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Usability improvements, feature requests and bug fixes

Feature requests and fixes:

Hide project year on resume.
I received a lot of requests over the past weeks for an option to hide the year of any project listed on the resume. To do so, go to Log in to your Mixform account, click on Account Settings, and Portfolio Settings. Check the box at bottom that says "Hide Project Year On Resume".
Agency contact info on contact page.
Enter agency or representation information in your resume, and it will also show on your contact page!
Account look up
Forgot your portfolio address and can't login to your account? You can now look it up at http://mixform.com/find
Navigation Bug
The navigation was collapsing in some of the skins if you had all your of your tabs showing on your site. Fixed!
Truncated Text Glitch
I changed the way snippets of text were being selected from your projects, articles, etc, and then shown on the homepage or resume. You know, the "read more..." or "read full article..." parts. Some of the text was being cut off. Fixed!
Artist Spotlight
I created a new section on the Mixform website: Artist Spotlight. We'll be featuring artists that use Mixform every month. Just a small way of saying THANK YOU! to all the awesome artists using the site.

Still working on:

PayPal button integration
Don't worry. It's coming. I can't wait to add it to my own portfolio :)
More Twitter! More Facebook!
Live feeds are coming soon.
Audio Samples
The new audio samples page is almost ready.
Auto save blog posts
I lost a couple of articles last week myself. This is something that is driving me nuts. Will be fixing this problem very soon.

Suggestions? Send feedback to support@mixform.com

May 21st, 2011 | Permalink |

New Skins

Three new designs for your portfolio.

Watercolor

Rich textures and bold colors make "WaterColor" an unforgettable skin. Choose the black and white version for a more subdued look.

Imperfectionist

An elegant first draft of your site. This appealing design is available in different colors.

Retro Robot

Retro yet futuristic, this skin makes a statement without upstaging your content.

To add any of this designs to your site, log in to Mixform, and click at "Change Design" at the top of the page. Hope you enjoy them!

March 24th, 2011 | Permalink |

New Skins: Carbon and Writer's Block

Writer's Block

Clean design with great fonts. Choose this skin if you love beautiful typography. Multiple colors available.

Carbon

"Carbon" has some really cool textures and details. Simple and elegant dark background design. Keeps the focus on your images.

To add any of this designs to your site, log in to Mixform, and click at "Change Design" at the top of the page. Hope you enjoy them!

March 24th, 2011 | Permalink |

Events Section Update

I've been working on updating the events section at Mixform. Here is a sumary of what I've finished

Better layout

New event page layout

I streamlined the way information is displayed in the event page. You can now see important information such as, ticket prices and showtimes, with a quick glance

Project snippet

The project snippet shows a short description of your project, with links to images, articles, and anything you have tagged to your project's page.

Project snippet on events page

Map and link to directions

A small map (with a link to a larger one) a link, with directions, is automatically generated from the venue address you provide.

Venue address, directions and ticket information

Buy Tickets button

Make it easy for people to buy tickets. A button is created from the ticket purchase url you provide

Share on Twitter and Facebook

Two buttons that allows for you and your visitors to post the event page to Facebook and Twitter.

Tick Stubs in the events homepage

Giving the events page some character, I added a cool ticket background for every event on your events list.

March 23rd, 2011 | Permalink |

How to update your DNS reccords at go daddy

Go Daddy made some changes to their domain manager interface, so I put together this tutorial to help you update your DNS reccords and point your domain to your portfolio

First, go to godaddy.com and login using your username and password.

Once you are logged in, make sure you are in the "Products" tab. Mouse over "domains", and click on "Domain Management", as shown in the image below:

Now, click on the domain you want to update, mine is deboraprado.com by the big red arrow :) :

Next, scroll down until you see "DNS Manager", than click "Launch":

Click on the pencil icon to edit the A (host) reccord. Enter "209.20.74.92" where it says "points to". That's it, just save and you are done!

You might need to wait a little while for the changes to take effect. Any questions email support@mixform.com

January 27th, 2011 | Permalink |

Forget Acting, Teach Me How To Audition!

Article written by Monique Renee Moses - Film & Television Year Student, originally posted on the SFT blog

I’ve only been taking Audition Technique for a little over a month, but I can already tell that this surprisingly specific training is truly going to make the difference between getting the job and not getting the job. Many young actors don’t realize that the actor’s real work is the audition; I’ve been told that quite possibly 80% of my time and effort will be spent either trying to get auditions (or an agent and manager who can get them for me), preparing for said auditions and then, of course, going and coming from auditions. I might get to spend about 5% of my time on an actual set, if my cards/the stars are played right/aligned. Then, of course, my remaining 15% of time should be spent on more training and networking…but will probably be spent either watching entire seasons of HBO shows and/or playing Frontierville. (At least I’ll have control over something, am I right? Ha, ha…sigh.)

Although many things go into a great audition, I compiled a few fail-safe gems of knowledge that all actors need to know before entering that audition room- and all of them have absolutely nothing to do with acting. Auditioning is a craft of it own; and when you can couple that with openness, availability and good acting technique, well then, gee, you’re halfway there

1. Say hello when you enter the room like a normal human being. Be friendly and confident. Avoid awkward and creepy.

2. Even though your mother raised you well, don’t shake the casting director’s hand. Whether you’ve had to shake 100 hands, or you’re the 100th hand to be shaken, it’s gross and should be avoided at all costs.

3. Play to the Reader or your scene partner, not the camera. This isn’t QVC.

4. Keep your eyes up and off of the page. Get the lines you need, then deliver them in a focused and connected manner. You won’t be hired because you’re a good READER, you’ll be hired because you are a good ACTOR.

5. Learn to become comfortable with the script. Refrain from holding it in front of your face. Hold it at chest level at a comfortable arms length and make it an extention of yourself.

