We’ve just finished the promo video for The Incredible Arundel Festival Bathtub Race which you can watch here.
The film was shot on the 8th August 2009 and is just a taster of the longer edit which will be available next year. The film contains interviews with contestants, and captures the best bits of the race.
If you’ve never used one before, and have no prior knowledge in web design, getting to grips with a content management system can seem like a daunting task. I’ve recently been writing a user guide for CMS Made Simple which I pass on to clients as a handy reference. I’ve also been giving tutorials on CMS Made Simple, teaching clients how to update and manage their websites content.
Here are a few hints, tips and words of advice which you may find useful if you are using a CMS for your website – whether it’s Wordpress, Joomla or any other open source content management system.
1. Always check the page you’re working on regularly. Open a spare window with the live version of the page you are working on and refresh when you make changes.
2. Does it look right? If your page is looking a bit out of line, or your images are spilling over the designated area, check the image size. Re-size and re-upload the image to fit the space you are working with. This is more aesthetically pleasing and ensures your website looks correct. Follow the image sized guidelines that your designer has provided to avoid this happening.
3. Try to keep within the theme. The fonts, colours and styles have been chosen for a reason and straying away will unbalance the uniformity of the website. Your designer should supply you with recommended styles, colours and fonts or have them set up and ready to use within the CMS. It’s a good idea to save a screenshot or ask your designer for a mock up as a reference for things like styles and image placements.
4. Keep file sizes as small as possible – large images and files take a long time to load, which is frustrating for users. Make sure your images are optomized for web use.
5. Take your time – it may take a while to populate your website if you have lot’s of content, so grab a cup of tea and take your time over the little details, as they make all the difference.
In August 2008 I took part in the Arundel Bathtub Race, and had so much fun I decided to get involved.
I produced a documentary about the event this year, the aim being to raise more awareness of the event through video websites (YouTube, Google, Facebook) and show future competitors and contributors the huge amount of fun that’s had taking part to encourage more entries and supporters. It also means that the people who took part and were involved have a memento of the day and can see what the other teams got upto throughout the day.
We had a great presenter, Mark, who went round and interviewed the various competitors and contributors throughout the day, and 3 camera crews who covered the event. The added bonus was that we had 1 camera operator to cover the event from one of the safety boats so we managed to get right in the action.
The film is currently in the edit suite, and a rough cut is complete. There will be a short 5 minute promotional film to go on the official website, and a longer episode which will hopefully be available on DVD and at a screening.
Since August 2008, Starboard Media UK has been managing the website, Twitter and Facebook accounts which has given the event more coverage across the internet and allowed supporters to interact with the event. As well as the film, we took a ton of photos (over 600) to capture the fun and frolics of the day.
Whilst filming the Arundel Bathtub Race we had a chat with James and Dean from Heart of the Warrior, who will be rowing the Atlantic this year in aid of charity.
Here are a couple of tips and suggested links for optimizing images for web use. Images that take a long time to load can frustrate your users, so just taking the time to optimize your images will be highly beneficial.
1. Use the correct file format for the job. To find out whether to use JPEG, GIF or PNG, read below.
2. Set the dpi (dots per inch) to 72dpi. This is the optimum dpi for internet use.
3. Create the size image that you need – don’t use a large image and then re-size it on the web page. A re-sized image on the page will look pixelated and fuzzy and will still be the same file size. If you need a thumbnail to open up a larger image, create the thumbnail separately.
JPEG, GIF or PNG?
JPEG: If you are saving a photograph, or an image with a photograph in, a JPEG will be fine.
GIF: These are good for graphics and fonts as they are smaller in file size. You can also use transparency in certain circumstances with a GIF, for example, you might have a logo you want to place on a patterned background.
Note: Don’t forget to set a matt colour close to the colour of the background you will be putting the image on, or you will end up with pixelated white edges on your image
PNG: Has better compression than GIF, and you have the benefit of having more options with transparency, for example, you can set a drop shadow on an image with a transparent background and use it on a website.
Note: Not all browsers support transparent PNG backgrounds, but you can use fixes:
Twin Helix: PNG Fix
For more information on PNG, GIF and JPEG check the W3C schools tips on PNG, JPEG and GIF.
Further reading
More detailed information on optomising images for the web:
http://www.ehow.com/how_6236_optimize-picture-web.html
A very good tutorial for exporting images from Photoshop (also applies to Fireworks, etc)
http://inobscuro.com/tutorials/read/35/
A short but informative tutorial on GIFs and JPEGs with image demonstrations.