2013 Reel

[alaskacameradude]

Well, I finally made some sort of a sizzle reel. I had a couple days between paying work
and wanted to try and finally put one together. Shot mostly on FS700, some FS100 and VG20
shots in there as well as 2 GoPro shots (which are very obvious).

https://vimeo.com/86764478

 

[jshbckr]

There are some nice shots in there, but overall I'd cut it down. An 11-second intro is a hair too long and honestly with the type of content in the reel, you might be better suited for a 1:00-1:20 long cut instead of 2:30. In my opinion, you need a lot of variety and really strong footage to support a 2-minute+ reel. Your opening shot is a bit weak, and the following shots (panning up the car to her face, which is out of focus) aren't any stronger.

There are some great time lapse shots in there (northern lights) and I like the slider time lapse at :40. Some of the boat shots (looking between the two motors) don't really do anything for me, but I love the group of shots around 1:10-1:13. The forest fire stuff is great, especially the shot at 1:29-30 (shafts of light coming through the trees).

I would be interested to see what it would look like if you only used one minute of total footage. I remember I had a film teacher that would let people "finish" a short film and then make them cut it down to half the length. It was through that exercise that they learned what was necessary and what was superfluous.

 

[alaskacameradude]

There are some nice shots in there, but overall I'd cut it down. An 11-second intro is a hair too long and honestly with the type of content in the reel, you might be better suited for a 1:00-1:20 long cut instead of 2:30. In my opinion, you need a lot of variety and really strong footage to support a 2-minute+ reel. Your opening shot is a bit weak, and the following shots (panning up the car to her face, which is out of focus) aren't any stronger.

There are some great time lapse shots in there (northern lights) and I like the slider time lapse at :40. Some of the boat shots (looking between the two motors) don't really do anything for me, but I love the group of shots around 1:10-1:13. The forest fire stuff is great, especially the shot at 1:29-30 (shafts of light coming through the trees).

I would be interested to see what it would look like if you only used one minute of total footage. I remember I had a film teacher that would let people "finish" a short film and then make them cut it down to half the length. It was through that exercise that they learned what was necessary and what was superfluous.

Thanks for the feedback. Have not done one of these before as I always just used a full spot for my demos.
It's my first draft so I'll recut and replace at the same link within a couple of days and try to cut it to 1:30 or so?
Not sure what is generally 'accepted' on these?

 

[jshbckr]

Thanks for the feedback. Have not done one of these before as I always just used a full spot for my demos.
It's my first draft so I'll recut and replace at the same link within a couple of days and try to cut it to 1:30 or so?
Not sure what is generally 'accepted' on these?

There aren't really any rules but I usually say short and sweet is better. You want your reel to be the cream of the crop, don't put in any filler.