TalentPro
Software Help
Image
Upload
File
Size
Please
have a look on the CD from your photographer for a
folder called, "email and Web" or "Web
Gallery"... you should find another copy of your
images at a more appropriate size, but don't go under
25k because they could end up grainy.
If you have any image editing programs, like Photoshop
or Paint or another software which came with your
digital camera or scanner/printer, you can resize
your image to about 800x600 pixels and "Save
As" a JPEG (.jpg).
Resizing
Your Images with Windows Paint
- On
the PC, please open the pictures in "Paint"
which can usually be found in your "Start
Menu" [ Click Start - All Programs - Accessories
- Paint ]
- Open
your image from your hard drive.
- Use
the window handles to crop in to the picture (please
no frames or borders around the picture).
- From
the top menus, select "Image" and then
"Stretch/Skew"
- You
can then put an equal percentage for "Horizontal"
and "Vertical"
- Click
OK
- Choose
"File" - "Save As" and resave
as a "JPEG" image (Ending with ".jpg").
Hint: you may wish to rename the file so as not
to save over the original.
- Then
check your file size. The ideal file for uploading
will be around 150K (Approximately 1200 x 800
pixels.)
If these options don't work for you still, please
email your images to me and we'll take care of it
for now.
File
Names
Before
you upload your images, please rename the documents
on your hard drive (or save another copy on your hard
drive with the new name). The best way to name your
image document for our system is to use your Stage
Name or First and Last Name with no spaces, commas,
apostrophes or any other punctuation. For example,
"JaneDoeHeadshot1.jpg"
If
you try to upload a file with punctuation, you will
encounter errors... so if your image file name looks
like this --> "john doe's headshot.jpg"
please rename it "JohnDoeHeadshot.jpg"
You
may upload as many images as you wish.
On
each image, you may select to mark that image "Visible."
You may wish to upload your images to our server for
easy CompCard and Portfolio Print ordering and also
for building online portfolios, but not wish that
image to appear on your main Talent Page. If so, upload
the file, but mark "Visible" as "No"
on the upload form. The file will be visible to you
and your agency manager as you access your account,
but not to anyone else using the system for searching
or casting.
Blurry
Images
Q:
Today
I was looking at My Son's picture on the website's
"on line gallery". When I pulled his picture
up it looks grainy and not clear. I looked at several
other pictures for different people and their pictures
were fine. Is there something we can do to clear his
picture up?
I
have noticed that when I use the disk that the photographer
gave me with his pictures and send the picture via
email it is not clear. Got any suggestions?
A:
On
the disk which Heath or other photographers give you...
there are several folders with the same pictures in
different sizes. It can be confusing, and we'll work
with photographers to make it easier.
For
now, take a look on the disk and find the same picture's
"file name" and a file size of about 100
to 125 kb. The on on the web site now might have ben
a "thumbnail" used in the web gallery. There
should be the same file in a higher file size on the
disk.
You
can upload the new image and delete the old one. The
file on the server is: Matt_Simmons_Headshot.01.jpg
, but might be different on your disk.
Image
Size/Type
Q:
I tried to upload my headshots onto my talent profile
on your Web site, however, it said the files were
too big. I also tried to upload some other pictures
that I took with my own digital camera, and it still
said they were too large. What kinds of pictures aren't
too large, or am I just making some erorr that I don't
see?
A:
Our
goal is to minimize confusion, however we also have
to maintain some method of standardization with images
and video and such.
When you upload images to the Web site, they need
to be less than 1.5 MB in size and of file type ".jpg"
Generally, when you get a disc from a photographer,
there will be one folder with all "high-rez"
images in it, and another folder will be marked, "for
viewing" or "emailable" or "For
Web" or something like that. Those images should
already be sized down for use on our web site.
The best thing to do with your images from your camera
is to open the image in Photoshop or PaintShop Pro
or any other image editing software and resize the
images to be smaller than 800x600 pixels and save
them as ".jpg" files with a compression/quality
setting in the middle (between 5 and 8 usually is
fine).
If you still have issues, please email a few picture
samples to WebSupport@
PhotoCalibur.com
so we may investigate the issue.
