My first professional website is now online!

On April 3 (my birthday), Apple premiered the new iPad in stores nationwide. Now, on the heels of this groundbreaking device, comes my own magical and revolutionary new tool.

Yes, True Believers, there's a reason why I haven't posted on the blog for two and a half weeks. Announcing the launch of my first professional website, which arrives after more than a month of planning, designing, and securing a site to host clips from the reel to promote my work.

Because I want to keep a separation of church and state, I won't be posting the website address here. Instead, I'll be posting the link on my Facebook page and e-mailing it to everyone else who also frequents the blog (you know who you are!). So expect that message shortly. Important note: Internet Explorer is the only server that does NOT support the new site.

Transposing the design of my recently updated DVD reel was the primary vision. But there were a few challenges when it came to utilizing HTML code. Since my experience lie with working on this blog for the last six years, I decided to take the template from here and conform it to the parameters I wanted and needed for the new website. Creating some major changes, especially one specific and important addition, took days of trial and error. But in the end, after research helped only so far, I took a stab at something radical and the design I envisioned finally happened.

I was certainly aware that people working in the industry were switching from the norm of physical media mailed to potential employers, to creating an all encompassing website showcasing their resume and samples of their work. In fact, during the last round of phone calls to those thirty four post houses confirming the correct contact person to send my reels and resumes to, I was asked more times than not if I wanted an e-mail address to send my website link. I didn't have one yet, but that's the thing that kicked me into gear that it was finally time to take on creating my own professional home on the web.

The cost of printing, packaging, and mailing thirty four reels and resumes two months ago cost around $200. Now, the really awesome thing about having my own website is that I won't have to buy DVD-Rs, resume paper, envelopes, labels, and mailing supplies. Not to mention the time and effort it took to put all of that together, especially when I had something new to add to the reel. Now, everything and anything I need to do to update my marketing tools can be done once, for basically no money, then forwarded via e-mail to any number of post houses I choose. From this point on, except for special circumstances, there will no longer be any need to send out a copy of my reel on DVD. The whole concept is pretty exciting actually! It's almost like the iTunes Store. The artists and record companies only have to create one set of files that millions of people can download, as opposed to burning, printing, and packaging millions of CDs and jewel cases to sell in stores or online.

Now it's on to the next major task.

Over the past week I've been compiling a list of e-mails from every creative post house in the Los Angeles area. At this point, with the economy slowly but surely getting better, I need to take whatever I can get my hands on. Meaning everything from commercials to webispodes to reality TV to entertainment news to industrial projects. Anything that will generate a paycheck while the film industry gets back on it's feet.