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Build a Better Demo Reel: Part One

Posted by Mark Schoneveld on May 24th, 2012. Categories: Features, Resources | Comments Off

How to build a better Demo Reel

Your demo reel might showcase your best work, but if you’re not paying attention to these three critical elements, your demo reel might be not be doing all it can for you. Here are the three most critical things that will make or break your demo reel.

1. Keep it Short n’ Snappy

Even though it might feel cinematic to lead into your demo reel with a long, sexy reveal set to swoon music, you’re wasting valuable time. The best demo reels grab your attention by the throat.

You only have ten seconds to pique your audience’s interest. Once you’ve captured it, you have to work hard to keep it. By the one minute mark, your viewer has probably stopped watching. The best demo reels we’ve seen clock in at under 45 seconds.

If you feel that one 45 second demo reel doesn’t showcase all the kinds of work you can do, create multiple demo reels that you can use in different situations.

2. Identify Yourself + Your Work

Including your name and contact information is one critical piece that so many creators neglect to remember.
• Open with your name and titles
• Close with a long freeze-frame of your contact information
• Bonus! Lower third text identifying the project and your work you created with other people shows your respect for your collaborators and identifies you as a professional.

3. Edit to Great Music

Snagging that perfect clip to soundtrack your showreel is critical. The tone of the music should match your work — It doesn’t always have to be a fast-paced electro banger. Generally upbeat music is going to grab attention, but if you’re an introspective cinematographer that romantic strings piece is great. And make sure you’re editing on the beat – matching visual and audio rhythm makes things feel much snappier and fluid. People’s eyes and ears dance together.

Don’t forget: once you’ve got a demo reel wrapped, get it up on Poptent! We pick our favorite demo reels uploaded each month and award it $500!

Tags: careers, creative, demo reel, how to, marketing, showreel, videographers
Posted in Features, Resources | Comments Off

New Indy Filmmaker Resource: Film Riot

Posted by Mark Schoneveld on May 29th, 2009. Categories: Resources | 1 Comment »

We’ve always been big fans of the awesome how-to show Indy Mogul. Now, we can add to our videomaking knowledge with a newly launched Revision 3 show Film Riot that has a similar fascination with cheap FX, cool cuts and small budgets. Here’s the first episode of Film Riot where they explain how to make a light saber and more!

Tags: film, film riot, filmmaking, fx, how to, indy, indy mogul, Resources, video
Posted in Resources | 1 Comment »

Finding Music for Your Videos

Posted by Mark Schoneveld on March 20th, 2009. Categories: Resources | 8 Comments »

Several people have emailed me in the past few weeks asking about good resources for music to add to their videos. It prompted me to write a post to help you guys get a jumpstart on finding good tunes to go with your commercial work.

Option 1

How could I not recommend that you search the Poptent network for musicians? There are dozens of musicians, audio engineers and composers there now, and more joining every day. Strike up a conversation with them. Listen to a few of their tracks. Ask them to collaborate! Do you know musicians who should be on Poptent? Invite them!

Option 2

Find some royalty free music. For example, I was just reading on TechCrunch today that iStockPhoto – the great crowdsource photo resource – just launched their new product iStockAudio.

iStock’s Standard Audio collection now includes more than 11,000 royalty-free, user-generated sound effects and music tracks from 500+ artists along with a fresh Pump Audio collection of over 18,000 single-production music tracks. Pricing hasn’t changed since its launch: royalty-free tracks still start at $2 each with Pump Audio tracks going from $29.

And that’s just one option. There are many sites like this out there cropping up on the web. Here is Mashable’s list of 100+ music resources on the web (warning: this list is nearly 2 years old, it might need some updating, but it’s a good place to start).

[update] I’ve just been looking into more companies that sell inexpensive royalty-free music and found Jamendo. They’re definitely worth a look, as well.

Option 3

One of the best thing to do if you have the time and the means, in my opinion, is to make the music yourself. There are great programs out there that offer a platform for creating music quickly and easily. I use Garage Band for Mac, but there’s also several similar music apps for PCs such as Cakewalk Home Studio, Guitar Pro and Fruity Loops.