Edit
Image Detail Information
(Change caption, photographer name, etc.)
Q:
Hi... I was just at your workshop and I saw my photo
on the gallery page and i like it. I like it but I
am wondering if you could help me to change the caption
under the picture?
A:
You can change the caption and other information by
logging in, clicking on the "Images" button,
and then click on "Edit" next to the photo.
Blurry
Images
Q:
Today
I was looking at My Son's picture on the website's
"on line gallery". When I pulled his picture
up it looks grainy and not clear. I looked at several
other pictures for different people and their pictures
were fine. Is there something we can do to clear his
picture up?
I
have noticed that when I use the disk that the photographer
gave me with his pictures and send the picture via
email it is not clear. Do you have any suggestions?
A:
On
the CD you receive from your photographer... there
should be several folders with the same pictures in
different sizes.
Take
a look on the disk and find the same picture's "file
name" and a file size of about 100 to 125 kb.
The one on the web site now might have ben a "thumbnail"
used in the web gallery. There should be the same
file in a higher file size on the disk.
You
can upload a new image and delete the old one. On
the Images Control Page, you will see a button for
"Replace" next to each photo. Use this to
overwrite the old image with the correct one.
Resume
Section
The
Resume section of our Web site allows you to upload
your current resume as a file and to build an online
resume on our system that you can print.
Resume
Upload
Uploading
your current resume is the easiest way to make your
experiences available to our clients.
Before
you upload your resume, please rename the document
on your hard drive (or save another copy on your hard
drive with the new name). The best way to name your
resume document for our system is to use your Stage
Name or First and Last Name with no spaces, commas,
apostrophes or any other punctuation. For example,
"JaneDoeResume.doc"
If
you try to upload a file with punctuation, you will
encounter errors... so if your resume filename looks
like this --> "john doe's resume.wps"
please rename it "JohnDoeResume.wps"
Resume
Builder
We
highly recommend you use our resume builder application
and start print your resumes from our Web site, even
replacing your document on your hard drive with our
online resume. It will be very easy for you to keep
your online resume up-to-date, while ensuring it is
searchable through our Web site and through various
casting Web sites to which we subscribe.
You
may create more than one resume if you have experiences
you would target for specific casting directors. (For
example, you might build one standard talent resume
and another for behind the scenes crew positions if
you've had any.)
Your
Online Resume is a collection of Resume Sections,
Resume Items and Skill Sets.
Your
"Special Skills" are taken from your Talent
Bio and are automatically updated when you update
your Bio.
The
Resume Builder lets you choose two ways of building
your resume.
- First
Method: Enter all of your experiences at one time
by "Adding Resume Items." Then Add "Sections"
to your resume and choose "Section Items"
from a drop-down menu on the builder. This will
also work for your second resume as all previously
entered items are available for other resumes.
- Second
Method: Add all of your ":Resume Sections"
first and then add "Section Items" to
each section. This may be easier if you already
have a previously printed Resume document and would
like to enter it into the Resume Builder.
Either
way, the result will be the same. You will see on
your Resume Builder a "View Printable" button
which will present you with a Web Page formatted for
printing your resume on the back of an 8x10 photograph
or on a piece of paper. You could also save the printable
document as an HTML document and reformat it in your
word processing software (such as Microsoft Word).
Audio
Upload
If
you are new to audio recording and editing, the first
thing you need to know is about the types of audio
files you can use on the Internet. The most
common types, and therefore the most available to
our clients, are Apple Quicktime (.qt or .mov), Windows
Media (.wmv) and MPEG (.mpg).
Most
software, however, use their own audio compression
standard, so the original files you create will more
likely be Microsoft Wave (.wav) files on the PC and
(.aiff) files on the Macintosh.
You
will first record your audio with a suitable audio
software program and then convert the file for use
on the Web. If you already have files on your
computer and wish to convert them for use on the Web,
please skip ahead to "File Conversion and Upload."
First
things first. The Microphone. Do not use
the microphone that came with your computer.
