Hi folks. At Micro Musicals we've put up our first web site to advertise forthcoming production of "Summer Holiday". It's not intended as a full society web-site (although that might come later) but it's enough for the time being, we hope.

Any comments to ... prandeamus@btinternet.com or, of course, post here.

Cheers
Rob Burbidge

D'oh

It's at www.micromusicals.co.uk. It's late. I've been watching 40 kids in Toad of Toad Hall in a hot village hall with no air conditioning. Don't ask.

Burb

Great site, clear and concise (and on black, which i like )

If i was being picky my only criticism would be that the flash intro is a bit slow, but then im one of these people that always skip past intros


xx

Looks good

A nice little site Burb - and just to be contrary with Pamela - I like the flash animation

Excellant!

I like the Flash too, which is unusual for me! I love it and would love somethonmg similar until we can get our main site up and running


Di
x

Thanks for the comments so far, folks.

I'll see about improving the loader for folks who have broadband and don't like loaders. I think it always runs through at least once before switching to the main "curtains" screen. I could add a skip into button which is a fair compromise.

mrsostrich: My rates are reasonable!!! Buy a few tickets and I might be persuaded to offer a discount....

Burb

Yes, it's a good flash thingummy but, like PJ, I tend to click through these things. Can I suggest you add in a postcode for the Arts Centre? Either that or a map? If you add a postcode people can search on Multimap/Google/some other map site.

Very good.

Yup I like it too. The flash works fine as it is more of a one or two visits site. If you needed to access the site constantly like amdram.co.uk then it could become tedious.

Black is good too!

One thing that would help is a link from the email address so that it open your email program (e.g. Outlook) directly. I'm just too lazy to cut and paste I guess. Failing that a contact page with a form to fill in is always nice.

Burb - I'm not a fan of flash pages and I almost gave up as the curtains were so slow to open. I liked the bus graphic, though, and I thought everything else was user friendly. Nice idea - just needs to run through a bit quicker.

Monkeehanger - As you posted a link to your group's site, I took a look at that too, out of interest. Did you know you are still talking about your December 2004 panto as coming soon, together with the auditions for a May 2005 production that is now history?

Believe me, I know how hard it is to keep these things up to date, but if you are going to have a website, then maintaining it is vital.

very nice - it does what it says n the tine!

Yup I do, and trust me it is in hand.

Unfortunately (well for the website anyway), I have recently moved to Belgium and the last thing on my mind has been updating the website.

Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll get chance to get up to date with things.

Thanks all the same though for taking a look.

Hilary - you said the intro was really slow esp. the curtains opening. I have 3 pcs in my house and two of them are fine with that bit and one is very slow, but then it is a Pentium 2 400MHz and the others are generally Pentium 4's or similar. Can you take a close look for me and tell me if it's the fades that are slow, or the curtain movement, or both?

I think the problem is that slower pc's just can't do alpha blending (i.e. semitransparent overlays) fast in flash.

Sorry to be a pain, but I'd value the feedback.

Everyone seems to want email buttons so I will have a go at that too.

I took another look and timed it. It was a full 45 secs between the curtains appearing above the audience silhouette to the text appearing between the open curtains. The curtains themselves took around 18 seconds to open from first movement to last. The rest of the time was taken by the fades, which appeared to be distinct steps rather than a seamless process.

Just for the record, I am using a Mac with an ethernet connection through a central server. I've tried using both IE and Safari as the browser and it makes no difference to the speed. I don't know if it's connected, but the bus driver seems to have a bit of clutch trouble, as the bus arrives in a rather jerky fashion rather than rolling smoothly onto the stage. But the banners that scroll in from left to right are fine.

Curiouser and Curiouser

The curtains should *open* in under 2 secs. Problem is, I don't know much about Macs and flash.

Oh well, I will keep my eyes and ears open and optimise it again if I get the chance.

Thanks for your help anyway

That is a nice different website.

I am not fussed about the short delay before curtain up. A bit like most amdram shows in my experience

I would have loved to come anyway, it's a show I want to see, but unfortunately it's the week before our own production, which is in Wolverhampton, so I'll be mega-busy that week.

Hope it goes well though
Di
x

Hrmmmm. Are you saying we start late???

Our first show had the opposite problem. On opening night the band struck up on the dot of 730pm and the curtains opened shortly after even though late comers were finding their seats... the health & saety rep from the theatre was a bit put out.

Yes, boys and girls, always check with your front-of-house staff before you start singing.