We, as a class, were given the task of creating our individual websites to showcase our skills, attributes and experience as a performer and creator. Wix was the recommended site to use to create our personal portfolios, so the first thing to do was sign up at Wix.com.
After creating an account, which was simplistic, and if anyone new to the course or using a site for showcasing their performance work is daunted by the thought of website building, be assured that this site makes it very easy, it was then time to create blocks, pages and columns and start uploading.
I started by uploading some headshots, other pics and a few short films, then it was time to make the site look better and be easier to navigate, which means navigation buttons, links and pages. Wix provides link/ page buttons, but you need to edit them and of course make it relevant to your own work; I set about creating a scrolling picture portfolio based on work I have done since starting the course in 2022. This was time-consuming, not too long, but I had to crop and edit them properly so they didn’t look out of place when they were scrolling by; I chose these pictures because I believe they convey an insider view of the performance process, from forming a group and performing as a group.
I added a temporary headshot and some other images, but I’m not 100% happy with it and will be replacing these with professional headshots by the summer, when I have the funds and have decided on a photographer, however, they will do for the time being. I also added some more ‘candid looking’ shots that were taken during a recording session.
Next step was a bit of an edit to ‘self-promote’ a bit more, so I added lines such as: ‘Ronin has experience in stage work’ and ‘Ronin can act in many different genres and roles’. At the moment, self promotion is not my greatest attribute so, on reflection and evaluating my site as I go, I have realised this is something I need to work on urgently. It was helped by the University insisting we now have professional social media accounts, which has led to me thinking in a more self promoting way naturally, and I aim to apply that to the more conventional blog medium. I need to reflect more on how things look and expand significantly on the blocks that are titled: Screen, Stage Work, Voice Work.
Editing took up some time as I changed the background colours, images, font size and style, and eventually decided on a simplistic black, white and grey, which I might change again in the future but for now it suits the work and images I have put on there. Further cropping and editing didn't take up too much time, but it was ‘fiddly’ work which can be time consuming when you work at it over a few days to make it look as you want it to look. All the buttons, bar one, have been edited and linked to either other sites or direct to videos that have been embedded and play directly on the site as Wix provides a video player, which was useful as often blogs require you to link it from another site or the user has to use a VLC which can be tricky if people are watching it on mobile devices.
Overall, the progress of creating my own website was not too onerous, even though there were slight challenges between how I wanted it to look and how it actually looked in the end, I think I have started to build a site of which I would be proud showing to the public.
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