There are a growing number of website templates that feature the ability to display video in the website header. WordPress Twenty Seventeen is one such theme. I have recently completed setting this feature up for a tarot reader in Sheffield. Twenty Seventeen has a full width video option which is very easy to show with the website title and tagline appearing on top of the video, very nice! The theme suggests to “Upload your video in .mp4 format and minimize its file size for best results. Your theme recommends dimensions of 2000 × 1200 pixels.” But it works beautifully with 1920 x 1080 pixels.

A Short Silent Story

The way that a film works best is if it is telling a story and the story here was a simple tarot reading. A reading starts with shuffling cards, then placing the cards into a spread, reading and interpreting them one by one until the end of the alloted time.  So I created a moody atmosphere with mainly close ups and shallow depth of field. The background needed to be dark with a soft focus so the website title and caption would stand out. I filmed half a dozen shots to make a 30 second video loop.

In the edit I turned off the colour and made it stark black and white. This allows for a much smaller video file to be created whilst still having HD 1920 x 1080. The final footage was amazingly less than 8MB and took very little time to load in a web browser. This is also helped by the exclusion of sound in the video clip. The theme automatically adds a Pause/Play button in the top right of the video.

To see the final product visit www.dianaluke.co.uk or have a look at the video below.

More Theme Options

The other thing I like about the WordPress theme Twenty Seventeen is the alternative, one-page option which is very easy to set up and is very affective. It has four sections of text which glide over static, full frame parallax images. You can choose either 1 or 2 columns. The latter positions the title at the top of the first empty column while the text is displayed on the right. The parallax effect is created by the “featured image” revealed as the text scrolls over. All in all a stunning theme with fullscreen video option and it comes free with a new installation of WordPress.

Bespoke Website Header Video

If you would like a similar eye catching header video created for your website, designed with style and a look and feel of quality using soft focus Bokeh effect, then please get in touch with me via the form in the contact page.

Thank you.