6. Always be you. It’s just easier.

You’d be surprised at how many actors take these for granted, or don’t even know to do them at all. They really do make a world of difference, and free you up to be even more expressive and honest to the story of the scene.

January 19th, 2011 | Permalink |

Services Tab

You can now add a "Services" section to your portfolio website. To do so, log in to your account, and click on manage tabs.

services section

January 3rd, 2011 | Permalink |

Album cover custom cropping

You can now fine tune the cropping of your photo album covers. If you are not happy with the way the album thumbnail is automatically generated, click on the "crop" button (see images below)

January 3rd, 2011 | Permalink |

How to track visitors to your mixform site using google analytics

So you got a brand new actor website and you want to get some stats on who has been visiting your pages. You can use Google Analytics to get tons of information about your visitors. Continue reading for the complete tutorial...

1) First you need to create a Google Analytics account. It doesn't cost anything, like Gmail.

2) Once you are in, click on "+ Add new account". It's all the way on the right:

3) Click on the "sign up" button to continue, and you will get to this page:

Enter your site's url (yourname.mixform.com or www.yourname.com if you have it), choose an account name and pick your country and time zone. Once you are done hit continue. The next pages you will need to enter your name and accept the terms and conditions. It's pretty straight forward.

4) Finally you will get to a page where you can get your tracking number. It looks like UA-XXXXX-X where X's are numbers. Copy the whole UA-XXXX-X number. You don't need the rest of the code. Click SAVE AND FINISH. Leave this page and go login to your Mixform Portfolio. I blocked out part of the tracking number in the screen below for privacy.

5) Now you need to login to Mixform, go to Account Settings, Portfolio Settings and enter the tracking number (UA-XXXXX-X) in the box that says google analytics tracker id and save.

6) Go back to Google Analytics. You might need to wait a few hours (some times it takes a day) until you start seeing your stats.

It's ok if you see "tracking unknown" right after you create the account. It takes a while to get going. However, if this has not changed in a couple of days, make sure you entered the correct UA-XXXX number into your Mixform portofolio.

November 19th, 2010 | Permalink |

How to Add E-mail signature on Microsoft Outlook

Open Microsoft Outlook.
Click the "Tools" menu on the menu bar.
Click "Options."
Click on the "General" tab.
Click the "Email Options" link.
Click the "Email Signatures" tab.
Enter the title of the signature in the title box. The title of the signature is important, especially if you plan on using more than one signature for your emails (one for personal emails, one for professional, one for fun, etc.).
Fill in the body of the signature in the text field titled "Create your email signature." Here you can include plain text, as well as pictures, animated images (in the form of HTML links) and anything else that can be displayed in a HTML enabled email server
Click "Add" to finalize the signature.
Click the "New" button to create another signature. You can simply repeat steps 7, 8 and 9 to complete the process. You may continue to add signatures until you are done.

November 17th, 2010 | Permalink |

How to Create a Signature in Thunderbird Email

Open Thunderbird. Click on “Tools”. This will open a list of options.
Scroll down the list and click on “Account Settings.” This will open a dialogue box that displays the default identity. If this is not the email account you wish to work with, scroll through the list on the left-hand side to locate it. Click on the appropriate email account.
In the identity display, there is a check box with an “Attach this signature” with location box and “Choose” button below it.
Use the “Choose” button to locate your signature file. Once you locate the file, select it, and click “OK”.
Verify that the correct file and location has been input into the address bar. If it has not, search and select again. Once the correct file and location is in the location bar, click “OK” on the identity display.
Use the “Write” option to open up a new email. Your signature should be displayed on it. It will not display as an attachment, but as part of the text.
Verify that your signature shows up as desired by sending yourself an email to another account. If there are problems with the display, you may need to alter the signature file itself in order to correct it.

November 17th, 2010 | Permalink |

Mac OS X Mail: How to add a signature to your email

In Mail, you can add prepared text (a "signature") to the end of email you send.

You can add one signature to all messages automatically or create several and choose one when you compose a message.

To create a signature:

Choose Preferences from the Mail application menu and click Signatures
Select the signature you created and drag it to your account
To add the signature automatically to every message, choose it from the Select Signature pop-up menu.
to choose a signature when you compose a message, select "Choose signature when composing email".

November 17th, 2010 | Permalink |

Adding a signature to Gmail

A signature is a bit of personalized text (such as your contact information or a favorite quote) that is automatically inserted at the bottom of every message you send.

To create a signature:

Sign in to Gmail.
Click Settings at the top of any Gmail page.
Enter your new signature text in the box at the bottom of the page next to the Signature option. As you type, the radio button will shift from No Signature to the text box.
Click Save Changes.

Signatures are separated from the rest of your message by two dashes.

If you don't want your signature to appear on a specific message, you can delete it manually before sending the message. Just highlight the text and delete it before sending.

November 17th, 2010 | Permalink |

How to Make an Email Signature for Hotmail

An email signature is a great way to automatically include all the important contact information you want to send at the end of every email. With a few clicks you can set up an email signature in Hotmail.

Log on to Hotmail and click on "Options" in the top right-hand corner of the Hotmail window.
Find the "Customize Your Mail" menu. From the menu, click on "Personal Email Signature." A signature window will open.
Type in the text of your signature into the text box.
Use the icons above the text box to change the font, font size, alignment of the text. Click the "Globe" icon to insert a hyperlink to a web page into your Hotmail signature.
Click the "Save" button when you're through editing your signature.
Create a new Hotmail email message to check your signature. Your signature should appear automatically every time you open a new message.

November 17th, 2010 | Permalink |

How do I add or change a signature in Yahoo Mail?

Here’s how:

Click Options in the upper-right corner of your Mail page and select More Options.

From the list on the left, click Signature.

You can select Show a signature on all outgoing messages to enable the signature. Select Do not use a signature if you want to turn your signature off – or you can simply delete it manually from emails in which you’d rather not show it.

