The Successful Talent: Tips for the Actor & Model

THE TECH-SAVVY TALENT DOES VIMEO

Second only to YouTube, Vimeo was the first to run high quality HD video content, but also has the highest bit-rate, resolution, and even an HD support team.  Best known by the high end artistic users, Vimeo has the same sharing capacities as YouTube, but with more complete privacy controls.  This allows the talent to choose exactly who can view their reel. 

Videos can also be posted on other social networking sites using Vimeo.  Allowing a capacity of 500MB per week of video footage (only one of which can be HD apparently), talent can post substantial amounts of footage available to search engines, client requests, and third party social networking sites.

The guidelines for compressing videos on Vimeo is below.

Codec: Choose H.264 for the video codec. Choose AAC for the audio codec.

Frame rate:  This is usually 29.97 for USA/Japan/Canada, while in Europe and rest of the world it's usually 25. If there is an option that says "current" just go with that. Please note that Vimeo converts all HD videos only up to 25 frames per second in order to optimize playback performance.

Keyframes:  Every 30 frames. This is basically how often the compressor references your uncompressed video.

Data rate:  1800 kbits/sec for standard definition 4:3 video , 2500 kbits/sec for widescreen DV, or 5000 kbits/sec for high definition. Making these numbers higher will increase both quality and size.

Size:  640x480 for standard definition 4:3 video, 872x480 for widescreen DV, or 1280x720 for high definition. It is also best to export 1920x1080 or 1440x1080 video as 1280x720 too.

Deinterlace:  Yes. If you do not deinterlace, you will often get weird-looking horizontal lines in your video.

Sound sample rate:  44.100 kHz

Audio quality:  You want audio with a bit rate of 128 kbps. You can set your audio to really good quality without increasing file size too much.

Those are basic principles that will apply to almost all video programs.

THE TECH SAVVY TALENT DOES FACEBOOK

Facebook is the most protected source for your video, although it may also be the most challenging when it comes to sharing!  In order to upload video to this site, you must have an account and download the video application.  The privacy settings offer the talent ultimate control of who sees (and doesn’t see) which videos.  It also has high quality video playback and accepts video lengths up to 20 minutes and 1GB. 

Acceptable video formats for Facebook include QuickTime Movie (mov), Windows Media Video(wmv), AVI Video (avi), MPEG Video (mpg, mpeg), Windows Media Video (asf), MPEG-4 Video (mp4, mpeg4), Mobile Video (3gpp, 3gp, 3g2), Matroska Format (mkv), Flash Player Video (flv), DVD Video (vob), Ogg Format (ogm), and Nullsoft Video (nsv).

The “tag” feature on Facebook is a great way to publicize your videos.  When a friend is tagged in a video, the connected News Feeds will post an announcement, sharing the video with others who may be interested.  This process generates stories about the video, which makes it easier for users to find relevant content more readily and drives traffic to your video.  Videos can also be sent as messages to multiple parties.

Users can search for videos uploaded by friends or in which their friends have been tagged.  By adding the video app, a list of relevant uploaded videos will appear.  Video notifications are also sent to friends, who will then have to click on the link and hit the video page in order to watch.  The more hits, the more traffic it will draw!

Keep in mind that if you are going to use your Facebook page as a means to share your work, you will also be sharing everything else you post, including personal status updates, images, and comments.  Facebook is continuously honing it’s privacy settings, so keep an eye on your abilities to protect your personal life from your professional endeavors!

THE TECH SAVVY TALENT DOES YOUTUBE

The internet’s most well known video hosting site is YouTube.  Because of the size of YouTube’s content, it can be easy to find that your uploaded videos get lost in the shuffle or that they are hard to find when doing google searches.  This shouldn’t be a concern if you are planning on sending a link to your videos upon request or embedding the video file on another site.

YouTube limits the video length to 10 minutes and the video file size to 1GB.  If you have video that exceeds these boundaries, you may want to use another hosting site.  YouTube also allows videos to be uploaded directly from mobile phones and in HD formats. 

YouTube accepts videos uploaded in most formats, including .WMV, .AVI, .MKV, .MOV, MPEG, .MP4, DivX, .FLV, and .OGG. If you do not think your current video file format is recognized by YouTube, you may get the best results from converting your file to MPEG4 video with MP3 audio.

One of YouTubes best features is having the ability to view it’s videos on web pages outside of the site itself.  This is the reason you see videos being sent around social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.  Videos can also be embedded in other websites and blogs.  YouTube was the first to make their videos compatible with viewing on mobile devices.

Need a tutorial?  YouTube offers many help videos!  Simply do a search for what you want to do and then follow the directions.  The “help” button is always a great backup, too.  They will even offer information on how to transfer the video file from your camera to the computer.  You can access it by clicking here.

Some of you are likely more tech savvy than I am, too.   What do you wish someone had shared with you before you figured out YouTube?  Or what are you still struggling to figure out? 

THE TECH SAVVY TALENT

Not all talented people are equally comfortable in front of the computer as they might be in front of the camera!  If you find yourself getting tense with these digital discussions, take a moment to center yourself and know that you can learn just about anything in life.  After all, you may have the opportunity to play a character who has to dive into a new and foreign venture (like learning how to utilize video on your computer) one day . . . and you can use the frustrations, triumphs, and research from having done so!

The next few blogs will be focused on various aspects of video that will be advantageous to the talent.  Video capture, editing, and converting will vary by computer system and user, but note that BOTH MODELS AND ACTORS have need for video submissions, and having the skills to get yourself on camera and in someone’s line of sight can only get you closer to the opportunities you are chasing!

SECRET TIP:  Did you know that talent with video submissions are frequently pushed to the front of the pile when casting directors are setting up auditions?  Assistants help sort submissions to facilitate a quick and fluid casting process for the CD and are instructed to only pass on the impressive talent packages.

There are multiple video hosting sites, so we will focus on the ones currently used within the industry.  All of these sites are FREE to use presently.  Each site will have it’s own specifications for uploading videos.  Usually formats are similar between the various sites, but size and upload speed will differ.  It’s likely that you may find one site works more easily for you than another.  Also, be aware that you may not have full control of things you upload to public sites – choose wisely!

So put on your big kid britches and get ready to dive into the new and exciting world of modern technologies!  As you keep up with the industry, it will keep up with your presence and leave a lot of your competition in the dust!