adding a reel to my website

[brooksrobinson]

I asked this question a year ago and received some great answers, advice, and help from a multitude of forum members. I am in the process of updating the reel on my website (finally), and am looking for the best way to achieve quick load times while maintaining the highest quality possible. As if that wasn’t enough to ask for, it would be great if the reel was able to be viewed on as many platforms as possible.

 

I cut the reel on Final Cut Pro X (please don’t give me grief), and it is waiting to be exported. The question is where? I’m not sure the best way to proceed. Is it possible to achieve a fast load time (less than five seconds) that won’t pause during playback and look professional with a video that is embedded in my website? If so, how best to go about it? Would it be better to have the video on Vimeo or Youtube? The issue I have with either one of these is I’d rather not have a potential client knowingly re-directed off of my site to watch the reel. If there was a way of having the reel “hosted” off-site (Vimeo/Youtube), but have it appear seamlessly on my site, that would be fine.

 

I know most of you have gone through this process with your reel and website. I’m looking for advice on the best way to proceed with this. I’m hoping that technology has changed in the last year and made this process somewhat simpler than when I attempted it last time. Thank you in advance for the help.

 

Sincerely,

 

Brooks Robinson

brooksontheroad@pacbell.net

[David Shawl SOC]

Hey Brooks,

 

You can embed Vimeo video on your website, seamlessly playing HD or non-HD video without the client ever leaving your site. I just sent you an email about it. Also the embedded Vimeo player is compatible with Flash/HTML5/iPhone/iPad/Android, so no worries about people not being able to watch it!

[Tom Wills]

Hey Brooks,

 

I actually had this same dilemma a while ago, when I was updating my reel. I had previously just used a Quicktime video on my website, but it was more hassle than it was worth. It took forever to load on some systems, the picture quality wasn't great compared to the file size, and a lot of people out there don't have a good (or recently updated) Quicktime player.

 

I ended up switching to Vimeo, and embedding the video. Vimeo doesn't watermark the video in the corner, like YouTube does, it only adds its logo to the on-screen controls. Not too big of a deal. It's also customizable, so you can set it to almost any size you need on your page. It loads quickly, and plays on everything from iPhones to Windows PCs. Really quick and easy to set up too.

 

You can check out how I did mine here: http://www.buffalosteadicam.com/clips.html

 

Hope that helps!

[Thomas K. Jensen]

You can easily setup Vimeo not to show all the icons when embedding. Also you can costumize the color of the controls and the most important, it plays on all platforms - even iOS (just remember to check the "mobile version" button)

[William Demeritt]

As someone who thought he was smart enough to export an HD video, embed it in his website and also have a seamless iOS version available, I can say that Vimeo is probably WAY easier and smarter than me (which isn't saying much, but oh well).

[brooksrobinson]

I’d like to thank all in the steadicam community that took time to responded both here on the Forum and by personal email to my website video dilemma. The vast majority of responders suggested Vimeo, and in my case, that was absolutely the right way to go. My web designer is in the process of embedding the reel from Vimeo onto my website, and it seems to load quickly, and play in high quality without pausing periodically to continue loading.

 

This forum continues to work because people take time out of their schedules to help one another. I can’t think of any other field where people who compete for the same jobs actually embrace the idea of helping one another. Thanks to all for the help, and I hope the spirit of camaraderie continues to flourish.

 

Brooks Robinson