Film Site vs. Filmmaker Site

Here's the fork you hit the moment you decide to build a website: is it a site for the film — everything about this one specific movie — or a site for you the filmmaker, with this film featured on it? It's the same decision as the single-film-account vs. filmmaker-account choice in social media, and it has the same answer for most people: a filmmaker website usually beats a single-film website, because it's durable. A single-film site does its job during that film's release and then becomes a fossil — frozen, outdated, going nowhere, and useless for your next project. A filmmaker site, built around you, carries your whole career: this film is featured now, the next one later, and the site (and its SEO, its audience, its email list) compounds over years instead of resetting with each project. That said, there are real cases for a dedicated film site too, so let me lay out the choice clearly.

The two approaches

What each kind of site is and when it fits:

• Single-film website. A site devoted entirely to one film — its trailer, story, cast, press, screenings. Focused and immersive, but it expires when the film's moment passes and doesn't serve your next project.
• Filmmaker website. A site built around you and your body of work, with each film featured within it. Durable, compounds over your career, and becomes the permanent home your audience follows.
• The hybrid. A filmmaker site as your home base, with a dedicated page (or micro-section) for each film — you get the durability of a filmmaker site and the focus of a film page. Often the best of both.
• When a dedicated film site makes sense. A film with a huge, distinct brand identity, a major campaign, or specific needs may warrant its own site — but for most indie filmmakers, that's the exception, not the default.

Choosing the durable path

My strong default recommendation, and the one this course is built around, is a filmmaker website as your home base, with a dedicated page for each film. This hybrid gives you everything: the film gets its own focused space (its trailer, story, and press all in one place, which is what you'd point people to during a release), while the overall site is durable and yours, growing with your career rather than dying with one project. The reasoning is the same as the social-account chapter's: a single-film asset expires, and starting over from zero with every project is a waste of the audience, SEO authority, and credibility you build. When you keep one filmmaker home base, each film launches from the presence the last one earned — your domain has age and authority in search, your email list is already there, and returning visitors already know you. That compounding is exactly what a career needs, and it's exactly what a series of disconnected single-film sites throws away. A few practical notes to make the decision cleanly. First, think about your domain: a filmmaker site is usually best on your own name (or your production company's name), which is durable and personal, whereas a film-specific domain becomes dead weight after the release. If you already bought a film-specific domain for a campaign, you can point it at the film's page on your main site — you don't have to waste it, but it shouldn't be your whole presence. Second, consider your stage: if you're building a body of work and a career (which is most filmmakers reading this), the filmmaker site is clearly right; if you're a one-project entity with no plans beyond it, a dedicated film site is more defensible — but be honest about whether that's really you. Third, the film page can be rich: choosing a filmmaker site doesn't mean shortchanging the film — its dedicated page or section can be as immersive and complete as a standalone site would have been, just housed inside your durable home. So resolve this early, because it shapes everything you build next: choose the filmmaker home base with per-film pages unless you have a specific, strong reason not to, register it on your own durable name, and let each film live richly within it while the site itself grows across your whole career. With that decided, the next chapter gets concrete about what your website actually needs to do.