We're going to take our audio through many steps to
get it on the Web and you will find that you have
greater flexibility working with your file if the
original is the best quality recording, and that requires
a quality microphone. For the best results,
search the web for "Professional Voice Recording
Microphone" and include the quotation marks when
searching as the search engine will give you matches
first that include the exact words you used.
You can expect to pay between 50 and 200 dollars for
a quality microphone. If you are going to do
voice work, you'll need it anyway.
There
are several utilities that let you record audio from
your microphone... you can use Quicktime Pro, or advanced
audio editing programs like Adobe Audition or ProTools
or you can use the "Sound Recorder" utility
included with windows.
Keep
in mind that when people listen to demo audio... they
expect to hear 30 second clips at most. Do not
include an entire narration or record an entire commercial
where you only speak five seconds.
For
demo purposes, you can easily mimic radio commercials
or television commercials... just slightly change
the name of the product so you don't violate any copyright
laws. Of course, if you have professional samples
of previous work, you are encouraged to upload them.
When
you record:
Somewhere
in the preferences or settings of your software, you
will find a way to state the properties of the recording.
The settings generally include "stereo or mono,"
"bit rate (KB/s or MB/s)" and "KHz."
CD quality audio is Stereo, 16 bits/sec and 44.1 KHz.
You can use these settings for capture if you have
a very fast computer. You will resample later,
but the better the quality at the beginning the better
the quality at the end. (The glass half full
interpretation of "Garbage-In / Garbage-Out")
For
older computers, set the Audio options to Mono, 16
bits/sec and 22.1 KHz. This would be your best
target output for the final sample. You may
find recommendations to move down to 8 bits/sec and/or
11 KHz.... but the final audio quality is not acceptable
for our Web site. Our clients tend to have high-end
computer systems and quality speakers.
File
Conversion and Upload
You
can use a variety of toos to convert your audio for
the Web.
If
you have prerecorded audio on CD you will need to
"rip" the CD which imports the actual audio
files and converts them to MP3, WMV or MOV format.
You cannot select the files on a CD and upload them
(nor from a DVD) if the CD is designed to play on
a standard CD player. If you have data files
on CD already in MP3 format, they are suitable for
use. The files your computer sees on an audio
CD are reference files, so anything named .ifo or
.cda are not the actual media files and cannot be
uploaded.
We
accept .mp3, .wmv, .wma and .wav files of a certain
type and also realaudio. Audio files need to be able
to play easily on client computers, which is the reason
for our file size and file type conventions.
Two
common and free utilities for "ripping"
audio are Apple iTunes and Windows Media Player.
iTunes
Open
iTunes first and open your "Preferences"
from the "Edit" menu.
Make
note of the folder identified as your iTunes Music
Folder as this is where your files will be saved.
Click
on the "Advanced" tab and then cilck on
the "Importing" tab on the "Advanced"
screen.
Change
the "Import Using" selector to "MP3
Encoder" and set quality to "High".
Our upload file size limit is 2.5 MB which will be
enough for about three minutes of MP3. We
do recommend, however, keeping your demo clips to
30 seconds to 1 minute in length as that is what a
client expects to hear and we have to be mindful of
how much time we expect them to wait for a file to
download and play.
Apply
your changes and close the preferences window.
Put
your CD in the CD drive. Let iTunes recognize
the CD and display the files.
Create
a new Playlist in iTunes for your audio demo by selecting
"File" and "New Playlist."
Drag
the files listed for your CD into the Playlist.
iTunes will convert your audio to MP3 format and save
them in the iTunes music folder. Your files
may be in a sub folder called "Untitled."
Double
click each of your audio files listed in your Playlist
to open the file properties. You should add
your name, the date recorded and any other information
you wish. This information will be stored in
the Meta Space of the MP3 file so when the file is
opened by the client, your name and information will
be displayed.
iTunes
will rename the "Untitled" folder to match
whatever is listed as the "Artist Name"
in the properties of the files.
Your
MP3 files should now be perfect for uploading and
available to any client computer.
Windows
Media Player
Open
Windows Media Player from your Start Menu click on
the "Rip" tab.
Set
your import preferences by selecting "Options"
from the "Tools" menu across the top of
the player window.
