Demo Reel Advice

cardmaverick

cardmaverick

Well-known member
Hey guys.

I'm working on a new demo reel, and I've been thinking about possibly mixing both my film/TV work with my commercial photography into one demo reel. The photography would obviously have some kind of motion effect on it at times.

Any thoughts on this? I don't think I've ever seen it done before. My main reason for considering this is that I have a lot of cool examples of my lighting/color correction that are not shot in motion (I certainly could shoot them in motion though).

Thanks,
 
Hi Chris:

IMHO, Bad idea. Assuming you are a DP? Who are your potential clients? Who will see this reel?

My experience has taught me the complete opposite. Potential clients, whether ad agency creatives, corporate people or studios all want to see quick and specific examples of exactly what they are considering you for. If they see ANYTHING that doesn't strike them as germane to what they are looking for, you are out and the next reel gets looked at. I know when I am functioning as a producer and am hiring directors, DPs and editors as well as motion graphic artists, I generally am in a massive hurry so each reel has about :15 to grab me. If it doesn't, I chuck it and move to the next. And if I do like it, I am also going to judge your taste in respecting my time as a viewer. I keep telling people that two minutes is a long reel. The people who create five and ten minute reels are dreaming if they think that people actually watch all of them. Shorter, more concise and hard hitting is ALWAYS best. I personally think that :90 is best for a reel. If someone likes your reel but wants to see more, they'll ask you. When that happens to me, I can generally then edit together a few specific clips based upon what the potential client is looking for. A reel is just a hook to sell that you know what you are doing and are creative, competent and a team player. It's not to show off ALL of your work.

As an example, I am a producer/DP who writes and owns a production company. I am also a still photographer, although I only dabble at stills professionally with an occasional paying gig. I have separate reels for:

1. Production company
2. Freelance Producer
3. Freelance DP

And then I have other reels like entertainment, corporate. Basically, people have almost no attention span, time or discernment these days. They want everything served to them on a plate immediately and they want only what is 100% applicable to what they are looking for. We can debate this all day long about how pathetic it is but the fact remains, this is how modern Americans are. So you can complain or adapt to it.

For stills, I guess it all depends on who would be hiring you for that. Electronic is nice and convenient but it seems that a lot people hiring photogs still want to see a traditional portfolio or an on-line one with high res images. Not sure if video will give you what you need for stills. If you have a really well designed website with high res on-line samples of your work, that would be better than a video clip with moves IMHO.

Good luck,

Dan
 
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I completely agree with Dan. Target marketing is more effective.

There is definitely a time and place to let people know you are versatile. But when I am hiring (or looking to get hired), I recognize that it is a specific skill set that is being sought.
 
Ok cool, sounds right to me as well. I recently made a big change on my site to get rid of excessive menus and it seems to have paid off. All my photography work is one gallery now, no more gallery page with sub galleries, etc... I found nobody was really seeing all the work, only the freaking menu page! It's amazing how much longer people stay on the site now that it's more streamlined.

So I take it you like quick reels with upbeat music? I'm leaning that way. My reel on the site doesn't have the original music due to issues with youtube, so its a replacement song :/

Big question, what about featuring some well know organizations logos I've shot for. I thought about having a faster song with beats that would let me cut in logos for them right up front, then quickly jump into quick "money shots". These are internationally recognized names, so I figure it would be a plus. Yea or Nay on this one?

Thanks for the insight!
 
Doc Bernard said:
Did you do the logos? If not, I would find that distracting.

Just my .03 cents (inflation)
Click to expand...

The logos are all ready made by the organizations. Specifically I'm interested in my heavy hitters popping up fast, then, boom, footage or perhaps my name then the footage.

My main curiosity is if something like that would grab attention. These are tough, heavily respected, and well known organizations to get involved with, so thats why I'm wondering if it would have a good effect.
 
That's a tough call. I take it you do corporate video if you are talking logos? To me, using the actual company's logo in your video would look a bit tacky as most corporate logos are not really very well designed and all have different sizes, fonts and colors, it's going to make your reel look pretty un-unified. But I think that a tasteful lower third identifying who each clip was done for might work better since you could give them all a unified look.

I don't know. Out of all of my reels, my corporate reel was te toughest to put together because I have done so many differemnt kinds of corporate. Talking to a transit authority about doing promos while showing them samples of work I have done for pharma companies never works out well. The problem is that everyone is too specific. They won't generally judge the quality of your work unless you are showing them work that specifically applies to their business. Which makes it tough.

Dan
 
puredrifting said:
That's a tough call. I take it you do corporate video if you are talking logos? To me, using the actual company's logo in your video would look a bit tacky as most corporate logos are not really very well designed and all have different sizes, fonts and colors, it's going to make your reel look pretty un-unified. But I think that a tasteful lower third identifying who each clip was done for might work better since you could give them all a unified look.

I don't know. Out of all of my reels, my corporate reel was te toughest to put together because I have done so many differemnt kinds of corporate. Talking to a transit authority about doing promos while showing them samples of work I have done for pharma companies never works out well. The problem is that everyone is too specific. They won't generally judge the quality of your work unless you are showing them work that specifically applies to their business. Which makes it tough.

Dan
Click to expand...

I don't normally shoot corporate video actually, I guess I should be more specific. I'm thinking about dropping TIME magazine and National Geographic's logos. I've shot motion for both of them (TIME mag is now doing video), as well as had one music video on MTV - so three total - was considering some smaller indi film studio logos, but I think it's a waste since they really aren't "known" at the same level as the others.

I finally have a song, and its got a lot of beats, so I was planning to put a logo up on a beat, motion zoom in slowly, then it beats again which is when I plan to cut to footage. This would only be in the opening though, a lead into my name, etc... I could also do the name first, then the logos. Not sure yet.
 
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