The Kaiser
A dedicated short film site built to secure funding and host the trailer launch for a story about Schumacher and Senna.
A hacked, unrecoverable WordPress site for a donation-funded film just days before the trailer launch.
Thousands raised for production. The site easily handled the launch traffic spike, keeping the film on track for release.
The Kaiser is a thirty-minute short film about Schumacher's first race and his early relationship with Senna. We built the project's website for Lubo, one of our longest-running collaborators.
The original site was a quick WordPress and Elementor build Lubo had assembled himself to start collecting donations toward the production budget. It worked, until the database was hacked beyond recovery. We had to start again, fast. The mechanic mattered. Without a working donation flow the project had no funding. The trailer release was approaching, sponsor commitments were already in motion, and the campaign could not pause for a rebuild on a normal timeline.
We rebuilt the site from scratch with a clear visual reference. Netflix. Auto-playing trailer-style video on the home page, monochrome aesthetic with carefully placed colour, and strong typography. The reference is familiar enough to feel professional and distinct enough to read as a film campaign rather than a generic landing page.
The site has one job. Generate donations.
Every page is built around that single conversion path. Trailer at the top, story beats in the middle, donation flow at the bottom, sponsor names at the side. People judge a book by its cover, and the new site gets the right judgment in the first few seconds. The production value of the page matches the project it represents.
Speed and resilience were the technical priorities. After the trailer announcement the site needed to absorb 500 to 1,000 concurrent visitors during peak hours. The stack held. Donations stayed steady throughout the spike.
The film is now nearly complete and on track to release. Thousands of dollars have been raised through the site. Big sponsor names have come on board behind the work.
The site is the launching pad. It carries the trailer, the story, the team, the sponsors, and the donation flow. A quiet, confident piece of the puzzle that lets the rest of the production team focus on the film itself, without ever worrying about the funding mechanism behind it.