Director's reel and resume

C

colorfullydark

Member
What exactly should go on a director's reel(specifics)? And does a director's resume differ vastly from standard resume form?

I looked 6-7 pages back on the threads but didn't see anything similar. I just don't have the time to continue going through more at the moment. I'm sorry if it's already posted on here.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time and input.
 
I'd talked to a few friends about this last year, people who hire directors, and they all said, if you are showing off your directing, you want to show off acting, scenes, etc. as opposed to say a cinematography reel, where you can have a montage of amazing camera work set to music.

All advised against montage approach for a director's reel, etc.

So if it's any help, here is mine the one I just put together you can check out.

http://www.desperatecomfort.com/media/media/reels/MarkReel_drama_sm.wmv
 
Thank you Mark. That's a big help. I appreciate everyone's time looking at this. And the bit about the scenes as opposed to action montage...I'm really glad you mentioned that. It almost seems obvious to me now because it is in fact something I need to showcase my directing talents. But to tell you the truth, over half of the 'director' reels I sampled on youtube yesterday were of the music/montage variety probably more acceptable for a cinematographer or stunt/fx showcase.

Thanks again!
 
Well I think there is a blurrier line with directors of say many commercials and music videos. Like I know some commercial directors who are largely cinematographers. They direct commercials, but their strengths are in cinematography. And with commercials, I think the montage approach can work better.

But I am more interested in directing narrative. So if I am going out for a job directing an episode of Law and Order, say, a montage set to music tells them nothing about how I direct, how I cover scenes, the performances I do or don't get out of actors, etc.

Anyway, I know a lot of people around the industry and last year I started asking them all what to put on my directing reel, and it was pretty much universal to put scenes on there for what I wanted to go after.
 
I will likely not have a narrative reel for some time, I mean, I have two short films I would prefer not to show to my dad again even. One of them I'm proud of for when I shot it, I mean, it's good work for $600 and a one-and-a-half day shoot to get a 12 minute short, and we had a lot of locations that we all just used without permission except two, we had permission but no insurance certificates, nothing. We did a great job for what it was. Would I show it to pros? Absolutely not.

So for me, I don't want a "directing reel" because it just makes no sense at all. I mean in the sense of like a 5 minute reel. It's just odd. I want to have a representative sample or two for each category of directing work. Like, ok here are a few commercials I've done. Here are a few music videos I've done. Here are some corporate videos I did. This is a training video I did, etc. Otherwise I can't very well make a reel with corporate work and a training video to impress someone with how I can come up with great ideas, because those aren't very original. But they're perfect for some of the most common type of work I want to pursue, which is corporate work where there is money. My music videos are good for getting other music videos. You get the idea.

I can agree, though, if you are going to be trying for narrative directing work it makes no sense to make a bunch of random shots and put them to music. It's just confusing. How am I supposed to know if you're any good at directing actors or telling a coherent story if I can't even see anything from start to finish, even a scene? It's illogical. I was reviewing a bunch of directors' reels late last year / early this year for commercials and music videos for the production company, to find other talent, and I preferred to see complete projects. Don't send me all 25 music videos you've ever done in your life, but show me the two or three that most represent the quality you can achieve. Same with commercials. That's what I wanted to see. Especially if you have a nice little story in that music video, it shows me you can pull off something complicated like a short narrative mixed into a song and you have original ideas and a professional touch.

I think a professional touch is the most important thing. I can't light worth a dang, I know some basic lighting but I couldn't do a good job as a DP whatsoever. But I do know what is good work and what isn't, I've seen more than 200 DP reels in just the last 8 months, and I know what I like and what is professional. So I can hire based on that and demand a certain level of professional quality. I want to see a director's reel where I know he has the same sensibility. If he sends me something that looks like crap, I think seriously this represents the best work you have and you are proud enough of this to send it out? It's not acceptable work. That tells me enough already about this person's standards.
 
Personally, I think whether you are putting together a directing, cinematography, or editing reel, you should show more than just montages. People need to know that you can be consistent with your shots and directing and editing. For example, anyone can put together montages of pretty shots, but how consistent are they when it comes to the lighting and framing of a scene is hard to tell with their montages.

If you are putting a directing reel together, you should put in scenes of where you have great performances and blocking. That is what people are looking for when they look at a director's reel. Nobody cares about flashy editing or a long tracking shot that pulls into a crane shot at the end. That is more of a DP's reel. People want to see that you can keep your actors consistent and that you can block scenes.

My 2 cents.

Kak Lee
www.myspace.com/kaklee
 
I definitely agree. You can't show a directing reel that has a bunch of sweet shots, it just makes no sense. It's like, wow, you can hire a great DP, good for you! ;)

You have to show complete products or scenes as a director, by which I mean a 30 second commercial in its entirety, maybe a complete music video for that part of your reel, or maybe a good 1-2 minute scene from a short, etc.
 
