Demo disc/VHS for Job Interview(s)

SQ · Post by SQ » Fri Dec 17, 2004 1:52 pm

Thought this would go best here.

If you have a job interview, or a job offer, or are trying to get one, and you make a nice Demo Disc of your AMVs(or MVs in general) to show your editing skills, what format should it be in?

Now, I know the best way to do this would probably be a Demo VHS or DVD, where you just pop-in and play. But I don't have that.

So I was thinking maybe something universal, like MPEG, or possibly even wmv(since most people use Windows).

But then again, there's the quality issue. Your editing skill really doesn't matter if the source looks like shit, yes?

So I was thinking either mpeg4 v2 at highest rate or mpeg4 or mpeg2.
But the sizes of these for an awesome quality thing will be above 700mb, most likely, and not fit on one CD.

What do you guys think?

I'm not asking how to encode it, but rather, what to encode it with.

rubyeye · Post by **rubyeye** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 2:29 pm

Most studios want your demo on VHS but CD-Rom is also acceptible. You should ask if they don't specify in the job application. DVD format is not that widely accepted because, like you, not everyone can make one and there's no guarenty they will be able to playback your DVD anyway.

Of course CD-Rom has that problem too, depending on how you encode/burn it. Sometimes I can't run my CDs on other computers.

For format, I use MPEG or QUICKTIME. Both are universally used and don't require any 3rd party plug-in to play like DivX or XviD. You don't know if they have it or can get it - so stick with what works.

I use Quicktime mostly because I can get higher quality at smaller file sizes to fit on a CD-Rom.

Oh, and as for what to put on there...obviously your "best work". And contrary to what you may think, visual quality does matter. But if all you have are from fansubbed or VHS captured sources, you're just going to have to compensate with presentation and design.

SQ · Post by SQ » Fri Dec 17, 2004 2:41 pm

But which mpeg version was what I was getting at.

1? 2? 4?

Zero · Post by **Zero** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 2:55 pm

1 is probably the most universal.

-Zero

Castor Troy · Post by **Castor Troy** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 5:06 pm

I ended up making a family dvd which got passed around everywhere by my parents to their co-workers that ended up getting me a pretty decent freelance gig.

Qyot27 · Post by **Qyot27** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 6:41 pm

I would do it as a standard compliant Video-CD, since most DVD players support VCD (there's probably more that support VCD than DVD±R/RW), and coupled with some smart AVISynth filtering, I've been able to fool people into thinking they were watching a DVD (of course, these people also had no comprehension of quality, but I do admit it was a really good transfer).

TMPGEnc can encode the compliant MPEG-1s, and Nero can burn the Video-CD.