On the far right of the message window, above the text area, click either Plain Text or Rich Text. Plain Text is just the letters. In Rich Text, you can work with color, font, size and style choices that you select from the toolbar.

Note: For a Rich Text signature to appear in Rich Text, you must compose your email in Rich Text. Make that selection by clicking the Rich Text link in the Compose window, to the right of the Subject box.

Next, add or change your signature by typing in the text area.

At the top of the page, click Save Changes.

Your signature will now appear at the bottom of any message you compose.

November 17th, 2010 | Permalink |

Add a link to your portfolio in your email signature

So you gotta brand new portfolio website :). You probably already sent out an e-mail to your contacts about it. You should also add your site's url to your email signature.

Offering general advice on signatures is easy, sure. But anyone who has tried to implement automatic signatures in Outlook, Gmail or Yahoo knows it’s not always that simple. Here are some resources to help you get yours right every time and end your emails with a flair.

Outlook
How to Add E-mail signature on Microsoft Outlook

Gmail
Adding a signature to Gmail

Hotmail
How to Make an Email Signature for Hotmail

Yahoo
How do I add or change a signature in Yahoo Mail?

Apple Mail
Mac OS X Mail: How to add a signature to your email

iPhone
iPhone 101: Updating your "Sent from my iPhone" email signature

BlackBerry
How to Add a Signature to Emails on BlackBerry Curve

Palm Pre
Palm Pre: Add Email Signature

Entourage
Setting up E-mail signature on Entourage

Thunderbirb
How to Create a Signature in Thunderbird Email

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Futher reading/Resources:

The Art And Science Of The Email Signature
The 4 Personalities of Poor Email Signatures
20 Tips for Creating an Effective Email Signature About the Signature Block on Wikipedia
Email Signature Etiquette

November 17th, 2010 | Permalink |

Ways to promote your portfolio website

Email Signature
Add a link to your portfolio in your email signature

Don't forget IMDB
How to add your official website to IMDB

Go social
Social Networks For Artists
How to add social media icons to your portfolio website

Start a blog
How to enable blog comments on your Mixform website

Start a podcast
iTunes Podcast Submission (the quick version)
Host a web series on your website

November 17th, 2010 | Permalink |

Awards and Special Selection Laurels on your home page

New home page widget: Awards and Special Selection Laurels. Show off your awards and festivals on your homepage. To add this widget to your homepage, log in to Mixform, click change homepage layout, and select "Awards (laurels)" from the + add widget menu.

The laurels are automatically generated from your events. If you want to "block" a particular event from appearing on your homepeage, simply edit the event end select the check box: "don't show on homepage".

November 2nd, 2010 | Permalink |

New Resume PDF Layout

We've greatly improved the layout of the resume PDF. It is almost identical to what you see on your site.We actualy changed the whole process that generates the PDF.

If you find some glitches, let us know!

November 2nd, 2010 | Permalink |

Project snippets on Resume

We did a lot of work on the resumes on Mixform this past month. The coolest new feature are little "snippets" you get when you mouse-over a project's title on the resume.

If you've worked on a project that is not very well known, but you have great pics/videos/articles about it, this is the place to show it off. Just enter all the information (and tag images and videos) on your projects page, and the synopsis will show on your resume.

November 2nd, 2010 | Permalink |

How to show/hide sections of your website

We made it easier to manage your site's tabs. Log in to Mixform, and click on "Manage Tabs" at the top. Then you can sort, hide and add new tabs to your site. You can still use the "hide section" button at the bottom of every page. None of your content is delete when you hide a tab. You can bring it back any time.

November 2nd, 2010 | Permalink |

New Feature: Rich text editor for you blog

It's now much easier to add images, links and even videos to your blog posts on your Mixform website. Don't worry If you were using textile markup before, I converted all the articles to work with the new editor. You can still use textile to add links to other parts of your site.

Login to your portfolio, go to "News", and click "Add New Article". You will see that the form has changed. The "body" and "extended body" fileds have a toolbar with buttons to format your text, add images, create links, etc. It's pretty much self explanatory, just like the word processing software you use in your computer.

If you are writting a long post, you can re-size the text area by clicking on the handle at the bottom right corner. The last button on the toolbar (it's a little blue screen) will make the text area go full screen.

Happy blogging!

November 2nd, 2010 | Permalink |

Autumn Canvas, Focus and Graphite: 3 New Skins

We've added 3 new Skins to Mixform. They all come with color variations and a black and white option.

To add them to your site, Log in to Mixform and click on "Change Design".

Check out a live preview of Autumn Canvas.

We hope you enjoy them!

Autumn Canvas

Focus

Graphite

November 1st, 2010 | Permalink |

New Homepage Widget: Slide Show

You can now add a slideshow to your homepage. Simply login to Mixform, click "edit homepage layout" and choose "Slide Show" under the widgets menu. You can see a live example here.

November 1st, 2010 | Permalink |

How to enable blog comments on your Mixform website

We decided to support comments via DISQUS, which is a free third party service, that will provide you with the interface to manage your comments.

We chose DISQUS because It allows your audience to post comments using their facebook, twitter and openid accounts (among others). It has an interface for moderating posts. It will keep away spam. And most importantly, it aggragates reactions everywhere on the web about your articles. What that means is that when someone posts a link to your article on twitter for example, it will automatically show up on your page right below your comments. This feature is optional, and you can turn it off if you don’t like it.

You can set it all up in less than a minute. There are only 2 steps:

1) Create an account at DISQUS

Site URL is your Mixform Website Url (yourname.mixform.com) or your domain name if you have one (www.yourname.com). Remember your shortname, you will need it in the next step. You don’t need to configure any settings on DISQUS right now, you can go back to your Mixform Account.