Option 4

Befriend your favorite local band. Go to one of their shows, walk up to them after they play and say “Hi, would you like to contribute one of your songs to a video I’m making?” Make a deal with them if your video gets purchased. So many indie bands are looking for new and different outlets just as you are. I can assure you (knowing a lot of indie musicians myself), a lot of them will be more than happy to share or collaborate. Search MySpace Music in your area, or keep an eye on the local listings for clubs in your town.

Conclusion

We all know music is a highly important part of the visual medium of film and video. Get creative. Don’t leave the tunes to the last minute or use filler. It’ll show. There are so many ways to find superb music for use in your projects, be they commercials for Poptent or your own personal work.

Good luck, and by all means share your insights on the comments below. I know I’m only scratching the surface, so let me know about something that’s worked for you.

[update 2] Post Script

I thought it’d be cool to add this recent video from Samantha Ettus. In it, she interviews award winning Hollywood soundtrack producer Ali Dee.

Tags: ideas, music, potpent, Resources, solutions, video
Posted in Resources | 8 Comments »

Epic Fu Talks the Art of a Web Show

Posted by Mark Schoneveld on December 18th, 2008. Categories: Resources | 3 Comments »

One of our favorite video series on the web here at Poptent is Epic Fu. The Epic Fu team is fired up about all things web, video, music and art and they definitely stay on the cutting edge of what’s hot. In their latest episode, host Zadi Diaz spends the first half of the show talking about how to build a web show including gear tips and web tools. I thought this would be helpful to a lot of you Poptenters out there, so check this one out, and be sure to subscribe because they’ve got amazing stuff coming out every week.

Tags: friends, how to, Poptent News, show, tips, video, webisodes
Posted in Resources | 3 Comments »

iMedia: 8 Secrets to Viral Video Gold

Posted by Mark Schoneveld on August 4th, 2008. Categories: Resources | Comments Off

Neil had an article published on the popular marketing website iMedia Connection today:

8 Secrets for Viral Video Gold

As a brand marketer, you have wisely decided to tap into the ever-growing online pool of consumer talent for consumer-generated video production. But now what? Where do you start?

Before you dive in blindly, it is vital to understand the nature of this new creative world. Consumer-generated video production has evolved to engage the prowess of independent, semi-professional and professional videographers. These can be the guys who do video montages for weddings and bar mitzvahs, but in their spare time, they create high-quality, low-cost video productions. Often, their hobby turns into a desire to grow their expertise and eventually land a full-time job as a commercial producer.

This group of semi-pros is joined by boutique creative shops that are also tapping into the success of consumer-generated video production. They are often trying to break into securing gigs with big brands but haven’t yet had success breaking down the barriers-to-entry imposed by marketing departments and big ad agencies. One of the keys to consumer-generated video success is to listen to and take into account the varying motives of consumer ad creators and videographers to maximize the potential of the channel.

Video Compression and Editing Tips

Posted by Mark Schoneveld on July 28th, 2008. Categories: Resources | 6 Comments »

Compressing video is never simple. There are so many ways of doing it, dozens of software applications, several video codecs, countless combinations of settings. So what works best?

I’ve been thinking about the optimal video compression settings this weekend and then coincidentally found all these great tutorials in my RSS feed reader this morning:

First, I’d like to throw in some thoughts on quick pacing in your edit for the web from Kfir Pravda.

Then, online video distribution company TubeMogul gives us their recomendation for optimal compression settings based on their research.

And finally, some additional thoughts on compression from News Videographer blog – though they do add an additional step of converting to Flash which is unnecessary for all video sites, including ours, since we do that for you online.

