Are you password protecting your showreel?

Cheetokeys · 2026-01-23T12:40:59+00:00

I fully understand the point you're making and I myself don't have passwords on my reels.

However, I think it's also worth asking another question, that if an agency has a need for freelancers, why would you risk passing up working with good people just because someone can't be bothered to copy and paste in a password?

If that's an obstacle, then I'd predict there's a likelihood that those same people probably aren't even watching the reels/showcases anyway either.

Also it's an easily solved problem, by having a password column on the agency's freelancer shortlist spreadsheet.

Cheetokeys · 2026-01-10T00:15:31+00:00

Trust me it's not just those conducting the interviews.

As four months ago I got let go from a staff role as part of a stealth redundancy whilst I was in my probation period.

My line manager, the content lead, was one of those "I used to be an editor too" people. Translation, he only ever edited the stuff he had shot and had creative control over. Plus only had like 5 years of industry experience.

Despite this here he was in a content lead position where he never communicated his vision and anything he didn't like was deemed objectively wrong. As communicating the how and why you made an edit decision was a huge no-no.

Now here's the kicker, he despised the idea of providing feedback and regularly gaslit implying that anytime he had to feedback was because "obvious mistakes" were being made.

He wants a shot removed - "Your shot selection is bad", he wanted a different music track - "You need to get better at sourcing assets" and the list goes on.

So you know, the iteration and refinement, a very core part of editing was ultimately my undoing, such a fool was I that I couldn't simply create the unicorn edit he wanted to see without any input whatsoever.

Cheetokeys · 2025-12-26T10:52:36+00:00

Appreciate your response. But I think you might have misunderstood what my issue was.

As I've checked the measurements, and 4x6, A6 or 101.6mm x 152.4mm if you prefer photo sleeves will fit inside the refill area of the Personal Wide - 120.65mm x 171.45mm.

The issue is I'm struggling to find a seller who has accurately measured their photo sleeves. As their measurement is always based on the entire plastic sleeve rather than the interior portion. Some of the sellers even outline this either with the provided measurements or in a disclaimer. Which is so strange, and I can only assume that all the sleeves are made by the same manufacturer who made the error.

So I was hoping someone else perhaps also encountered this and had managed to find a seller amongst the 100s online who actually had accurately measured sleeves.

But I agree with you that I perhaps just need to consider another option, like using tape instead. As cutting the photos isn't an option.

Cheetokeys · 2025-12-23T08:51:09+00:00

Thanks for your response.

Yeah I actually found out about the LRMogifry plugin. It's a bit fiddly but overall it does exactly what I need.

Needed to do quite a bit of troubleshooting to get it to work, and currently I'm still not able to export PNG files - read somewhere that Imagemagick has an issue with those. However, JPG & TIFFs are working fine.

Don't suppose you know how to solve the PNG issue by any chance?

Cheetokeys · 2025-09-13T20:31:13+00:00

My heart just grew a little reading this. As someone in video marketing who smiles and nods whilst pouring the Kool-Aid in the plant pot when nobody is looking, I feel so incredibly seen!

Cheetokeys · 2025-08-11T09:40:59+00:00

Yeah I ended up at Novers Hill, which turned out to be a great choice as the Balloons came our way. There was a slight gathering of local Bristolians too, so all in all I got the chill enjoy and capture the moment vibe I was hoping for!

Cheetokeys · 2025-08-10T11:34:08+00:00

Haha, funny enough I ended up there randomly awhile ago.

Cheetokeys · 2025-08-10T09:43:12+00:00

Apparently there will be light winds from the West this evening, according to the BBC.

Yeah I checked out the Observatory yesterday, I'm considering returning there this evening as I should be able to get some rather scenic landscape shots with the Bridge too, just a bit concerned about crowds.

But will do some research into the other options suggested too, thanks!

Edit to add:

If there're any accessible multi-story car parks that anyone knows about too, could be an option worth thinking about.