2) After you create your account, you need to go back to your portfolio on Mixform and enable the comments. It’s very simple. Just go “Account Settings” > “Portfolio Settings” and enter tour DISQUS shortname. That’s it.

Let us know how this feature is working out for your!

;)

Deb

October 29th, 2010 | Permalink |

7 Awesome Filmmaking Apps For The Ipad And IPhone

Here is a roundup of a few Iphone and Ipad apps useful for filmmakers, from digital slates to full blown video editing.

Storyboard Composer

Cinemek Storyboard Composer for iPhone and iPod Touch is a mobile storyboard and pre-visualization composer designed for Directors, Directors of Photography, Producers, Writers, Animators, Art Directors, film students and anyone who wants to be able to visualize their story.

It is the world’s first mobile storyboarding application which allows you to acquire photos with your phone or by Artemis Directors Finder for iPhone, then add traditional storyboarding markups such as dolly, track, zoom and pan. You can even add your own stand-ins. The user can set a duration for each storyboard panel and then play it back to get real time feedback on pacing and framing.

Requirements:
Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later.

ReelDirector

Full-blown video editing for iPhone and iPad.

Requirements:
Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1 or later.

DSLR Slate

DSLR Slate is the perfect companion for the DSLR Filmmaker. As a Universal App, DSLR Slate runs natively on iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Designed for all needs from student to hollywood, DSLR Slate will be just as useful as the traditional film slate, if not more. “Slating” shots has become standard practice on set and helps streamline shot logging and post production.

Requirements:
Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later.

pCAM Film+Digital Calculator

A Cinematography and Still Photography calculator for Photographers, Directors of Photography, Camera Operators, Camera Assistants, VFX Supervisors, Script Supervisors, Gaffers, Grips, Motion Picture Editors, Production Designers, Art Directors, Film and Photography Students.

Requirements:
Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later.

Action Log Pro

Action Log is a film and television logging tool, designed for use on location or in a studio with up to 25 recording devices. At the touch of a button the logging system keeps track of all reel names and timecodes for each recorded piece of action.

Requirements:
Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1.2 or later.

Movie Slate

“Movie★Slate is the the Rolls-Royce of iPad/iPhone clapboards” says HandHeldHollywood.com. Movie★Slate a convenient, all-in-one digital slate, clapper board, shot log, and shot notepad— designed for use in film, television, documentaries, music videos, and interviews. This professional production tool is the easy way to log footage and take notes as you shoot— saving you valuable time later when capturing and editing footage. At a mere fraction of a bulky digital clapperboard’s cost, you’ll be saving money too.

Requirements:
Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later.

iMovie

Make beautiful HD movies anywhere with iMovie, the fun, feature-rich video editing app designed for Multi-Touch. Create a video postcard of your day at the beach and publish it to the web — without ever leaving your spot in the sand. Or make a movie of your child’s birthday party and send it to your parents — while the party is in full swing. With iMovie, you can start several projects and finish them whenever you want and wherever you are.

Requirements:
Compatible with iPhone 4. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.

More to come…

This list is a work in progress. Please suggest more apps in the comments!

September 15th, 2010 | Permalink |

Host a web series on your website

I’ve added a new feature to Mixform .

You can now host your own video podcast on your website. All you need to do is upload a video and the podcast feed is created automatically. Think about not only having a demo reel on your portfolio, but hosting your own web series.

You can customize your podcast information (including all the iTunes tags) under the Account Settings area of your portfolio.

Here is an article on how to submit your podcast to iTunes if you are interested.

I’ve raised the video limit in all paid accounts to give you more room to create your show.

Happy Podcasting!

Deb

September 8th, 2010 | Permalink |

How to add a custom favicon to your website

A favicon (short for favorites icon), is small image associated with a webpage. It is the icon shown on the address bar in your visitors browser when they come to your site. It is also displayed when your site is bookmarked.

It’s very easy to set up a custom favicon.

To personalize the favicon of you Mixform website simply go to Account Settings > Portfolio Settings and upload the image you would like to have as your favicon. You don’t need to worry about making the .ico file, Mixform generates it automatically for you when you upload the desired image. You will get best results howerver, if your image is 32X32 pixels, so there is no loss when your file is resized.

If you have your website someplace else other than Mixform, here is how you display a custom favicon:

Create a 32×32 icon in both the .ico and .png formats called favicon.ico and favicon.png. The name doesn’t really matter unless you are dealing with older browsers.
Place favicon.ico at your site root to support the older browsers (optional and only relevant for older browsers.
Place favicon.png in my images sub-directory (just to keep things tidy).
Add the following HTML to the <head/> element.

<link rel="icon" href="/images/favicon.png" type="image/png" />

The MIME type for .ico files was registered as image/vnd.microsoft.icon by the IANA. IE will ignore the type attribute for the shortcut icon relationship and since IE is the only browser to support this relationship you need not supply it.

Looking for ideas on what images to use as a favicon? Check out the articles below or head over to Iconfinder.net a great place to find free icons for both personal and comercial use.

Black, Abstract and Hand-Drawing
The Delicate Beauties
Creative Favicons: Tiny Artwork
Creative Favicons: When Small Is Beautiful
Inspire Yourself: More Creative Favicons
Inspire Yourself: 50 Remarkable Favicons

source:

What is currently the best way to get a favicon to display in all browsers that support Favicons?

September 8th, 2010 | Permalink |

5 Tips for Better Auditions

This article has been originally posted at Elisa Eliot’s Acting Studio Blog. Make sure to stop by for more great content.

1) Know Your Material If you are given the sides in advance – prepare them!

Use the methods you have studied in your acting classes to analyze the script. (Every actor beginner or professional should always be enrolled in acting classes to keep their craft sharp!) If the audition is a cold reading then take the time you need to make sure you have the scene(s) down. Don’t go in until you are ready. Either way you should be extremely familiar with your lines and situations so your head isn’t buried in the script.

