You spent six months on that project. Three weeks in the color suite. Countless hours refining the edit until every cut felt intentional.
Then you upload it to your portfolio, and it buffers. Or worse, the compression turns your carefully crafted grade into a muddy mess that makes you wince every time someone asks for your website.
We know because we lived it.
Framekit wasn't born in a tech startup accelerator. It was born from frustration, in a cramped editing suite in Amsterdam, when the founding team, a mix of directors, cinematographers, and editors, realized that every portfolio platform treated video as an afterthought.
We built Framekit to solve our own problem: creating filmmaker portfolios that actually respect the work.
The Problem Every Filmmaker Knows
You've seen it happen. A producer asks for your portfolio link. You send it, knowing that your 4K showreel is about to be served through a platform that doesn't understand why frame-accurate color matters, or why 2.39:1 aspect ratios shouldn't be letterboxed into oblivion.
The portfolio becomes a liability instead of an asset. Your best work, presented through a system designed for restaurant menus and life coach landing pages.
This isn't a minor inconvenience. Producers make snap judgments. If your site takes 8 seconds to load, they assume you don't understand technical execution. If your footage looks compressed, they question your post-production skills. The portfolio is supposed to demonstrate competence, and slow, poorly-optimized sites suggest the opposite.
Built by Filmmakers, For Filmmakers
The Framekit team includes directors who've shot narrative features, cinematographers who've worked on commercial campaigns, and editors who understand why the difference between 23.976 and 24fps matters.
This background shaped every decision:
Your Aspect Ratio, Respected
Shot your passion project in 2.39:1 for that cinematic scope? Most website builders force everything into 16:9 containers, adding black bars that make your carefully composed frames look like an afterthought.
Framekit detects aspect ratios automatically. Anamorphic stays anamorphic. Your 4:3 documentary footage displays as intended. The platform respects your compositional choices because we've been frustrated by platforms that don't.
Color That Survives the Upload
Every filmmaker has experienced the heartbreak: you export a perfectly graded piece, upload it, and watch your teal-and-orange look turn into brown mud. Generic platforms compress for file size, not color accuracy.
Framekit's encoding prioritizes color information. We built it this way because we were tired of sending portfolio links and apologizing for how the footage looked online compared to the master.
Reels That Actually Play
Most portfolio platforms load video players immediately, whether the video is visible or not. This destroys load times and creates the dreaded buffer wheel right when you need a smooth first impression.
Framekit initializes video players only when they scroll into view. Your homepage reel starts instantly. Project pages with multiple videos load progressively rather than competing for bandwidth. The experience feels intentional, because it is.
"When I send my portfolio link to a producer, I'm not holding my breath anymore. The reel plays immediately. The footage looks like my footage. That confidence matters more than any feature list." — Marcus, Commercial Director
What Your Filmmaker Portfolio Actually Needs
After years of building our own portfolios and talking with hundreds of filmmakers, we identified what actually matters:
Reel Categories That Make Sense
You're not a photographer with a single "portfolio" page. You have narrative work, commercials, music videos, documentary pieces. Each category represents a different skill set and attracts different clients.
Framekit's filmmaker templates organize reels by category with dedicated navigation. Visitors find your commercial work without scrolling past unrelated documentary projects. The organization signals professionalism before they press play.
Project Pages That Tell Stories
Film projects need context. What was your role? What challenges did you solve? What was the production scale? Clients want to understand not just what you shot, but how you approached it.
Framekit project templates include structured sections for production details, technical approach, and behind-the-scenes content. Your projects become case studies, not just video embeds.
Agency-Ready Presentation
If you have representation, your portfolio needs to feel like an extension of your agent's brand, not a personal hobby site. Excessive personality in the design can work against you when producers are reviewing portfolios from multiple represented directors.
Framekit's design system emphasizes restraint. Your work is the personality. The site framework disappears, leaving clients immersed in footage rather than distracted by clever website elements.
Mobile Performance That Doesn't Embarrass You
Here's a scenario that happens constantly: a producer is between meetings, pulls up your portfolio on their phone to show a colleague, and... buffer. Spin. Wait. The moment passes.
60% of initial portfolio views happen on mobile. Every Framekit template prioritizes mobile performance. Video components adapt to connection speed. The experience works on airport wifi, not just gigabit office connections.
The Details That Only Filmmakers Think About
We built features because we needed them ourselves:
Adaptive Streaming
Upload your 4K master once. Framekit generates multiple quality variants automatically and serves the appropriate version based on the viewer's connection and device. No manual encoding exports required.
