So i’ve decided to learn Final Cut Pro so i can re-do my showreel. Got decent scenes from a couple of shows since my last edit. This new website all started from that.
My acting website had always been a way to force myself to further my knowledge of web design. The first incarnation I made with my basic knowledge Dreamweaver and Fireworks when it was still Macromedia’s. It was up but did not really let people know it was there. What I have learnt from that I used in creating websites for CELSIUSmedia, a company that my brother Michael and I started in 1998. Acting work took over a few years later and I reliquished my responsibilities in the company (apart from a few minor projects to help out). CELSIUSmedia is still going strong (maybe my absence helped).
I revamped the site, still in static HTML pages in 2007 but realised that web 2.0 was the way to go. I started reading up on Joomla and WordPress – started with the challenge of the more “codey” Joomla but opted for a self hosted WordPress site.
After trawling though the free WordPress themes, i picked a colorful theme called Threat to Creativity which worked a treat. Set like a calendar like grid, with posts appearing as vibrant boxes with an automatically resized thumbnail, the title and a few lines of the main text followed by a more link that led you to the post’s individual page. It featured a dynamic css color randomiser so each time you visited the front page (or refreshed the page) the colors programed in the css shuffled around.
So…. when I decided to cut a new showreel i thought maybe time for another revamp of the website to embed the new reel in – I was looking for a magazine style layout with an image “featured post slider”, a piece of code i have used before for my younger brother Christian’s wedding website last year (2010). I found a clean minimalist (till i filled it with images) theme from Organic Themes called Structure.
I started using a pared down free version of the theme but decided because of the great features to fork out US$69 for it and it was worth it. Using the basic template i designed elements to make the look of it to my liking – and i dont think it’s cheating for a web designer not to program your own theme. If the guilt gnaws at me too often i shall fill my head with code and make my own. But not till after the showreel.
but more learning to be had anyway:
Searching for widgets to complement the site led me to the Amazon Affiliate program which resulted in the SHOP section of the site. Another widget made it possible for me to create a separate BLOG page outside of using the blog template within the theme for the NEWS page . The posts are filtered through the use of Categories.
So now that I can have a blog within the site, i thought i’d start a blog.
I downloaded the WordPress App for iPhone and sucessfully linked it to this site. After the app’s upgrade recently I can post text and photos from my phone. Hopefully that will lead to more frequent posts.
Back to Final Cut Pro …. I had to do some hard drive/s spring cleaning to make room for the program and that’s when i bumped into photos from several mobile phones that i have owned over the years.
Before my MacBookPro 15″ I had a Compaq Presario Desktop to start with, A Compaq Laptop, A Sony Vaio Laptop, then an HP laptop. Every time i switched I made backups and file transfers. And some poor files have stayed in hard drive limbo for years without getting attention. So i decided to make a little gallery for this, my first post of the pics i have snapped on my phones over the years.
As for the showreel, it would be easier to just use Premiere because i know it already but I really want to learn FCP.
Maybe the next showreel I will cut with AVID to complete the holy trinity of editing programs.
So a few more sleepless nights staring into the screen trying to figure out what buttons and sliders are for and tearing my hair out with codecs and formats and settings and blah blah blah…
Anyway here are the photos. My self imposed rule was to cull the ones i did not like but i was not allowed to crop or color process what i found. A few from Lion King Melbourne and Sydney, Big Day Out, The Bounty shoot, and a visit to Brisbane among other random things