I am putting together a directors reel right now, I'm basically making two, one that shows original shots - usually cut in 2's and 3's so each is a mini story, and the other is just strong scenes that are acted, blocked and shot well...

But here's another question, what does the directors reel do for you? An agent or manager or producer is not going to hire you on your reel of course, but will it even get you in the door? Has anyone ever had the expirience of it getting you in the door?

I have one feature under my belt and a few shorts, and everything always dervived from people seeing completed works. My first works I had to produce and put together on my own, then I started getting a team around me and got some money invested to do a feature.

I just don't have it in me to pull it all off anymare and now really need an agent or manager that can start doing some of that work for me.

So I'm not sure what the real question is here... Is a reel impoptant? For me I was thinking to make a reel that looks interesting enough that people will watch my feature, or watch some of the shorts I've done, hoping to push them closer to calling me and seeing me one on one. And it probably doesn't hurt for smaller works like indie music videos and the such.

So I guess basically if anyone has any other advice, I'd like to hear it =)
 
Not to get off topic, however after reading stuff from Roger Deakins, even a cinematographer reel shouldn't be just a bunch of pretty shots.

"It's how a narrative and images relate to one another that really counts for something."
 
Yeah but guys like me who run production companies and hire DPs will fall for lots of pretty shots, so I'm not sure if I agree there ;) If I see a reel full of amazing shots I figure the DP can do the work I need him to do.

Unfortunately there's only so much I can tell about a DP if I haven't worked with him before. I'm sure people on set think they know how good or bad a DP is from being on set with him. They don't. Unless he's horrible, they really don't know. They have no idea, for instance, that my last DP met with me about 5 times for 2-3 hours each time before we even shot a music video, just a one-day shoot, he put in that much time in meetings, and had specific notes about what he wanted from the performance footage, diagrams of lighting setups, etc. He had done his homework. Nobody sees that besides me, the director, and maybe the UPM saw that. Then nobody really knows how great the shots came out unless they see it in the editing room, which is me and the editor (and some of the band). So basically that's why if I work with a really good DP I'm unlikely to want to hire anyone else unless I have to do so. I think a lot of the industry works on connections like that. You use who you trust. That's why it's tough to break in, but it's also why once you're in, you are in. If I made it as a director and was getting consistent, nice paying work, the DP I worked with on the last video would get all of my projects and by extension he would make it, too. Same with my editor. That's just how it goes. I think it's weird in a way, but being a collaborative medium it makes sense, it's almost like a team of people can make it together, but that depends more on the leader (producer or director), of course, because if the DP makes it big he can't really drag a director along with him, haha, it doesn't work that way, but the DP is a director hire so it can work the other way around.

As for a directing reel, I have no direct experience with whether it works or not, I know my last two music videos are great calling cards for me and when I show them to bands, they are really excited and want to work with me. Has that translated to good paying work yet? No, not yet. But I think it will. I think showing short works is probably better than a random reel.

Like trying to get corporate work, if the company asks what I've done or whether I've done corporate work before, after this month I'll be able to say, "Yes I've done quite a lot, here are some completed samples," and they can take a look at those. I wouldn't really edit together 20 second segments from a bunch of different corporate projects because it makes no sense as a director. That's one of the tricks of a "reel" for a director, I feel like it's kind of a silly task if you think of a reel as pieces of projects. I don't think of a director's reel like that. I think of his reel as being everything he's done, and as far as showing someone else, you need different reels for different purposes. I want to have one DVD with 3 killer music videos, so if I'm trying to get work there, I can send off that reel. I will have a corporate / industrial reel with completed works in that field. Same with commercials. Otherwise it doesn't make logical sense, because the job of a director in my opinion is to guide a project from the very start of pre-production through post-production and influence it positively along the way at every step. I think everything that I do has my stamp on it, because it has my name on it, so if it's not very good work it reflects on me in some way. Maybe the DP wasn't good, well, I hired him, so that's partially my fault. Maybe we didn't get enough coverage, which could mean I didn't work efficiently enough, didn't hire the right people or budget properly (as a producer-director, that is), etc. So it all comes down to the final product. I think it makes the most sense to isolate a single final product to show to someone, at smallest, or several, at most, so for instance three music videos, or three commercials, but if you are talking about narrative work, maybe have a really nice, tight, engaging 8 minute short that someone might actually watch. It's very hard to make any executive watch a 15 minute short. I personally don't have the patience for that and I'm not an executive at a major production company, I'm just a little guy, but I have 70-80 hours of work per week, I don't feel like watching 15 minute short films.
 
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