would anyone like to see my website?
Discussion
I've just finished it! well, it still needs a bit of polishing.
Im a freelance video cameraman, so I thought it was about time I had my own website to show my showreel and my photography portfolio.
Id really appreciate some feedback on it (good or bad!)
Its all done in flash, and i haven't optimised it yet, so it may take a little while to load if your on a slow net connection. (I should be able to cut it down in size by around half):
I've only tested it on my machine (which is pretty fast) and one type of browser, and im viewing it on quite a large monitor. so id like to know how it looks on your setup.
Can you find any bugs? Or do you just generally think its alwful?
Feedback would be mucho appreciated.
my site is: http://www.peterford.co.uk
Kind thanks everyone.
Right time for bed methinks!
looks good but...
...WTF is with it all in flash, WHY??!?!!? Theres no reason for it to be all flash!!
And the photo's section is limited and the blend/fade looks wrong on some of the pics.
You do realise google will just totaly ignore that site...?
...WTF is with it all in flash, WHY??!?!!? Theres no reason for it to be all flash!!
And the photo's section is limited and the blend/fade looks wrong on some of the pics.
You do realise google will just totaly ignore that site...?
Edited by RobDickinson on Tuesday 3rd June 01:56
RobDickinson said:
looks good but...
...WTF is with it all in flash, WHY??!?!!? Theres no reason for it to be all flash!!
And the photo's section is limited and the blend/fade looks wrong on some of the pics.
You do realise google will just totaly ignore that site...?
As Rob says - Why Flash?...WTF is with it all in flash, WHY??!?!!? Theres no reason for it to be all flash!!
And the photo's section is limited and the blend/fade looks wrong on some of the pics.
You do realise google will just totaly ignore that site...?
Edited by RobDickinson on Tuesday 3rd June 01:56
It takes an age to load here as well (2Mb broadband) - over 15 secs for the homepage.
Also why does the photography gallery pop up as a new window?
I'd really recommend you to lose the flash and go with a "normal" HTML site.
As it stands Flash is disabled on all our work PC so I'd not be able to view the site at the office - surely a point of the site is to act as an online CV for you, why limit the people available to view it.
Chris
An "E" in Philosophy?? I wouldn't brag about that... 
Works fine for my laptop, just a couple of points.
My pop-up blocker prevented your Photography from opening,but nice images, especially the Ferrari badge, and I like the dissolve effect. I would lose the BW image of the girls face peering out - looks like just a grabbed snap.
My personal feeling on your showreel was that on the opening car sequences, the pan down to the Ferrari rear cluster was way too fast and wobbly, and same for the pan up the gear lever. The shot of the rev counter was wobbly and probably could have been better filmed with the car stationary.
I liked the interiors Steadicam.
Overall a nice site, I liked it.
Works fine for my laptop, just a couple of points.
My pop-up blocker prevented your Photography from opening,but nice images, especially the Ferrari badge, and I like the dissolve effect. I would lose the BW image of the girls face peering out - looks like just a grabbed snap.
My personal feeling on your showreel was that on the opening car sequences, the pan down to the Ferrari rear cluster was way too fast and wobbly, and same for the pan up the gear lever. The shot of the rev counter was wobbly and probably could have been better filmed with the car stationary.
I liked the interiors Steadicam.
Overall a nice site, I liked it.
I agree the email should be a bit more obvious maybe? I don't mind the flash so much, loaded fine for me (on Opera) the only thing I thought is that maybe you should have something to navigate back to the homepage from you photography portfolio, it is a bit annoying having it open in a new tab/window! It seem like a nice website though!
whats wrong with flash? I did it all in flash because i find it easy to make a flash website, and know nothing of dreamweaver or html.
To get it to do all the little touches - fading between tabs etc, would require lots of java script or other web voodoo that i know nothing about.
