# Upwork portfolio — submission sheet

**Portfolio site:** https://plato-portfolio.pages.dev
Revised 2026-08-11. Source: `marketing/portfolio-site/` — rebuild with `make-showreel.sh`, then `build.sh`.

---

## Fable — changes since your review, in priority order

Your four calls were implemented as written. Six things changed after that; **these are
what to look at.** Everything else is as you last saw it.

**1. Item 5 was materially wrong and is the least-reviewed page.** It said "two decisions"
and showed the faceless cut and the vendor cut — but omitted the version that actually
*shipped*. Two rejected options and no winner. It is now "Three approaches to the same ad"
with all three labelled and the shipped one marked. Newest copy on the site; please read it
first.

**2. The showreel was four openings with every CTA cut off.** I took a single 12-second
slice from the head of each piece, which dropped every end card. Each piece is now hook +
its own CTA, so all four resolve. Still 49 s. The CTAs turned out to be the strongest
content in the reel — each carries its compliance line ("not affiliated with USCIS",
"Estimates may vary · not medical advice", "21+ enjoy responsibly"). Lower-third labels
identify each piece; I argued against interstitial title cards on a reel this short, but
that is a taste call worth your second opinion.

**3. The footage model was stated wrongly, twice — this is the one with commercial risk.**
Copy said "live action", then "performance footage". Both imply a shoot. **Everything is
AI-generated; no project uses filmed footage of real people.** Copy now says so and leads
with it as an advantage — no casting, no talent releases, no location cost, recast in an
afternoon.

> **The judgement call I would most like challenged:** is leading with "AI-generated
> performers" a differentiator, or does it invite *"then why am I paying a person?"* I
> think the honest version wins and the alternative is a claim that collapses the first
> time a client asks about the shoot — but you know the buyer better than I do.

**4. Possible over-explaining in Item 2.** I added "no budget for a shoot, and a duty of
care that rules out filming real families" to the Ella brief. It justifies the generated
approach, but it may read defensive. Cut if so.

**5. Deliverable metrics are in — your note.** Every result line now carries checkable
facts instead of soft statements. Still no invented performance numbers; none exist.

**6. Poster frames are now chosen, not auto-grabbed**, with dedicated card crops. The
long-form thumbnails previously rendered as near-white blank tiles, and the flagship card
cropped the face at the mouth.

**Rights are closed.** Ella audio is royalty-free, the picture is fully generated, and it
does not use Greg's mother despite the script having been drafted that way. No talent
releases, consent decisions or location clearances outstanding on anything shown.

---

## Advisor review — resolved

Reviewed by Fable. All four judgement calls confirmed; the resulting edits are live.

**Copy length — keep it short.** 93–128 words with expandable detail is right: video
clients watch, they don't read. The craft detail behind a click serves the rare technical
buyer. Do not inflate the surface.

**Missing metrics — substitute deliverable metrics.** Refusing to invent performance
numbers is correct, but soft result lines were leaving value on the table. Every result
line now carries verifiable deliverable facts — *"seven 1080×1920 verticals from one
354-second source, no new shooting"*, *"90-of-90 word-level accuracy check before picture
lock"*, *"a 25-second master published to a live channel"*. These answer the same client
question view-counts would (*will I get something real?*) and every one is checkable.

**Ordering — lead with the strongest watchable ad.** Slot 1 must match the category
buyers browse for, so Citizen Coach leads. Long-form last **on the site** is fine — but
**on Upwork it is its own portfolio item and its own Project Catalog offer**, because its
buyer (podcasters, coaches, YouTubers) is a different person who searches differently.
Ordering stops mattering once each is a separate item.

**Process transparency — exactly one item.** The method case study differentiates: it
shows someone who makes decisions rather than renders. Keep it in one place deliberately;
do not spread alternates across the other project pages.

### Also settled

- **No contact details** is the correct Upwork configuration — Upwork prohibits
  soliciting off-platform contact, so a portfolio link with no email is the compliant
  version. Add contact only if the site is used for direct, non-Upwork outreach.
- **Custom domain and `noindex` are not gates.** `pages.dev` is fine for portfolio links.
  Keep `noindex` for now; revisit if a domain is attached.

