Showreel format?

[fr3drik]

It's not so far away for me to put up my very first showreel on my website. :) Now I was thinking which format I should use or if I should maybe put up several formats. I prefer Quicktime but I know many Linux workstations are not equipped with Quicktime.

...Also I was wondering if studios still want VHS (that kind of seems very odd to me, but I've heard that some studios actually prefer that) ...or if it would be okay to send a CD or even better - DVD. What kind of media does your company prefer to view showreels on?

[DavePotts]

From a multimedia guy's point of view...

It doesn't matter what format you prefer, ALWAYS put up multiple formats of your reel. Sure, everyone in the biz has the latest Quicktime installed on their machine, but what about Joe Schmoe at the corporate office, or in human resources who has been told to narrow down the field of candidates based on the three best reels? If that guy doesn't have QT installed on his machine, he may not bother installing it just to view your reel. At the very least, you should offer it in a Windows streaming format for the non media types out there who may want to see it. I am always surprised at the number of people out there who only upload their reels in QT.

[fr3drik]

That makes a lot of sense! Thanks! :)

[Aruna]

While I agree with DavePotts' assessment of the situation of having multiple formats for web purposes, I find that you should also tailor your reel to your audience. In this case, not the general public (usually).

If you're going to post your reel to forums like these, it's most likely that your audience will have the latest QT and WMP on their computers. I wouldn't make it very small either if you want people to see exactly what you've done. A 320x240 .mov or .avi doesn't always convey how much work you really put in. Pictures are better, and a larger resolution .mov file is better, but may not always be bandwidth effective. Whenever I encode for the web, I try to encode for highest quality first. Sometimes that doesn't work for my needs when I don't need the highest quality.

In terms of VHS or DVD for reels, I still put my stuff on VHS. It's a recognized format that all post houses have, and it's very easy to put it in, hit play (if you send in your reel right, it'll autoplay), and ffw or jog through parts.. With a DVD, the recruiter has to deal with putting in the DVD, making sure that it runs (some off-the-shelf DVD-G writers write incompatible DVDs for set top boxes, to a lesser extent these days), and if you have a menu system, it can be more of a frustration. It's much harder to jog with a DVD as well, since most DVD players either don't have one, or have one on the remote.

My two cents, and hope it helps!

[fr3drik]

Very good to know. I was unaware of how important VHS-formatted reels are ... makes a lot of sense to me now though. Thanks for the tips! :)