2) Know WHO You Are Auditioning For

When you get an audition one of the very first things you should do is some research! Look up who the major players (the director, casting director, writer and producers) are. See what else they have done – you are likely to get a better feel for the project and what they might be looking for.

3) Know WHAT You Are Auditioning For

Or, in other words, know the genre. Each genre requires a different style of acting, and knowing whether you are auditioning for a sitcom, a single camera comedy, a drama, etc can help immensely.

4) Professionalism

The “industry” is a business and you should treat it that way! Always be on time. (Yes, even in LA you have to be punctual. Factor in plenty of time for traffic even if there might not be any.) Be respectful to your auditioners and your fellow actors. Dress appropriately… even if you are dressing the part. Have a crisp clean copy of your headshot and resume, not a wrinkly unstapled one. Nothing says “Beware – Don’t hire me!” more than a rude, sloppy actor.

5) Nail your Slate

Finally, first impressions are so important. And your first on-camera impression is the slate. Don’t fidget or look at your script or play with your hair or pick your nose (trust me I have seen all of these and worse!). Make sure to portray confidence, affability, professional and personality! And SMILE!

September 8th, 2010 | Permalink |

What are the best third party comment systems?

We are trying out different comment systems in order to choose the best fit for blogs hosted on Mixform. If you want to participate in the beta, just drop me an e-mail at support@mixform.com.

DISQUS, Intense Debate and Echo are third party services that offer feature-rich comment systems. I’ve decided not to develop our own, and instead concentrate on other feature requests.

There is no need to re-invent the wheel here, as all the options above offer more features that you could possibly use. The question is which one would be the least obtrusive, and If we should just support all of the above and let Mixform users choose.

I’m starting off with DISQUS, as you can see in the comment section below. It allows you to post comments using your Facebook, Twitter or OpenId accounts, or to post as a guest (e-mail address is required).

As far as I know, Echo stands out from DISQUS and Intense Debate by allowing you to post images and even embed videos in your comments.

All services however, require a third party account. While they do provide free accounts, I have no guarantee that they will continue to do so in the future. Considering that, the best approach would be to support at least 2 of the services.

Let me know what you think, and if you would like to participate in the beta and have comments added to your Mixform portfolio website.

September 8th, 2010 | Permalink |

4 Acting Blogs you should check out

Here is a quick list of acting blogs I’ve been perusing the past few days. I hope you enjoy them!

The Acting Blog – Acting Coach Scotland – Mark Westbrook

Mark describes his blog as an acting class in a acting blog. Posts on various topics, from method acting to nudity on stage and screen.

Jeremiah’s Blog: Dear Acting Diary: Improv Acting Tips

Jeremiah Murphy is a comedian, character actor, improviser, writer, and filmmaker. Check out posts under “Improv” and “Acting Diary”.

Peter Budevski – Director and Acting Teacher: Acting Theory

Peter Budevski has a very interesting and extensive series of posts on Acting Theory, dealing with self-perception, perception of reality, and attention, among other subcategories.

Acting Is My Day Job Coach: Actor Career Coaching

This is an eclectic blog. From posts about casting to quotes about acting.

Do you have a blog you would like to suggest? Send a message to feedback@mixform.com or leave a comment with your suggestion!

September 7th, 2010 | Permalink |

New skin for your portfolio website: Simple Texture

A simple and clean layout with a textured background. Choose a background color that complements your images. Works well with both images and text. Multiple colors available: blue, red and green.

To see a live example, check out Paul’s website: http://www.pauldipalma.com

September 7th, 2010 | Permalink |

Social Networks For Artists

Even if you already have your own portfolio website, you can use social networks to amplify your online presence.

Although the work you are showcasing is similar in each portfolio, you are showcasing your work to a new audience with each portfolio you create. You’re meeting new people, exposing them to your work, and making new connections by placing your portfolio within different communities.

Going beyond Myspace and Facebook

There are plenty of other social networks out there. Try joining some that are more tailored to your talents. Undergroundfilm and Videoart are social networks specifically designed for filmmakers and video artists. Below is a list of social networks that have creative people in mind.

Deviantart

Founded in August 2000, deviantART is the largest online social network for artists and art enthusiasts with over 13 million registered members.

Featured Profile: Arenyth Digital Painter Based in Belmot, CA

Behance

The Behance Network is a platform for creative professionals across all industries.

Featured Profile: ISE Ratinan Thaijareorn, Illustrator based on Bangkok, Thailand

Spraygraphic

Spraygraphic is a virtual comunity for creative minds. Founded in Feb 2005 by Chuck Banaszewski and Matt Krise.

Featured Profile: Simonas Sileika, Photographer based in Vilnius, Lithuania

Videoart.net

Videoart.net was founded by video artists and filmmakers based in New York City, and is dedicated to video art and short films but interested in any artist utilizing the video medium.

Featured Profile: Lar Peterson Hernandez

IndieGoGo

IndieGoGo is a collaborative way to fund ideas. Founded in 2008 with the objective of providing any idea (creative, cause or entrepreneurial) the tools and process to raise money, offer perks and keep 100% ownership.

Featured Profile: John Trigonis, indie filmmaker & poet based in Jersey City, NJ

UPDATE:

I removed Virb and Undegroundfilm from the list. Undergroudfilm.org unfortunetly seems to be offline.

September 1st, 2010 | Permalink |

iTunes Podcast Submission (the quick version)

Got a great podcast going? It’s time to submit it to iTunes and reach a wider audience.

Simply go to the Submit Your Podcast page and enter your feed.

If iTunes doesn’t open when you click the Submit Your Podcast link, here is how you do it:

1. Launch iTunes.
2. In the left navigation column, under iTunes Store, click on the Podcasts link to go to the Podcasts page.
3. In the left column of the Podcasts page, in the Learn More box at the bottom, click on the Submit a Podcast link.
4. Follow the instructions on the Submit a Podcast page.

