My Reel.

Really good, but whats up with the 20 seconds of nothing at the end? Those all look like really great flicks, I'd like to see them all...
 
it's pretty long. Also, the motion graphics stuff seem much better than your cinematography. It's great that those movies got laurel leaves, but I doubt it was for the lighting. I would cut out a lot of the begining and go with more graphics. The snowboarding stuff looked good to me.
 
saying "nice"...not very useful....



anyways you really thought the motion graphics were better then the cinematography?...haha that funny never heard that before cause the graphics are completle secondary to me and im not really great at graphics stuff...infact I couldnt add more graphics to it cause the stuff in there is all I have done....anyways dont put me on too high a scale im 18, all the films in the reel were done with no budget and so far we have been lucky to get some things in a few small festivals...just selections...no prizes....the last film we did Turkey Day is deffinetly much better though so well see...I should cut it down further though.


btw I have been looking for the name of the "leaves" for ever THANK YOU!
 
Well, I hope i didn't sound too harsh, it's just if I was going to hire you, it wouldn't be for lighting. It's true you don't need great lighting to make a great movie, but if you're trying to sell yourself as a cinematographer, you gotta have impresive lighting in your reel, and I just didn't see any.

Were you only DP on those flicks? If you directed anything, make a director's reel instead. That could be much more effective.
 
the only shot in terms of lighting that really sticks out at me is the night exterior shot of the guy against the tree with the other young man in the background....although it does look good and not overlit as so many night exteriors tend to be. I like the composition of several of the shots and their is some nice camera movement in some of the shots. I agree with a previous poster that it should be a bit shorter. I would try and condense each of the sections (narrative, snowboarding, etc). I agree with your assessment of the lack of budgets hindering what you can do lighting wise....with bigger projects you will be able to go farther with your skills - sometimes it is that one shot that will get you the next job. Keep shooting.
 
your motion graphics and the flashy timelapse healdights part ws nice.

as far as cinematography goes youre not defining any shadows. use some more hard lights. Everyone tries to tell yo uto get rid of hardlights but you have to mix hardlights with soft, to sculpt shadows.

I cn tell you love pointing bright lights up at the ceiling and getting that glowy look. but dont be afraid to ppint a light at the talent once in while, or at least make sure they have a strong backlight. it makes the "ordinary scene" pop.

get a 85$ auto pole from manfrotto, and it will let you susepnd lights above the tlents head anyhwere, and you can make some very interesting light effects.
 
acoreasc said:
I agree with your assessment of the lack of budgets hindering what you can do lighting wise.
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not true. Anyone can go to home depot or sears and have a VERY respectable low budget kit for under $200. Hell, under $100. I know because i did it two years ago. It's what you do with the lights, not what lights you have.
 
Well maybe its the compression but i don't think those clips are color corrected. Firstly color correction would do them all alot of good. Secondly i agree with the statements that it should be shortened a tad. My favourite part was the flashy timelapse - great job on that.

Regarding lights, you should try renting lights for shoots - i'm gonna try that on my next shoot...and i'm 16. Where i'm at i can put together a kit consisting of a 650 fresnal, a 350 fresnal and a 4X4ft kino flo bank for about 130 bucks sing, which should be about 70 bucks usd. They really add that much more production value
 
you can't rent that kit that cheap here lol. He's much better of starting his own kit and learning with that until he knows what he needs and then can decide if he wantss to rent something. Or, like me, he'll add a light here and there, but that original kit will last a very long time.

Considering you're 16, I don't understand why you don't do the same. Unless ur a wizkid pro and I just havn't seen ur work. Do have anything I could see?
 
ahha...work lights, I would like to see an example of something lite well with a 100$ setup. Im sure its possible but.....

We used lowel lights kits....and some arri stuff for that next ext. nothing over 1k though. I haven't really gotten a chance to do something really cool with lighting. I think im finally ready to, and i was when we did that turkey day film but i was so rushed and had to work alot faster then im used to. The longest setup was that night ext stuff and i really like how that stuff worked out. I have always been working with lowel and arri kits. "cheesesailor" do you have any work on here Id be interested to see it.

and um yea....that stuff all had cc done on it. maybe its your display?...thats the first time I heard that one.


and yea, for 130$ your not gotten to rent a kit like that. not even close...and that would just be for a day....
 
You can do lots of stuff with 200$

get some frosted glass and have it cut to the size of the glass thats in the 10$ 500W worklamps. replacet eh glass, and black wrap them instead of barn doors.

There was movie on here once, i forgot eho made it but the yhad this scene in a car, that was lit with Homedepot lights cause they got their grip truck stolen or something. but it looked GREAT! They hada china ball with 300W of light in it 2X 150Watts hovering infront of the windshield, and two blackwrapped 500watt work lights to simulate rear view cars, but he ywere on dimmers , and thet kept messing with the intensity. then tehy had some crazy thing like a projector playing street lamps passing itnhe back.... all in all, it looked great and cost very little interms of light.
 
Well, again, if you want work as a cinematographer you have to show you know how to light, I mean, that's what the DP does, he's the head of the lighting crew, the director picks the shots.

my work isn't pro, I've never been paid and have turned in all my projects for school work, but everything here was lit using cheap lights from the hardware store (these are the undersan versions so there's occasionally **** on the sides you wouldn't see on a TV... like lights lol):

http://www.stickypod.com/videos/data/541/undeathhigh.mov (pre CC, not much lighting in the first half)

http://www.stickypod.com/videos/data/541/dormezvous.mov

http://www.stickypod.com/videos/data/541/musicvideohigh.mov (too much CC, this one was first and I didn't know what I was doing)

http://www.stickypod.com/videos/data/541/traileronline.mov (pre CC)
 
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HEy cheese thoes look pretty good. i like Dormevous.


Also JZ Go to Rostronics.com buy Briteks from them. they are very inexpesive, and can give you ample wattage per dolalr. you could get liek 2k of light for less than 400$
 
Hmm i guess it is my monitor..it has been screwing up lately. Yeah those prices I quoted are per day...so it probably might not be too economical for a 12 day shoot...
 
yea the songs played....I have been listening to sufjan stevens for a long while though oh well....

cheesesailor, I just watched your first thing and well it wasnt bad or anything...there were a couple of good setups and I'm not being an asshole here, but seriously. dont talk down to someone unless you really should be. If you were an industry proffesional that would be great....but your a student...so chill it out man.


and btw, im not looking to buy or have a light kit. I go to a film school...we have lights....and back home in chicago we have access to plenty of equipment as well....not to be an asshole, thanks for trying to help out but yea...i dont need lights haha.
 
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JZalutsky said:
If you were an industry proffesional that would be great....but your a student...so chill it out man.
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hey, if you can't take friendly, constructive critism, don't ask for it :) You asked us to critique your DP reel and we did. Obviously DPing isn't your strength at the moment.

As for my clips not being that good, I never implied my work was brilliant or even nessecarily BETTER than yours, my goal was to demonstrate what a novice can achieve with very inexpensive gear. I started studying filmmaking at my community college 18 months ago, maybe in a few years I'll have a reel that can compare to yours :)
 
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