Demo Reel

mcshyd

mcshyd

Well-known member
Yo,

I'm pretty much finished with my demo reel, minus some interlacing issues, and would love some feedback on it. and yes, i will fix the interlaced mess halfway through the camera section...

thanks in advance.

-mc

www.trickmagnetvalentine.com click on demo reel...

you need flash 8 to view the video.
 
nice reel. there were a lot of sections that I really liked: the intro (black & pink), the girl (perfect setting), the CC on the subway, the lighting and color at the Meuseum of Natural History (I love that place!).

My only criticism is that it seemed a little long and there were some weak moments (like the ballroom dancing).

But I don't have much room to talk since I don't have my reel together.

Anyway, great work. Liked it a lot.
 
Looked really good IMO, save for two things:

#1 I felt you should dive right in to your material and nix the intro (your material speaks for itself after all.)

#2 Maybe it was me, but the music seemed awfully loud.
 
is it just me or are those links with the bass noises destroying your ears and speakers???

by the way very very cool graphic work. and what software do u use?
 
haha, i've been meaning to fix that. They are just pure sine waves that don't mix very well...
 
This is not a bad reel. But it could be much, much stronger. About half of the graphics work in here is strong, while the rest is garish and degrades the quality of the rest of it. First rule of cutting a reel is: cut the reel. Drop everything that's not top-notch.

The other problem I had with it is the transition into your shooting promo. It took me a little while to realize that we had made that leap and that I wasn't supposed to be looking for some VFX or fancy tricks that aren't there. The "Camera" titlecard you have in there to separate the sections looks too much like it's just another shot in the reel, so it didn't register until later. In any case, I wouldn't recommend putting mograph work together with live action shooting in the same reel... I can't think of many people who are going to care about both. Nothing wrong with having two separate reels.
 
dougspice said:
This is not a bad reel. But it could be much, much stronger. About half of the graphics work in here is strong, while the rest is garish and degrades the quality of the rest of it. First rule of cutting a reel is: cut the reel. Drop everything that's not top-notch.

The other problem I had with it is the transition into your shooting promo. It took me a little while to realize that we had made that leap and that I wasn't supposed to be looking for some VFX or fancy tricks that aren't there. The "Camera" titlecard you have in there to separate the sections looks too much like it's just another shot in the reel, so it didn't register until later. In any case, I wouldn't recommend putting mograph work together with live action shooting in the same reel... I can't think of many people who are going to care about both. Nothing wrong with having two separate reels.
Click to expand...


great criticism, this was what I was looking for. I you don't mind spelling it out for me a little bit, what parts of the reel seem garish? I've been looking at the material for so freaking long its a little hard to seperate myself from it, if you know what I mean.

As far as two reels are concerned, my next step was going to be to split this up into two, so I would essentially have three demo viewing options when you went to my site, camera, mograph, and combined. Would you suggest just scrapping the combination?

thanks again.
 
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Slimothy said:
Graphics were bad ass. Looked great for the most part. What'd you use to do the animations?
Click to expand...

some of it was cinema 4d, but most of it was after effects. combined with a dvx100a, an hvrz1u, and an hvx200.

if you don't mind me asking, what parts didn't you like?

thanks!
 
Anthem78 said:
nice reel. there were a lot of sections that I really liked: the intro (black & pink), the girl (perfect setting), the CC on the subway, the lighting and color at the Meuseum of Natural History (I love that place!).

My only criticism is that it seemed a little long and there were some weak moments (like the ballroom dancing).

But I don't have much room to talk since I don't have my reel together.

Anyway, great work. Liked it a lot.
Click to expand...


The reason I put the ballroom dancing bit in there is not because its the most stunning piece of video ever, but because it clearly demostrates smooth motion tracking with a handheld camera. Maybe i'm just too attached the the shot and should get rid of it...

thanks, I was in the subway at like 4 am after a shoot and it seemed like a perfect time to pull out the dvx!
 
Things I didn't like: The blue bubble graphic right before the NBC logo, I think it interrupted the flow a bit, aesthetically. The kodak film print section is WAY too long IMO. I understand why you used to ballroom dancing shot, but it's far too long and interrupts the flow too much. It almost seems as if the shots after the ballroom dancing aren't quite up to par w/ the whole first half of the reel. i.e. the couple looking into the fishtank? Also, the lens is awfully dirty in the last shot of the guy standing on the scale.

Hope this helps. Tim.
 
Slimothy said:
Things I didn't like: The blue bubble graphic right before the NBC logo, I think it interrupted the flow a bit, aesthetically.


Hope this helps. Tim.
Click to expand...


The blue bubbles are red blood cells but I don't know why they are blue though
 
OMG please take off the crazy sounds on the webpage =(

When I loaded your page I was editing a project and thought I was getting some crazy feedback.

I haven't even had a chance to look at your demo reel yet because everytime I try to look at your page some new random sound is screaming at me.

EDIT: Now that I have looked at it, I agree with the other comments here. You have some good stuff there just need to whittle it down some.
 
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I think you can get rid of the vector looking talking head right after it introduces you. I think your intro already shows better work of that type of effect?

I agree in shortening the length of the dancing, guy in the bathroom, kodak frames, and maybe the stamps but i dunno.
 
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