site design check

This is an new interface I'm working on for an online filmmaking community I moderate.

The old interface is at this address: Filmmaking-101.com

The new interface I'm working on can be viewed here: newint

Please let me know what you think of it so far, whether it's better than the old one, what improvements could be made, etc. I'm going for a more sleek, technology style look, due to the nature of the content on the site.

Thanks.

definitely better than the first... but thats not the actual size rite?

the site now looks a little dark... mabye a spotlight as a highlight for the content section??

actually, it is the actual size. Do you think it should be a bigger size? I designed it to work in 800 x 600 resolution.

I agree it is kind of dark. What did you mean by spotlight? Like some color on the Site News section?

Thanks for your feedback

yup.. its a little too small ..
the width is only 728... you can go up to 780

spotlight :
u know when someone performs on stage, the spotlight??
example, have some light come from the top left, highlighting the news ??

i would say that goin with a black background isnt such a great idea, it makes it look cheap and i think at most times its important to avoid black backgrounds -- maybe with a dark grey instead it would look a little cleaner...

Yea, you should put a spotlight in the corner, it would fit perfectly for the theme of the site.. I would change the bg to a dark blue since you have the bluish colors goin on.. also the blue shadows look like they have been distorted by the jpg transformation, if that is true, then save at a higher quality..

thanks for all the input! I know what you mean about it being too dark, and about black not being the greatest. The lower quality was just so you could download it quickly, I'll optimize it better when I do the final thing.

About the spotlight, I like the idea but I don't think having it come from the upper left would be so good, because I think it would make everything look cluttered. Maybe from the upper right corner going down onto "Site News"?

I will definitely try using gray or blue for the background. My main thing has been making a border for around everything so I can put any background I want there. I'll post again when I have an updated version.