### Resolved — footage model and rights

**Everything is AI-generated.** No filmed footage of real people appears in any project,
for any client, anywhere in this portfolio. The Ella film in particular does **not** use
Greg's mother, despite the shooting script having been drafted that way — the finished
picture is fully generated. Ella's audio is royalty-free.

That closes the rights question: no talent releases, no consent decisions, no location
clearances outstanding on anything shown.

It also corrected a claim. Public copy previously said "live action", then "performance
footage" — both wrong. Copy now states plainly that performers and scenes are AI-generated
while the product shots are real, and treats the generation model as **an advantage rather
than a disclaimer**: no shoot, no talent releases, no location cost, and a persona can be
recast in an afternoon instead of a reshoot.

The distinction to keep straight when writing about this work: **generated people, real
interface.** "Real in-app footage" remains accurate and is the proof beat of every ad.

## Structure

**Six Upwork portfolio items, each linking to its own page** — not to an anchor on a shared page, so a client clicking through lands on a clean project rather than mid-scroll inside someone else's. The site root is an overview: showreel first, then six cards.

| # | Upwork item | Links to |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Citizen Coach — AI Officer Practice | `/citizen-coach/` |
| 2 | Ella AI Care — brand demo film | `/brand-film/` |
| 3 | BarCraft AI — Party Panic | `/barcraft/` |
| 4 | SodiumWise — Hidden Salt | `/sodiumwise/` |
| 5 | Three approaches to the same ad | `/iteration/` |
| 6 | Long-form repurposing | `/repurposing/` |

**Also upload the MP4 to the Upwork item itself.** Upwork renders an inline player and a meaningful share of clients never click out.

**Before applying to a specific job, reorder** so the most relevant item sits first — that position carries most of the attention.

## Rules the build enforces

**No rejected takes.** Citizen Coach v4–v8, both spoken-practice cuts and SodiumWise v1/v2 are not published. A client scanning quickly judges you on the weakest thing shown.

**No pricing anywhere in public copy.** `build.sh` greps generated HTML for `$`-figures, "per short", "rate card" and "generation cost", and fails the build if any appear.

**No unsupported claims.** An earlier draft said "ten versions of the same twenty seconds" while showing two. Claiming ten and showing two reads as concealment; the page now claims only what it demonstrates.

Masters live on the Drive at `My Drive/UGC Portfolio/`, byte-identical on `/Volumes/External T1/ugc-portfolio` and `letta:/mnt/archive/ella-backups/ugc-portfolio`.

---

# Item 1 — Citizen Coach: AI Officer Practice

**Title:** `20-Second App Ad — Persona Hook + Real In-App Footage (Regulated Product)`

**Link:** https://plato-portfolio.pages.dev/citizen-coach/

**Upload:** `01-Best-Work/Citizen Coach - AI Officer Practice (hybrid persona) 20s.mp4`

**Description:**

> **The brief.** Sell a US citizenship-interview practice app to nervous first-time applicants — a high-anxiety purchase for an audience with good reason to distrust anything that looks like an immigration shortcut.
>
> **The approach.** Three beats, twenty seconds. A lip-synced persona opens, real in-app footage proves the product works, and the CTA lands on the actual home screen instead of a title card. The persona was cast as an earnest applicant rather than a polished influencer — the ad has to feel like someone in the same position as the viewer, not someone selling to them.
>
> **The result.** Delivered as a 20-second 1080×1920 master for a live App Store product. Three beats, frame-accurate captions timed from the measured voiceover, and compliance language carried in both voiceover and end card — with no outcome or approval-rate claim anywhere in the cut.

