Critique my reel!

Looks pretty good! I get a good sense of the kind of shooting you do. However, I downloaded the 22MB version which looked a little choppy and the colors a bit muted. Other than that, I enjoyed the slow build up and wide range of your experiences. :thumbsup:
 
You have a wide range of really great work.

As a piece of media, your reel feels like a bunch of shots put one after the other. In a way I think it undermines your great work. The reality is, when someone hits play, they have expectaions to be guided through something.

In my opinion, it could be half as long (or less), show only your strongest work. One great shot after another (you have plenty). Less is more. Maybe even have a separate clip for the interview shot montage. It gets a bit numbing after the first few. Leave the viewer understanding your talent but wanting to see more of your work.

Good luck.
 
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Hey guys,
thanks for the feedback.

eventually i'm planning on having a few different reels for different different genres, i was kind of considering this one the extended version that would be posted on my website.

Unfortunately, I had a DVR with a bunch of cable shows, sat uplinks, and VNRs i had shot that bit the dust, so right now i've been trying to get copies of those shows without having much luck.

Michael, the first Minute or so, up until the saddhu gives the thumbs up is all from one series I shot. do you think rather than just pulling random shots i should have whole segments?


I noticed in the QT files that the audio was actually a little off, the montages are mostly cut to the beat, but for some reason when i squeezed em, they ended up a little off.
 
NewYorkLion said:
Michael, the first Minute or so, up until the saddhu gives the thumbs up is all from one series I shot. do you think rather than just pulling random shots i should have whole segments?
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I think, on a camera reel, you have a lot of freedom. On an editing reel, you should really include whole segments.

Having a series of shots from one piece, and then moving on, is great. It is like a guided tour of your work. Think of it as telling a story. I was suggesting losing shots like 'Justin' the host.

Here is a great tool. As you watch your reel, describe every shot to yourself. Your 'story' (in shots) might be, 'sunrise, rock, marketplace, indian children, etc. When you get to shot of Justin, you can see how that doesn't fit.

Another example, when you get to the sadhu, I would use just the close shot of him smoking. You have several shots there with subtitles that are not in a real conversatoinal order (as far as I can tell). It is highly distracting and the shots themselves don't add anything to the close up (which is great). Also, back to the story analogy, all you need is one or two shots to tell that story. I hope that makes sense.

The UFC footage is another great example. You just need two or three great shots to see your work. The shot with the mouthpiece is great. I don't think that the pre-fight, the ring girl, etc. add to what we have seen of your work.

Again, overall I would lose more than half of your shots because I think it really dilutes your great work. This should 'tease' prospective employers. You are currently throwing the kitchen sink at them. If you are putting it on a website, even more reason to break it up. You can take all of your interview shots and put them in one clip away from your beauty footage.

I used to look at hundreds of reels for hiring. I can tell you, the last thing you want the viewer to do is fast forward, or hit eject because they are bored or feel like your reel is rambling on. In short, watching a long reel was very similar to having an interview where the person would ramble on. It doesn't create the best impression.

I would focus on a solid two minutes of entertainment. Great shots, some sense of a guided experience.

Please note I wouldn't give such detailed feedback if I didn't think you have great stuff there.


Good luck.
 
I'm not a filmmaker but...

I was expecting way worse. Not so. I hesitate to use the word pro because it was more than that in the commercial sense. The visuals had an artistic feel that captured alot of the ambience. Something I usually only see in National Geographic photos. I only watched 1/2 way through before replying because at that point you had nothing else to prove.

I loved it and now I'll watch the rest.

If there are any technical crits I'll let the pros around here discuss that.
 
After watching it all I agree with Michael Friedman in focusing in on a solid two mins. Thats what sold it for me initially. The rest was incoherent subject wise.

Tie together a theme and keep continutity in the subject matter.

-Gord.
 
do you guys think its important to showcase the fact that i've shot for a bunch of different shows? there are a bunch of shots that i don't feel are that great, but they have the network bug in the corner so i stuck them in there.

honestly, most of my best work/shots all came from one really long gig (series for nat. geo) and my first cut of the reel, which was much shorter, was about 80% from that one show. but i felt it didnt say i was well rounded enough.
 
I think it also ended up being so long due to the music i used. I cut it in time with the track, and i think it work really well, but yes, it is too long. ill just ahve to find a different tune.
 
I watched the whole thing. Very beautiful. I also agree with the time.

Personally (I'm no pro, nor someone looking to hire a camerman), but I feel that it is important knowing that you shot for all those shows, and I want to see that. But when I look at your reel, I'm looking for talent, not work experience. That's for your CV. Some of the UFC stuff is nice, so keep that. Maybe scrounge for some nice shots from one or two other things, like that GT castrol oil commercial.

A reel is to show talent, CV is to show experience. But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
 
Again as a non pro...

It's not the music. Continuity in the subject matter.

I thought the India stuff was right on. The music fit. But then jumping into kick boxing, why? The mood/atmosphere/I was lost at that point.

mmm,possibly two seperate demographics there. As they say in the music biz, you have 2 songs there.

-Gord.
 
Coming from someone who's working on a reel right now, I just wanted to say very nice work. I agree with the comments about it being a little lengthy but your overall diversity of shots and content is excellent and the build up is good. I would say some of the redundant interview shots could go if you end up recutting this with a different audio track.

If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been in the industry and what's your background/education in?
 
I see the problem now. How to display all of your work in one demo.
I do not know . I'll watch. :)
 
A shorter reel made up of stuff you're totally proud of, is better than a longer reel padded out with stuff about which you feel indifferent.
 
krazywake said:
If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been in the industry and what's your background/education in?
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hmm, well lets see, I've been working in the business for about 6 years or so. got my first shooter gig not long after graduating in '02. Went to school at Suny New Paltz in upstate New York, majored in media comm. Worked mostly low-paying travel shows for the two years, then moved out here to San Francisco where now i mostly do corporate vids, culinary stuff and video game news for mtv/spike with some other random stuff thrown in.
 
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