My 2005 Demo Reel

Iain

Iain

Active member
I studied screenwriting in college, but when I arrived in Los Angeles, I realized that there was no way I would be able to make a living as a writer right off the bat. So, I picked up a DVX100a and twelve months later, I have (what I believe to be) four solid pieces.

I hope you will all enjoy them for their visual qualities.

Thanks for looking!

Iain

My 2005 Reel
 
wow, that has got to be some of the most professional looking footage ive seen on this board. lighting was phenominal in the last sequence as was in the first. framing was great, the feel was great, really nothing bad to say about them at all. GREAT WORK!
 
I agree...some great looking footage! Way to take things into your own hands and make it happen.

I especially liked the look and feel of the first clip "Farewell".

Boy I wish you were in the area! I could sure use a Cinematographer like you! :cheesy:
 
Hey, thanks for the good vibes fellas. Just so everyone knows, I've travelled to work on other people's projects, so North Texas isn't necessarily out of the question :)
 
Hey everyone, thanks for all the good comments! I already put the pre-order in for the HVX200, so if anyone's living in the LA area and wants to shoot some HD stuff in 2006, drop me a line!
 
Iain - I love the first part of the reel. It reminded me of something out of A Civil Action, with the strong blownout highlights and the strong side-lighting, nice DOF too. I liked the apartment interior stuff as well - sometimes I shy away from going so low-key but it looked very good in the compression so I imagine the original footage must be tight. I thought the last part was well conceived and executed - the framing and lighting had the feel of a 1950's television commercial and the coloring felt like faded kodachrome. My only reservation was with the monster in the life jacket part of the reel as it felt so far removed in terms of the quality from the rest of the pieces. It's not that it is bad but it feels less polished than any of the other parts. Without it you still have a nice blend between the dramatic low key stuff and the comedic high key insurance spot. A producer or director would be able to see that you could handle either material. If it were me I would cut it, but alas, there is stuff on my reel I like that others have told me to jettison, so it is all about how you feel. Regardless of it all, keep shooting, period.
 
Hey, thanks for the compliments! I've found that the DVX handles low-key lighting pretty well, particularly with the Master Pedestal dialed way UP. That's right. I said UP. I usually shoot with it at around +7 or +10. That way, in the raw footage, I can get as much latitude out of my image as possible. It looks way washed out on the monitor, but when you bring it into post, you can dial it down to a more acceptable level. It just gives makes it easier for me to shoot that way. The first piece was shot using a 1/4 black pro-mist to soften the look just a little bit.

Also, the more light you throw at your subjects, the more video-ish they tend to look, I've found. Keeping the contrast ratio at somewhere around 3 or 4:1 works best for me.

Yeah, "Movie Monster Insurance" was shot all in color and was supposed to be desaturated, but after playing around with Magic Bullet's reversal filter, I ended up going with what you see now. There were so many great colors that were used in costumes and set dressing that I couldn't possibly go with black and white. A VERY conservative grain filter was used, as well as an unsharp mask, flicker, vignette, and splotch effects. I'm not a big Magic Bullet fan, so the only piece that uses them was this one.

The "Cold Fear" (zombie) piece is actually one of my favorites. Our steadicam guy forgot part of his rig at home for the day, so I took it upon myself to shoot handheld. I wanted to see if I could match the style of my favorite show (at the time), "The Shield." I think it came off pretty well. There were so many windows in that house that we just had to let the exteriors blow out, and use a 1200 HMI PAR through the windows whenever we needed more light inside. I think I used maybe two lights that whole shoot.
 
Iain - master pedestal way up is a very, very interesting proposition to me - I think I may have to run a test or two and see how I feel about it. Thanks for idea! 1.2K HMI - workhorse light for me - I love that unit man, but I always have to end up fighting for it with producers who think that HMIs will blow their budget apart.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top