Smart Autoplay
Homepage reels autoplay muted when scrolled into view, which is expected behavior for portfolio sites. But Framekit monitors engagement: if visitors don't interact within a few seconds, autoplay pauses. This respects viewer data and battery while giving you accurate analytics about who actually watched versus who bounced.
Password-Protected Screeners
Festival submission period? Client work under NDA? Projects in progress you need to share selectively? Password protection keeps sensitive work visible only to intended viewers, without needing external platforms or awkward Vimeo privacy settings.
Credits That Stay Current
Link your IMDb page and your filmography displays cleanly, updating automatically as new projects release. No manual maintenance whenever a credit officially posts.
Component Intelligence
Add a new project section to your portfolio and it automatically inherits your typography, spacing, and color treatment. Your narrative work and commercial projects feel cohesive without manually styling each page. This sounds simple, but it's the difference between a portfolio that looks professionally designed and one that looks like a patchwork of different styling attempts.
What This Actually Looks Like
Let's be concrete about the difference:
Loading Experience
Generic portfolio platforms: You send the link. The producer clicks. 5-8 seconds of loading. The reel starts, buffers, starts again. They're already forming opinions about your technical skills.
Framekit: The producer clicks. The page loads in under 2 seconds. The reel plays immediately, smoothly, in full quality. They watch your work, not a loading indicator.
Color Accuracy
Generic platforms: Your carefully graded footage goes through aggressive compression. Blacks get crushed. Colors shift. You wince every time someone watches.
Framekit: The footage looks like your footage. The grade you spent hours perfecting displays accurately. When you send the link, you're proud of how it looks.
Portfolio Growth
Generic platforms: You add new projects and the site gets slower. You're forced to choose between comprehensive filmography and acceptable load times. Eventually you start removing older projects just to keep the site functional.
Framekit: Add as many projects as you need. The lazy-loading architecture means 50 projects doesn't perform worse than 5. Your complete body of work remains accessible without performance sacrifices.
The Economics (Because This Matters Too)
Film careers have unpredictable income. Sometimes you're booking commercials back-to-back. Sometimes you're between projects for months. Monthly subscription costs during dry spells feel like salt in wounds.
Framekit offers a $349 lifetime option. One payment. Done. No monthly fees during slow periods. No price increases. No "we're changing our pricing structure" emails.
Over 5 years, Squarespace costs $960+. Wix costs $1,020+. That's $600-700 you could put toward gear, software, or just peace of mind during gaps between projects.
The lifetime model exists because filmmakers asked for it. Predictable costs matter when income isn't.
When Framekit Isn't the Right Choice
We're filmmakers. We respect honest assessments.
Choose Squarespace if:
- Your portfolio is primarily stills with occasional video
- You need extensive e-commerce features for merchandise
- The "Squarespace aesthetic" is specifically what you want
Choose Webflow if:
- You have development skills or budget for a developer
- You need highly custom functionality beyond portfolio features
- Complex animations and interactions are central to your vision
Choose Wix if:
- You need specific third-party integrations from their app marketplace
- Free tier experimentation matters more than performance
For filmmakers whose portfolios are video-centric, who care about how their footage is presented, and who want sites that load fast on mobile, Framekit was built specifically for you.
Common Questions
Does Framekit host videos or do I need Vimeo?
Both work. Host directly through Framekit with automatic optimization, or embed from Vimeo/YouTube. Direct hosting gives you more control over quality; external embeds integrate with existing analytics setups.
Will my color grading survive?
Yes. We built encoding profiles specifically to preserve color information. Export your properly color-managed files and they'll display accurately.
Can I migrate my existing portfolio?
Typical migrations take 2-4 hours including video re-uploads. The structure transfers easily; most filmmakers say their migrated sites look better than the originals.
What about custom domains?
Included. Use your own domain with SSL, no additional cost.
Is lifetime actually lifetime?
Yes. No renewals, no conditions, no "lifetime of the product" fine print. 30-day money-back guarantee if it's not what you need.
The Point of All This
Your portfolio is often the first impression producers, agencies, and collaborators have of your capabilities. When that portfolio buffers, compresses your footage, or presents your cinematic work through generic templates, it undermines everything your work communicates.
Framekit exists because filmmakers built it for filmmakers. We understood the frustrations because we lived them. The features aren't theoretical; they're solutions to problems we encountered personally.
Fast loading that preserves the viewing experience you intended. Aspect ratios that respect your compositional choices. Color accuracy that honors your grading decisions. Design that elevates rather than competes with your footage.
Your work deserves a portfolio that performs as professionally as the work itself.
Try Framekit free and see what a filmmaker-built portfolio platform actually feels like. Most directors complete professional sites in under two hours, with reels that play when clients click.
