Celebrating its 14th edition in 2021, Perspectives Film Festival is Singapore’s first and longest-running student-led film festival. Showcasing an eclectic mix of cinematic breakthroughs from around the world, 2021's virtual edition presented 9 films that took bold risks, challenging and expanding the limits of cinema. Organised by undergraduates from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), this festival is part of a practicum conducted by the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information (WKWSCI).
The fourteenth edition of Perspectives Film Festival: Breakthroughs in Cinema presents: WHAT THE __?! Whether uttered in hushed tones or shouted at the top of our lungs, cinema at its most daring and audacious resists categorisation, dancing along the fine line of the comprehensible and the eccentric, revealing and revelling in the grimy underbelly of existence. And if the films so much as elicit a bewildered scratch on your head, or spawn a spirited conversation, you are—at the very least—forced to fill in the blanks.
As the Design Executive of PFF21, I was tasked with brainstorming and conceptualising the overall design theme of this year's festival, as well as to revamp its official website (which includes details of the films being showcased, events, blog articles, merchandise and also serves as a ticketing portal).
With the overall theme of 'What The__?!' representing quirky, other-worldly, out-of-the-box stories which are albeit carefully crafted nonetheless, I conceptualised the idea of combining the structure and method of science with the creativity and chaos that these films provide. As a result, we came up with the main element of a 'Mad Scientist' concocting up a new 'chemical' (or film), using film motifs. Our artistic style was inspired by the Dadaism movement, a movement in art and literature based on deliberate irrationality and negation of traditional artistic values.
Upon fixing on our elements and creating a style guide, I then started working on the prototypes for the official website according to the new theme.
02
Design Concept
Once the style guide was created, I began revamping the official website. In comparison to the 2020 version, the changes I incorporated were:
1. In the Landing Page, the 'Get Tickets' call to action button was moved to the centre of the Banner in comparison to the corner, so that it is better visible to the users, and it is the first thing the users see when they visit the page, in order to increase ticket sales.
2. In the previous year's website, all the menu items on the top navigation bar (such as Films, Events or Blog) redirected to different sections on the landing page itself. This year, different pages for each of the different components of the festival (such as Blog, Events, Films and Merchandise) were created, so that more information could be provided to users. It also eliminated the confusion that came with clicking on a button and being redirected to the same page instead of a different one.
3. In the previous version, there was only one colour (black) which was used for each and every individual page of the website. As a result, there was no variation and the look and feel of every individual page on the website was the same. This year, using the colour palette according to our theme, we have managed to create slight variation between the pages, whilst also maintaining and a clean and user-friendly interface.
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