I decided to start with general cinematographers in case study 2 as often less well known freelance cinematographers cover a range of different areas such as music videos, corporate events etc.. This is because like myself they would not make enough money just making videos in their specialist area, most cinematographers want to go into feature film making but my specialised area is in music video production. For this case study I took a look at the cinematographers that have won the award for the best cinematography in a music video at the MTV music awards over the years. In 2019 a guy called Scott Cunningham won the award so I went and looked at his website and found he has worked with artists such as Harry Styles and Shawn Mendes to name a few so he is well regarded in the industry. On viewing his website I was surprised to find that he also does commercial work and has worked with companies like Mercedes and Google and when I went to his contact page he has a manager for each of his areas of work one for commercial jobs and one for narrative jobs. Other than this his website was similar to the ones I looked at in case study two with just a thumbnail of each of his videos and when you click on the thumbnail it takes you to the video itself. Again his website was very simple just using his name rather than a company name however on his contact page he had the word Iconic in bold writing but I couldn't tell if that was a brand name or just a tagline. The only social media his website promotes is his Instagram where he posts his best images from each of his projects. As someone who works with big music stars using Instagram allows him to show off his best work and build a following as people recognise the stars in his work which means they are more drawn to his page.
In 2018 the MTV music award for best cinematography in a music video went to Benoit Debie for his Music video for the band the carters. His site featured a range of work from music videos to commercial projects to short and feature films all laid out in their own sections. I was again surprised to find such a range of work as I thought more well known cinematographers would focus on one area however it seems even the best cinematographers still do a range of different projects. Much like Scott, Debie has an agent for each area of work he does so he has an agent for music videos and agent for commercials are also his own side business for feature film production called Ethiopia films. Debies website looks more professional to me and more creatively unique and this is down to the layout of her website. Rather than having a collage of her work he has a slideshow where you can scroll across and see each of her projects and the awards they have won. Just this slight difference makes his site stand out from the rest, he also has the menu at the top of his website as a drop down tab and rather than having to click on the sections you scroll over and the information pops down. This shows he has put a lot of thought into making the website both unique and easily accessible and it works really well. Debie only promotes his Facebook page on his website and has just over 3000 likes on his Facebook page where he posts regular updates on her latest projects. Scott does seem to have had more success with Instagram as he on the other hand has almost 13,000 followers and reaches more people regularly despite both of them working with the same calibre of stars as Debie has worked with Daniel Craig and Joaquin Phoenix.
I have made changes to the design of my own website (see below) based off of my research. My website from last year for example was very cluttered and had several tabs/sub sections that through my research I have realised aren't needed. I have decided to go with a black header bar with my companies logo and three sub sections. The blog section of my website is only visible at the moment for examination purposes but I plan to make it private again once I get my grade for this year. The more section just has my contact details and I should really think about labelling just as contact rather than more to make it clearer. I decided to go with my company name/logo and not my name as I tend to do most of my work under my company name at the moment and so I feel it is more appropriate but this is something I can re consider once my company starts to grow. As for the central section of my home page I have decided to go with a short looping clip rather than a selection of stills as I do not have a lot of high quality stills at the moment and screenshots are not good enough quality for a website. The theme of having looped images at the top of the page runs throughout my website and on my contact page there is a looping clip of a guitar in close up followed by a section underneath where potential clients can sign up to my newsletter as I think that is a great way to start building a portfolio of people who have liked my website and at some point in the future might become clients. I also have some text across the middle that at the moment that once I have more stills work will be removed but at the moment it gives a potential client something more interesting to look at than just a clip.
Bibliography:
Benoît Debie Director of Photography (2020). Available at: https://www.facebook.com/BenoitDebieDirectorOfPhotography (Accessed: 13 May 2020).
MTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography (2020). Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV_Video_Music_Award_for_Best_Cinematography (Accessed: 13 May 2020).
SCOTT CUNNINGHAM (2020). Available at: https://www.scottcunninghamdp.com/ (Accessed: 13 May 2020).
Scott Cunningham (@scottcunninghamdp) • Instagram photos and videos (2020). Available at: https://www.instagram.com/scottcunninghamdp/ (Accessed: 13 May 2020).
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