My new wedding video website

[Adam Grunseth]

Hi everyone!

I just thought I would let you all know that I finally completed my new wedding video website (the old one was so bad I was ashamed to post the link). The new design I wanted to be simple, elegant, and of course provid information to potential clients.

Please let me know what you think of it, and don't hesitate to point out typos, spelling errors, and grammatical innacuracies. My girlfriend/proofreader is at the dentist so she is unable to look it over for me.

The address is www.wvi.com/~granch

I did register a domain name, but i'm still waiting for the domain forwarding to kick in.

[Joe Goldsberry]

Nice looking site Adam. I like the image of the B&G.

My criticism is with your demo video. IMO a wedding website should show a wedding - period. Don't try to impress your brides with corporate footage. Save that for your corporate site which IMO should be a completely separate site and domain name.

Joe

[Mark Holland]

My first impression was "Wow, it loaded fast!"

I'll look around some later.

Mark

[Adam Grunseth]

Originally Posted by Joe Goldsberry

My criticism is with your demo video. IMO a wedding website should show a wedding - period. Don't try to impress your brides with corporate footage. Save that for your corporate site which IMO should be a completely separate site and domain name.

Joe

I couldn't agree with you more about the demo reel. However, after a great deal of contemplation I felt it was more important to get the site up first. I full intend to do a wedding only demo reel, which I hope to have done by monday to put on the site. The demo reel that is up right now is an older demo reel that that I used because it did showcase some of my work. I am already getting phone calls from brides, and I felt establishing a web presence was most important.

Also, I am working on an entirely seperate site for other types of video work in addition to this wedding site.... I just wanted to get the wedding site up first.

[Chris Davis]

Equipment > Microphones: "if your using a P.A. system..." It should be "if you're using..."

Other than that, looks good.

[Adam Grunseth]

Thanks chris, I'll fix it right away

[Ben Lynn]

I liked the site. Simple and to the point. And I think you did a good job of explaining what equipment you use and why. Nice.

Ben

[Peter Jefferson]

id be careful about the "fast editing" claim
a fast system doesnt guarantee a fast edit.. especially if ur pumping 40 weddings a year.. additionally, what if your raid array fails?

be VERY careful with the text you put on your site....

[Waldemar Winkler]

For me the opening of the site was slower than a seven years itch. Been having some delivery issues here the last few days. so the slow speed is probably on my end. For that reason, I didn't look at the demos. Figured they'd still be loading tomorrow morning.

Equipment. Brides don't care about equipment, and most grooms probably won't even see your site. If your studio is indeed a TV station rival, then by all means boast about long and loud! The other stuff ... Well, Consider some other category that addresses you studio like, maybe, once a month open studio tours.

Very nice graphic design elements within the site.

Can't comment about packages, as I think they are really location specific.

[Michael Nistler]

Hi Adam,

Great start on your new website. In a nutshell:

The Good...

- Demo shows breadth and mastery - well done!

- Simple design

- Nice fonts

- Good graphic resolution

- Fast response times


Needs improvement (the 1st two are the most troublesome)...

- Using frames is a very poor choice for numerous reasons

- Seem to have overlooked Search Engine Optimization

- Audio bass is overpowering at times

- Opacity misset on frames causing pix to bleed through white background behind text, making it difficult to read

- The signature couple are a bit wide - consider shrinking them in horizontally a bit in Photoshop (yeah, it's picky but there's subliminal stuff going on with some brides to be)

- With a 1024x768 screen resolution, your contact info should not be beneath the fold

- On your Equipment page, you have the following typos:
unnoticable -> unnoticeable
shakey -> shaky
Specialy -> Specially
micrphones -> microphones
sofware -> software
soley -> solely

- Also on Equipment, while I realize you've tried to focus on the client benefit, you still slip into mumbo-jumbo jargon talk from time to time. I doubt their impressed with RAID storage, multicore processors, and ATI graphic cards even if you think it allows you to edit quickly (even if the next guy stays up through the night to render, the B&G don't care). Same on the cameras - your JVC HD-110u and the Sony PDX-10 camcorders mean nothing to them, nor your comfort issue. Sorry if I'm being a bit harsh here but you get my drift - always try to provide a value proposition only from the client's perspective in clear, clean, crisp sentences.

