5 ingredients for an outstanding indie movie website

‘Your website is your business card.’

We have heard this saying a myriad of times. We all put a lot effort in the promising and unlimited space of the social web with all its fancy distractions and possibilities to promote our movies. But we should never forget about the mother of all online media: the own website. Your website is the main course of a culinary 5 course menu your audience wants to have on their table. It’s the homebase or headquarter for all things happening around your movie.

Especially now where VOD (Video-on-Demand) becomes more and more important (even though in Europe it seems that people are still hesitant about this ‘new’ technology) the website is still the most important presence on the web you should nourish and never underestimate.

Here is my recipe with 5 ingredients every indie filmmaker should consider when preparing a movie website all inclusive dinner:

1. Show your teaser & trailer above the fold.
   Before your website visitors have to scroll down on your website they should see a link to your trailer or find the play button. Try to embed a video on the very top of your website. The trailer is your most powerful tool to convince people to watch your movie. So make it count! VOD platforms like reelhouse.org or VHX give you the tools on hand to embed a trailer video containing a direct link to the download/stream of your movie (see how we used that embed video feature on our website.
2. Apply a Download/Watch Now Button in your main navigation. Additionally to the embedded video with a link to the movie stream/download consider to have a dedicated button in your main navigation. People often are looking for the main menu in the first place and they should find it easy to get directly to the download of the movie.
3. Add a newsletter subscription form.
   Make it easy for people to subscribe to your mailing list by adding an easy subscription form (Subscribe to our mailing list…). This can easily be done with email marketing services like Campaign Monitor or Mailchimp. We all have learned that it is important to build a following on Facebook and those likes but consider to build a strong mailing list. E-mails are the only connect with you on social media.
4. Prepare a press package.
   Create a dedicated area on your website in which you offer a comprehensive press package for easy and free download.
   A press package should contain:

• Synopsis of the movie
• Filmmaker Bio
• Filmmaker Statement
• Movie Factsheet
• Images: making of/production, crew, movie stills
• List of accolades/awards/selections

5. Show additional material on your website.
Do you have a lot of photos from the production, the team, the making of? Cool, so why not presenting them in a nice photo stream or photo slider on your website? If people like you movie they also like to see more material, get more insights and have a look behind the scenes. Many filmmakers nowadays turn into an ongoing publishing during the whole shooting and post-production of their movie. People love to be part of the creating process of the movie so if this is something for you consider to publish stories about your protagonists, the crew, the sets while being on the shooting trip.

to be continued…