In Development

Every year at NAB, I talk to bleary-eyed software manufacturers who have been writing code — or supervising/paying/cajoling those who do — in a rush to NAB. It's not how it always goes down, of course, but I've heard my share of stories.

Now I'm in one of them. As we go to press, we're steamrolling towards our NAB week debut of reel-exchange.com. The code is not done at press time, of course, since we still have more than three weeks — apparently an eternity when it comes to development. What I have seen so far looks like what we imagined in mid-December when we launched this idea, so the nerve-wracking parts are punctuated by the exciting parts.

In fact, although it has been in software development for just 15 weeks or so, Reel-Exchange has been in development, in the broader sense, for some time. Our parent company has a strong web backbone and New Media department, carved out of the turmoil of publishing over the past seven years. It seemed logical to use those resources to imagine new ways to serve our readers — especially ways that could bring film and video professionals together with collaborators and clients. The phenomenon of social networking begs business-to-business interpretations, and we had the means to try something new.

The initial function of the site is to showcase demo reels and other types of professional content — trailers, short films, sample commercials, etc. — in everything from cinematography to postproduction. Along with providing a reel, each Reel-Exchange member or member company fills out a profile that indicates what media they work in — commercials, films, corporate video, web, games, etc. — and what hardware and software technology and formats they are fluent in. We asked a lot of questions about technology because we want the search function of the site to find everything from HDV shooters to Audition specialists to 4K post houses. Of course, you can also search by geography, specialty, and many other criteria, and each member can elaborate on their profile in a number of ways, including indicating their credits and collaborators. This forms the basis of future networking capabilities we will roll out throughout the year.

While the reels will all be presented as Flash (transcoded via the new VP6 codec), Reel-Exchange members upload their video at the resolution and format of their choice and can make that version available upon request. The site will be supported with marketing designed to build the community into a powerful one-stop for a process that currently requires a lot of googling.

We thank Sony, Dell, and Adobe for their support. We also thank all the readers who responded to our first2know campaign; your participation means that we will launch the site with reels from all over the United States — and even from across the world.

Reel-Exchange is designed to be — and grow into — a platform for networking, information, and community. The idea is to help you find the right people to work with. For now, like everyone else, we start with version 1.0 at NAB. I hope you'll stop by our booth # SL4626 and/or reel-exchange.com to check it out.