online sample reels

What's the best work flow scenario for the online reel. I've seen a couple and there doesn't seem to be much of a concensus. More and more small producers are asking for them and I thought I'd put one together. Is there a paper on it yet?



Barrett Taylor

> What's the best work flow scenario for the online reel. I've seen a couple and
> there doesn't seem to be much of a consensus.

That's because everybody has different resources and needs. The amount of storage you have with the ISP, the targeted audience, the length of your reel, the content of the reel -- for example, is it narrative (sound is important to determine acting and pace), commercial (need better visual quality), action sports (motion artifacts can be a killer), etc.?

You also have to think about the fact that Final Cut Pro users are used to having certain codecs and playback devices at their disposal, but the files we generate can often give headaches to PC users -- hence the popularity of Flip4Mac in here.

What kinds of work do you do? How much material are you trying to put together? What file sizes are you aiming for?

"What kinds of work do you do? How much material are you trying to put together? What file sizes are you aiming for?"


Yea, that's exactly the kind of question I was hoping to get an answer to. I want the most for the least, as always. I've seen sites that have individual QT clips but nothing with say a three to five minute promo, which is where I was going. Most of the stuff I've done, that I have copies of, are older tv movies and I wanted to put together a little sales promo with narrative v.o. It's all still not clear in my head what it would look like. What I was hoping for was the methods others are currently using so I can work within the limitations of the media.

thanks



Barrett Taylor

Barrett,

Take a look at this

[www.ideainteractivemedia.com]

it's a pretty low res version of one of our composite reels (we're just building the web site and it's a place holder till we get a higher res flash and qt version on there - the qt has no link yet) Give you an idea how to do a quick composite reel showing your "best of work" in 3 minutes. Andy

i get a bunch of "reels" accross my desk and after a while, sitting through several 3 to 5 minute contiguous reels just becomes a blurr.

unless you are a writer or a feature editor, id much prefer to navaigate as i choose to through several smaller content specific clips.

but like derek says it all depends on what youre wanting to achieve and whos going to vuew it...

I don't completely agree with Wayne, because while shorter reels are easier to sit through, they may not serve your needs. If you're going after a job to edit a TV show or a film, you'll need to let scenes run to show you can tackle actors, dialogue, pacing, create a style, a mood and a rhythm. You can't just show the usual MTV-style blitz cuts and soundbites -- that only shows you can do EPKs and have a certain degree of proficiency.

On my DVD and website, I have a long-ish reel (which has gotten me a good number of jobs) as well as the option to view excerpts.

Editors are cursed -- DPs can take out all the sound and just show pretty shots with a good piece of music. We have to show the overall.

Thanks guys,

I still haven't seen much technical notes about file sizes, etc.

I do appreciate the content input though and I liked the looks of Andy's site. It's length would be about right, I guess, I haven't cut the reel yet. And Derek, I agree that cutting a bunch of feature length clips into second or less cuts won't let anyone see anything. I think though a combination of the suggestion may serve me best. One link to a three minute piece and links to individual scenes for each movie may give the viewer like Wayne options. Now I have to find the file spaces.

Thanks again



Barrett Taylor

you havent seen technical answers mainly because there are no hard and fast rules... as derek mntioned at the outset - it kind of depends on your audience, their bandwidth, quality expectations etc...

we have covered these details on the forum in excrutiating detail.

its probably smartest to search the forum for topics like "video for web"
"web compression" "compress for web" "internet video" and such. i PROMISE you will find a WEALTH of information.

For Technical specs...if you have the space and bandwidth...give your audience a saladbar to choose from

Flash, QT, WMV streaming...let them choose...take more time for you compress and lay out but it idiot-proofs the viewing experience. Andy