I chose to evaluate the Italian website for the movie Warm Bodies. (http://www.warmbodies.it/)

The site’s color scheme consists of mostly red background and elements, with black and white accents (primarily the text and some paint smears and painted-stencil style hearts), which also shows up in the photo elements. The clothes the characters are wearing stick with a red, grey, and dull brown scheme – the only major violations of that here are the male lead’s blue jeans (though they are dull enough to not be noticeably outside the scheme), the female lead’s blonde hair (also blends in well), and the daisies being presented in the photo at the end of the page. The primarily red scheme suits the movie excellently, as red elicits thoughts and feelings of both passion and love [Principles, ch.2], relevant as this is a romantic-comedy type of movie, and the adrenaline of a horror/action setting[Principles, ch.2], particularly the zombie outbreak setting of the movie. I also like how the yellow daisies stand out from the color scheme, as yellow is associated with both happiness and energy/activity [Principles, ch.2] – the happy/lively feeling this gives off is a great way to contrast the romantic-comedy story against the hoards of undead that surround it.

The background has a hard texture to define – it seems kind of paper-y in my opinion, with the folds you can see on it in some places. Then, there are a lot of paint effects in red and white – mostly some basic smears of paint with text and images set on them. I really enjoyed the painted-stencil style hearts with the pain drips as a fairly direct but still stylishly subtle, non-overpowering indication of the love theme. The movie title is large and centered at the top, which has a nice feel because the large image of the male lead is also centered right below it, so it flows down well. The other text and elements are placed on the page in relation to this central image of the lead and mostly alternate from being on one side of him to the other, with the exception of the Gallery, which is centered right over his legs. Again, this creates a good smooth flow. After using Google Translate on the non-title text (so, not Galleria, Il Cast, Il Film, or others that were clearly sections or content terms), I found that “l’amore prende vita” translates to “love comes to life” and “l’eternitá éun attimo” translates to “forever and a moment” – I love the use of these little phrases in the page, because they are so relevant to the zombie love story theme. The font choice also goes along with the painted-stencil theme. I appreciate that choice, because it has a good kind of grunge-y feeling that fits well with the zombie outbreak setting. Speaking of zombies, one particular lineup of zombies is used, each time with a red color effect, 5 times throughout the page – the header background, the full lineup pictured on the background behind the male lead’s legs, and the three backgrounds of the cast name cards in the bottom section. I really feel it would have been better to only use the image behind the lead’s legs, because the positioning kind of gives this manufactured perspective that makes it seem like maybe the lead has stepped out of line of the other, mindless zombies, emerged from the pack, and regained his mind and individuality (a primary plot in the movie), a perspective and implied meaning that is helped by the other zombies’ red coloration, causing them to blend in to the background, as opposed to the lead’s full coloration, which makes him stand out very much. I’m not really a fan of the image’s use in the header and name card backgrounds – it kind of feels like overdoing the use of one image, and I think the designers could have found alternatives that were at least as good if not better. Even just using more paint smears for the name cards would have worked fine. Below the lead’s feet, there is a thick red line which creates a new, distinct section of the page for the photo of the leads together, another heart, a repetition of “l’eternitá éun attimo,” and the cast name cards. I enjoy that they created a new section at the bottom that has a full scene feeling to it, showing the two leads together in a semi-romantic position for the first time on the page. The cast section could have been offset from the main image of the male lead, in my opinion, to kind of go along with all the other informational sections. But, even if they would have fit up there with the other content, that would cause the need to fill that side of the lower section with something else, because I definitely like the current positioning of the leads and the heart, and it would feel unbalanced with the other side totally blank.

I have a few comments from a single-page site standpoint. I like that there is a stationary (in that it stays with you as you scroll, on the top, side, and bottom of your browser window) header, sidebar of social media options, and footer. If a visitor doesn’t feel like scrolling through the page, the header has links to jump to each section of the page. I must say, other than the cursor change upon hovering, it is a little difficult to tell which text throughout the page is a link and which is just text, but that is also affected by the fact that the page is in Italian, in which I am not fluent. Also, the text elements – some of them, at least, move independently from th images as you scroll. So, if you watch the text when you scroll, you will see it move up or down in relation tot he image. I found it easiest to see this with the title and the text, “dai produttori di Twilight” moving in relation to the male lead’s head. It doesn’t necessarily bother me, but it is noticeable. I also noticed that if the browser window width is changed, most of the elements will shift over appropriately, but at a certain point in shrinking the window width, the far sides will be cut off and and can’t be revealed again through side-scrolling. It is a flaw that would probably not be noticed by many, but come to my attention while trying to fit the webpage and the Word document I’m typing in side-by-side on my screen. As mentioned before, I like the way they chose to lay out the page and the way it all flows nicely along with and around the central image.

The site has some technical flaws – small and barely noticeable – but ultimately I enjoy it for its design. The colors and textures (red, white, black, grunge-y paint), as well as the content choices (hearts, daisies, male lead seeming to step out of the zombie crowd) capture the themes and feel of the movie excellently, and the single-page design works beautifully.