From The Editor – The NEW LOOK Fernby Films

Hi folks!

Well, if you’re a regular reader of our website, you’ll notice a massive change has occurred. Yes, after many years with the same look, we’ve revamped our site with a brand new theme. We believe it looks great! If you’re new to our site, and visiting for the first time, then welcome! Stick around, have a read, tell us what you like or don’t like!

If you were around back in 2007, you’ll know the web wasn’t the same then as it is now. In particular, themes for websites weren’t quite as…. well, complex and intuitive as they are today, and our choice for theme for this website was made purely out of a choice to give the reader a full screen worth of text and imagery to enjoy. From a design perspective, it was enough to make one’s eyes bleed. Knowing now what I didn’t then, I’d probably never have chosen the old “Rubric” theme – but it’s served us well here for the last 8 years!

In saying that, the inadequacy of the previous theme – we had issues with tablet and mobile device compatibility, and making the site intuitive was exceptionally problematic, to say the least! – coupled with the impending 1,000th review being published made the decision to upgrade our look (give it a freshening up, as it were) a bit easier. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that we had a logo redesign that flowed through the site completely.

In constructing this new site, we’ve also debuted our new logo, which really isn’t that much different conceptually from the previous one, albeit with some angularity to it. Our “tickets” logo graphic is now gone, replaced with a “film reel” logo that you’ll start to see appearing on all our imagery going forward. The new logo design will kick into our reviews as we hit #1000 (sometime around June 2nd), but you’ll start to see it crop up on different pages and things sooner than that. Some of our extra pages and things have vanished into the ether (plans to return them depend on my interest level in the months to come) but our core product – film reviews and opinion pieces – remain at the forefront.

[Edit: Please note, we’ve also improved our mobile version, allowing easier access to our latest posts, most popular categories, and important pages. Tablet viewers will still see the desktop theme, but iPhone and Android mobile phone will display our compressed site version. Do make sure you save us on your homescreen for instant reference!]

The thinking behind our color scheme has always been about being a top quality site to read, not only from a content perspective but also a viewing experience. Our “Blue Ribbon” design, which debuted in 2013, remains in a slightly modified context, and you’ll note we’ve given the PC viewing platform a consistently blue-hued style. Viewers on mobile devices may not notice this. Blue is naturally a calming colour, and we want reading our stuff to be a soothing, enjoyable experience. Instead of garish colors, or a large white screen filled with writing, the site is designed to be as pleasing to the eye as possible, so we hope you like it. It was either this or hot pink.

Naturally, we couldn’t have achieved all this without the technical expertise of our web administrator Michael Kubler, who has been with us since our inception. Not only that, but recent Fernby Films associate Flik Schemmer has provided numerous ideas and conceptual brainstorming to assist this revamp’s development. We thank them both for all their work here, and for their continued efforts in assisting to make Fernby Films a high quality site to visit for film reviews.

Now, as mentioned, we’re fast approaching our 1000th review (it’s one of 2015’s biggest films, rest assured) and from there, the sky is the limit. We have more FERNcasts in the works, and we’re hard at work on another sit-down video review, so look out for them to come along as the year continues.

Basically, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be back checking us out every single day. Get on it, people.

Rodney T – EIC, Fernby Films

Who wrote this?

Rodney Twelftree

“Some people say I like films. Those people are wrong. I *love* films.” – Me. I said this.

Rodney has been writing about films for well over two decades, appreciates a good wine, the love of his wife and kids, and the affection of his dog and cats. He has a fondness of cheesy 90’s action and classic Hollywood, hates that physical media is disappearing, and wishes somebody would make a high-budget series of The Neverending Story.

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