**Skills:** Video Editing · Video Production · Social Media Video · Video Advertising · Generative AI · Short Form Video · App Marketing

---

# Item 2 — Ella AI Care: brand demo film

**Title:** `58-Second Brand Demo Film — Human-Cadence Narration + Word-Accuracy Gate`

**Link:** https://plato-portfolio.pages.dev/brand-film/

**Upload:** `07-Brand-Demo-Film/ella-demo-master-16x9-local.mp4`

**Description:**

> **The brief.** A landing-page film for an AI companion worn by elderly users and monitored by their families. Two audiences, one runtime, and a subject where anything that sounds synthetic or salesy destroys the trust the product depends on — with no budget for a shoot, and a duty of care that rules out filming real families.
>
> **The approach.** Fully AI-generated performers and scenes, composited against exact real screen captures, with narration that is not prompted text-to-speech. The founder read the locked script three times; the strongest read became a timing track, and a licensed narrator voice was conformed to that human cadence phrase by phrase. Pauses were then recomposed against picture so the film opens spacious and tightens as it closes.
>
> **The result.** Three deliverables from one build: a 58.2-second 16:9 master, a 1080×1920 vertical, and a 30-second cut assembled from the same verified audio — word-identical to the long version, not a re-record. Narration passed a 90-of-90 word-level accuracy check before picture lock. Live on the product's landing page.

**Skills:** Video Production · Audio Post Production · Audio Editing · Voice-Over · Sound Mixing · Motion Graphics · Brand Video · Video Post-Editing

*This is the rate-card anchor — the one item a competitor using off-the-shelf AI tools cannot produce or explain. The supporting detail (pause map, and the word-accuracy gate that failed at 78 of 90 and was repaired rather than papered over) sits behind an expandable on the page.*

---

# Item 3 — BarCraft AI: Party Panic

**Title:** `Comedic Consumer App Ad — Tonal Range From One Production Pipeline`

**Link:** https://plato-portfolio.pages.dev/barcraft/

**Upload:** `01-Best-Work/BarCraft AI - Party Panic 22s.mp4`

**Description:**

> **The brief.** A cocktail-recipe app aimed at people hosting on short notice. Nothing to be careful about and nothing to prove — the job was purely to be enjoyable.
>
> **The approach.** The same three-beat build as the flagship, pitched in the opposite register: fast, comedic, a host character rather than an earnest one. The pacing is tighter and the cuts land on the joke rather than on the feature.
>
> **The result.** A 22-second 1080×1920 master built from the same pipeline as the flagship, retargeted end to end for tone. Two ads in one house style read as a single trick; two ads in different registers read as direction.

**Skills:** Video Production · Creative Direction · Social Media Video · Generative AI · Short Form Video

---

# Item 4 — SodiumWise: Hidden Salt

**Title:** `Published Health-App Ad — Claim-Compliant Copy + Editable Disclaimer System`

**Link:** https://plato-portfolio.pages.dev/sodiumwise/

**Upload:** `01-Best-Work/SodiumWise - Hidden Salt (PUBLISHED) 25s.mp4`

**Description:**

> **The brief.** Advertise a sodium-tracking app without making a health claim. The interesting constraint on a regulated product is that the copy has to work inside language limits set before anyone writes a script.
>
> **The approach.** Restricted terms were identified first, so the whole cut speaks in *estimate*, *range* and *tracking aid* — never diagnosis, treatment or outcome. Disclaimers were built into editable safe zones on the end card rather than baked into the render.
>
> **The result.** A 25-second 1080×1920 master, published to a live channel. Because the disclaimers sit in editable safe zones, a legal wording change is a same-day edit rather than a new production cycle.

**Skills:** Video Production · Healthcare Marketing · Regulatory Compliance · Social Media Video · Copywriting · TikTok Marketing

---

# Item 5 — Three approaches to the same ad

**Title:** `Casting Case Study — Three Versions of One Ad, and Which Shipped`

**Link:** https://plato-portfolio.pages.dev/iteration/

**Upload:** the narrator-led alternate, then the vendor-rendered version as a second attachment so the contrast is visible inside the item.

**Description:**

> **The brief.** The flagship ad went through several builds before it shipped. Three of them are worth showing, because the difference between them is not production quality — it is who is on screen.
>
> **The approach.** The first strips the presenter out entirely and runs narrator-led. It works, which established that the structure was sound and the problem was casting, not construction. The second is a build-vs-buy control: an original character, designed and prompt-directed in-house, then rendered end to end by a paid vendor. The third recasts deliberately for the audience — an applicant at a kitchen table with a study notebook, not a presenter and not an influencer.
>
> **The result.** The third shipped. Narrator-led became the standing fallback for products with no fitting persona, and the vendor route was declined on a specific finding: it reaches comparable persona quality but cannot carry real in-app footage, which is the proof beat every one of these ads is built on.

