The SAW 3D website (2010)
The website can be found here: http://saw3dmovie.com/
The official site of SAW 3D is dynamic. This means that the site is more interactive than a normal ‘HTML’ site. For example, when you rollover a particular part of the site, you may cause an animation to start running or sound to begin playing. Dynamic sites are usually referred to as Flash sites because you require Adobe Flash player to run them. Websites that are Flash and dynamic generally look better, and look more expensive (mainly due to the fact that a Flash site is more expensive to create). In the SAW 3D site, if click on the spiral button in the middle it causes the rest of the website to shatter and fly towards the screen. This then reveals the trailer, which is definitely more entertaining than finding it embedded on a boring web-page. The menu does not have to take up a large amount of the homepage either because the Flash allows you to scroll along the bottom part of the website to ‘reveal’ the content. When you hover over the ‘video’ link it changes to ‘watch now’ as does the ‘photo’ section changing to ‘view gallery’. This is then providing additional information without having to display it all on the homepage – only when you require it. The users of the SAW3D site will find the interactive parts of the website fun and hopefully therefore memorable. The creators of the site want you to remember the site to then remember the film.
The website relies on iconographic SAW images like the red and white spiral usually seen on the Jigsaw Puppet’s cheeks. The whole website is based around a big, extended bear trap that looks incredibly cool but also scary. SAW is renown for it’s inventive traps of human torture, so having a trap on the website ties the website in with the film. The black and silver give the website a dark and creepy look and the little amount of red connotates danger and blood. Black and red are typically used in horror websites, so the Saw website is no exception.
A typical official website will have a single main image and the rest of the site worked around it. In the case of the SAW 3D website, the main image is of a huge bear trap. The spikes and cogs around the edge of the trap are very intimidating and frightening, so this works well with the film being a horror.
The main idea behind a film website is of course to advertise the film, just like with the film trailer. So, the website offers information such as when the film is to be released (in the case of the Saw site, the film is currently in the cinema and the website displays ‘The Final Chapter Now Playing’), or when it’s available on DVD once it has been released.
Film websites go ‘hand in hand’ with the trailer. The trailer offers only the best bits of the film, while the website can offer additional material, information and a place to actually see the trailer. The Saw website has an ‘about’ page which of course will give an in depth synopsis of the film and sometimes film websites offer additional character biography (The Spirit website did this). Saw 3D also offers a page on ‘videos’ which usually includes trailers, teaser trailers and interviews, a page on ‘photos’ which commonly include stills, film posters and photos of the filming process.
Offering bonus material is something that official websites often do. This can be anything from screensavers to desktop background. Fans particularly enjoy bonus material because they can customise things with the film they love. Plus, the desktop backgrounds often display the release date of the film which the user can then see every time they visit their desktop. On the Saw 3D website, they offer ‘downloads’ which is a similar thing; you can download bonus material.
The Saw website is linked with Facebook, a huge social networking site, to attract more people to the site. When you ‘like’ the site, your friends can see this and therefore may wish to also ‘like’ and follow the site. As you can see, this creates a chain that can attract many people. Many other websites are adopting this idea because of it’s good ability to attract people to their websites.
Overall, the SAW website is cool, modern and expensive looking. The extra material (which there is a lot of) makes the user want to see the film a lot more. What I particularly like is the comment section which allows the audience to post pre-release excitement comments. The SAW 3D website is trying to get many people involved to help spread the word about the release.
The website relies on iconographic SAW images like the red and white spiral usually seen on the Jigsaw Puppet’s cheeks. The whole website is based around a big, extended bear trap that looks incredibly cool but also scary. SAW is renown for it’s inventive traps of human torture, so having a trap on the website ties the website in with the film. The black and silver give the website a dark and creepy look and the little amount of red connotates danger and blood. Black and red are typically used in horror websites, so the Saw website is no exception.
A typical official website will have a single main image and the rest of the site worked around it. In the case of the SAW 3D website, the main image is of a huge bear trap. The spikes and cogs around the edge of the trap are very intimidating and frightening, so this works well with the film being a horror.
The main idea behind a film website is of course to advertise the film, just like with the film trailer. So, the website offers information such as when the film is to be released (in the case of the Saw site, the film is currently in the cinema and the website displays ‘The Final Chapter Now Playing’), or when it’s available on DVD once it has been released.
Film websites go ‘hand in hand’ with the trailer. The trailer offers only the best bits of the film, while the website can offer additional material, information and a place to actually see the trailer. The Saw website has an ‘about’ page which of course will give an in depth synopsis of the film and sometimes film websites offer additional character biography (The Spirit website did this). Saw 3D also offers a page on ‘videos’ which usually includes trailers, teaser trailers and interviews, a page on ‘photos’ which commonly include stills, film posters and photos of the filming process.
Offering bonus material is something that official websites often do. This can be anything from screensavers to desktop background. Fans particularly enjoy bonus material because they can customise things with the film they love. Plus, the desktop backgrounds often display the release date of the film which the user can then see every time they visit their desktop. On the Saw 3D website, they offer ‘downloads’ which is a similar thing; you can download bonus material.
The Saw website is linked with Facebook, a huge social networking site, to attract more people to the site. When you ‘like’ the site, your friends can see this and therefore may wish to also ‘like’ and follow the site. As you can see, this creates a chain that can attract many people. Many other websites are adopting this idea because of it’s good ability to attract people to their websites.
Overall, the SAW website is cool, modern and expensive looking. The extra material (which there is a lot of) makes the user want to see the film a lot more. What I particularly like is the comment section which allows the audience to post pre-release excitement comments. The SAW 3D website is trying to get many people involved to help spread the word about the release.
THANKS KATIE O! Great Analysis. Please make sure that your crop your images fully. Again, check your spelling throughout! This is a good analysis of the website though and your use of semiotic terms is positive.
ReplyDeleteconversion funnel