Tech, filmmaking, & thoughts.
Free Hosting for filmmakers!
You heard me correctly, I offer free web hosting for filmmakers. If you want a domain for your smaller production company, or a gallery to showcase your reel, or a dedicated site for your upcoming movie release, I would love to help!
I am a filmmaker too (freelance soundman), and I know the importance to having a web presence for networking. Plus websites are just cool to have! I also feel we freelancers and enthusiasts should look out for each other. When you hear about a good gig, you let your buddy know. When somebody is selling their gear, you help spread the word. Same thing applies with me: When you need a website, simply hit me up!
I provide:
-Web hosting space
-FTP users
-Email addresses and forwarding
-DNS hosting
-MySQL databases with phpMyAdmin
-Website stats
-Automated software installation (like wordpress, Joomla, etc…)
You Provide:
-Domain name (Purchase from someone like Network Solutions for about $10.)
-Website content – *See rules below
Rules:
There are some rules to follow to help ensure that our relationship is mutually beneficial:
1. You MUST be a film person and your site needs to be related to your video work.
You can host demo reels, behind the scenes pictures, shooting schedules, production blog, sell DVDs and other merchandise for your movie, etc… It just needs to be film/tv related. I am not interested in pro bono web hosting for affiliate marketing or a social media site that ‘could’ be the next big thing.
2. You create your own website.
I will not design your website for you. I am flattered you think I could do it, but unfortunately I am not a coder or a designer; I am a server administrator. If you need help getting up and running, you may consider using a CMS like WordPress, Joomla, or MediaWiki. They are super easy to install, make the site look good, and come with an large number of plugins or customisation options. I have an automated tool called Installatron on the server. It makes installing as easy as a few mouse clicks. Here are the many applications is can install: http://installatron.com/apps . Feel free to use it (I sure do), it’s great!
3. No self hosted videos
I know you’re going to want to put up your trailer or demo reel, but video files take up huge amounts of disk space. I request that you not put them on your free account. Instead, embed them in your site and host them from Vimeo. It works like Youtube, but better! The quality is superb and think about: Vimeo is a service designed from the ground up for filmmakers. Their servers are specifically built for transcoding, storing, and streaming video.
4. No copyright or trademark infringement; No content prohibited by law
Use common sense. Do you own it or have rights to it? No? Then don’t put it on your site. Does someone have it on their site already? Yes? Then don’t steal it. Link to it. The worst thing I’ve discovered while freelancing is not getting credit or paid.
Also, no content that is prohibited by U.S. law (ie – child pornography). If you do, I will remove it and have to report you.
5. Courtesy Link
Come on, I’m giving you free hosting. The least you can do is give a little courtesy link back to my site. 
Nothing big, it can be simple text at the bottom. Like this guy did: TerryEntertainment.com. (Thanks Danny!)
Ready to start?
If you’re interested, drop me a line. Tell me a little about yourself or your project. Let me know the domain name and I can set you up with an account.
Sincerely,
Boom Shadow / Jacob Tirey
(my email is in the link below, masked with ASCII art to prevent spam harvesters):
http://boomshadow.net/ascii.txt
