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March 25th, 2008, 08:32 AM
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#16 | |
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Trustee
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Maryland
Posts: 1,505
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Quote:
Wow this thread is expanding quickly for a post that was made 2 months ago. Anyway, I do agree about not taking advantage of the vertical real estate for my text. I wanted to make the page layout as self contained as possible and tried to set it up to take advantage of users with smaller screens without having to scroll across every time on their screen when viewing a page. I ahd some early testers (ironically also vidoegraphers) complain that they always had to scroll over to see the whole page on their smaller screen. Also, if I wanted to give the user less scrolling then I would have had to compromise my original intent of the page layouts. Also the visitor would still have to scroll somewhat anyway, which is why I left it alone. I did cut and rewrite quite a bit of copy, but didn't want to cut anymore copy than I already had. So it was a trade off. I'll probably take a look later on and see if I can cut down some more copy, especially on my Wedding page. As I still think it's too wordy. |
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March 25th, 2008, 08:40 AM
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#17 | |
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Trustee
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Maryland
Posts: 1,505
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Quote:
Yeah I'm not crazy about the font either, I actually prefer Trajan when possible, over Tahoma and Veranda. I would have rather preferred to simply create teh copy as a graphic to be consistent. But then I would have lost text optimization for Google and such. Funny, the purple is the color I like best (my personal favorite color). Actually that graphic will also be changing, as it will be replaced with a portrait of myself, the wife, and our new baby (and maybe the dog) when we have one professionally taken. The joined hands are poignant being that it's bout us (two people). But I wanted it to be more about me, hence the pictures personalization when it's taken. Besides I want everyone to see my ugly mug. As for the blue on the main page, that was intentional. As I have read up on the subliminal use of color on the human psyche, and blue signifies trust (especially baby blue, which was too light for the page). |
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March 25th, 2008, 10:15 AM
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#18 |
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Regular Crew
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Bloomington, IL
Posts: 61
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Nice site. Keeps a consistancy but varies enough to make it interesting. Video is nice, I use the same flash media player on a web site I take care of.
On a different subject of your business, you refer that you went to HD but you don't reference what equipment you use. What camera(s) are you using now? Thanks and have a great day, lastly, do you do videography full time? Jeff
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Created Design Video Video production for the common man |
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March 25th, 2008, 10:24 AM
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#19 |
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Trustee
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Maryland
Posts: 1,505
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Jeffery, we currently are no using Sony FX1's and Canon HV20's (which are mainly used as capture decks or 3rd alter cams). We also still us a PD170 for some product training videos which I shoot.
I don't mention what equipment I use anywhere on the site. People really just don't care and wouldn't even know what equipment we would be referencing. I just mention that we use quality audio recorders and have transitioned to HD cameras. So I don't bore them with the technical details and just focus on the quality. Which my main goal of the text on the site is to focus on our quality and our desire to form a personal working relationship. I haven't posted any of the FX1 samples online yet, as I haven't gotten to those edits yet. I think I mentioned this a few posts back but, I actually do graphic design for a direct mail company full time, and have this as a second business. You could call it full time though, since I spend 40-80 hours per wedding video. Stage and cooperate video is obviously not as long or intensive. Last edited by Michael Liebergot; March 25th, 2008 at 03:23 PM. |
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March 27th, 2008, 08:57 AM
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#20 |
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Regular Crew
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Portsmouth, UK
Posts: 118
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Just to agree, very nice clean site....all the info that is needed and pleasing to the eye.