Click
on the "Rip Music" tab of the "Options"
window.
Your
options inlcude several flavors of Windows Media and
also MP3. You may wish to do some experimentation
with your files and try both Windows Media format
and MP3 format to see what the difference in file
size and quality are. Is some cases, the Windows
Media file will be smaller and in others the MP3 will
be... generally depending on the complexity of the
audio, including vocals, music or sound effects.
A
safe place to start and very likely your best solution,
will be to choose the first Windows Media Audio setting
(uses standard compression).
Leave
the checkboxes unchecked so you can manually control
the process and ensure the audio can play for anyone.
Adjust
the Audio Quality slider to 128Kbps. If your
file is just slightly too large, you can try moving
the Audio Quality slider to 96Kbps but double check
the output file for quality control.
Uploading
Your Audio Files
Once
you have created your final render of your audio file,
you can upload it to the Web site by logging in to
the Talent Control Panel and choose the "Audio"
button. You will see a list of any audio clips
you already have uploaded and at the top of the page
you will see a link for "Add Audio Clip".
The
required fields appear first followed by optional
description fields. The more fields you give
information, including key words, description, recording
information, etc... the more findable the file will
be on our Talent Search Engine. We therefore
encourage you to take a few minutes to fill in the
upload forms completely.
Video
Upload
If
you are new to video capture and editing, the first
thing you need to know is about the types of video
files you can use on the Internet. The most
common types, and therefore the most available to
our clients, are Apple Quicktime (.qt or .mov), Windows
Media (.wmv) and MPEG (.mpg).
Apple
Quicktime. This is the industry standard for
video professionals and a player is included with
every Web browser, so this is a safe format for our
Web site. Quicktime is available as a player
for free and included with iTunes, for both Mac and
Windows. To edit and convert Video, you will
need to upgrade the Player to the PRO version and
you will see additional menu choices on the application.
Visit Quicktime.Apple.com
to download the player for free. Once you install
the player, open the application and you will find
an "Upgrade" choice under the "Help"
menu. Quicktime does not Capture video...
so you will need to use another program to get the
video into the computer. Most applications on
Windows will capture files as Microsoft AVI (.avi)
and most programs on the Mac will save video as Quicktime
(.qt or .mov) and then you can recompress your video
and change the screen size and frame rate from Quicktime
Player Pro when you "Export" or "Save
As".
Windows
Media
You
probably already have Windows Media Player installed
on your computer, which can play video and music and
can record music or audio files. The Player
does not capture Video or convert video. You
need to visit Microsoft.com and do a search for "Windows
Media Encoder." Here is a link, but because
of the way Microsoft's web site works, we never know
when links change. TRY
HERE.
Once
you install the Windows Media Encoder, you can select
your digital camera as the video source and record
movies directly to .wmv format. You can also
use the Encoder to recompress other movie files you
may already have.
MPEG
MPEG
stands for "Motion Picture Experts Group"
and the files are generally named ".mpg"
or ".mpeg" or ".mp4" which is
just a different standard than the Audio MP3 we all
use on our iPods. The name is not a coincidence...
MP3 was created for audio on the way to MP4 by the
same consortium.
MPEG
movies are played in all sorts of media players, including
Quicktime Player and Windows Media Player. If
you get any type of video editing software, it will
most likely have the ability to save your files as
(.mpg).
You
can get much smaller files with MPEG... however...
the price is quality and this is the least reliable
of the three choices because the compression codecs
are different on just about every piece of software
with different versions out there. We are not
saying not to use this format... but encouraging you
to work with Quicktime or Windows Media.
Most
of the digital cameras that record audio on the market
record as MPEG. This is a very easy method for
you to record your video and copy it to the computer.
However, we recommend that you re-convert the MPEG
file using Quicktime PRO or Windows Media Encoder.
The reason is that your camera may have a different
standard of MPEG for saving its files than are available
in other software players. You would hate to
go through all this work just to find out the file
did not play correctly on the casting director's computer!
None
of these programs are meant for editing video, but
they do allow you to trim the beginning and the end
of the clip. Quicktime Pro does have editing
capabilities, but only basic manipulation.
