Website Analysis #1

Momentum is a short 2013 film directed by Boris Seewald. The website is fairly minimalistic with regards to design; a slightly blurred still from the film is used as the background for the website. The texture of the wall provides just enough decoration and intrigue while the blurred character and bland background maintain this intrigue by deflecting attention from the background and providing room for the main film to be displayed.

There is very little content on the page that could possibly distract the viewer from the film - after all, the video is right in the middle of the homepage making it impossible to miss, decorated with an array of awards and nominations to showcase its impressive and innovative quality according to critics. The awards display to the viewer the several times this film was worthy enough to win a title, drawing the viewer in and keeping their attention, with the thumbnail sustaining their intrigue and curiosity. The entire layout is constructed to deliberately put the spotlight on the short movie.

The website is reasonably easy to navigate - all the tabs are situated at the top on a black bar. The black shade is elegant and is in accordance to the theme of the website - simple yet interesting. The writing of the font is obviously smaller than the title of the film, which is written in large white font to contrast with the bold black colour scheme below it. The audience's attention is also captured by the capital letters of the film title, displayed once at the top of the website and once on the actual film file.

Marketing is also important, and albeit not as important as it is for feature films, the filmmakers - or in this case filmmaker - need to garner as much recognition in social media as possible to ensure the film's relevance long after it has been released. The social media links for the film are all displayed in small buttons at the top which adhere to the black-and-white colour scheme of the written content, with the social media logos displayed instead of the title of the website.

There are also more awards displayed at the top in subdued colouring so as to not take away attention from the main components of the website. The viewer is invited to watch the film instantaneously as they visit the website, and are compelled to do so since they are likely on the website because they were already interested anyway.

Although not stretched out to fill the entire screen, the film takes centre stage. The large background image of the still from the film serves to remind the viewer of the compelling character and adds a little vibrance and zest to the rather dull colour scheme. This adheres to the convention of having large high definition photographs in the background that only complement the content rather than overpowering it. This is apparently a very important theme as the website clearly tries very hard to maintain this; there are no fun widgets to distract the viewer or large embedded tweet bars nor is there any diverting flash content for the audience's eyes to follow.

That somewhat subverts some movie website conventions which usually try to make the website as much of an exciting and engaging experience as they possibly can. The absence of widgets and social media 'reminders'/displays and flash content serve to make the website inconspicuous, not necessarily done. The website serves one function that it has thoroughly fulfilled: get viewers to watch the film.