Website Re-launch
Welcome to the re-launch of Accursed Farms. The first thing I want to emphasize is that very little, if anything, on this site should be considered to be in a final state. As of right now, this site should be considered in an alpha or beta state. The old site kept getting hacked, so it was important to get a new version up as soon as possible that still gave people access to the movies. This one is based on Wordpress and will have multiple web programmers and designers having access to it, so the site’s ability to function will hopefully not rest in the hands of just one person like before. There will be some immediate benefits of drawbacks of this site over the old version, though I think over time it will be purely a beneficial thing. Here are some of the immediate changes below:
MOVIE LINKS: Unfortunately, due to a new system, the old movie page links are all no longer valid. I apologize for the broken links this will cause, but the good news is the new naming scheme will be a little more intuitive and not contain just a seemingly random number.
USER COMMENTS: The good news is all your old user comments made on the old site have been transferred onto the new site. Also now when you log in to comment, you will STAY logged if you choose. The bad news is you may have to re-register your name. The other bad news is I’m no longer allowing anonymous comments. When I initially created the videos, I was happy for all input since my viewerbase was so low. Ever since about last year however, the situation has degenerated more towards chaos, so I’d like a little more accountability as to what people are writing. I’m not trying to discourage dissent or criticism about the videos, just people acting like jackasses. For the majority of you to whom this probably doesn’t apply, my apologies for the extra inconvenience. If you don’t want to register on the site, but have something you want to say, you can always email me.
LAYOUT / GRAPHIC DESIGN: The design of this site is absolutely in a temporary state and will certainly undergo changes over time. If you’re a graphics or web designer, feel free to contact me if you have proposals as to how site should look or how the layout should function. You can send me mock-up pictures showing how you think the site could look better or be more intuitive to navigate. In general, I want a dark, but clearly readable theme, plus I have some graphics I created for the Accursed Farms logo that might help accentuate parts of the site. You can find a few of the graphics to work with here . I can’t promise I’ll use your design, but if I like it, or elements from it, we’ll work towards implementing it into the site and give you credit for your work. Also if you have any ideas on how to make the FAQ more readable and navigable in particular, let me know.
NOESIS TUTORIALS: As some of you may know, I was contracted by Noesis a while back to create tutorials for how to make machinima in the Source engine called the Source Machinima Choreography Guide and the Source Machinima Cinematography Guide. Recently however, Noesis is changing their business model so that they won’t be selling conventional tutorials like they did before as they want to avoid piracy of the guides. Thus, the old links I had on the site are no longer valid. Their plans are to start posting ALL of their tutorials on design3.com with unlimited access for a subscription fee instead. I’ve been told my guides will be appearing there at some point in the future and there may still be some DVD copies on Amazon.com
FUTURE CHANGES: In the future, I hope to implement many more features. While I’m offering no dates as to when these will happen, here are some things you can hopefully expect in time:
-An official forum dedicated to the videos and misc. related topics
-An “extras” page which will contain some audio outtakes, alternate camera shots for some scenes, scripts, etc.
-A twitter posting with boring and dry updates about what’s going on with production from a technical standpoint
-A better looking design (hopefully)
-All the videos available in more formats besides WMV
-Many more subtitles for existing videos
CREDITS: All I did was manage the development of this site, the real work was all done by other people who I’d like to recognize:
WALT SNIDER - Programmed the back-end code of this site and is responsible for importing all the old news posts and comments and is handling the security of the site now. You can check out his homepages at WaltSnider.com and JobWellDumb.com and korenewmedia.com.
RICH SMITH - Assisted Walt with converting over the old database and all the comments. His homepage is at CodeLizard.com
ZACHARY REIDELL - Created the front-end work for the site you see right now and got a lot of the functions working, like all the movie pages. He was able to get this page constructed very quickly. You can check out his homepage at http://zchr.org/.
”VLAD” - Was also working on the front-end work with a more complicated, but ran into health problems that set him back. I was worried he was going to keel over dead. You can see his homepage at orangestonephotography.com
JERRY BRAMSTÅNG - Has done a lot of minor feature and repair work in the background on the old site for a long time and has generally been the guy I turn to in emergency website problems.
PRESTON JOHNSON - Has helped me for a long time and almost created the original site and almost created this site, but has had setbacks both times. I think he might be a secret agent, I don’t know.
MIKE SOUTHWORTH - Created the previous website of Accursed Farms and has since moved on the greener pastures.
ANDREW THEIS - Is the current host for the site. You can check out his homepage at andrewtheis.net.
Also “Will” for creating the favicon and everyone else who’s offered me help on the website so far.
In the meantime, my main focus still remains to get more videos out, so that’s what I’ll be working on. -Ross Scott
