Film Victoria

Film Victoria is a much-respected organisation in Australia providing strategic leadership, funding and assistance to the film, television, game and digital media production industries in Victoria. 

When engaging Thirst Studios, Film Victoria had a clear strategic goal in mind – to promote Victoria as a world-class destination for film production on a global stage, by improving the level of services and online experience.

On a tactical level, the challenge presented was a consolidation of eight existing and divergent web properties into one unified experience that would be easier to maintain and provide a seamless, simple, personalised user experience for their visitors.

Of equal import, Film Victoria’s services and funding are vital in supporting the industry, however their online offering required a significant rethink of the way information was presented to users.

Key to our approach was ensuring the correct funding program information could be easily found. We needed an understanding how industry stakeholders understood the division of funding between media types (Film, TV, Games etc.), the types of projects (Fiction, Documentary etc.) and project phases (Development, Production).

Through contextual research with stakeholders, workshops, interviews, surveys and card-sorting activities, we were able to prioritise current needs, and ensure the approach remained flexible to adapt to future needs of the industry. 

The information architecture (IA) of the current offerings made it difficult to access information needed. The user journey of sourcing filming locations, searching for local talent, finding local production facilities and exploring current projects in productions required the user traversing 4 different websites, with no clear connectivity between them. 

It was crucial that the IA structure of the combined websites was designed to support key user journeys, and tested to ensure primary tasks could be easily completed.

Our primary solution focussed on understanding user’s needs, and consolidating their experiences. We were able to create a single responsive website that answered to the key user tasks, concentrating on priority tasks like grant applications where needed, within an overarching and simplified site architecture. 

Through the use of this single site, Victorian screen industry professionals can seamlessly apply for funding, find support for their projects and explore the wealth of screen industry talent the state offers. International stakeholders can explore the world-standard filming locations and facilities and the fantastic productions supported by Victoria.