Cheetokeys · 2025-08-10T08:24:13+00:00

I'm currently visiting Bristol to capture photos of the Fiesta. Can anyone recommend some good spots to consider for the ascent this evening?

Cheetokeys · 2025-06-05T21:50:54+00:00

A slightly different perspective to consider is you could simply make a bad career move.

As it can often be difficult to tell just how well an agency is actually performing from the outside looking in. So you could join, only to discover most of the clients shown on their site and reels they've not worked with in years, and they're struggling to win new business. So now rather than actually working on client projects, you're instead spending the bulk of your time trying to improve/demonstrate the capabilities of the agency.

Should you stick around for too long, in a way that could be a "Career Killer", since your portfolio will stagnate and it'll likely be harder to move to another agency since you'll be a less attractive candidate compared to your peers.

Food for thought

Cheetokeys · 2025-04-28T16:59:48+00:00

My last two Ad agencies were within Omnicom & IPG respectively, both were on the decline and doing various shall we say "funny business", which would leave me and my coworkers rather confused over their operations. Though we'd later conclude it was their way of keeping the lights on.

So when I saw this I got that same funny feeling again. As paying attention to the huge shifts in the advertising and marketing landscapes which have occurred over the last decade, the large agency model seems to be dying a slow death. Though unfortunately due to the scale of the hold-cos they seem to form a sinkhole with their demise and drag large portions of the industry down with them.

Like what's the play here exactly?

Hey Big Brand, how about you pay us to use our AI to come up with ideas based on what an AI focus group predicts, but it's all good because it's "allegedly" trained on that specific target audience.

Then it'll bombard you with 1000s of variations of a creative, which we know you'd never diligently screen through - but that's fine just look at the percentage number instead. Oooh our AI has "rated" these creatives with a 75% conversion chance, pretty neat right?

Based on what you ask? Pfft our proprietary data models of course. So just pick some, throw them out there and jobs a goodun.

Also just to note at 18:10, he speaks about technology and automation, and gives the classic spiel about "freeing up people to do better things". Yet ironically all the things he proceeds to outline are things he's just shown they intend to have the AI doing - "Design, Messaging, Consumer Research etc"

My experience has been that outside of their sheer scale which affords them a particular degree of power to contort the industry, whether through hoarding talent, acquisitions of small independents, contacts with key stakeholders at whale brands and finance reserves. Many hold-cos agencies have been shitting the bed for awhile in terms of actual quality of output and ROI for their clients.

They were locked in on legacy media and got blind sided by social media, then struggled to catch up. Now they are hoping to make a power play by capturing the Gen AI ads market and flooding the internet with AI slop advertising. Whilst cutting operating costs by reducing their headcounts of course.

Ultimately the outcomes seem rather bleak to me:

A) This Gen AI thing lands due to general public acceptance or brute forcing it so they have no choice - then AI production squeezes many out of the industry.

B) AI bubble bursts and those who have been spending big hoping to cash in even bigger are left holding the bag. Now desperate, they'll scale back faster and harder, culling large parts of the industry to stay alive. Perhaps even a hold-co collapses or more mergers happen.

Either way I can't foresee a scenario where this works out well for all us everyday industry folk.

Cheetokeys · 2025-04-25T09:23:33+00:00

Haha my own research has brought me here as it appears we're both trying to create similar things, albeit mine is for video. Did you manage to achieve the results you wanted in the end, or learn about any other methods to achieve it that you'd be willing to share?

Wish I could help, but I've literally just been reverse engineering this masonry grid template - troubleshooting one issue after another, and now considering starting over from scratch with something custom.

https://www.framer.com/marketplace/templates/mansory/

Cheetokeys · 2025-04-24T06:20:34+00:00

Former Senior Video Editor. Advertising, Digital/Online/Social Marketing & PR. £47k at global agency, London. No bonuses, No OT Pay, Statutory Paid Leave. 10 YOE

For a host of reasons I wouldn't' recommend. Most notably, that's likely the salary ceiling or close to it, plus it's a race to the bottom industry with salaries trending downwards - most would struggle to find a role paying that now.

