How the Site was Created
Based on a piece of film:
As a filmmaker, I wanted my website to stem from a simple piece of film. I wanted everything to happen inside that piece of film.
Why didn't I just take a ready-made template? There are hundreds of website templates available online.
The problem with template based websites is that although they are quick to get content online, they may not be designed to suit our own particular and peculiar requirements. I was certain that my ideas were specific and that I needed a special presentation and particular website tools. So it was difficult for me to be satisfied with readymade templates.
This site is the result of a collaboration with Mark Page, a computer programme engineer who is the architect of this website and the man I brought my ideas and concepts to when I wanted to build the site.
The Concept and Inception:
I wanted a website that would have the basic skeleton ready for any kind of development. A site that could evolve into any direction and have the capacity to encompass the contemporary trends important to filmmaking in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific. The site had to reflect my profession as a filmmaker in the way it looked. It's contents had to relate to the business of filmmaking and to the cultural dimension within which my own films are made.
The Preparation:
When I started talking to Mark, it became clear what the basic things I needed for the site were, including the site's main conceptual content - the main purpose and it's message. These were issues that I had to be clear about and resolve prior to engaging the help of the computer design programmer. So a lot of writing and planning of concepts on paper was needed beforehand. These I presented to Mark during the initial discussions.
The Artistic Design:
I laid out the design of my site, and visualised its layers and hierarchy of categories and ideas and I briefed Mark about that before he wrote the programme that would govern the whole concept. I chose twelve sprocket holes so that visually, the site would split into three thirds vertically and three thirds horizontally. The rest was to evolve within those dimensions.
A Tribute to Darkness:
The background of the site is all black - paying tribute to the time of my ancestors and the darkness which framed the imagination of the cultural heritage that I have inherited. From that darkness came our myths of origin, from the darkness came the flames of the fires around which many stories were told in our great oral tradition. From the purest darkness come the pure senses of creation. Only from the night comes a new day.
In Classical Art:
The master Italian painter Caravaggio invented "tenebrism" - the use of contrasts of light and darkness to create dramatic effect. Tenebrism itself is based on darkness in the background providing the relief for dramatic scenes to be presented. Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio died in 1610, but his iinfluence on classical art and painting lives on to this day and still provides the basis for cinematographic thought.
In Cinematography:
If you treat your black colours well, you will have a good image.
Armed with a very basic idea, I approached Mark the computer architect and based on that, this site has taken its life. This is only the beginning.