**Skills:** Video Production · A/B Testing · Creative Direction · Generative AI · Marketing Strategy · Short Form Video

---

# Item 6 — Long-form repurposing

**Title:** `Long-Form to Shorts — 7 Vertical Cuts From One 6-Minute Video`

**Link:** https://plato-portfolio.pages.dev/repurposing/

**Upload:** the 59 s cut, plus the 47 s and 43 s cuts as additional attachments.

**Description:**

> **The brief.** A six-minute widescreen explainer that no one was going to watch on a phone, and a client who needed a month of vertical posts out of material they already owned.
>
> **The approach.** Segmented by topic, reframed 16:9 to 9:16 without cropping the subject out of shot, and captioned from transcription. Each cut got its own hook written independently, so the set runs as a sequence rather than seven versions of the same opening.
>
> **The result.** Seven publishable 1080×1920 verticals, 34–59 seconds each, from one 354-second source file — no new shooting, no new footage licensed. Captions burned in from transcription of what was actually said. Any client with a webinar, podcast or conference-talk backlog already owns the raw material.

**Skills:** Video Editing · Content Repurposing · Video Post-Editing · Subtitles & Captions · Social Media Video · YouTube Shorts · TikTok Marketing

*Lead with this item in proposals even though it sits last on the site — widest addressable client base of the six. Items 1 and 2 close them at a higher rate once you are in conversation.*

**Give this one its own Project Catalog offer.** Its buyer — podcasters, coaches, YouTubers — is a different person from the app-ad buyer and searches differently. A fixed-scope catalog listing ("one long video → 7 vertical shorts, captioned") reaches them without a proposal.*

---

## Profile overview — suggested

> I make short-form product video that uses **real app footage, never generated UI** — because image models render on-screen text as gibberish, and a fake interface is the fastest way to lose a viewer's trust.
>
> Six projects: consumer app ads, a published ad for a regulated health product, a seven-cut long-form repurposing set, and a brand film whose narration was mapped to a human performance and gated on word-level accuracy before picture lock.
>
> Every deliverable is reproducible — briefs, prompts, source media and the assembly spec stay together, so a cut can be revised months later without starting over.
>
> Anyone can now generate *a* video. What I hand over is the build that regenerates it.

---

## Open decisions

**The site is `noindex`.** Correct while it is a link you hand out. To let it rank, remove the `<meta name="robots" content="noindex">` line in `marketing/portfolio-site/site.py` and rebuild.

**Custom domain.** `plato-portfolio.pages.dev` works but reads as a scratch URL. Attaching a hostname is a DNS change on a live zone, so it is your call — candidates matching existing naming: `video.platotools.com`, `studio.plato-press.com`, `work.2bluecapital.com`.

**Poster frames are auto-grabbed at one second.** Choosing them deliberately would visibly lift the overview grid, which is the first thing a visitor sees.

**Permission.** Confirm the Ella film may be shown as portfolio work, given it is live on a product page.

## Sources consulted

- [Upwork Portfolio Guide](https://www.upwork.com/resources/portfolio-guide)
- [Upwork Portfolio Best Practices 2026](https://www.themodernfreelancer.com/blog/upwork-portfolio-guide-best-practices-to-win-better-clients-in-2026)
- [Best Portfolio for Upwork Proposal](https://getmany.com/blog/best-portfolio-upwork-proposal)
- [Upwork Portfolio: What to Show and What to Hide](https://aiproposer.com/guides/upwork-strategy/upwork-portfolio-optimization)
- [Video Editor Portfolio Guide (Vimeo)](https://vimeo.com/blog/post/video-editor-portfolio)
- [Building a Video Editing Portfolio](https://fueler.io/blog/how-to-build-a-standout-video-editing-portfolio)