The website I chose to critique was the website for the documentary series of Samuel Dunn about Heavy Metal Music. He currently has 2 documentaries which is “Metal: A Headbangers Journey” which focuses more on Heavy Metal music’s origins and “Global Metal” is a sequel to his 1st film which now focuses on Heavy Metal cultures spanning outside America and Europe.
I found the website at the credits roll of Sam Dunn’s 1st Documentary. The website is relatively easy to find since it easily comes out when searched in www.google.com. Moreover the name of the website which is www.metalhistory.com could possible cater to anyone who just suddenly types it if their interest in learning about Heavy Metal culture arises.
Introductory Pages
The website’s introductory page loads pretty fast since it only provides two separate links of his documentaries, which have individual logo arts on a black screen.
Since I haven’t seen his 2nd film Global Metal it is what I decided to visit 1st. It takes you immediately to its trailer, which was really interesting as his 1st documentary was well done. The setback however is with the link to the 2nd documentary was the fact that you have no control of the playback of the trailer since it is flash embedded and it requires a pretty high internet connection for the trailer to playback smoothly without constant buffering.
On the other hand the link to his 1st documentary looks more comprehensive due to the fact that the film was already done. There is a small video at the left side showing scenes from his 1st film and it loads pretty fast even for only a 256kbps broadband connection. There is also audio playback that is from the video at the left side, which can be turned off manually.
Page Layouts
Ok I’ll start with the link to the 1st film since it’s already done. The layout sports a red and black color screens which make up much of the texture and design work. The layout is also pretty much standard in which it features the news at 1st visit and references about the film. It also includes the standard navigational tabs on top for other references such as galleries, downloads, links, sitemaps, and of course home. To the right are the testimonials to the film from various magazines and other critic websites giving its praise to Sam’s work. I also noticed parts of the layout resemble that of www.myspace.com probably since this website started out from there until they got their own domain yet the myspace.com site is still intact.
As for the link to the sequel “Global Metal” its pretty much like a movie poster layout, which can actually be printed out except for the tabs found at the top next to the logo of “Global Metal”. It’s actually a promotion of the new film and its obviously going to change once the film has been released.
Site Features
The page of the 1st film features many download and references to the bands covered in the film. In fact it also offers a trivial program under the tab “Metal 101” chosen by the maker himself which is like a syllabus on which metal music one must listen to in order to check if it’s fit for you.
The same practically goes with the sequel’s page except it is less complete and we are due to see changes hopefully when the film is released.
Final Comments
Overall, it has all the necessary information needed for anyone who wants references to the latest developments of the Metal culture. Its only setback will probably be the fact it only caters to a small number of people primarily who studies music or metal heads themselves. The layout is great and just right playing it safe using standard layouts that many professional web sites use. I would however prefer if Sam Dunn gave a little more insight to the metal bands he refers for his seminar since the would be listener is not likely to buy or download the recordings for that matter without knowing more about those bands but other than that. Most of the info is actually on his film more than his web site since the website is merely to promote his real works which are the films.
1 comment:
The website I chose to critique was the website for the documentary series of Samuel Dunn about Heavy Metal Music. He currently has 2 documentaries which is “Metal: A Headbangers Journey” which focuses more on Heavy Metal music’s origins and “Global Metal” is a sequel to his 1st film which now focuses on Heavy Metal cultures spanning outside America and Europe.
I found the website at the credits roll of Sam Dunn’s 1st Documentary. The website is relatively easy to find since it easily comes out when searched in www.google.com. Moreover the name of the website which is www.metalhistory.com could possible cater to anyone who just suddenly types it if their interest in learning about Heavy Metal culture arises.
Introductory Pages
The website’s introductory page loads pretty fast since it only provides two separate links of his documentaries, which have individual logo arts on a black screen.
Since I haven’t seen his 2nd film Global Metal it is what I decided to visit 1st. It takes you immediately to its trailer, which was really interesting as his 1st documentary was well done. The setback however is with the link to the 2nd documentary was the fact that you have no control of the playback of the trailer since it is flash embedded and it requires a pretty high internet connection for the trailer to playback smoothly without constant buffering.
On the other hand the link to his 1st documentary looks more comprehensive due to the fact that the film was already done. There is a small video at the left side showing scenes from his 1st film and it loads pretty fast even for only a 256kbps broadband connection. There is also audio playback that is from the video at the left side, which can be turned off manually.
Page Layouts
Ok I’ll start with the link to the 1st film since it’s already done. The layout sports a red and black color screens which make up much of the texture and design work. The layout is also pretty much standard in which it features the news at 1st visit and references about the film. It also includes the standard navigational tabs on top for other references such as galleries, downloads, links, sitemaps, and of course home. To the right are the testimonials to the film from various magazines and other critic websites giving its praise to Sam’s work. I also noticed parts of the layout resemble that of www.myspace.com probably since this website started out from there until they got their own domain yet the myspace.com site is still intact.
As for the link to the sequel “Global Metal” its pretty much like a movie poster layout, which can actually be printed out except for the tabs found at the top next to the logo of “Global Metal”. It’s actually a promotion of the new film and its obviously going to change once the film has been released.
Site Features
The page of the 1st film features many download and references to the bands covered in the film. In fact it also offers a trivial program under the tab “Metal 101” chosen by the maker himself which is like a syllabus on which metal music one must listen to in order to check if it’s fit for you.
The same practically goes with the sequel’s page except it is less complete and we are due to see changes hopefully when the film is released.
Final Comments
Overall, it has all the necessary information needed for anyone who wants references to the latest developments of the Metal culture. Its only setback will probably be the fact it only caters to a small number of people primarily who studies music or metal heads themselves. The layout is great and just right playing it safe using standard layouts that many professional web sites use. I would however prefer if Sam Dunn gave a little more insight to the metal bands he refers for his seminar since the would be listener is not likely to buy or download the recordings for that matter without knowing more about those bands but other than that. Most of the info is actually on his film more than his web site since the website is merely to promote his real works which are the films.
Overall site rating: 8.5/10
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