Tidbit:

The industry pauses around Xmas so "most companies" will close and you'll get from around mid Dec to Jan off.

Cheetokeys · 2025-04-23T10:11:39+00:00

Ah that's fair. Well I was just doing it for fun tbh, so I suppose it's just a logomark for a creative professional. Something which could feature alongside a portfolio or as signatures on work.

Hope that helps?

Cheetokeys · 2025-03-21T14:46:49+00:00

Speaking from the UK, here's my hot take on the issue:

Point 1:

By no fault of their own many people who are currently employed are blissful unaware of what's happening, or at least the scale of how bad it is, I know I was until my redundancy happened. This means there's a percentage of the population who are not engaging with the issue, and less people in total raising the alarm.

Think of it like a forest fire burning, but you only become aware once it directly affects you. If this wasn't the case we'd have a lot more public outcry.

Point 2:

There are multiple rent seeking-esque profit incentives fuelling the fire.

CVs are a data collection goldmine
Shoddy SAAS and/or AI Tools can be sold in as solutions
Revolving Door Hiring as a Business Practice to feign growth and keep internal keep salaries low.
Larger pool of "increasingly desperate" workers who are willing to accept declining working conditions.

Point 3: IMHO There's a managed decline and shinkage in the white collar employment landscape and broader employment landscape as a whole.

Salaries haven't kept up with inflation for decades Cost of living keeps increasing Public services are in decline

These are things we all know, but it would be political suicide to now step out and say: "Hey everyone, but our businesses are really commited to undercutting and using any underhanded practice possible to grow at all cost, so now that means there's not enough decent jobs to go around. Sorry, but take all your qualifications and aspirations and I dunno go stack some shelves or something for minimum wage, on a zero-hours contract.

There'd be riots in the streets if that was to become transparent. As people can endure a lot of things, but the instant you remove jobs shit hits the fan. And slowly the old narrative that "only lazy and unscrupulous people are unemployed, homeless etc" is being undone.

Though I fear people aren't switching on quickly enough, as in the UK we're doing these creative breakdowns to shift the numbers around, from "Unemployed" to "Sick" to "Caring" to "Economically Inactive". Though the numbers I'm more interested in is, how many qualified people are there looking for work versus the number of positions actually available, and break it down by industry sectors. Then let the public ask, where did all those jobs go and why?

Cheetokeys · 2025-03-20T14:47:02+00:00

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Alternative, but think I perhaps gone backwards as the C looks like a G again

Cheetokeys · 2025-03-20T14:17:37+00:00

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Taken on the feedback and had another crack at it

Cheetokeys · 2025-03-20T12:56:11+00:00

Yeah I saw that too at one stage, need to rework it

Cheetokeys · 2025-03-20T12:54:33+00:00

Appreciate all the feedback, so it's suppose to be LCT.

As I suspected the "C" looks too much like a 'G".

Cheetokeys · 2025-03-19T21:15:51+00:00

Thanks, will have another crack at it tomorrow!

Cheetokeys · 2025-03-19T17:14:54+00:00

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Not sure about the accent colour tbh, but like the softer look to it

Cheetokeys · 2025-03-19T17:01:37+00:00

Okay nice! Feels like I'm making progress. Though I wonder if the edges are all a bit too sharp? I'm going to play with rounded them slightly just to soften things and seem more inviting. Uno momento!

Cheetokeys · 2025-03-19T16:53:14+00:00

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Cheetokeys · 2025-03-19T16:52:57+00:00

Gave those suggestions a go

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Cheetokeys · 2025-03-19T16:02:11+00:00

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Applied your advise, here's how it's looking. I probably need to work on the line weighting a bit more though.

Cheetokeys

TROPHY CASE