Make a Web Site for Your Film, Fast!

I firmly believe that every film should have a website–at the very least, a single page site with basic information about the film. And it’s never been easier to build a simple website, so here’s how to do it.

Get a Name

www.blahblahblah.com That’s a domain name.

Domain names cost about $10-20 a year and you can purchase them from many purveyors. You’ll need to make sure your domain name is available first. To do that, do a whois search at www.networksolutions.com. Congratulations, you’ve just entered the way way back machine of the internet–all the way back to when the internet was very small and didn’t really speak English (or any other human language). A whois search is simply a search to see if a domain name is already in use. And Network Solutions is a weird company that somehow acquired the right to identify all domain names in the U.S. (Or something like that.)

A quick search at networksolutions.com will reveal if your domain name is already taken.

So you can see that blahblahblah.com was already taken, and that’s quite common. But your site is for a movie, so just get blahblahblahfilm.com instead. Done. If that’s taken, your film title may also be in use by another project so you might wanna reconsider it.

Next you need a service provider to host your site.

There four types of film web sites for indie films and you’ll chose a host based on the type of site you need.

Option 1, the Simple Splash

You just want a online presence for your film with a bit of info about it. You’re going to park on that page and not pay any attention to it after you build it. Your main goal is to make sure people can find your film, get connected with your distributor, and know the names of the key people and companies involved in the production. For this type of film, a simple web-based sitebuilder and host will work great. Adobe Portfolio, Weebly, Wix – any of these will do.

The website for the film “CitizenFour” by Laura Poitras has a very clean but evocative splash page that includes a link to the trailer and a signup form.

Option 2, the Festival Circuit Update

You’re working the festival circuit and getting the word out, you’re hoping to hook a big fish. You need a site that you can update regularly with reviews, laurel wreaths, and any other good thing that happens to your movie. You need a blog-based site–Wordpress, Tumblr, Blogger. Alternately, you may wish to embed a Twitter feed.

The website for “Lorelei” director Sabrina Doyle features a blog-style list of information and reviews.

Option 3, the List Builder

You know who you are–you ran a sucessful crowd funding campaign and you know the value of data. You want to parlay your fans, friends, and funders into a subscriber list so that you can turn interest and support into actual ticket/download sales. You need a site with all the mod cons–popup windows that collect email addresses, coordinated email campaigns with Mailchimp and the like. WordPress will work for you with a bunch of added plugins, as will other upgradable hosts such as Weebly, Wix, and Square.

Option 4, the Distributor

You’re gonna DIY it and you’ve got a great reason: why give away such a huge portion of your profits if you can do it yourself? Percentages for creative content producers are crap these days, if you haven’t noticed. So why share?  That’s super cool and we applaud it, however you will find that reliably streaming video isn’t that easy. You’ll need a separate streaming video host, such as Vimeo or YouTube, to make sure things work smoothly. Trust us, we just signed up for HBO Now and it wouldn’t work on our super fast internet–turns out HBO Now streaming speeds depend on their network and the number of active users, so if you try to watch their content during peak times (evenings), it doesn’t work that well, or at all. This is just, well, sad. We really wanted to watch The Watchmen. Vimeo and YouTube have solved this problem. So don’t risk it, use a streaming video service to embed video in your site. You’re also gonna want a storefront and a way to take payments (Paypal, etc.)

The site for feature film “Gutterbug” includes an online store with a special VHS tape edition and other merch.

The Creative Stuff

Once you figure out what you need, you can go back to what you do best–the creative stuff. Which images best represent your film? Can you revise your poster to make a compelling splash page? At the bare minimum, you’ll want a log line, a great still or graphic, your trailer, and some sort of contact info, whether it’s you, your producer, your agent, or your distributor. And truly, we hope you have all of the above 🙂