You will see a summary page immediately after you submit your feed URL.

If your RSS feed is incomplete, you will see a second screen prompting you for the following missing mandatory information: language, category and explicit (<language>, <itunes:category>, and <itunes:explicit>) .

All podcasts hosted on Mixform are automatically set to English language, Visual Arts category and not explicit so you don’t have to worry about any of this. If you would like to change this information, you can do so by login in to your Mixform account, and going to Account Settings > Podcast Settings. Check this article for detailed help on how to customize your Itunes metadata.

You will need a valid iTunes account, and you will need to be logged into iTunes. If you are not logged in, iTunes will prompt you to do so before accepting your submission.

Sources and further reading:

Apple Itunes Podcast Specs

August 25th, 2010 | Permalink |

Configuring iTunes metadata

This article is for people who host their video podcast at Mixform. If you rolled your own RSS feed some place else, you can learn more about Itunes meta tags here.

Want to customize your video podcast feed hosted at Mixfom? It’s very easy to do it:

1. First login to your portfolio
2. Click on “Account Settings”
3. Scroll down to “Video Podcast Settings” and click edit

This will take you to a page where you can update:

Podcast title
Podcast description
Podcast itunes subtitle
Podcast itunes summary
Cover image*

*Cover image: If you don’t choose an image, a frame of your latest video will be the podcast cover image.

August 18th, 2010 | Permalink |

Itunes Meta Tags Tutorial

If you are hosting your podcast at Mixform your iTunes tags are automatically set up for you :). This article are for those setting up their own RSS feed outside of Mixform.

Setting up your RSS feed yourself? I tried to gather in this article what you need to know about Itunes meta tags.

Your podcast RSS feed needs iTunes specific meta tags if you want to add it to the iTunes Music Store. First of all, When using the iTunes specific tags, you must add a namespace declaration in your RSS feed. Put the following line in your feed:

<rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/DTDs/Podcast-1.0.dtd" version="2.0">

Before we go into the details of each tag, the image below gives you an general idea of where the information you provide in each tag will end up in your iTunes listing. Notice how you have tags for both the channel and items (episodes).

The additional tags, specific to iTunes are:<itunes:category><itunes:explicit><itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><itunes:author><itunes:keywords><itunes:duration><itunes:owner><itunes:name><itunes:email><itunes:image><itunes:block><copyright>*<link>*

While doing the research to implement the video poscast feed, I came across a great article from Feed For All¹ that explains in detail what which tag is. Instead of re-inventing the wheel, I’m citing the most informative parts of the article below. I simply updated the information and re-styled it to make it an easier reading. if you are in a hurry, just check out an example feed at the Apple’s website.

<itunes:category>

This tag can only be populated using iTunes specific categories, as listed below. Categories can be applied at 2 levels; Top Level Categories (in bold), and Sub-Categories where noted. This tag is applicable to both Channel & Item elements. It is allowable to have multiple Top-Level Categories for Channels and Item(s), however iTunes will take the first Top Level Category as the Primary Category for your Channel or Item(s). It is also, allowable for each Top Level Category to have multiple Sub-Categories.

Podcasts hosted at Mixform have the category set automatically to “Visual Arts” but you can override that.

Arts
- Design
- Fashion & Beauty
- Food
- Literature
- Performing Arts
- Visual Arts

Business
- Business News
- Careers
- Investing
- Management & Marketing
- Shopping

Comedy

Education
- Educational Technology
- Higher Ed
- K-12
- Language Courses
- Training

Games & Hobbies
- Automotive
- Aviation
- Hobbies
- Other Games
- Video Games

Government & Organizations
- Local
- National
- Non-Profit
- Regional

Health
- Alternative Health
- Fitness & Nutrition
- Self-Help
- Sexuality

Kids & Family

Music

News & Politics

Religion & Spirituality
- Buddhism
- Christianity
- Hinduism
- Islam
- Judaism
- Other
- Spirituality

Science & Medicine
- Medicine
- Natural Sciences
- Social Sciences

Society & Culture
- History
- Personal Journals
- Philosophy
- Places & Travel

Sports & Recreation
- Amateur
- College & High School
- Outdoor
- Professional

Technology
- Gadgets
- IT News
- Podcasting
- Software How-To

TV & Film

<itunes:explicit>

This tag should be used to note whether or not your Podcast contains explicit material. There are 2 possible values for this tag: Yes or No. If you populate this tag with “Yes”, a parental advisory tag will appear next to your Podcast cover art on the iTunes Music Store. This tag is applicable to both Channel & Item elements.

<itunes:subtitle>

At the Channel level, this tag is a short description that provides general information about the Podcast. It will appear next to your Podcast as users browse through listings of Podcasts. At the Item level, this tag is a short description that provides specific information for each episode. Limited to 255 characters or less, plain text, no HTML

<itunes:summary>

At the Channel level, this tag is a long description that will appear next to your Podcast cover art when a user selects your Podcast. At the Item level, this tag is a long description that will be displayed in an expanded window when users click on an episode. Limited to 4000 characters or less, plain text, no HTML

<itunes:author>

At the Channel level this tag contains the name of the person or company that is most widely attributed to publishing the Podcast and will be displayed immediately underneath the title of the Podcast. If applicable, at the item level, this tag can contain information about the person(s) featured on a specific episode.

<itunes:duration>

This tag is for informational purposes only and will allow users to know the duration prior to download. The tag is formatted: HH:MM:SS This tag is applicable to the Item element only.

<itunes:keywords>

This tag allows users to search on text keywords. Limited to 255 characters or less, plain text, no HTML, words must be separated by spaces. This tag is applicable to the Item element only.

<itunes:owner>

This tag contains the e-mail address that will be used to contact the owner of the Podcast for communication specifically about their Podcast on iTunes. It will not be publicly displayed on iTunes. This tag is applicable to the Channel element only.