For the record, the compression settings I typically use for uploading my work are:

File format: .mov
Video codec: h.264
Keyframe: every 24 frames
Bit-rate: 5000 kb/s – 7500 kb/s (this number will have greatest impact on file size, go much smaller – 500-1500 – for lower quality, but quicker upload times)
Resolution: 16:9 – 720×405 (or 480×270 – sometimes smaller is better)
De-Interlace Source Video: ALWAYS
Audio codec: AAC or MP3
Sample Rate: 48.8kHz
Bit Rate: 160-192 kbps

What are your favorite settings? Feel free to discuss below and share what works best for you.

[UPDATE: more compression tips. Here's some from Nalts and a few on Squidoo.]

[tags]how to, video, compression, tips, editing[/tags]

Posted in Resources | 6 Comments »

Brett Slater’s 7 Commandments

Posted by Mark Schoneveld on July 15th, 2008. Categories: Community Highlights, Resources | 5 Comments »

Our buddy Brett, video maker extraordinaire, winner of several assignments here at XLNTads, a devout Mainer posted a fantastic list of tips for people who want to make videos for contests.

1) Thou shalt be brief. This is one for Advertisers to bear in mind as well as Creators, and to me, it’s the most important. With the internet cultivating such short attention spans in its users, you gotta make your point, then wrap it up, especially when you’re making an ad. 60 seconds is plenty. 30 is better.

2) Thou shalt play by the rules. This one’s simple. Read the creative brief, contest rules, instructions, etc., and follow ‘em to the letter. If they ask for an .mpg, don’t send an .avi. If they say “no more than 3 minutes,” don’t submit a video that’s 3:45. Don’t give contest administrators any reason to disqualify your entry before it even gets viewed.

3) Honor thy target demo. Is the advertiser trying to reach women 35-54? Men 40+? Pet owners? Gamers? Make your video a mirror of that target viewer, so when they watch, they see themselves.

4) Remember thy deadline, and keep it holy. Don’t be late with your submission, and don’t ask for an extension. It’s not fair to the people who were on time.

5) Thou shalt not be a poor sport. Be humble when you win, and gracious when you don’t. Congratulate the winner(s) sincerely and affably, or don’t say anything. You may not agree with the judges’ decisions, but they were made for a reason. Besides, if you hit the target every time, it’s either too close or too big, right? Get ‘em next time.

6) Thou shalt get involved in the community. As creators, we all strive to be original and unique, but we do have at least one thing in common: each other. Interact. Read and subscribe to related blogs. Comment and ask questions of other creators. Learn as much as you can, and offer help to those who ask it of you. We’re at the forefront of this burgeoning advertising medium, and in a few years’ time, we’re going to be the seasoned experts, so we’re gonna have to know what the hell we’re talkin’ about.

And finally,

7) Thou shalt not enter a contest in which I am also competing. Because face it: I don’t need the competition, and neither do you.

Obviously, I’m kidding about the last one. I actually welcome the competition, and quite enjoy it. There are a TON of outstanding video creators online, and when I see a good video, it always makes me want to step up my game a little more.

The couple I would add to this list are:

8.) Thou shalt use the highest possible video production standards. I know not everyone can shoot in HD or has a pro audio guy hangin’ around, but boy some of those techy things makes video go from fun to Pro in 0.83 seconds. But you don’t have to be rich. Just holding the camera well, framing up your shots and using lights wisely will vastly improve your video.

9.) Thou shalt be creative. No one wants to watch the same ol’ tired ideas. We get so excited when we see that someone really put some time and energy into planning out their video. Really making it something witty and smart and tight. You’ll stand out. Especially when Liza and I have to go through and review 200+ videos in an assignment. ;)

[tags]video, contests, xlntads, brett slater, how to[/tags]

Posted in Community Highlights, Resources | 5 Comments »

NewTeeVee’s New Station

Posted by Mark Schoneveld on June 10th, 2008. Categories: Resources | Comments Off

One of my favorite blogs on the web is NewTeeVee.com. I read it every day (and so should you!). They always have great coverage of the online video world as it evolves and changes.

Today, they’re launching their new Station that will be highlighting awesome new videos that people are talking about. You’ll never be out of the loop on all those crazy viral vids anymore. Plus you can throw your two cents into the mix.

