This is a question that we’ve debated many times and it is a question that divides filmmakers. Should you create a website for each new feature film or documentary?
The answer is it depends.
We have eight feature length projects. Numerous other shorts. Some have websites. Some used to have websites. Most only live at Nexus Production Group, our central production company website. But how do we decide which film needs its own dedicated website and which film can do without?
From experience we've found that for bigger, more mass appeal films such as Cats of Malta, a website is crucial. The film caters to a massive niche (cat lovers) so it is smart to start a new newsletter for such a project and build a dedicated audience. This is easy to do by creating a website. Having everything related to the documentary kept in one place makes it easier to promote and keep the focus solely on the documentary. Every time I contact a potential partner or distributor for the film, I share the website. It looks more professional than sending them to a Facebook page or even just a webpage as part of the Nexus.
The Cats of Malta website
Not only is it professional, but it provides separation. Cats of Malta is unlike our other films. Somebody who wants more news about a fun cat documentary, may not necessarily be interested in our intimate improvised films like Friends, Foes & Fireworks and In Corpore, pandemic horror like Machination, or feminist-driven sophomore documentary No Woman is an Island. It’s a distinct audience. So let's direct that audience to one corner and give them a dedicated newsletter.
However, for our other films, we found the use of stand-alone websites redundant. We had a website for Friends, Foes & Fireworks, and a separate website with a newsletter sign-up option for In Corpore, but neither received much traction. These projects could have been served just as effectively with a webpage under Nexus as the target audience for both – women interested in relationship dramas – is similar.
As you create more films, that central website becomes more and more important. It’s a viable (and cheaper) alternative to launching and maintaining a website for every new film. It allows you to keep your body of work in one place and build an audience that appreciates your work as a whole.
The now defunct Friends, Foes & Fireworks website
You can also purchase domain names and redirect them to a central website, rather than building a whole website. For instance, www.machinationmovie.com will go to www.nexusproductiongroup.com/machination. But Machination Movie is much easier to remember for a potential viewer and much more elegant to use in promotion. As such, right now we only maintain two websites, but have 11 different active domain names.
We have similar questions about social media. Do we start a Facebook page and Instagram account for every single film? Or is it better to use a central account to promote all your work?
Much like websites, it depends on the scope and audience for the project. Does it make sense to separate your audience or is somebody browsing social media likely to be interested in more than one of your projects?
Risk also plays a factor with social media. Three times our Machination Facebook page was taken down by Facebook, likely because “machination” is related to conspiracy and Facebook doesn’t tolerate such talk. Images from our films have also been removed by Instagram and Facebook. So when you are building an audience on social media, you have to remember it is not you who owns that audience. At any point, the Facebook and Instagram algorithms can swoop in and limit your reach or wipe you out completely. So consider the project, consider the audience, and decide is it worth building and maintaining separate social media accounts, or is one central account enough?
But no matter if it is websites or social media accounts, it all comes down to knowing your target audience and what will best serve them. Will they be interested in more of your work? Then maybe a central website or social media page will do. Or is the project so unique and the niche so big that a new website makes the most sense? Make these honest assessments at the start of each project and you’ll know whether or not to launch that website builder.
Written by Sarah Jayne