When you are doing a project in a new realm of experience, much happens--for good or ill--by chance, which can make for a wild ride. Experience teaches how to avoid risk, but not eliminate it.
Greg, my film lawyer, advised me to build a website to hold a trailer and photos and other info for potential distributors. Also, the website and trailer should be ready before the American Film Market conference in early November. I wanted it ready in time to promote the premiere, which I was planning for late October. There was time pressure and I didn't even know what an effective movie website looks like, much less how to get one done.
By chance, I thought of the movie It's Complicated, which stars Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. Anything associated with those three should be first class. When I saw that website (itscomplicatedmovie.com), it appealed to me. It was tight, simple and easy to navigate. The home page has attractive photos of Streep and Baldwin and a jumpy 30 sec trailer with a number of good hooks. I liked the style.
Kurt, our Director of Photography, had put together a Dewitt & Maria website. But,it was far from complete and he was too busy to climb the curves of both learning and coding to get a quality website up before the deadline, so I needed outside help.
I've had good luck going with vendors local to the South Bay that I find through Google. I found Custom Video by googling video services redondo beach. You can tell a lot about a company from afar by the quality of what they show the world on their website, and also by the way they answer their phone and put together a proposal. I like people who are organized yet social. I believe everything a person does reflects their character, so that if a person is sloppy about returning calls, then sloppy is probably the way my website would turn out.
There's a myth about the genius who seems totally distracted, disorganized, pressured and cranky who somehow manages to do brilliant work. I've found that almost never happens. Real mastery of every field of endeavor I can name requires discipline, hard work, efficiency and a will toward a quality result.
I've also given up on going with the lowest priced vendor. My choice goes to the best balance of several factors involved in the task. Other factors may be at work for those who give an unreasonably low price. They can simply be incompetent at what they do and no one will hire them. There may be a llack self-respect. They may not really understand the task. As one of my potential vendors put it, going with the lowest price could be the most expensive decision you've ever made.
The first website guy I called as a result of my googling website designers redondo beach had an office in RB but wouldn't meet face-to-face. He said he did everything over the web. I was cool with that because I used to manage customer service for a computer software outfit, and I dealt often strictly through email and telephone. I would never see them in person and never intend to. However, this person's price did astonish me. It was way over my budget, but to be fair to him, I never indicated to him my budget.
By more research into available website designer/implementors: I found a website named designquote.com, that provides an online meeting place for designers of websites and related skills, like graphics designers, and logo creators. I uploaded a specification for my website and within one day, I had 5 good quotes in hand. I checked out their work samples and settled on three of the five to get references. Finally I chose Pyxels Design Studio based in Massachusetts.
Rob, Pyxels' designer, turned out to be quick and efficient and true to our contract. He helped me get the domain name (www.dewittandmariamovie.com), and he designed the site, programmed it and will provide the hosting. Within a couple of weeks we had a good website (www.dewittandmariamovie.com) up and running. Kurt edited a 30 sec video trailer to the site and it was complete in time for the premiere scheduled for Oct 23, 2010.
I had no trouble trusting someone I'd never met before 2300 miles away with a critical project. After all, this whole project has been about trusting people I didn't know. My willingness to take risks has paid off all on the upside so far.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
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