If
you have a Mini-DV or DVD camera, you can use the
"FireWire" connection from the camera to
the computer and should have instructions with the
camera's user guide for proper use.
To
capture video from a camera that does not have "FireWire"...
you need some hardware, some software... and obviously,
a camera. You should also consider getting an
extra hard drive. External USB 2.0 hard drives
are relatively affordable and for about a hundred
dollars you should be able to get a 100GB or more
drive. Video will capture better to a different
drive than your system drive, and you will definitely
need the storage space.
The
easiest hardware solution is a USB to Video box like
the Pinnacle 500-USB or the ProPix EVE, either of
which will cost between 50 and 100 dollars depending
on which model and included software you get.
Pinnacle
is owned by Avid and works with Pinnacle Studio.
If you have a DVD burner, Pinnacle Studio has a utility
which will burn video directly to DVD.
Video
your audition or demo scene with adequate lighting.
If it is going to be indoors, do it during the day,
near but not directly in front of a window and turn
on every light in the room and bring in others from
another room. Your camera will adjust to compensate
and there is generally no such thing as too much light.
Too little light or light from only one direction
will cause your camera to have problems staying in
focus and your image will either be too high contrast
or grainy.
Connect
your camera to the USB/Video box, launch the software
and select the camera as the Source device.
You should see settings on your software for adjusting
the size of the image, the frames per second (fps)
and the data rate (MB/S) and audio settings.
When
you work with images, video or audio on the computer,
it is always best to get the best quality file as
possible. If you have a very fast computer,
you can capture the video at "full-motion / full-frame"
quality. That will be relatively 640x480 or
728x462 pixels at 30 fps.
Unless
you have a state-of-the-art computer system, don't
expect to capture anything longer the ten minutes
at full quality... the audio could drift and the video
become jerky. It is best to "digitize"
several smaller clips than one big one. If your
video is less than ten minutes, you should be okay,
but five minutes seems to be what a normal computer
can handle.
You
then use Windows Media Encoder or QuickTime Pro to
resize and resample the video clip to the specifications
for the Web site (see below).
If
you have trouble or know that you have a slower computer...
you will do better to digitize your video at 320x240
pixels at 24 fps.
As
for audio, you will find settings for stereo/mono,
bit rate and KHz. CD quality audio is Stereo,
16 bits/sec and 44.1 KHz. You can use these
settings for capture if you have a very fast computer.
You will resample later, but the better the quality
at the beginning the better the quality at the end.
(The glass half full interpretation of "Garbage-In
/ Garbage-Out")
For
average computers, set the Audio options to Mono,
16 bits/sec and 22.1 KHz. This would be your
best target output for the final sample. You
may find recommendations to move down to 8 bits/sec
and/or 11 KHz.... but the final audio quality is not
acceptable for our Web site. Our clients tend
to have high-end computer systems and the audio of
a video is as important if not more important than
the image. (See "Gestalt" principles
of psychology for more information.)
Your
final rendering settings, after capturing and editing...
the file you will upload to our Web site should be...
- 320
x 240 pixels
- 24
fps
- 512
KB/s up to 1.2 MB/s (data rate)
- Windows
Media (.wmv) or Quicktime (.mov) - be
sure to add the file extensions to your file names.
People with Macs in particular have problems on
the Web because Mac OS does not require filename
extensions and everyone else does.
- If
you use Quicktime... check your compression settings
and use H.263 with Hinted Streaming.
For
more information, please visit our affiliated web
site, Artist-Spotlight.com.
Uploading
Your Video Files
Once
you have created your final render of your video file,
you can upload it to the Web site by logging in to
the Talent Control Panel and choose the "Videos"
button. You will see a list of any video clips
you already have uploaded and at the top of the page
you will see a link for "Add Video Clip".
The
required fields appear first followed by optional
description fields. The more fields you give
information, including key words, description, filming
information, producers, photographers, etc... the
more findable the file will be on our Talent Search
Engine. We therefore encourage you to take a
few minutes to fill in the upload forms completely.
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