Jesse Media, a film-first site for a Calgary cinematographer
Jesse Rostotski shoots brand, athlete, wedding and architecture films from Calgary. Meridian15 designed and built his website so the films come first, the filmmaker comes second and a project enquiry is always one step away.
A body of films that has to be watched
Jesse Media is the studio of Jesse Rostotski, a cinematographer based in Calgary. He shoots brand and commercial films, athletes, weddings, architecture and editorial portraits, and the work makes its case once someone presses play.
The brief was a website that showcases the films, explains the kinds of work he takes on and gives a prospective client a clear way to enquire about a shoot.
Put the films first and keep the viewer on the page
The films lead. The homepage moves through a numbered list of selected work, a reel and the five kinds of shoot, so a visitor has seen what Jesse makes before reading what he offers.
A scroll-controlled 3D camera opens the site and carries the visitor into the film showcase. A persistent viewing frame lets them move from project to project without leaving the page, and the camera language runs through the details, from the REC slate to the timecode.
The enquiry asks for what a shoot needs. The form takes a project type, from brand work to weddings to spaces, and a project details field that asks what is being made, where and when. Jesse gets a usable brief from the first message.
Films before words
Selected work and the reel come before the services and the profile.
One viewing frame
Visitors move between films inside one frame, without leaving the page.
A brief from the first message
Project type plus what, where and when, so the first reply can be about the shoot.
One page, from the opening to the enquiry
jessemedia.ca was designed and built by Meridian15, as plain HTML generated with Astro and served by Netlify, with the films played from files hosted with the site. One long page carries the 3D opening, the selected films, the reel, the services, the filmmaker profile and the enquiry form.
Launch creative was made to announce the new site and point people to it.
What we delivered
Design and build of jessemedia.ca, one page from the 3D opening to the enquiry form.
A scroll-controlled WebGL camera and a persistent film frame.
Name, email, project type and a details field that asks what, where and when.
A vertical announcement pointing people to the new site.
The work, where it lives
The site is live at jessemedia.ca, and its frames run as the Jesse Media row on our portfolio. How the studio builds sites like it is on the web design page, and what a filmmaker’s site needs is on the videographer website design page.
One scope note. This case study describes the work. It reports no traffic or enquiry figures. Facts about Jesse’s work come from his own site.
Creatives and studios
Work that needs watching?
Tell us what you make and who hires you. We will show you how a site can put the work first and still bring in the brief.
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