New Updated Demo Reel

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dwnsthballer

Well-known member
Hey all,

After completely revamping my demo reel, I've finally finished it. Originally I had that dark intro, which I just wasn't feeling, so I rearranged a few things and changed some things. I like this one better, but you guys be the judge!

www.greenbench.tv/videos/Demo.wmv

Would you hire me?

My main goal was to basically spark interest, so does watching my reel make you want to watch more?
 
Observations:

first off -remove the still of your face at the beginning. It's noisy looking for one, it and just doesn't do anything to enhance the overall.

next, remove the FX shots. Car and gun were the one's I saw. Cheap. They don't sell anything. So you've used AE. If you're going to use FX in your reel they'd better be top notch.

I liked your overall use of lighting where there was lighting.
I liked the 1 sec side profile with orangish background in front of round mic
Music was kinda cheezy in a porn movie sense.
Overall display of content suggests rap video/gospel music experience, you could get hired by low budget rap bands or church groups.

My suggestion is to hone down the edits and make them flash edits, pick up the music to match the content better. The demo shows good use of lighting and composition in the shots- but there's nothing special in the editing of the demo itself. Think bigger. You either want to soothe them or blow them away but don't try both. Pick one and go with it.
 
I see where you're coming from with the two FX clips, but other than those two clips and the picture in the beginning, would you suggest removing any other clips? I'm working with limited clips, so any ideas on editing other than flash edits would be appreciated.

Anybody else with differing opinions?
 
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I'd remove the guy in the car with the beard for one. The thing you need to ask about any given clip is, "what's special about this clip," whether it's lighting, composition, or whatever, it's got to do more than fill up a few seconds on your reel.

The whole thing views to me as an obituary montage because of the bookend stills. Kill those. Put your text over black.

Pump the whole thing up. That repeating audio loop doesn't deliver any punch at all. I'm being harsh because you need to step it up. You've got decent clips- but you're just rolling them off like a slideshow which is a snoozefest. Anyone can take a bunch of clips and slap em on a timeline and use a default transition between each one. You've gotta mix it up. Watch MTV or VH1 or something for half an hour (painful I know) but pay attention to edits.. critique them in your mind.

Just like rock and roll it's not what you do but how you do it. Crappy musicians with flavor cash in while talented musicians with no preformance go undiscovered. Find your attitude.

All that said, I suck completely and am still a noob myself. It takes some nuts to put your work out there for open criticism.
 
I don't mind harshness, as that is the only way changes can be made. I'm just looking for a variety of responses so I don't go making a drastic change when it was only one persons opinion (no offense to you). I appreciate your feedback and I have taken it all into consideration.

I've changed up a few clips and I'm awaiting the completion of some other projects before I can add those in.

Anybody else?
 
I would remove the bluish "texture" in the crop bars...look a little cheap... Actually be consistent, the 16x9 crop bars should be the same color for the entire reel, white, black... doesn't matter... You might also want to crop your 4x3 to 16x9 so that the entire reel is one format, or one ratio. Your blue screen shots are not very good, especially the bald guy over the white back, his left side (your right) is very noisy, and small chunk of his head are missing here and there. If I was a potential client, your reel would show me you can't shoot blue screen, I am sure that's not how you want to come across...You can fix it by rotoscoping that particular area, or find a professional compositing artist to help you out with the key.

PS: I do agree with most of ming comments.
 
What if certain shots actually use the blue letterbox for the original project (the texture is actually blue satin sheets, but you cannot make it out due to the compression I'm using).

I understand keeping it consistent, but if it's a part of the original shot, shouldn't I leave it in? It seems like I'm being limited to only using two of my projects lol.

I'd much rather take out the green screen since I do not have the money to hire a professional compositing artist (I'm still in college).

ALSO, while on the subject of music. Can you use copyrighted music in your demo reel? I thought it all had to be original, but if not, I have plenty of music that I can piece this to that is more fitting.
 
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I liked the last version you posted better than this one. It just seemed a little more cohesive.

I have to agree with the above posters about removing the FX shots and making the letterbox a consistent color.
 
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