Personal website - worthwhile?

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	Topic: Personal website - worthwhile?
Posted : 01/03/10 / Views : 750 / Replies : 10 /
Simon30 237 posts last on: 4 min send private reply	I'm toying with the idea of having my own website. Are they worthwhile? I think it could add to the "package" or "product" or whatever business term you like to use, but when there is spotlight and ccp i don't know if its actually worth my while. What do you think?

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	Reply #1
Posted : 27/02/10
emilyclare 61 posts last on: 21/11/11 send private reply	I think they are good for showing your personality a bit more, because you not limited to certain layouts etc. And you can put information in there that you can't on other sites. They represent who you are and what you're about better, so I say go for it x

	Reply #2
Posted : 27/02/10
David.Laurence 198 posts last on: 35 min send private reply	Mm,not really sure what you want to achieve,I thought about my own website for a while,but decided against it. Two reasons really. Firstly I pay out a fair ammount already in pictures,CCP,Spotlight,Equity etc etc etc etc.... If somebody cant find me in one of those places,why on earth are they going to find anywhere else! Unless I spend valuable time making them aware Ive got a website set up. Time better spent following up any castings hopefully already generated via other sources already listed. The second reason is,what will I put on it,besides my showreel and a selection of Pictures that represent the roles Im normally cast in. The honest answer is not a lot.Nobody, unless their really interested in me as an actor,or just being nosy,will really spend much time looking at anything but the basics. Showreel,CV,Headshot.. If they want to know more they will get me in for a casting. But this is simply my take on the website idea.

Reply #2

Posted : 27/02/10

David.Laurence
198 posts
last on: 35 min
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Mm,not really sure what you want to achieve,I thought about my own website for a while,but decided against it.

Two reasons really.

Firstly I pay out a fair ammount already in pictures,CCP,Spotlight,Equity etc etc etc etc.... If somebody cant find me in one of those places,why on earth are they going to find anywhere else!

Unless I spend valuable time making them aware Ive got a website set up.

Time better spent following up any castings hopefully already generated via other sources already listed.

The second reason is,what will I put on it,besides my showreel and a selection of Pictures that represent the roles Im normally cast in.

The honest answer is not a lot.Nobody, unless their really interested in me as an actor,or just being nosy,will really spend much time looking at anything but the basics. Showreel,CV,Headshot..

If they want to know more they will get me in for a casting.

But this is simply my take on the website idea.

	Reply #3
Posted : 01/03/10
blakescott 1 posts last on: 07/02/12 send private reply	I have two websites set up, one for my acting / performing stuff and the other as a photographer, I find these valuable, as I refer to them via business cards when i'm out and about to anyone I might meet networking within the industry, I think it is a strong good business investment and shows just how confident and serious you are about working. also they are cheap enough now to set up and maintain yourself

Reply #3

Posted : 01/03/10

blakescott
1 posts
last on: 07/02/12
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I have two websites set up, one for my acting / performing stuff and the other as a photographer, I find these valuable, as I refer to them via business cards when i'm out and about to anyone I might meet networking within the industry, I think it is a strong good business investment and shows just how confident and serious you are about working.
also they are cheap enough now to set up and maintain yourself

	Reply #4
Posted : 01/03/10
Tanya8 2 posts last on: 22/08/11 send private reply	Hey Guys! I am an actress who since having my website has had a lot more interest- I think casting directors find it easier on the eye to look at a website and you can put a lot more on it than on Spotlight... Think you should have a look at the facebook group WONDER CONSTRUCTION, or just have a look at their website- they did mine- they were very cheap and made my website exactly how I wanted it with a bit of my own personality in it too; I think the main point of an acting Website is to show your personality through it- at as well as making it easier to have all your work on it. Don't spend to much money! Mine was £250. Hope that helped. Tanya-Loretta Duff xxx

Reply #4

Posted : 01/03/10

Tanya8
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last on: 22/08/11
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Hey Guys!

I am an actress who since having my website has had a lot more interest- I think casting directors find it easier on the eye to look at a website and you can put a lot more on it than on Spotlight...

Think you should have a look at the facebook group WONDER CONSTRUCTION, or just have a look at their website- they did mine- they were very cheap and made my website exactly how I wanted it with a bit of my own personality in it too;

I think the main point of an acting Website is to show your personality through it- at as well as making it easier to have all your work on it.

Don't spend to much money! Mine was £250.

Hope that helped.

Tanya-Loretta Duff xxx

	Reply #5
Posted : 01/03/10
Susan.Moisan 15 posts last on: 02/02/12 send private reply	I used a company called Wix.com where you make really nice ones yourself using templates. Its really good for technophobes like myself. Frankly if I can do it, anyone can. Total cost was £68 for 1 year premium membership and about £6.99 to register my domain name for 2 years. You can also stalk yourself on Google Analytics to get an idea of the amount of hits and how they are finding you.