<itunes:email>

Required element specifying the email address of the owner.

<itunes:name>

Optional element specifying the name of the owner.

<itunes:image>

This tag specifies the artwork for the Channel and Item(s). This artwork can be larger than the maximum allowed by RSS. Details on the size recommendations are in the section below.

Preferred size: 300 pixels x 300 pixels at 72 dpi Minimum size: 170 pixels x 170 pixels square at 72 dpi Format: JPG, PNG, uncompressed

<itunes:block>

Use this inside an <item> element to prevent that episode from appearing in the iTunes Podcast directory. Use this inside a <channel> element to prevent the entire podcast from appearing in the iTunes Podcast directory.

<copyright>*

This tag contains copyright information about your Podcast. The tag is free text and can include dates, for example: Apple Computer 2005. You do not need to include the copyright symbol in the tag, it will automatically be displayed in iTunes.

<link>*

This tag contains the link to your website and will be displayed next to your Podcast cover art.

*Additionally, these two tags are not specific to iTunes, but will be displayed prominently.

An example feed

This feed is given as an example at the Apple’s website.

Resources and Thank You!

¹ Feed For All: Itune Tutorial Tags

Apple Podcast Specs

August 18th, 2010 | Permalink |

How to add your Podcast to the Itunes Music Store

Got a great podcast going? It’s time to submit it to iTunes and reach a wider audience. The submission process is very easy. In any case, I put together an article to help you out, step by step.

BEFORE YOU START

This article assumes you have a podcast hosted somewhere. If you don’t you can host yours here.
If you host your podcast at Mixform, you can go ahead and skip to step 3 because all the other steps are automatically done for you. Pretty sweet, huh?

This is an extensive article, so I broke it down in steps. Let’s get stated.

1) iTunes metadata.
2) Test your feed.
3) Submitting Your Podcast to the iTunes Store.
4) What happens next?

1) iTunes metadata

In addition to video, there are 2 elements for publishing a podcast on iTunes Music Store: iTunes specified artwork and RSS Feed including iTunes specific tags.

For those of hosting the podcast at Mixform, the tags and artwork are generated automatically. You can override the default values if you want. I recommend you take a look at your settings regardless, since you can provide a more meaning description to your show.

If you rolled your own RSS feed outside of Mixform, this article has an extensive explanation on Itunes meta tags and artwork specifications.

2) Test your feed

When you are done adding the meta tags and artwork to your live feed you can test it to see if it works with iTunes before you submit it to the iTunes directory.

1. Launch iTunes.
2. In the Advanced menu, select Subscribe to Podcast.
3. Enter your feed URL in the text box and click OK.

You can now see if you get any error messages and check the details of the episodes. If there are any problems, you should fix them now, to avoid a delay in your podcast being accepted later on.

3) Submitting Your Podcast to the iTunes Store.

Alright! You’re ready to submit your feed:

Simply go to the Submit Your Podcast page and enter your feed.

If iTunes doesn’t open when you click the Submit Your Podcast link, here is how you do it:

You will see a summary page immediately after you submit your feed URL.

You will need a valid iTunes account, and you will need to be logged into iTunes. If you are not logged in, iTunes will prompt you to do so before accepting your submission.

4) What happens next?

You will get a confirmation e-mail from Apple, and in a few days an e-mail saying your podcast has been approved. I’ve submitted a couple of podcasts, and it has taken them from less than 24 hours to a few days to send me the approval so the wait time might vary.

I hope this article has helped. Drop me a line at hello@deboraprado.com if you want to talk about your podcast :)

Cheers!!

Deb

Sources and further reading:

Apple Itunes Podcast Specs

August 18th, 2010 | Permalink |

Theater Performances Feature on Mixform.com

You can now add theatre Performances to your Mixform Portfolio. You asked for it. We did it! Special Thanks to Jason Liebman for his help with testing.

When you go to your Events section you can now add the the date, venue, show times, and ticket information for all of your theatre performances
We’ve also changed the way all the other events work, to make it easier and faster for you to enter new information.

If you have more suggestions, contact feedback@mixform.com. We will be happy to hear from you :)!

July 1st, 2010 | Permalink |

Build a Project Page You Can Be Proud Of

Mixform now allows for each one of your projects to have it’s own individual web page, projects page, where you can link to images, videos, events, awards and news.

It’s like having a one page website for any film or play you have worked on.

Project page of a short film, showing festivals, awards, images, videos, and detailed information

To make a great project page you should take the time and care to enter as much information as you can.

Enter details such as director’s name, production company, and other cast members. Write an interesting description. Enter keywords. Upload images and videos and then tag them to your project. Post news about the development of the project. You can easily share them with your friends via other social networks.
List events related to the project: festivals, screenings, performances.

These project pages will also be linked to your resume, so when a potential employer is looking at your resume he will now be able to click any of your listed projects, and get a complete understanding of how impressive your work truly is.

July 1st, 2010 | Permalink |

Who Wants a Great Portfolio Design?

Check out these two new skins:

“Silent Spring” Cute and girly, it is available in a soft blue; with soft shadows and round corners to match. The photograph that makes the textured background is provided by Debora Prado.

“Clean” Simple and understated, similar to other minimalistic skins we have added in the past. Multiple colors available.

I hope you enjoy them.

Let us know if you have any ideas or requests for skins. We would love to hear from you at feedback@mixform.com

ps: in case you are wondering, the skins are new designs added to Mixform

July 1st, 2010 | Permalink |

Short Film Friday: Nuit Blanche & Validation

It’s time for Short Film Friday – are you ready?

This week’s recommendations are two very different B&W shorts. Nuit Blanche by Arev Manoukian and Validation by Kurt Kuenne.

Nuit Blanche

“Nuit Blanche” explores a fleeting moment between two strangers, revealing their brief connection in a hyper real fantasy. Directed by Arev Manoukian.

