Showreel short fiction film- advice needed!

Thomas van der Gronde said:
Dear filmmakers!

I have made a showreel a short fiction film which I was DP for.
This is the link for the file: http://thomasvandergronde.nl/Project Liefde_files/Project Liefde Showreel.mov
(streaming doesn't work very well so please press right-click --> save as... )

I am really hoping for your advice on my cinematography, I am trying to get to a higher level!

Thank you all in advance!:dankk2:
Click to expand...

I watched the movie, and have a few comments.

One is the aspect ratio of the 'wide' screen 16:9, 1.85, whatever... really is somewhat difficult to compose for... Especially for 'close in' shots. One notable occasion in the film, is near the end. (I didn't load the movie into something that would display time better...). There is a two-shot, and the girl's fact is cut off at the lower right corner. While there may be some motivation in some movies for such a shot, the boy was pretty centrally located, and a lot of empty space to his left on the screen.

In my opinion the shot suffered. I think the camera should have been higher, and angled to compose the couple's heads.

With that in mind, I'd suggest looking at shots, and selecting shots which have a more evenly distribution of subjects in the shot.

In that same general place in time, there was a shot with rather disturbing 'lighting', not in the 'dramatic sense', but it seems like there was a lot of shine on the boy's face, and shadows that looked 'bad'...

As a note, I think the shots were a bit long for a 'demo' reel.
 
Thomas van der Gronde said:
Dear filmmakers!

I have made a showreel a short fiction film which I was DP for.
This is the link for the file: http://thomasvandergronde.nl/Project Liefde_files/Project Liefde Showreel.mov
(streaming doesn't work very well so please press right-click --> save as... )

I am really hoping for your advice on my cinematography, I am trying to get to a higher level!

Thank you all in advance!:dankk2:
Click to expand...

I think it was generally well-done. I especially like the use of DOF at the store and the tracking shot near the bed. They looked good to my eyes. In general, I cannot say I was disturbed by any specific aspect of the cinematography, although I feel that giving the audience a bit more space at the four margins of the frame could be a good thing. Also, in some of the close-up shots, I felt like the characters were almost in my face. Now I'm not a professional cinematographer, but I actually found myself instinctively leaning back on my chair, to compensate on that, needing more space. Another note would be on the "freestyle shooting", which felt a little rough to me, especially when following the male character as he walks, but also slightly at the escalator shot if you look at the top margin, I think it could have been done more smoothly, by maintaining a more fixed distance from the character's head).

I realize my feedback may all be wrong since cinematography is not my field, but I do hope you find it helpful in a way!

:)

While the above suggestions cannot be implemented in this specific reel anymore, I do have a critical suggestions that will help to take this reel a step higher. It lies in the audio track, which I consider painful. It screams high-frequency noise in my ears even at low volumes, so eventually I had to mute the sound completely. If you want, send the audio track over and I'll fix it for you.

I hope I helped, and I would love to see more of what you have to offer! it's surely gonna rock!

All the best!

P.S. I think you'll find this incredible bonus video from the Children of Men DVD quite inspirational for you! I personally think it's just amazing.
 
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Hi Clark,
Thank you a lot for your advice. You made me realize stuff about this reel that I didn't see before. I think that the light in the last shot was indeed disturbing, and the two shot is a bit unevenly distributed. I am thinking about cutting off the first couple of seconds of this two shot, so the focus is really on the boy.

I personnely don't bother that the shots are long for a reel.
Thank you for your advice, and I will upload another film I did soon!
 
Dear Erez Henya,
Thanks for your ideas, the handheld freestyle shooting is indeed to rough, I am going to check in my montage if there's anything I can do about this.

The sound is indeed horrible! I would be great if you could help me! Should I send the sound file with the voices or without? In which format?

Really appreciate your help! A new film I did will be online soon!
 
It was real. It looked unrehearsed, and that's good. The mood was good too. I liked it. I think as a cinematographer it's not your job to direct the actors, so if they don't appear in a certain way, that's another thing. Your photography was good and you should continue to work like this, because the effect of it all is very natural. I liked the reel very much. I wouldn't change a thing.
 
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