	Reply #6
Posted : 01/03/10
GUY5 395 posts last on: 20 min send private reply	Yes a website is always a good calling card! If I get an online application I go straight to the links not the CV. All the best!! Guy

	Reply #7
Posted : 01/03/10
Gennifer.Becouarn 14 posts last on: 4 hours send private reply	Hey Simon - I think that a website is a great idea, providing (as David says) you have enough material to make it interesting. Ie, showreel, voicereel, headshots, stills from plays - and also up and coming shows, dates/tours etc. A personal website, as opposed to a spotlight page for example, definitely gives a deeper insight into who you are.... So, if you are lucky enough to have all the said above material, I say go for it. x

Reply #7

Posted : 01/03/10

Gennifer.Becouarn
14 posts
last on: 4 hours
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Hey Simon -

I think that a website is a great idea, providing (as David says) you have enough material to make it interesting.
Ie, showreel, voicereel, headshots, stills from plays - and also up and coming shows, dates/tours etc.

A personal website, as opposed to a spotlight page for example, definitely gives a deeper insight into who you are....

So, if you are lucky enough to have all the said above material, I say go for it. x

	Reply #8
Posted : 01/03/10
Nigel.Peever 345 posts last on: 1 hour send private reply	I think you need all the tools in your tool bag. Especially in this day and age where almost all our first contact with employers is via the internet.

	Reply #9
Posted : 01/03/10
leeravitz 1543 posts last on: 18 hours send private reply	I think there is no disadvantage in having a website, provided you can afford to maintain it (which is a necessary concern). It can provide you with a very useful outlet to personalise your identity (within an industry where it is easy to be dismissed as merely 'one of the herd'), it can offer you a space within which you can host most of the items useful for selling yourself in a single space, it can make establishing contacts with you more straighforward for potential employers, it can likely reproduce images of you and showreel material at highest specification and most appropriate resolutions, and it can be personally designed in such a way as to further reflect your personality (if you work towards gaining a specific design that is, as opposed to just using a hosting template). With that said, I think there are bound to be differences in the ways with which websites are viewed within different levels of the industry. I would imagine they truly come into their own when you are dealing with the potential to be in something/secure a contact personally, with the principal figure concerned. At this point, a casting director, director, fellow performer etc., interested in gaining further insight into you because you have e.g. met at an aftershow party or because they wish to view your showreel etc. will be interested in clicking on and finding out more about you from the website. Guy, I think, is perfectly right to say that, if you are dealing with applications going straight to e.g. a screen director, and you offer the choice of viewing the generic application and/or the website, most would want to check the website (if only to look at the likely showreel material hosted on it). On the other hand, I do think that high level casting directors (i.e. the ones who are casting many projects simultaneously, are considered at the top of their game within this country, and are employed to act as a 'filter' in order to prevent a harassed director from being over-inundated with applications) are so busy that they rarely consider they have the time to look at the CV's, let alone anyone's website link. This is why you will hear some people from the higher levels of the industry maintaining that websites are useless - because the essential methods of casting for e.g. the BBC, the National Theatre etc. remain exactly what they always have been - asking casting directors to winnow personal applications from trusted agents and call in appropriate actors. It might be truer to say that, if you wanted to arrange a meeting with a casting director who had not yet met you, and were eager to show that you were a 'prospect', you could direct them to the website which they might view at leisure. But, one size doesn't fit all - and lower budget projects that may not be employing a designated casting team, or a small and improvised casting team, may be just as interested in learning more about you from an initial application. This, alongside selling you more clearly to acquaintances, and allowing any fans/supporters of your work to post their encouragment online (!), is probably one of the main functions that a website serves for you.

Reply #9

Posted : 01/03/10

leeravitz
1543 posts
last on: 18 hours
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I think there is no disadvantage in having a website, provided you can afford to maintain it (which is a necessary concern). It can provide you with a very useful outlet to personalise your identity (within an industry where it is easy to be dismissed as merely 'one of the herd'), it can offer you a space within which you can host most of the items useful for selling yourself in a single space, it can make establishing contacts with you more straighforward for potential employers, it can likely reproduce images of you and showreel material at highest specification and most appropriate resolutions, and it can be personally designed in such a way as to further reflect your personality (if you work towards gaining a specific design that is, as opposed to just using a hosting template).

With that said, I think there are bound to be differences in the ways with which websites are viewed within different levels of the industry. I would imagine they truly come into their own when you are dealing with the potential to be in something/secure a contact personally, with the principal figure concerned. At this point, a casting director, director, fellow performer etc., interested in gaining further insight into you because you have e.g. met at an aftershow party or because they wish to view your showreel etc. will be interested in clicking on and finding out more about you from the website. Guy, I think, is perfectly right to say that, if you are dealing with applications going straight to e.g. a screen director, and you offer the choice of viewing the generic application and/or the website, most would want to check the website (if only to look at the likely showreel material hosted on it).

