Criticism on my demo reel please?

A

analog_addict

Well-known member
Hi,

I am about to update my demo reel with my new AF100 footage but I'm starting to think my demo reel seems a bit old fashioned. Could a few people from here give me some criticism and advice please? I'm thinking of changing the music to something a bit punchier with much faster editing.

My reel was shot on XL2 and 550D. I want it to seem quite interesting and creative but that means leaving out a lot of my corporate style talking heads stuff. Stuff that might appeal to my future client base.

Thanks!

 
I quite like it. I guess it depends on who you're trying to reach. I like the shots, and the flow of it. It's calm and plays well together.
 
I'd take out the first clips of the guy in the turbine. They are really dark and underexposed so its not the best to start off with that. Starting with the boxer would be good. I'd also take out repeat shots, I saw the car and guy twice in the beginning. I'm not a fan of repeating projects throughout the reel. People want to see as many different 'set ups' but once you start repeating yourself and showing similar clips that you already showed theres no reason to keep watching the reel cause you're seeing the same thing over and over. If you just had a few shots from each project all together you could probably get the video down to 1 minute which would be good. Also I'd take the shot with the kid throwing up out, might turn some people off.
 
grantw said:
I'd take out the first clips of the guy in the turbine. They are really dark and underexposed so its not the best to start off with that. Starting with the boxer would be good. I'd also take out repeat shots, I saw the car and guy twice in the beginning. I'm not a fan of repeating projects throughout the reel. People want to see as many different 'set ups' but once you start repeating yourself and showing similar clips that you already showed theres no reason to keep watching the reel cause you're seeing the same thing over and over. If you just had a few shots from each project all together you could probably get the video down to 1 minute which would be good. Also I'd take the shot with the kid throwing up out, might turn some people off.
Click to expand...

Hi thanks for the reply. The first shot is from a night scene and the original footage looks fine however I lost all my original clips and have had to rip this from a previous export. Looks OK in Premiere but becomes very noisy and odd on the export. Is 2:25 way too long for a demo reel?

I will take your advice on trying to cut down repeat shots. The problem is I only have a very limited amount of projects to choose from at the moment.
 
analog_addict said:
Is 2:25 way too long for a demo reel?
Click to expand...

Yes. I would tighten up a bunch of the shots. In the case of the boxer, there's a perceptible 'gap' in time from the opening of the shot to when we see the boxer... first impression... 'what is this? crickets'... 'oh, a boxer hitting the mat'... ok..

Another shot of a guy looking at a train time board... pretty long, then just when a girl looks like she's coming up... cut... later we see the guy and girl... so, I'd cut the first shot down to just a second or two of the meeting.

Those are just a couple of points where I saw things that could be tightened up...

Another 'background' effect is the direction of motion. I don't have time right now, but I think you could work on 'direction of motion' from shot to shot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top