I dont see what the big fuss is about? Plus, it shows i have good command of flash, and good knowledge of integrating flash video- something useful in my line of work
RobDickinson said:
You do realise google will just totaly ignore that site...?
not really bothered about google- people looking for a cameraman dont use google. It will be submitted with job apps, on my buisness card, as a link on broadcast related forums I post on etc etc.The most important thing is that it has a bit of wow, not just a regular boring site
Fordo said:
whats wrong with flash? I did it all in flash because i find it easy to make a flash website, and know nothing of dreamweaver or html.
To get it to do all the little touches - fading between tabs etc, would require lots of java script or other web voodoo that i know nothing about.
I dont see what the big fuss is about? Plus, it shows i have good command of flash, and good knowledge of integrating flash video- something useful in my line of work
I find flash very slow to load & it's completely disabled on all work PCs in my company (therefore no access to your site at work)To get it to do all the little touches - fading between tabs etc, would require lots of java script or other web voodoo that i know nothing about.
I dont see what the big fuss is about? Plus, it shows i have good command of flash, and good knowledge of integrating flash video- something useful in my line of work
Also, as mentioned no search engine can index a flash site as all the text is "hidden" inside the flash.
Personally I'd just click away to another non flash site as soon as the intro page came up. (But then I'm a grumpy ar*e at the best of times
)Chris
tog said:
It's nice, although I agree with the Flash sentiment generally, but more significantly, should there not be some form of "contact me" page? You ask us to drop you an email, but seem to offer no way for us to do so!
apart from a clickable email button in the top bar, which opens your email program and puts my email address in for you. maybe i should make it a little more obvious?Im thinking of certainly added a splash page for people that dont have flash- with contact details and links to download showreel etc.
chris.mapey said:
Fordo said:
whats wrong with flash? I did it all in flash because i find it easy to make a flash website, and know nothing of dreamweaver or html.
To get it to do all the little touches - fading between tabs etc, would require lots of java script or other web voodoo that i know nothing about.
I dont see what the big fuss is about? Plus, it shows i have good command of flash, and good knowledge of integrating flash video- something useful in my line of work
I find flash very slow to load & it's completely disabled on all work PCs in my company (therefore no access to your site at work)To get it to do all the little touches - fading between tabs etc, would require lots of java script or other web voodoo that i know nothing about.
I dont see what the big fuss is about? Plus, it shows i have good command of flash, and good knowledge of integrating flash video- something useful in my line of work
Also, as mentioned no search engine can index a flash site as all the text is "hidden" inside the flash.
Personally I'd just click away to another non flash site as soon as the intro page came up. (But then I'm a grumpy ar*e at the best of times
)Chris
- also, the people that are going to look at my site wont be grumpy people like yourself- it'll be people who have an interest in hiring me, so probably wont mind waiting a few secs for it to load! Admittededly, it takes far too long at the moment, but i havent optimised it- i can probably half the wait time.Do most companies still disable flash at work? what are we, in the 90s? Point taken though, i'll add a nice html splash page. It'll be mostly production companies viewing this, so i doubt they have restricted computers, but it cant hurt to have a splash page that says 'this site require flash blah blah, if not have a look at my showreel at cv'
Edited by Fordo on Tuesday 3rd June 09:34
Goldeeno said:
Awesome vid, love the night driving thats really cool!
thanks - i need to re-do it though. if you look carefully, you can see how the windscreen is quite dirty!That was achieved using my D40 and a laptop running time lapse software, at about 2 frames a sec. I wanted to get this shot of a HD project i was involved with, but the HD cam we were working with was far too big for using in a car. The d40 worked really well, and i ended up with footage that was about 4k in resolution- far higher than HD. Which was great as we could crop and zoom into it as much as we liked in post, and it still looked good.
I think you've been very defensive which is understandable but does mean I'm a bit reluctant to post - but since you asked...
I'll be brutal, because if this is an online portfolio of your work then that is exactly how anyone at a production company will be. You can choose to listen to any or none of what I say - since you don't know me or my experience you don't have to accept my opinion!
You've mentioned that you want the site to have a wow factor, but I don't think flash gives it that. The flash movie as the header of the site is nice, but because of the border there is a line running through your email address that obscures it.
