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An Indie Movie Website That Gets it Right

Scott Kirsner praises and offers constructive criticism on the website for the movie Herb and Dorothy:

Some of the things I like:

- Prominent info about where/when I can see the movie (I missed it at Silverdocs and the Indep. Film Festival of Boston)
- A way to sign up for an e-mail list on the site's homepage, to stay apprised about screenings, DVD release, etc.
- Film has a presence on Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr (where they've posted photos of some of the famous artists who are in the film)
- Production notes, crew bios, and lots of background is online

A few things they could do better:

- The trailer isn't embeddable, so visitors can't put it on their own sites or blogs. (You can, though, go to YouTube and find an embeddable version -- see below.)
- There are a few clips from the movie on YouTube, along with the trailer. But in each clip at the end, they should include the film's title and URL. The URL and film title should also be included in the "info box" about each clip (in upper-right-hand corner of the screen)
- It's a great idea to post stills on Flickr, but in the comments for each photo it should mention that the pic is from the movie "Herb and Dorothy," and provide the site's URL
- They should have some hi-res images (poster, stills) available for download from the site.

--CinemaTech: Doing It Right: Web Site for "Herb and Dorothy"

About J. Ott

John Ott is a writer, filmmaker and futurist. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.