Click here to watch it.

Recommended by @Murtz_Director

Validation

“Validation” is a fable about the magic of free parking. Starring TJ Thyne & Vicki Davis. Writer/Director/Composer Kurt Kuenne.

Watch it here.

Recommended by @sabrielninja

June 22nd, 2010 | Permalink |

How to build a great portfolio website

If you are a creative professional having a portfolio website is a great way to showcase your work, and have a place where people can contact you.

As a filmmaker, It allows prospective employers to see how talented you are. As an actor, having a place for casting agents to quickly access your demo reel, head-shots and resume is makes for an easy casting call.

A personal portfolio website is all about promoting you and building your online presence. With that in mind here are a few guidelines to keep in mind when making your portfolio website:

Logo & Tagline

It is a good idea to use your name (or your stage name, pseudonym) as the title of your website. Visitors should be able to immediately identify who owns your website by looking at your headline or logo. The title of your home page will be the first line on any Google search results, so you should keep that in mind.

Once you have established who owns the website, you now need to inform the visitor what it is that you do. It could be as simple as identifying your profession with a short tagline. You can add further details on your welcome message.

Makeup Artist Satoko Ichinose uses a simple and effective logo on her portfolio

An inviting and informative welcome message

While your tagline should be short, your welcome message should be a more complete summary of your talents.

A good welcome message should answer these questions:

What is your profession? An actor? A filmmaker? A a make up artist? An art director?
What do you do? Design theater sets ? Commercials? Special Effects?
Where are you from? City? Country?
Are you looking for work? Do you freelance? Do you work for a studio or an agency?

You can place links within the text of your welcome message, directing people to specific pages in your site. You can give further details about yourself on your “about page”.

An example of a informative welcome message from Deb Prado’s Visual Artist Portfolio

A fun and inviting welcome message by actress Kelsey Link

Your Portfolio: Projects, Demo Reel, Images

Your site is a personal portfolio website, so your portfolio will be the meat of your web site.

Make sure to showcase your best work, allowing people to see what you can do, and that you are good at it.

Besides having your demo reel, create individual pages for your projects so you can elaborate with more detail about the projects you have worked on. Add images to make your project page more interesting and informative. A confident description of your work process will give people a peek “behind the scenes” and show them what you are talking about.

Project page of a short film, showing festivals, awards, images, videos, and detailed information

Resume

Don’t let potential clients, or employers, guess what you do. Make a clear and specific resume; listing your skills, training, education, guild affiliations, representation, publications, awards, festivals, etc.

One of the great things about Mixform is that it comes with (resume layout templates), and it will automatically update your resume when you update your projects page. Pulling information from your site and linking your projects to the resume.

Offer a pdf version for resume for download. This is also done automatically for you on Mixform.

Blog

Show you know what you’re talking about by bloging. A blog is always a good idea to help promote your site. By adding new content overtime people will be interested in coming back to read more.

Provide an RSS feed to allow visitors to subscribe to your blog.

Comments provide great feedback for your articles. Reward the attention visitors give you by reply to their comments. A sure recipe for success is when you have an engaged audience, supported by good quality content.

About me

Write about you. Elaborate on your welcome message. Share your background, how many years you’ve been in the business and why you do what you do. By making it personal, you can form a bond with your visitors.

Let people know what your preferences are, if you like to work locally, or specific genres.

Another important part of your about page is to list your awards. Don’t be shy about showing off , after all you are promoting yourself and you want people to know you’re good at what you do.

Your about page is a good place to put reviews and testimonials.

List links to other sites you might have and social network profiles (your twitter account, linked in profile, etc) and encourage your visitors to follow you on the social networks that you participate in.

A compelling “About me” writeup by actress Kelsey Link

Reviews on photographer Pavlina Perry about page

7. Contact

Devote a full page for your contact information. Don’t simply hide it in the footer. Your contact info should not be neglected, it’s a very import part of your portfolio.
You don’t want someone who is impressed with your portfolio give up on contacting you because they don’t know how or became frustrated because your contact information is hard to find.

Provide a contact form, as it is an easy way for users to send you a message. They won’t need to write down your e-mail address or open an e-mail program – they don’t even have to leave your site. Another plus of a contact form is that you can ask for specific information besides name and e-mail address.

You can also provide both your direct contact information and your agency information if you have representation. It’s up to you how much info you want to disclose.

Let us know what you think about this article and send us a link to your portfolio! Send a message to feedback@mixform.com

Credits: This article is a spin-off on Smash Magazine’s “7-steps to a portfolio website” but with the focus on filmmakers/actors instead of web designers.

June 21st, 2010 | Permalink |

Watercolor

Imperfectionist

Retro Robot

Writer's Block

Carbon

Better layout

Project snippet

Map and link to directions

Buy Tickets button

Share on Twitter and Facebook

Tick Stubs in the events homepage

More to come…

1) Know Your Material If you are given the sides in advance – prepare them!

2) Know WHO You Are Auditioning For

3) Know WHAT You Are Auditioning For

4) Professionalism

5) Nail your Slate

Going beyond Myspace and Facebook

Sources and further reading:

<itunes:category>

<itunes:explicit>

<itunes:subtitle>

<itunes:summary>

<itunes:author>

<itunes:duration>

<itunes:keywords>

<itunes:owner>

<itunes:email>

<itunes:name>

<itunes:image>

<itunes:block>

<copyright>*

<link>*

An example feed

Resources and Thank You!

1) iTunes metadata

2) Test your feed

3) Submitting Your Podcast to the iTunes Store.

4) What happens next?

Sources and further reading:

Nuit Blanche

Validation

Logo & Tagline

An inviting and informative welcome message

Your Portfolio: Projects, Demo Reel, Images

Resume

Blog

About me

7. Contact

Categories

Links