Advice on Demo Reel

N

NeoSlashX

Active member
Hey guys,

I just recently graduated and been on the search for a job as an editor and have not had a single callback so I'm going back to the drawing board and redoing everything. After reviewing it again, I obviously made it too long but I"m having a difficult time cutting it down. I"m also considering taking out the intro and the middle with the crane shot because I had just won a film festival with my first short film and was ecstatic about including it. However, I feel as if it's not showcasing a level of professionalism that a company is looking for in potential applicants.

Here it is: http://vimeo.com/27161493

Feel free to be as brutally honest as you can because obviously I'm doing something wrong so I need some solid constructive criticism on what I can improve on. Outside of my shortfilm, I did not have any creative control on shot selections, lightning or even editing so I'm hoping there are some positives haha.
 
i think it's okay, a little slow and dry for a show reel with quite long segments of each project. also, while you're applying for an editing job they're not only looking at how you edited the projects, they're looking at how you've edited your show reel; so not having creative control over the edit on the others is understandable but it's how you present it to your target audience/client/prospective employer.

Here's a link to my friends show reel. He's an editor/grader and with this show reel (despite being a year old) is constantly working as a freelancer on features as well as music videos and short films: http://vimeo.com/21354288

have a look at that and try to decipher what makes it a good show reel and why people would hire him. there's not a whole lot of projects in the reel but it's how he's put them together, set the pace and tone of it and the length is barely over two minutes.

apart from having long segments from you projects, you also have a lot of long shots within those segments with few cuts. It doesn't show your variety as an adaptable editor. That's not to say you can't edit or that you should chop the hell out of what you got to make it "dynamic". It also comes across as just one giant promo for ECU and not so much as a show reel. Obviously the majority of the projects you worked on were university orientated, but you should show more of your award winning film - That's what's going to grab their attention if it has that badge on it.

I say chop at least a minute out of it, tighten up the edit of your show reel to make it more fluid, give your award winning film more exposure whilst dropping in only two of the interviews you did with the alumni (definitely making one of those be the famous actress), lose the ECU jeopardy bit at the start, shorten your opening shot of the trash cans as it's too long at nearly 30 seconds before we see you're name on it, and the shots where the girl is handed the brochure is too long once she's holding it as the other girl just looks awkward and uncomfortable.

It's not about what the original looked like but how you piece it into your reel to make it look great regardless of who had final say on the actual project because the employer isn't going to scour the net and find your work, the most they'll do is look at your reel & CV with credits. You've got to grab their attention within the first 5-10 seconds otherwise they won't watch beyond that, maybe at most they'll watch 30 seconds - they receive hundreds if not thousands of reels & CV's every week so they've not got time to watch all of it.

sorry if i sound like i'm being harsh but just trying to give you some honest feedback on how i think you could make changes to the reel. despite knowing the steps to make a good show reel, most if not all people struggle to put a really good one together, usually taking a few weeks or longer to piece it properly so that it's exactly how they want it.

hope that helps

all the best
 
Just wanted to say thanks for posting up your demo reel. It's not easy to ask for feedback and thanks to grundy2k for providing the feedback. I learned a lot from this exchange!
 
yeah, it's tough to do it because you may not get any responses about your work, or someone may hack it to shreds; and on the flip side of giving feedback it's tough as well because you've got to be critical without being personal or mean (which is not the intention but it's down to how things are worded).

There are a lot of positives to you reel - the fact that you have one & have a fair bit of content for it is good as I've seen people just stretch out the one thing (literally one single 6 second shot of vfx) they did into a 1 minute "show reel" and it was just hell to watch. I get some of my students who are unsure about how to put a reel together (for vfx) and i tell them to research trailers of movies at different lengths. This way they can review how to strip away what's needed for a 10 second, 30 second, 1 minute or more trailer to make it still work. By comparing the different edits of these trailers you can really pick it apart.

I also edit to music, regardless of whether i use it or not. keeping to a four bar structure so that it's smoother and sub-consciously comes across as feeling more professional. In my latest reel I've got vfx passes of a project that i did and the appear on screen in sync with the beats of the music. one tip I've learned when using music is that you should only really use either ambient music and that it should be really low in volume to the point of being unnoticeable. the reason being is that it's distracting from the visuals because you're trying to put a feeling into your reel but these people don't care about that, they want to know if you can edit or not. a major vfx company once told me that they switch off the audio on any reels because they don't care; they're looking to see if you can do the effects, not choose cool music.
 
Thank you for the advice Grundy. You weren't harsh at all and you said exactly what I was looking for. I feel as if the professors here were way too soft when it came to criticism and praised every single thing. Yeah I agree with it being difficult but I did leave out 4 other projects that I worked on so I could take out the jeopardy and resources part. Once again, I really appreciate the advice!


Anyone else have any advice? Open to everyone's opinion here.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top