucks sake. What one of them did with Bruce Willis is irrelevant. The industry is littered with people who nearly made it.

The issue at hand was your site. I've caged it as gently as possible so far because I didn't want to offend you by being frank. But since that seems to be the direction this thread has taken, let me put it more clearly.

Your website is utter shite. A 12-year-old could do better. If your chums think it's good, they are morons. The fact that you think you can charge money for it is an embarrassment.

[Shiro]

Heh, looks like he didn't like that comment. You grumpy old man you.

[pgo]

Haha, should I undelete his posts?

[Hunch]

Typical of so many of the preening egofucks that come here. They put up something for crits expecting us to fawn all over it, and when it turns out to be shit, they can't take it. For the record, the site he posted was:

http://www.agapicfilms.com/

Doesn't even have a bloody page title.

Edit: Pgo: Haha - careful, his mate knows Bruce Willis.

[illvibe]

In answer to your question: Whatever you can get for that site is a major victory.

[proc355]

dear. me.

spot on hunch.

utter shite. ROTFLMAO.

[rustybones]

Originally Posted by pgo

Haha, should I undelete his posts?

Please do, I was to late to see them

[Hunch]

When you play the video, it isn't even in the right aspect ratio. That's criminal. They're promoting themselves as a film company. If there's one thing I really noticed back when I worked in the industry, it was that people who make film are incredibly precious about how their work is presented. And rightfully so. When you spend an entire day setting up a 5 second shot, you don't want some fuckwit to come along and distort it on the site that's supposed to be selling it.

Regardless of what he says about how happy the company is with the site, I simply cannot believe they would accept that, unless they're a bunch of rank amateurs.

[Shiro]

I'm going to go against the grain here and say I don't think its that bad. Some of the images are a little grainy, and it needs a progress bar when clicking between pages, but flows smoothly and has some ok animation.

[Hunch]

And for your next trick, you're going to tell us why using flash was even necessary?

Mate... You sure you don't want to reconsider?

[Shiro]

I wont reconsider, I think it looks ok. But in my defense, I'm a layman, not a designer.

[skotk1]

I'll jump back in here for a minute. Let me just say that this isn't supposed to be a $10,000 site, not even a $5,000 site. These guys don't have a huge budget, but wanted a site to get the ball rollling.

At this point, it's about meeting with local and state officials trying to gain funding and such. These types of folks aren't judging aspect ratios. They are looking for content and all the content they requested is there in an easy to use layout.

I do this stuff at night and on weekends for a little over a year. Based on a few other sites, these guys called me. The like the simplistic layout and ease of use. All their info is there, and their users have no trouble finding it.

Can they, or will they upgrade as this thing takes off, sure. Will the photo quality and film sample quality increase, sure. For now, they are a start-up indie company. The site was exactly what they were after.

Compare it to this one. Major company based in NYC who has folks such as Alec Baldwin on their roster...

www[/url] kismetfilms com/splash.asp

I think mine is cleaner and layed out better and will cost probably a third of what they paid in the city.

Again, bash away. I came here hoping for an informative forum, with a little input for a beginner, but I guess I was wrong for the most part. Again, this is not a huge budget project. I'm not looking to get rich here, just be compensated for my time.


Thanks to Haku for seeing through the "designer" issues. Glad you enjoyed it.

[puzzle]

Originally Posted by Hunch

work on a clean, simple HTML based solution

I agree, I think flash sites look a bit cheap. You could just use a flash element or two.

Bit of a rework and use HTML/CSS