HVX200a reel critic

Your tripod wasnt level in most of the landscape architecture shots. seemed like it was slanting to the right.
 
probably could be shortened by half.

lose the intro title sequence, it looks kinda cheap with the outlines strokes and pretty obvious it was done in FCP. consider a simple fade in and fade out of simple text with a nicer font. if you want to get fancy with titling at least use Motion or AE.

the shots with the bald dude got reptitive.

the shot in the beginning with the sail boats was way too long for nothing to be happening besides the boats going by.

the music is okay, but doesn't really fit the theme of your shots in my opinion.

after watching it i still get no idea of what you specialize in. you just say shot and edited by steve laramie. maybe consider emphaisizing what your strength is (editing, cinematography, directing, etc) and put that in the start and the end so anybody considering hiring you knows off the bat what to pay attention to.

overall it's okay, but really just seems more like a bunch of random footage and a short film mixed in rather than a demonstration of your best work.

pick your best shots (preferably anything with motion or nice lighiting) and ditch the rest.
 
May I add on the shot where the camera was facing up at the bridge in the beginning you could see some squashed bugs on the windshield of your car that sort of distracted from the shot.
 
then ditch the "edited" by credit. who cares who edited it. as long as the shots depict that of a cinematographer and emphasize everything a competent DP should know.
 
lets also keep in mind im 15 and still havnt decided which road to take. its just that the lighting and shooting I did for those movies is more impressive without any fancy editing.
 
Steve, great that you are 15 and doing some nice work, but do you want criticism or not?

People here will evaluate your work based on professional or near professional standards, which is a good thing because it will give you the pointers you need to take things to the next level. What would be the point of just saying "great work" because you're in the kiddie pool.

bugs on the windsheild is part of cinematography ... choosing to clean them off or not for the shot you want, especially if it's distracting. Maybe it's great for the gritty Se7en type story you are telling, or maybe it's distracting, but where you put the camera and what you choose to shoot and why is cinematography.

the comment about including "edited by" or not was made to suggest that if this is a DP reel then just put "DP" on it. Whether you don't know what you want to be or not, you presented this as a DP reel and just on evaluating this reel, the poster has a point, who cares if you edited it or not.

Also is all of the dramatic stuff at the end stretched, i.e., wrong aspect ratio? If not, what's up with it? I'd trash a reel that isn't presented in the right pixel aspect ratio if it were sent to me.

Some pretty interesting stuff but harder to evaluate due to the weird stretchiness.
 
nothing is stretched. 1:45 seconds in was exported from the editor at a weird aspect ratio so I had to make all the stuff at the begining the same. All I did was put a matte on it in fcp
 
lairhair said:
nothing is stretched. 1:45 seconds in was exported from the editor at a weird aspect ratio so I had to make all the stuff at the begining the same. All I did was put a matte on it in fcp
Click to expand...
Ok took a look again. sorry, your footage is stretched.

would not send this to anyone for a job.

Look dude:
Here's your reel at 1:26
126right.jpg

That's a correctly shaped normal human. It's 2.35 aspect ratio, cropped in 16X9.



Here's your reel at 2:45
245wrong.jpg

This is WAY wrong. You have 16X9 video streched to 2.35, letterboxed in a 16X9 frame. It looks bad and shouldn't be presented on a reel this way.


Here it is displayed correctly:
245right.jpg

this is 16X9. Just like your full frame without the letterbox. This portion of the video should be presented like this full frame. If you are going to put it inside the 2:35 letterbox for some reason then you have to put pillarboxes (columns) on the side too to make it look right, so it would have black on the sides and top and bottom.

Those are your options basically, make the section after 1:45 full screen in the correct pixel aspect ratio, or pillerbox it within the 2.35 letterbox in the correct aspect ratio, but this stretched business is not an option.

Let us know if you need help figuring out how to do it correctly. The math can be confusing but it's easy to figure out once you have a grasp of the basic aspect ratios. Also you should know that FCP will automatically change the shape video that you drag onto a timeline with different shaped video already on it. Look under the motion tab under distortion to see if is doing this.
 
Yeah still a bit to go mate - the most distracting thing is the aspect ratios that are different from shot to shot! It is overlong - there are 2 or 3 nice shots but the landscape shots that jiggle on the tripod (or are crooked framed) look very messy!

The style of your dop showreel reminds me of Koynasquatsi (okay thats such a typo i know) or philip glass stuff - a bit lofty for this showreel!!

Certainly could be cut in half - but really id focus more on your craft - and gathering less shots that are better than stuffing it with such a mix of quality.

The opening titles were rather crude and cheap looking and the editing credit was unnecessary!

However its better than what i probably could have made when i was 15!! But we're here to offer honest and helpful criticism not to salve ego's ;) Good luck!
 
lairhair said:
lets also keep in mind im 15 and still havnt decided which road to take. its just that the lighting and shooting I did for those movies is more impressive without any fancy editing.
Click to expand...

i had no idea and nowhere in your post did you say that up front, regardless, as jack mentioned - you either want criticism or you don't.

i don't get you on the last sentence, i suggested taking the FCp text animation out, because nothing about the editing in this reel is fancy, but it tries to be a little bit.

great job at 15. :thumbsup:
 
Jack, I think im going to need help on the conversion. I have never seen anything lke that done on FCP can you quickly explain how to do it. I have final cut studio 2. Thanks
 
hmm ... OK. Let me try to figure out what's up with your timeline, etc.

ok...

First try this. Did you put a letterbox on the first half to make it match the second half? If so, remove the letterbox, then for the clips in the second half, select one, go to the MOTION TAB in the viewer window, go to DISTORTION, go to ASPECT RATIO and set whatever number is there to 0. See if that works.

If it doesn't work, or if the number under MOTION TAB/DISTORT/ASPECT RATIO is already 0, then answer the following for me and I will see if I can help you.
  1. so all the clips up to 1:45ish are one aspect ratio and the rest are something else?
  2. What are your settings on the sequence? Specifically, in the menu SEQUENCE/SETTINGS) I'd like to know the following
    1. FRAME SIZE
    2. PIXEL ASPECT RATIO
    3. ANAMORPHIC Y/N
  3. What are the motion settings for a clip BEFORE 1:45? (select a clip, then select the MOTION TAB in the viewer window)
    I'd like to know the following:
    1. ASPECT RATIO find it via MOTION TAB/DISTORT/ASPECT RATIO
  4. What are the motion settings for a clip AFTER 1:45? (select a clip, then select the MOTION TAB in the viewer window)
    I'd like to know the following:
    1. ASPECT RATIO, find it via MOTION TAB/DISTORT/ASPECT RATIO
Good luck
 
everything just got really butchered. My timeline got deleted when my hard drive crashed last night in a storm and I havnt been able to find the timeline. I do however have the full rez 720p quicktime export. I imported that into the timeline but I have a feeling that everything may have just been changed.
 
frame size 1280x720 HDTV 720p (16:9)
aspect ratio: square
editing timebase 23.98

I noticed anamorphic was not checkd for 16:9 and I dont know why its set at HDTV

Thanks allot for baring with me on this one.
 
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