Website Inspiration

For our website inspiration I started by looking for a social realism film with an official website, this was to gain both inspiration for the general look and feel for our website and for features that our website I could contain. In the end I decided to look into the official website for the film 'Kes' directed by the iconic social realism director Ken Loach and produced by Tony Garnett. Although the film does not contain a similar narrative to ours it does contain the codes and conventions seen in social realism.

The website contains features found on the majority of official websites such as brief bio's, images from the movie and trailers for the film. What immediately struck me about the images on the website was the focus on the main character Billy Kes himself. This makes it clear to the audience that he is the main focus of the film. For our website I personally feel that by focusing on images from that crashed car and our main protagonist 'Emma' we can not only highlight the main focus of the film but also create an enigma regarding the car crash.

Two features of the website that particularly stood out to me and that I had not scene on other official websites were the location and 'radio' page. The location page allowed the users to see where the production was filmed around the UK. I feel that this builds a closer connection with the audience as it shows how the film used 'real-life', 'normal' locations that the audience may have heard of or even visited. It also shows how the production can change the look of a 'normal' community through the use of filming techniques and narrative.
       The 'Kes Radio' allows the users to listen to the official soundtrack from the movie for free whilst they browse the website. This techniques creates an emotional response due to the connection made with the music and the subjects found on the website. I would like to incorporate this feature into our website, such as having a copy of all the music we researched and actually used in the actual production, as well as having the occasional snippet of sound from the trailer such as the sound of impact from the car or cry from the main protagonist.