Website Design

NickClapper

NickClapper

Hello guys and gals.

This isn't really a filmmaking question (although it could well apply to filmmakers) but I was wondering if anyone here either does web design or knows anyone who does.

It's for my film review site which I am investing in getting a sweet makeover, but I want to get some good value and most of the professional companies charge a veritable fortune for services that lots of amateurs can produce.

Cheers in advance,
Nick
 
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I dont do web design from scratch but i can edit flash templates. A decent one can be bought for as little as 50usd. A good one is usually around 100usd.

It doesnt take much to learn how to edit them but you do need programs like dreamweaver and adobe flash.
 
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yes, you can find them online. just type in free flash templates into google and have a look.

the thing is the free ones are often not well organized and more tedious to edit.

and you might need a third program to decompile them.

i dont know how much you know about this stuff so if u dont get anything or need any help, links etc lemme know.
 
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As a massive web nerd, I feel I should warn you that Flash websites are generally not recommended for a couple of reasons - search engines can't send their "spiders" through the content, making it very difficult to get a high ranking or even listed in most search engines; you can't link people to specific pages on your website (which is impractical when you have a lot of content); and lastly they're completely unsupported and unusable on nearly every mobile device, including iPhones. They can look awesome, but I'd always steer people away from using Flash wherever possible.

Nick: any specific questions and I'd be more than happy to help you out… I'd quite like to offer to do it for you, but I've got way too many other projects (web and film) on at the moment. That said, I'm sure I could help with little bits and pieces if you get stuck along the way.
 
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FLASH has a lot of learning curve. FLASH looks really cool but in the end it's all about content (your movie trailer). I'd stick with an HTML or XHTML template. You can copy any HTML on the web if you find a site that you like that's HTML (VIEW > PAGE SOURCE), then just change it around slightly so there's no copyright infringement.
 
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Yeah, wat chilipie and jones said is true. but ive heard that HTC and the iphone are both planning on incorporating flash into their phones.

you cant direct people to specific pages bc its flash but as long as your layout is simple and easy to navigate, i dont see it as a big problem.

the largest problem is the SEO issue but a workaround is having an html page as ur main page and linking your flash website through it. that way u can add ur tags to the html page.

and if u want to do html, css etc. you can find free templates for those as well, so have it :)

@chilipie: im not really a web builder so ill be looking you up later this year to see if ur workload is less, just for tips and advice if i get stuck :)
 
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Yer, I'm not really into Flash in terms of web design- all my experience suggests it's a bit of a nightmare.

I used to have Fireworks and Dreamweaver and dabble in web design, but not to a high level. Anyhow that ship has sailed...

@chillpie Thanks for the help. I put up a Craigslist ad and got stacks of replys but most of their quotes seem to be in the 300-500 pounds range. Whilst I know this is standard industry rate, I used to run a website with a few designers who were my age (eg 20 and below) who could do a better job and for much cheaper. But if you know anyone that would be amazing.

It's a conundrum.
 
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Nick,

I can help you out. I'm not sure if you heard of WordPress but its a really easy to use easy to learn engine. I could get you set up with it if you'd like. You'd be able to update everything on your own. Let me know.
 
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Your best bet is to use a content management system, like WordPress (as Opus suggested above), Joomla, Drupal, or other like that. Most of these are free/open source. All you need is web space that supports MySQL and PHP. Check with your web host to confirm they can support that, and then research those CMS packages.
 
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I've used Joomla in the past and be very happy with it. The CMS isn't so much the issue, i just want to get it installed on to the website.

The main problem i have is getting someone to do an affordable re-design so that it looks good.

CMS and hosting are things that I have sorted, I just want someone who's willing to not charge me to the moon for the design.

Cheers guys.
 
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@TheOpusFuller Thanks although i have to admit to being a little confused. Is there much difference between Wordpress and Blogspot? Will i not be facing the same problems?

Thanks
 
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Wordpress and stuff are all fine but it seems like you want to up your game, Nick.

And you alreayd replied you dont like flash.

So perhaps something in the middle for you from which you can get a good design.

Tried CSS yet?
 
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Ernest Worthing said:
Wordpress and stuff are all fine but it seems like you want to up your game, Nick.
Click to expand...

Exactly.

The thing is is that it's not a case of me 'trying' stuff, because I'm a couple of rungs below 'rank amateur' in terms of web design.

All I want is someone who is good and competent at web design who does charge too much and who can make my site:

a.) More professional looking.
b.) Make it so that it can haven't several different blogs in one (ie. A film reviews blog, a DVD reviews blog, a filmmaking ideas blog...etc.)
c.) Give it a definitive brand that i can use on our Twitter, Facebook and Youtube as well.

At the moment I can't really market what i've got because the Logo looks bad on the website (it looks a little better on Twitter) and you can tell that this is just a Blogger template, rather than anything custom.
 
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what do you mean have you tried css? Style sheets work with html as a presentation "organizer".

Crap. Ok yeah I can do web design (its one of the many things I do for my day job). What all will your site have on it? How many pages and such? I may be able to help you out if its not too complex because between my day job and acting I barely have room to breathe. First thing i would do is find a handful of sites that you like and want your site to have a similar feel as. I would avoid flash because of the aforementioned reasons, but you can still have a great site without those.
 
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I think Wordpress would be perfect for what you're trying to do - the backend/administrative panel is fantastic, and you don't have to use any of their templates if you don't want to. Building your own WordPress template can be very time-consuming if you haven't done it before, but if you can easily work with HTML and CSS and know some PHP basics it's certainly doable. For what it's worth, that Icarus film reviews website is powered by Wordpress.
 
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