- FAQ page typos:

Therefor -> Therefore
defintion -> definition
defintion -> definition (a second time, you fast-typing devil)
defintion -> definition (a third time, perhaps rusty at spelling)

- You may also wish to have an English major help you with some grammar, including sentences as this one:
Most weddings do not fall into this category and can be done for much less.

- Hopefully you'll have an EMAIL with the new domain soon


Your site seems to be missing several important items; if you require my services at a reasonable rate for this and more details on the above items, please PM me - I'm affordable, quick, and high-quality (pick any two!)

Regards, Michael

[Adam Grunseth]

Originally Posted by Michael Nistler

- Using frames is a very poor choice for numerous reasons

Thanks for your input Michael, however I would like to point out that I did not use frames on the site. Each page is a self contained document, the frame like effect was accomplished via use of a layer set within a cell on a table, with the layer's overflow property set to scroll.

Originally Posted by Michael Nistler

- Seem to have overlooked Search Engine Optimization

I have a friend who works for a web marketing firm, he is going to help me with my search engine optimization and marketing.... I have not got around to that though.

Originally Posted by Michael Nistler

- Audio bass is overpowering at times

I will look into the audio issue

Originally Posted by Michael Nistler

- Opacity misset on frames causing pix to bleed through white background behind text, making it difficult to read

The background is supposed to show through slightly behind the text, but it is blured and very faint..... On tests I did not have complaints that it made it difficult to read... and in fact I showed several friends examples of both solid white and the slight transparency and the slight transparency was universally favored. I would love to hear more feedback on this issue though from other people.

Originally Posted by Michael Nistler

- The signature couple are a bit wide - consider shrinking them in horizontally a bit in Photoshop (yeah, it's picky but there's subliminal stuff going on with some brides to be)

LOL, I have actually received complaints from larger brides on my old website how the couple I show looks like models and not like real people. Depending on what kind of other feedback I get about this couple I might change it.

Originally Posted by Michael Nistler

- With a 1024x768 screen resolution, your contact info should not be beneath the fold

I tested the website on multiple systems, some at 1024X768, I did not experience this problem. What browser are you using? Could you post or email me a screenshot of this?

Originally Posted by Michael Nistler

- Also on Equipment, while I realize you've tried to focus on the client benefit, you still slip into mumbo-jumbo jargon talk from time to time. I doubt their impressed with RAID storage, multicore processors, and ATI graphic cards even if you think it allows you to edit quickly (even if the next guy stays up through the night to render, the B&G don't care). Same on the cameras - your JVC HD-110u and the Sony PDX-10 camcorders mean nothing to them, nor your comfort issue. Sorry if I'm being a bit harsh here but you get my drift - always try to provide a value proposition only from the client's perspective in clear, clean, crisp sentences.

I debated if I should talk about equipment on the site or not. Eventually I decided that if they aren't interested in the equipment section, they don't have to click on it- if they want to know about the equipment I use, the information is there for them. True, 95% of brides don't care.... but I have had a few who actually asked me about my equipment so I figured I would make the information available.

Originally Posted by Michael Nistler

- You may also wish to have an English major help you with some grammar, including sentences as this one:
Most weddings do not fall into this category and can be done for much less.

- Hopefully you'll have an EMAIL with the new domain soon

I actually have an English major to help proof read the copy, I just need to wait for her to stop being so busy... so I thought I would post the website for everyone here to comment on first.

It appears the URL is working now, it is in my sig.

[Peter Jefferson]

talking about equipment and edting systems is fine so long as u detail WHY/HOW it will benefit THEMone way i did it, was to explain each element in detai.
As an example, i detail our filming style, then it follows on from HOW we film it using said pieces of equipemnt, then i detail what impact all these elements may have on their day.
Same with editing. My systems (ive got 3 workstations) are upddate almsot every month so theres really no point in teling people what you have as this will inevitably change in time. HOW u use your editing systems is more important that what is within your editing system

[Michael Nistler]

Here's the display on IE7 with 1024 x 768 - name and phone # is below fold - notice the scroll bar on right

[Chris Davis]

Originally Posted by Michael Nistler

Here's the display on IE7 with 1024 x 768 - name and phone # is below fold - notice the scroll bar on right

Your additional toolbars account for the different perspective.

[Vince Lucena]

I would suggest you beef-up your Meta-Data fields.
Look at the html source on my site for ideas...