One of the things I’m most excited about is that they decided to include a Commercials tab in the channel where they will be showing off some of the latest, greatest viral ads. Hopefully we’ll be seeing some of your work there, soon!

[tags]newteevee, commercials, video, viral[/tags]

Posted in Resources | Comments Off

Resources: Soundsnap

Posted by Mark Schoneveld on April 8th, 2008. Categories: Resources | 5 Comments »

I just came across this pretty awesome website that I think could be really valuable to all you videomakers out there. It’s called Soundsnap.com. From their about us section:

Soundsnap is the best platform to find and share free sound effects and loops- legally. It is a collection of original sounds made or recorded by its users, and not songs or sound FX found on commercial libraries or sample CD’s.

According to the popular social media blog, Mashable:

Soundsnap is an online resource that promises to share “pro-quality” sounds, samples and loops with the world of audio experimentalists and songsmiths without any cost to the end user. Yes, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sublicense-transferable and high-fidelity recordings are what the site is advertising, and having given it a good once-over, I’ve concluded that for those of you out there who like to dabble and like to assemble lots of little things into larger, interesting things, the site is a real pleasure to use.

Pretty awesome, yeah? I know I’ll be using their service – both to share my own samples and to download some to use in my videos.

[tags]video, resources, soundsnap, music, sound effects, fx[/tags]

Posted in Resources | 5 Comments »

Creative Inspiration: Know Your Rights

Posted by Mark Schoneveld on March 18th, 2008. Categories: Creative Inspiration, Resources | 4 Comments »

[photo: impale]

On of my favorite photography blogs, Photojojo just printed this amazing list of legal rights you have when using a camera. If it goes for stills, it also goes for video! Know yr rights, friends. Use these rules to your advantage.

THE TEN LEGAL COMMANDMENTS OF PHOTOGRAPHY

I. Anyone in a public place can take pictures of anything they want. Public places include parks, sidewalks, malls, etc. Malls? Yeah. Even though it’s technically private property, being open to the public makes it public space.

II. If you are on public property, you can take pictures of private property. If a building, for example, is visible from the sidewalk, it’s fair game.

III. If you are on private property and are asked not to take pictures, you are obligated to honor that request. This includes posted signs.

IV. Sensitive government buildings (military bases, nuclear facilities) can prohibit photography if it is deemed a threat to national security.

V. People can be photographed if they are in public (without their consent) unless they have secluded themselves and can expect a reasonable degree of privacy. Kids swimming in a fountain? Okay. Somebody entering their PIN at the ATM? Not okay.

VI. The following can almost always be photographed from public places, despite popular opinion:

accident & fire scenes, criminal activities

bridges & other infrastructure, transportation facilities (i.e. airports)

industrial facilities, Superfund sites

public utilities, residential & commercial buildings

children, celebrities, law enforcement officers

UFOs, the Loch Ness Monster, Chuck Norris

VII. Although “security” is often given as the reason somebody doesn’t want you to take photos, it’s rarely valid. Taking a photo of a publicly visible subject does not constitute terrorism, nor does it infringe on a company’s trade secrets.

VIII. If you are challenged, you do not have to explain why you are taking pictures, nor to you have to disclose your identity (except in some cases when questioned by a law enforcement officer.)

IX. Private parties have very limited rights to detain you against your will, and can be subject to legal action if they harass you.

X. If someone tries to confiscate your camera and/or film, you don’t have to give it to them. If they take it by force or threaten you, they can be liable for things like theft and coercion. Even law enforcement officers need a court order.

So go forth! Use this knowledge to make awesome videos, armed with your rights as an artist.

UPDATE: Zack Scott makes a great point to consider in the comments. You can shoot public places, but you can’t always use those people’s images without their permission. Thanks, Zack!

[tags]creativity, creative inspiration, xlntads, video, how to, photojojo[/tags]

Posted in Creative Inspiration, Resources | 4 Comments »

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