Demo Reel

scharky

scharky

Veteran
So I decided to make a demo reel. I have never done one of these before, and I find it quite awkward. Is there a format for these things?:huh:
Let me know what you think, and what I should change. Let me know if it just plain sucks altogether.:cry:

http://www.stefweb.net/Demoreel.wmv
 
nice work man.. i wish you would teach me how you did that jittery stuttering motion out in the field with the walking. the demos looking great.
 
I had a demo plugin once, I can't recall the name, but it did that jitter effect.

Another way to do it is to manually do a series of motion paths and add in motion blurs on top of it... which does the same thing.
 
I think you guys are thinking of two different things. The filed scene which mad1 mentioned is done by using a still camera, having the actor move very slowely and going frame by frame through the motions. Technically it isn't very hard, but for the actor, it's pure hell. The scene where he bends down to touch the cat almost had him crying by the end, it is painfully slow. The other "jitter" effect is indeed a plugin which adds motion blur and shake to the camera.
 
Hey Dude... that was some really awesome work! I especially enjoyed the quality, lighting and colours of that sepia/brown sequence you filmed, as well as the overall darkness of many of the images. I'd love to know you did that strobing movement effect with that spaced-out looking dude. Did you remove some frames in post? The music was great too.
My only concern is that some of the shots lake tempo in that some of the cuts hold too long (the shoe stamping thing and the guy in that wooden-laboratory space sequence comes to mind). The pace could definitely be sped up. Also, its my understanding that a demo reel should be reflective of a narrowed down position your aiming at (ie. Animator, DP, Director ect). I may be wrong, and you may just want a collective reel of everything you have done which is fine, but there should be some type of label attached to it. though.

But overall, awesome work.
 
cool stuff, couple of neat scenes from AWAKE in there. You guys almost done with that yet?!
 
Thanks Astral for the comments.
You have brought up some good points. As to the say I shot that scene you are describing, see the post above you.
Thanks for the music comment as well. I had this little riff going on in my head so I recorded a little bit of it. That turned into 7hrs of work and a cool little toon. I had been meening to make a demo reel for a time now, and I figured this song really sounded like a demo reel song.
Let me just say that most of my time went into the music, and then I was tired. I will go though and recut some of the things you mentioned. I just have a hard time, because there is so much I want to show, I have a hard time cutting things out. Maybe I should get someone else to edit the actual footage, so that there is a more objective PoV to look at what is good and what isn't
thanks for the comments. I always feel, as I look back at my work, that I don't have anything that really stands out. I'm not sure how to describe it, but I don't have anything that if I was hiring me, would say, boy, this guy's got talent. DO you have any suggestions as to how I may "spice up" my reel a little bit?
Do you think I should cut out the animation stuff?
Anybody else?
 
very nice , technically sound with the colors. great work, Reminds me of the TOOL videos. My friend Mike Means worked on a lot of the TOOL videos. The music has that same bass guitar driven feel.

keep up the great work!
 
scharky said:
I always feel, as I look back at my work, that I don't have anything that really stands out. I'm not sure how to describe it, but I don't have anything that if I was hiring me, would say, boy, this guy's got talent.
Click to expand...

I know that exact feeling, I'm sure a lot of us do.
 
Hey dude...
First off let me say... "Awesome work".

Now for the demo-reel aspect.
I think you'd be safe showing this off if you brought it in with you to the meeting. So you could explain exactly what you did.

But if you were getting work and some chode in PR looked at it, their first question would be... "Okay.. so what exactly did you do in each of these scenes?"

I think you should add slates describing or small text/slate in the corner of the shot.

And of coarse.. the eye-catcher... (before and after side by side) comparison.
I only say this because when I used to watch demo reels... sometimes i would ask myself "ok... what exactly did this person do?" when they didn't include slates or a shot sheet.

I know the ending has a slate of editing/directing. But most people won't make it that far into a demo reel. You should probably state that in the beginning like...

All off the following works were edited/directed by... Your name. Then begin the show. Maybe add a compositing slate too.

You've got some really nice stuff man.
 
Thanks again all for the comments. IT's always nice to get an outside POV on stuff like this. I especially like the slate idea. I think that should definatly help to give it more direction, and make it more watchable.
 
BTW, TOOL is one of my favorite bands, and their videos have definatly been an inspiration for the look of AWAKE. I think that their videos are some of the most creative and well designed music videos that have ever been made, and are the only type of music video that I am actually able to sit though. I don't want to see the band play over and over, and look longly out a window, I want a story, and not a cheesy after school special story, with HOOKERS.:lipsrseal
 
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