On the other hand, I do think that high level casting directors (i.e. the ones who are casting many projects simultaneously, are considered at the top of their game within this country, and are employed to act as a 'filter' in order to prevent a harassed director from being over-inundated with applications) are so busy that they rarely consider they have the time to look at the CV's, let alone anyone's website link. This is why you will hear some people from the higher levels of the industry maintaining that websites are useless - because the essential methods of casting for e.g. the BBC, the National Theatre etc. remain exactly what they always have been - asking casting directors to winnow personal applications from trusted agents and call in appropriate actors. It might be truer to say that, if you wanted to arrange a meeting with a casting director who had not yet met you, and were eager to show that you were a 'prospect', you could direct them to the website which they might view at leisure.

But, one size doesn't fit all - and lower budget projects that may not be employing a designated casting team, or a small and improvised casting team, may be just as interested in learning more about you from an initial application. This, alongside selling you more clearly to acquaintances, and allowing any fans/supporters of your work to post their encouragment online (!), is probably one of the main functions that a website serves for you.

	Reply #10
Posted : 01/03/10
leeravitz 1543 posts last on: 18 hours send private reply	In fact, now I read that back, I think it was a bit mealy-mouthed. It's safe to say that many actors host websites, but what you will find is that the websites of the high profile ones serve a different function to those of the 'jobbing actor'. A very high profile actor's website is: a) Probably not maintained by the actor personally, but by e.g. their agency for promotional reasons and b) Serves primarily as a bulletin board upon which fans can read updates of the actor's latest progress (thus encouraging them to tune in/twitter about/variously promote/start buzz concerning) the actors' latest work, send in their messages of support and so on. c) They may even serve as a filter for the actor, complete with published interviews or FAQs, and so reduce the pressure they are under to field fan mail from home... By and large, these websites are built with the assumption that there is a ready made audience who wish to view them, and they do not tend to try and sell the actor as product. The 'jobbing actor's' website is geared towards getting work, and is really more in the manner of a very extensive, multimedia CV tool, with not just a list of credits, but a series of stills, showreel material, vocal links, and some background information incorporated. As I think everyone has said, when you are trying to make yourself better known within the industry, to raise awareness of your 'product', then using anything at your disposal is worthwhile - and because a website can be made highly personal, it will always be a good tool for establishing some kind of definable industry identity. But, it should be remembered, that high level CD's etc. routinely dismiss the usefulness of websites because the actors they habitually cast do not tend to host websites for the purposes of selling their wares in the first place -there is simply no need to host a website for this purpose if many contacts are in your pocket already. The only websites they recognise are really fan based, and promotional (i.e. they exist to sell the client in the wake of the work they've done, not to secure them the work in the first place). This is probably another reason why high level CD's appear to have little time for websites - they don't actually feel there is anything on them they couldn't establish by talking to your agent/calling up your Spotlight page - and, in a way, that is basically true. But when you are trying to establish an identity, a website can still be a very important tool for you personally, and the web of contacts that you wish to build - this, I think, is where it comes into its own.

Reply #10

Posted : 01/03/10

leeravitz
1543 posts
last on: 18 hours
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In fact, now I read that back, I think it was a bit mealy-mouthed. It's safe to say that many actors host websites, but what you will find is that the websites of the high profile ones serve a different function to those of the 'jobbing actor'. A very high profile actor's website is:

a) Probably not maintained by the actor personally, but by e.g. their agency for promotional reasons and

b) Serves primarily as a bulletin board upon which fans can read updates of the actor's latest progress (thus encouraging them to tune in/twitter about/variously promote/start buzz concerning) the actors' latest work, send in their messages of support and so on.

c) They may even serve as a filter for the actor, complete with published interviews or FAQs, and so reduce the pressure they are under to field fan mail from home...

By and large, these websites are built with the assumption that there is a ready made audience who wish to view them, and they do not tend to try and sell the actor as product.

The 'jobbing actor's' website is geared towards getting work, and is really more in the manner of a very extensive, multimedia CV tool, with not just a list of credits, but a series of stills, showreel material, vocal links, and some background information incorporated. As I think everyone has said, when you are trying to make yourself better known within the industry, to raise awareness of your 'product', then using anything at your disposal is worthwhile - and because a website can be made highly personal, it will always be a good tool for establishing some kind of definable industry identity.

But, it should be remembered, that high level CD's etc. routinely dismiss the usefulness of websites because the actors they habitually cast do not tend to host websites for the purposes of selling their wares in the first place -there is simply no need to host a website for this purpose if many contacts are in your pocket already. The only websites they recognise are really fan based, and promotional (i.e. they exist to sell the client *in the wake* of the work they've done, not to *secure* them the work in the first place). This is probably another reason why high level CD's appear to have little time for websites - they don't actually feel there is anything on them they couldn't establish by talking to your agent/calling up your Spotlight page - and, in a way, that is basically true.

But when you are trying to establish an identity, a website can still be a very important tool for you personally, and the web of contacts that you wish to build - this, I think, is where it comes into its own.

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