The tabs work well, but look a bit clumsy and the reflection effect on them is not very well executed. I don't think the fade effect on the main body of the site or the colours you have used are particularly attractive. If you clean up the tabs a bit, improve the reflection and reduce the vibrancy of the colours all round it should look better.
The show reel looks great.
The photography page launching in a new window doesn't bother me - but the image of the Aston Martin you have used is over compressed and has jaggies.
The text on the CV page is a tiny bit hard to read - and you have links to youtube that I can't select or click on - I'm not going to manually type in a youtube link to see your work.
Don't get me wrong - you've done a good job, the site works well, and looks absolutely fine - it does everything it needs to. But for me it falls just a little bit short of what an online portfolio site should be. Remember your site is about your content and what you can produce, not about how good the site looks. The content should be the star, not the fact that you have nice whizzy fades between tabs. At the moment I think the site itself overpowers the content.
Hope you take this in the spirit it was intended not as a criticism of you or your abilities.
I'll be brutal, because if this is an online portfolio of your work then that is exactly how anyone at a production company will be. You can choose to listen to any or none of what I say - since you don't know me or my experience you don't have to accept my opinion!
You've mentioned that you want the site to have a wow factor, but I don't think flash gives it that. The flash movie as the header of the site is nice, but because of the border there is a line running through your email address that obscures it.
The tabs work well, but look a bit clumsy and the reflection effect on them is not very well executed. I don't think the fade effect on the main body of the site or the colours you have used are particularly attractive. If you clean up the tabs a bit, improve the reflection and reduce the vibrancy of the colours all round it should look better.
The show reel looks great.
The photography page launching in a new window doesn't bother me - but the image of the Aston Martin you have used is over compressed and has jaggies.
The text on the CV page is a tiny bit hard to read - and you have links to youtube that I can't select or click on - I'm not going to manually type in a youtube link to see your work.
Don't get me wrong - you've done a good job, the site works well, and looks absolutely fine - it does everything it needs to. But for me it falls just a little bit short of what an online portfolio site should be. Remember your site is about your content and what you can produce, not about how good the site looks. The content should be the star, not the fact that you have nice whizzy fades between tabs. At the moment I think the site itself overpowers the content.
Hope you take this in the spirit it was intended not as a criticism of you or your abilities.
Fordo said:
chris.mapey said:
Fordo said:
whats wrong with flash? I did it all in flash because i find it easy to make a flash website, and know nothing of dreamweaver or html.
To get it to do all the little touches - fading between tabs etc, would require lots of java script or other web voodoo that i know nothing about.
I dont see what the big fuss is about? Plus, it shows i have good command of flash, and good knowledge of integrating flash video- something useful in my line of work
I find flash very slow to load & it's completely disabled on all work PCs in my company (therefore no access to your site at work)To get it to do all the little touches - fading between tabs etc, would require lots of java script or other web voodoo that i know nothing about.
I dont see what the big fuss is about? Plus, it shows i have good command of flash, and good knowledge of integrating flash video- something useful in my line of work
Also, as mentioned no search engine can index a flash site as all the text is "hidden" inside the flash.
Personally I'd just click away to another non flash site as soon as the intro page came up. (But then I'm a grumpy ar*e at the best of times
)Chris
- also, the people that are going to look at my site wont be grumpy people like yourself- it'll be people who have an interest in hiring me, so probably wont mind waiting a few secs for it to load! Admittededly, it takes far too long at the moment, but i havent optimised it- i can probably half the wait time.Do most companies still disable flash at work? what are we, in the 90s? Point taken though, i'll add a nice html splash page. It'll be mostly production companies viewing this, so i doubt they have restricted computers, but it cant hurt to have a splash page that says 'this site require flash blah blah, if not have a look at my showreel at cv'
Edited by Fordo on Tuesday 3rd June 09:34
Content is king. I hate flash sites too.Flash elements in a html site are fine, so there's no reason you couldn't do that, and still show that you can use flash.
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