Out of curiosity what was the flash gallery you actually used? Have not seen that one before... |
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March 27th, 2008, 09:35 AM
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#21 | |
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Trustee
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Maryland
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http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?item=JW_FLV_Media_Player I used the player setup wizard to layout the player how I wanted and copied and pasted the code in my page. I downloaded the FLV player and have it on my server and it's coded in my HTML accordingly. I wanted the player on my server and not another. Of course I had to create an XML file for the playlist. The player setup wizard is here. http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?page=wizard |
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March 28th, 2008, 11:59 AM
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#22 |
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Inner Circle
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Belgium
Posts: 9,509
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[QUOTE=Michael Liebergot;849353]The player was from this site:
http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?item=JW_FLV_Media_Player An even easier way to use Jeroen's player would be if you'd have a wordpress website, through plugins it's quite easy to implement with a minimum of coding knowledge. I did like the site as well, well structured and even if you can discuss font and color it's really not that important, content is. I wouldn't disagree that a well designed professional site would give a client the impression that you A. must be equally professional or B. have been ripping customers of to pay for such an expensive site ;) but as long as it doesn't look like your grandfather build it, it will serve it's purpose. With your site all that was needed was there and easy to find. I also liked the scroll bar with the text on each page as it keeps focus on the image on the left (just for visual purpose) and the navigation on top. (which I think is important because i think it will keep your client focussed on the sites content) I really liked the availability checker, my site runs on wordpress and I have been looking for a plugin that could handle that, it would save me some work not to inform clients each time I can't accept their wedding. |
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March 28th, 2008, 12:19 PM
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#23 |
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Trustee
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Maryland
Posts: 1,505
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Noa thanks for the reply.
I agree about using a Wordpress Blog for a website,a s I have started to see many use Blog pages as their main website. Blogs are indexed more frequently and seem to be a bit more Google friendly at the moment. I decided to keep a site separate and start 2 different Blogger blogs (LVP Blog and a Tools of the Trade Blog), which are still a work in progress. When they are a bit more content intensive then I will link them from my main website. Both are currently linked to my main website for cross reference. As for the availability checker, that came from Wedj.com and their Gigbuilder software, which I truly love. Not only can clients check availability, but also when booked, they can download contracts, make online payments, and most importantly for me, provide me with event details like party information, vendor info, timeline and such. |
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April 4th, 2008, 01:30 PM
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#24 |
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Regular Crew
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Spartanburg, SC
Posts: 26
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Michael...
Great website! Could you share more specifically what "Video Jukebox" code you utilized. Was it a pre-written application, or a coding examples using something like swfobject. Thanks for any help! |
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April 4th, 2008, 01:58 PM
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#25 | |
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Trustee
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Maryland
Posts: 1,505
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Quote:
There is a wizard that will enable you to generate the appropriate code for your site. You then have to copy and paste it in your HTML document. You will also have to download the player if you would like it to run on your server (which I prefer), ad you will also have to generate an .XML playlist for the jukebox. If you simply want a single player then no playlist is required. |
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April 4th, 2008, 02:05 PM
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#26 |
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Regular Crew
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Spartanburg, SC
Posts: 26
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Thanks, Michael.... I now know that there's a PAGE 2 of posts! DUH.... If I'd noticed that before I posted, I'd have seen you post where you described all of this.... sorry for the duplication.....
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April 4th, 2008, 05:06 PM
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#27 |
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Major Player
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Belle Mead, NJ
Posts: 552
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Hey Michael - nice site. I too am going the wordpress route. Its very easy to use this in conjunction with Vimeo so you can either embed the SD clip on your blog or provide a link to an HD version on Vimeo. (got the idea from Patrick's blog) Where are you getting your photos from? I've approach a few photogs I've worked with about using some of their work to feature on my pages. Seems like it would be a win-win but no takers yet. I looked at some photos on istock but some of them look "too slick".
Art |
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April 4th, 2008, 05:23 PM
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#28 | |
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Trustee
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Maryland
Posts: 1,505
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Quote:
As for the photography, they are my pictures. At the event I also take along a small camera and snap a few pictures from time to time. Mainly to use for cover artwork. I get lucky sometimes with some of the pics. There are a few stock photos, but most are from actual weddings of mine. We just recently had our first child (baby girl), and we are going to have a family portrait done soon (me and wife, baby, and dog). This picture will be going up on our "about us" page in place of the holding hands, which is currently just a placeholder. This should give it a more personal feel that I want this site to have. I haven't had the opportunity yet, but I just switched over to HD, and will be taking a few stills with the camera as well as attempting to pull some frame grabs off of the actual video. |
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April 4th, 2008, 06:33 PM
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#29 |
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Major Player
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Belle Mead, NJ
Posts: 552
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well then - nice job on the photographs! I've taken a few stills from time to time but quite frankly I'm so challenged with the video stuff I'm resigned to leaving the stills to the pros.
Art |
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