How to Format a Demo Reel

Video Transcript

"Hi. It's Craig Scime from Clearstarmedia.com and today we're talking on behalf of Expert Village and we're talking about demo reels. In our last segment we talked about price, but there's a couple of other things you need to be aware other than are you paying for a finished minute of a demo reel or if you're paying hourly. What you want to do is make sure when you find an editor you remember that you get what you pay for. If you're going to a guy that just does it part time, he's maybe a struggling actor and he's just trying to do this to get, to make ends meet, well that may not be the right person for you because they don't have anything vested in it. This is not something they take really seriously. This is not something that they really want to do or their passion. It's just something they do here and there. Go to somebody who has done it, who does it on a regular basis and who really cares about giving you a good product. That's why it may not be the best thing to do is just go to a friend who's got a good computer. Whether it be Apple software or PC software. A friend that says, "oh I can do it. I can put it together". They might be able to put it together, but are they going to put it together the way that will really get you noticed in the industry? And that's important. The other thing you really want to do is decide when you're done with your video, do you want it on a DVD. Of course, I would say yes. Absolutely you want to put it on a DVD so that you can mail it out or give it to people who can best see your work. DVD is the easiest and most well known format right now that we have. And I, like I said earlier, I don't think it's important that you make it HD and certainly making it Blue Ray or HD DVD. None of that is certainly necessary. A standard DVD will work just fine. They want to be able to see how well you can act or do whatever it is you're showcasing, not if it's a high definition DVD or anything. The quality should be good, but it doesn't have to be in this HD format. The other thing that you want to be aware of is when you're done with the edit process, do you want to put it on the web? Well if you do, well that's going to require your editor to take your demo reel and convert it into a format that it can be used to put on the web. Whether you're going to put it on I-Actor, L.A. Casting, Actor's Access or even You Tube, you need a format that's compatible. You can't just take a DVD and upload it to the internet. It doesn't work that way. So have your editor make you a special version which will be under a hundred megabytes probably, and allow you to put that up on one of those, even on My Space, one of those web sites. So, utilize that and you're going to have to find out how much extra. Generally it's a little extra cost and it may not be much to have them reincode your format. One last thing I want to leave you with before we finish this segment on price and DVD. Find out how much it costs to re-edit. Very often as an actor or as a sports figure, whatever, you do something else on video that's really great. You want to go back to that editor and see if they keep your format, or your footage rather and you want to go back and add a clip. Find out how much it is. If you're paying by the hour, you'll know exactly how much it is. Find out how they bill. Do they bill in fifteen minute increments or half hour increments. So find all that information out and if they keep your stuff on file, it's a great way for you to go back to that editor and get great quality footage real quick."