Are you applying to a company and want to showcase your experience? Are you an animation student wanting to produce a highlight reel of your work? Are you a corporate video producer looking to market your brand? If you said yes to any or all of these options, your pursuit can be aided by an impactful video portfolio.
Wordy descriptions have their place and are valuable, but video can be a much more powerful medium as you can connect with viewers on a more personal level. If you are serious about sharing your story, showcasing your work, or spreading your message, you’ll want to empower your cause with a video portfolio.
Video portfolios come in a few different forms and can become quite complex depending on the creator. However, we still want everyone to be able to create their own and maximize their potential. Before you can master these tools, you should understand what a video portfolio is, how you can get started, and what it means to create a truly effective one. Throughout this article, we will do just that, and by the end, we hope we have inspired you to begin on your journey to create your next (or first!) video portfolio.
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What is a Video Portfolio?
Portfolios are a way for artists and producers to showcase their mastery of creative elements to creative agencies more effectively than a typical resume.
If you have prior experience in the art/entertainment industry, you may already know what a typical artist’s portfolio will look like. For instance, if you are a concept artist, your portfolio will contain a collection of your highest-quality images. When it comes to videographers and animators, you will instead turn to a video portfolio.
A video portfolio will contain much different content than the static images of a typical portfolio. If you are one of the animation students we mentioned before, you can put your 3D animations, mini animations that you made with animation tablet, and other portions of your highlight reel into your portfolio. A motion design studio will want to see the specific expertise you can provide to their project, so including clips of your productions will go much longer than merely stating your experience.
How to Choose the Right Type of Video Portfolio for You
There are many different types of professionals who can make use of a video portfolio. Therefore, it is important that you choose the right type of video portfolio for your line of work. You will have a few different options to choose from, as you could choose a video-sharing platform, a social media platform, or even just create your own video portfolio website. Your choice will come down to what you want to emphasize with your portfolio. In this journey, a good video editing software can help you boost your video portfolio quality. During video interviews, you can highlight your talent as a creator by showcasing your animation short videos. In the progress of sharing videos and artworks, consider getting some support from managed service providers to ensure your IT infrastructure is safe.
Let’s use the example of working on corporate communications videos. This approach would probably not be content that would draw its intended audience on social media platforms. Instead, this could be an excellent case for forming your own video portfolio website and for an enterprise WordPress hosting. In this scenario, you could select your own layout. With corporate communications and the frequent releases of videos, a grid portfolio layout would serve you well to showcase your extensive work history. However, this approach contrasts with what an animator might want, however. An animator may want to be seen on social media so that fans can share their work and famous studios can see their videos.
A video platform like YouTube would be an example of an animation portfolio. On YouTube, you could manage your channel and its straightforward layout would make it very easy for potential employers to browse your videos. Also, with the dark background of the site making the thumbnails of video projects pop and stand out, it would be effortless for a studio to browse all your previous projects, noting your progress and accomplishments along the way.
It is also important to consider that some portfolios are contained within a single video, so the layout isn’t too important as the creator would have designed a video to highlight all their most important pieces. A full-screen layout on a simple webpage could be enough for potential employers.
Creating Your Own Video Portfolio from Scratch
Now that you understand the different types of video portfolios you can work with, and you are probably interested in learning how you can make your own. Having a video portfolio for your individual work or for a brand demonstration is a great way to make your message or accomplishments more memorable for viewers.
Write-on Video is just one example of video editing software that can make creating a video portfolio from scratch incredibly simple. Before establishing a video channel or looking towards building a large site, check out Write-on Video and see how you can make impactful videos for your portfolio.
Write-on Video manages to organize and streamline the video editing process so that you can manage to produce quality content without needing expert knowledge of the process. While your design choice may become more refined with time, your ability to use these tools to produce a cohesive video will not. Let’s take, for example, that you want to make a two-minute personal video introduction.
Using Write-on Video, you could bring together various clips, including your speech about your accomplishments, while also tying in visual examples of your work. After arranging all these clips in Write-on Video, adding filters, effects, and caption sections is incredibly simple. If you want to have someone else look over your work, there is even a feature for commenting, allowing another editor to review your idea and leave critiques on areas where they think you could improve.
4 Examples of Awesome Video Portfolios
Before you begin making your own custom video portfolio, you’ll want to see examples of awesome video portfolios. If you have extensive previous experience in videography, then odds are you will have already seen some impressive examples of video portfolio sites. But for those of you who are new to this realm, we have compiled a list of a few different show-stopping video portfolios that will give you inspiration for your own. Whether you are a professional animator or even producing food videos for social media, you can find a creative example to reference.
When We Were Kids
This site is a great example of a full-screen layout video portfolio that can turn into different smaller graphics. As one of many prominent advertising agencies, this company needs to make its work known to potential clients. One of the best ways to cut to the chase is to prominently and immediately showcase their professional videos.
Radioaktive Film
This portfolio site relies less on quality videos being shown than the previous example and turns to more static images to present their work. Hovering over their project titles will reveal high-quality images of single frames of their work. What an interesting take on a video portfolio!
Justin Kleiner
While we have covered more typical video creators focusing on motion videos so far, Justin Kleiner categorizes himself more as a visual artist. You should be able to tell by looking at this portfolio site. Each previous project is neatly given its own page and provides detail on any videos or art produced for the project.
Hyogen design
This interesting entry takes a unique approach to video portfolios. This site focuses a lot on interactivity and keeping the viewer engaged through scrolling and observing videos. You can still find a more typical video portfolio gallery when you select “all projects,” but your experience with this site will certainly be memorable.
Build Your Video Portfolio Today with Write-on Video
As technology advances and education in the arts becomes more widely available, the industries relying on these tools and artists will change. It is now easier than ever for people to create their video portfolios and showcase their resumes, ideas, campaigns, and stories excitingly. Acknowledging this fact means empowering yourself with these tools to make your efforts succeed, and for that, you should pick the strongest tools to assist you.
Whether you are an amateur video editor or a veteran looking for a reliable platform, Write-on Video is an excellent video editing software that can serve users’ needs to create an impactful video portfolio. To get more out of your portfolio than just using the software, you should explore what you want to emphasize with your projects.
We shared a few different video portfolio ideas, and perhaps one of them spoke to you. Maybe you want a more unique and interactive experience. Or you are just looking to create a straightforward highlight reel of your efforts so that studios or clients can find you and immediately understand your work. Whatever your idea is now, continue seeking more examples to empower yourself with more ideas and find the best choice for your portfolio.
A video portfolio is a powerful tool; you will need to handle its conception carefully and creatively. Once you have a few ideas and feel ready to begin, turn to a tool like Write-on Video to help bring your ideas to life.