The beginning of a new year is a great way to refresh how life has been going. I’ll take this opportunity to let you in in some of the changes I will implement over the next few weeks.
First of all, my website layout will change. As much as I love the Flash based main website at the moment, it is still too cumbersome to update, let alone add or remove pages that don’t fit the layout. This blog will in all likelyhood take its place on http://www.versluis.com. Reasons for this are better updating facilities using the WordPress Interface, better Search Engine Optimisation and well… I can change the look and feel of the site without touching its contents.
Next up, I’d like to use this site to let you in on ALL aspects of my creative life. I no longer want to sell myself as “the guy who does Light Paintings with his wife”, but also “the guy who’s been working in TV for 20 years”, “the guy who does webdesign”, “the guy who does 3D animation” and “the guy who does all kinds of other stuff”. So each aspect of my visual and conceptual doings will receive – in time – a mini-site, either on this server or elsewhere.
Where does that leave our Light Paintings, you ask, even if they have fallen out of popularity over the last year? Since it’s a project that’s more or less finished, and due to the savings I’ve just made by closing both Amazon and Ebay Shops, this body of work with all its achievements will prominently receive its very own web presence at http://www.lightpaintings.net. This is a good example of a niche site.
Cloud-TV will also expand its horizon with the long promised DVD release of “Cloud-TV: Piece of Sky”, featuring Sven van Hees, Henry Mancini, The Art of Noise and many others. On top of that, I have decided to make the cloud footage available for stock sale. Users can choose a clip, pay via PayPal, and download hi-res clips for their projects immediately from the site. My current trouble is that these files are rather large (1GB for only 4 minutes), but I’m working on it.
http://www.oliverspanuth.com is now up and running, and already fulfilled it spurpose when Oliver was voted “Musician of the Day” at The Jazz Calendar. The response to the site has been very positive indeed, and I’m very happy to have left Oliver’s legacy on the web in time for the new year. I wish him all the best for his musical goals in 2009.
And speaking of support, I’m actively supporting John WIlliams’ new project Creative Maverick, in which he’ll focus on how to take a whole year off work. Join this exciting experiment at http://www.creativemaverick.com!
Some other projects are – as always – in the pipeline, and I’ll let you know as soon as they’r eready for eyes other than mine. Until then, have an amazing 2009!