Newbie's Intro and General Advice

E

Eximious

Well-known member
Hey DVX users,

I'm a senior college student in Florida who has just now discovered this community. The talent and knowledge here, I have to admit, is a little overwhelming. And I've only begun to skim the boards! I have some experience in FCP, Premiere Pro, Maya, and After Effects, with AE and Maya receiving most of my attention now in my final semester.

I hope to contribute to the community, but most of my useful knowledge will probably relate to consumer-level computer hardware for now. FYI, if you haven't seen the benchmarks yet, check out Intel's new Core i7 platform. Fantastic media processing performance.

That said, I'd like to begin planning out my demo reel soon. Something to land me entry-level jobs, internships, or submit to film schools. Here's where I need tips. What specific skills would you guys like to see in a student demo reel? Further, what general design principals would you recommend for a reel? Anything else I should be asking? I have some DVX100 footage and a couple of Maya projects for the raw material.

I'm hoping some of your advice will help me prepare for my meeting with my faculty adviser.

Thanks all.
 
1. Don't do "spec" work. No one wants to see your take on MTV or Nike's brand. It's usually wrong and not original.

2. Don't rip on other pieces. Obviously nothing is original these days, but if you're going to use another piece as a starting point, do just that, only as a starting point. Make it your own, add your own style, etc. Re-imagine it as how you would have done it. This way you have something new that speaks to your style and you learn all the technical/aesthetics that drew you to it in the first place.

3. Do your own spec work. Take a social issue you care about and do a spec piece on it. People what to see what you create and there is nothing better than starting out with your own concept and taking it to completion. It doesn't have to be a social issue, just anything that's not related to a brand (see #1).

4. Put only the type of work you want to get on your demo reel. If you put crap work you're going to get crap work. This also means that if you want to be a motion designer, you put motion design work on there. You wouldn't throw a bunch of compositing work in a design reel (I've seen it done).

5. Keep it simple. In all ways. Don't make it too long, don't be overly ambitious, don't try to do everything. It's better to have only 30 seconds of something really good than 3 minutes of mediocre stuff. Also, the work should be your best (see next point).

6. Put only your best work on there! Don't add useless filler, and don't put subpar work on there either. A demo reel is to showcase you, why would you showcase the average (or worse) parts about yourself?

7. A good edit. This will go a long way. Spend some time working on a nice edit to a good song. Find something that changes up, matches your style, etc. Regarding song choice, I like to dig for those songs that aren't instantly recognizable because that's just one more element that will draw the viewer in.

That's all I can think of now...
 
As usual, oneinf makes great and informative points. I would like to add only one more which he touched on in a couple of his, because I consider it very, very important:


Quality work is better, no matter how "simple", and as long as it artistically, uniquely (as much as is able), and intellectually captures and addresses the subject, is always always always more effective, more esthetically pleasing, and more creatively "responsible" than eye candy, flash and glitz, or attempts to impress via technical prowess. One and I have both seen FAR too much work posted which was ill thought out (if at all), had no direct emotional or logical relationship to the subject, and screamed "look at what I can do" rather than "look what I can do for your product".

Not only post your best work as suggested, but make sure your best work is "best" because of its content.


And ask questions, questions, and more questions. I am not the best guy here for the artistic side of it, I feel my knowledge is most steeped in the technical approach and solutions. But I will always help out where I can when someone takes the time to post who needs it.
 
So be awesome your first time round haha. Try to avoid putting too much video copilot stuff in there. Shine is cool though ;).

I can't really offer advice but I have made about 7 reels both camera and motion graphics and they get better the more content you have to choose from. It takes a while to get to the point where you can 'choose' your best work and slice and dice a power piece. I wish I had more work.

All the best
 
lordybob said:
Try to avoid putting too much video copilot stuff in there.
Click to expand...

GAH!! I love Andrew Kramer's site... but the BEST thing about it is how it gets you familiar with techniques and tools in AE. Not that you want to be using all of his 'effects' retro'd into YOUR projects.

But yes, I've slipped a few into things I've done.

CaptM
 
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