Physical Portfolios - recommendations?

ImSlightlyBored

(apologies if this is in the wrong section)

In the coming month or so I'm finally going to be ready to send off my Env/Prop portfolio for junior positions (pending final crits on layouts etc from you guys I hope). While I feel I've gotten a decent hold on the web portfolio I'm putting together, the physical matter is a different thing altogether.
I am thinking, a CD/DVD showreel would cover it, but would I also send along a portfolio book with that, or would the showreel cover it?
Also, for showreels, whats expected in terms of file types? Just a simple movie file? I am considering a simple flash movie player that just has a JUMP TO section on it, to speed up the viewing process, but is flash a no no in every circumstance?

So cliff notes:
Book or showreel CD, or both?
DVD or CD?
Recommended file types/tech advice on showreel?

Cheers

Snowfly

I would go with a labeled CD containing MOV and WMV versions of your reel, and an offline version of your site, plus resume in DOC or PDF.

No need to bother with sending out books imo, as this could get very expensive for you, and these things usually get discarded. I personally keep a printed portfolio that I bring with me to interviews. it always seems to steer things in the positive, having some pictures for the interviewer to flip through and talk about.

ImSlightlyBored

ah thats great stuff! Nice point about taking something along, too, hadnt thought about that.

cheers!

Sage

The web site is more than enough for most places unless you are showing off animation or You are applying to a place that will have you do 3d animation as in pre rendered graphics. If you send a cd take the time to make a nice label for it and make the movie in a file format that can be read in a computer that doesn't have any fancy codecs. The one codec that seems to work everywhere in my experience has been mpeg. The problem with movie files is playback, as in if the file is too large it might not play smoothly and the viewer will think you suck for that. You should also take the time to test the file on several computers to see how it looks, chances are you might say damn that looks bad on another monitor.

Snowfly pretty much said what you need to include. Have things well labeled, etc. and look at the cd from the point of view that the viewer might have. Say if you gave it to your grand father that can't use a remote, would he be able to figure out how to see your work easily. Don't bother with fancy flash stuff, unless the job requires it. That's usually one of the things I hear when I show my stuff, I was soo glad it wasn't another flash site.

JDinges

Honeslty, you only ever need a nice website. Websites get viewed quicker by Leads and Art Directors.

Yozora

On my first interview there wasnt even a laptop/pc in the room, so the CD and USB stick I carried with me didnt do much good

ImSlightlyBored

hah, so I guess a printed portfolio is at least useful for the reasons snowfly said, during interviews.

Thanks everyone. I figured, after reading all on here, that an online portfolio was pretty much all I'd need, but having scoped out some positions with postal addresses and such, i really want to cover all my bases so to speak, and its hard to find information/procedure on the physical side of things (probably because its not as vital as an online one?)

@Sage: you bring up a worrying point to me, though... in the past I've had jittery playback courtesy of CD/DVD drives, when copying to HDD runs smooth. I dont expect that to happen (how much time would that take, sorry!) so any recommendations on getting around that, or just try and make it small as possible and failing that, quit that idea?