TalentPro Software Help<-- Back | Images | Resumes | Audio | VideoFile 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
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. 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.
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. Edit
Image Detail Information 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. 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. 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. 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" 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.
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). 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. 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...
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.
|