[Kevin Camin]

I think your work looks nice. You are talented.

I would make a few changes to strengthen your reel:

•Make it 1.5 minutes tops. It’s waaaaaaaay too long. You have a lot of really awesome shots that show off your skills and you have a lot of banal shots too. Just use your very best shots and shave your reel down to a tight, 1.5 minute piece.

•I wouldn’t format your reel by shows. Mix the footage up. It makes it far more interesting to watch if you jump around show to show. I don’t need to know the names of the show or if it is a web series. You could put that information at the very end if you really want to.

•Regardless of copyright issues of using Johnny Cash (I’m not condoning it, but I know a lot of people who use unlicensed music for their reels), the song isn’t reel music in my opinion. I think Johnny Cash is awesome though. But you need something energetic with a great beat that you can cut to.

Really great work though!

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

Thanks for all the responses so far.

The context I was pondering would be a former classmate, someone I don’t know very well, that has influence in a company. They wouldn’t be doing the direct hiring but could put a good word in with a producer.

Or if I were networking with a stranger that had the same amount of influence at a company as above (they don’t do direct hiring) and I said, hey, if you can get me in the door as a contractor, pass my reel to the right person, I’ll buy you a 3D TV or something.

I wouldn’t gift the actual person that could hire me because that would look weird regardless of the ethics.

—-

I did have a realtor friend ask me to buy a house from her and she said she couldn’t give me a commission cut but she could buy me a gift.

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/kramer_andrew/fps.php

Andrew Kramer has a nice tutorial on making this type of conversion with AE. It’s a little bit of an involved process but he walks you through it.

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

Thanks, Walter. Yeah, I’ll steer clear unless requested.

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

I second everyone’s responses. Maybe I’m doing something wrong, but I’ve never been able to get very good h264 transcodings from Adobe Media Converter. I’ve been very impressed with Quicktime Pro 7’s h264s though. This would be a cheap option if you don’t have Compressor.

I’m not entirely clear on how Youtube works, but I would give them h264 MOVs and let them do the only FLV conversion. I think they use a data rate of about 800 or 1000/kbs and it would be a shame to have your file go through 2 FLV transcodings (one by you and one by them). Someone let me know if I’m off base with these assumptions.

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

I would just animate the three black bars on and off. And then for the top bar have it pass under a subtractive type mask on its way in and out which gives the illusion that its moving in 3D. I had to watch it a dozen times and pause it to tell what was going on. It’s actually a nice little detail that takes almost no work to do.

3495_lowerthird.aep.zip

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

I bet they used plexiglass. It has that look to me. That would also take care of minor finger print problems.

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

Thanks, Walter! Very helpful.

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

Thanks so much. I’m gonna check it out!

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Kevin Camin]

Thanks, Adam!

Best regards,

Kevin Camin