Horrible Imaginings Film Festival

December 6, 2012 in Web Design

About the Client

Horrible Imaginings Film Festival was created to accommodate the lack of events in the city of San Diego that celebrate the horror genre. It is their mission to celebrate horror and its various sub-genres by showcasing new and independent artists, as well as reviving classic horror films in San Diego, California, from psychological thrillers to supernatural horror to slashers and even to related genres like noir.

Challenges & Goals:

The client needed the original site redesigned into something more fitting and professional for a popular horror film festival. The website had to be designed in such a way as to embrace the many facets of horror and it's similar genres, from creatures to the creepy house on the hill. The site also had to showcase many types of media, from photo and video galleries to movie trailers in a stylish, organized fashion.

Another important aspect of the project was local search: the client needed help with ensuring that festival attendees would have clear resources on the site for finding the theater and that the site was optimized for local search as well. Buying festival passes also had to be streamlined as simple as possible, while also setting the stage for future e-commerce (merchandise, etc).

Outcome:

Strong navigation was developed to ensure that all content areas of the site are accessible from any page, so nothing important is missed. Aesthetic and easy to manage photo and video galleries were built to allow the client to have individual galleries for each festival. A video slider was integrated into the home page to draw attention to the various filmmaker's trailers. A Map page was developed with a Google map that provides driving, walking and biking directions and local search strategies were implemented throught the site. An easy to use e-commerce system was set up to allow passes to be purchased easily via PayPal, with the backend prepared for merchadise sales and more.