Another wannabee's website

[Jon Rosenbloom]

Please visit http://www.jrocam.com

 

It's basically a home for that "on-line" reel all the ads now ask for ...

Same reel as I posted on youtube a few months ago, but considerably closer to how it's suppossed to look. (I'm probably going to change it to one of those completely chopped up reels in the next month or two.) And, yes, it's still got that French soundtrack.

 

I'm still tweaking the site, so any comments will be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Jon.

[Bernhard Zitz]

Hello, here another smart-ass-know-it-all comment on a demo-reel(in order of impressions)

 

I would de-interlace the video-footage, it gets horizontal artifact as quicktime-movie.

 

The transition from the hospital to the girly-rockband is nice. I'd integrate more of such links between the footage of different movies.

 

I like the B/W in the end, I'd put more of this, maybe without fake slow-motion or introduce it in some way.

 

You could cut it down a little more, it's 3'20", 2' is long enough for a online teaser. After a while you get the feeling of repetition, a lot of the shots are similar and don't give any new sensation. Maybe take out the footage that starts at 2'00", (woman in car, woman with girl in supermarket etc). It looks very consumercameravideo like, almost like a documentary. On the other hand with their distinguish look this shots give alternation to the reel and make it more entertaining for the eye. But with the B/W stuff you could create even more entertaining contrast.

 

The demo-part of the website (demo-reel) is a little confusing, it looks like three different movies, but after clicking on each I realized that it's the same thing...

 

The background of a website is always a big discussion. I like dark and black but it can get oppressive, bright or white backgrounds give an unencumbered feeling of lightness, maybe better to attract customers.

 

For the music it's hard to say if a potential employer would be charmed by its melancholic way or be turned off. I think it's better than this beat orientated stuff (big beat, dance, electronic) you often hear on demo-reels. When the music gets more dynamic (at 1'07") I'd accentuate it in the editing.

 

:D Bernhard

[Walter Graff]

Nice, simple layout with some good stills. I was a bit confused by the three reel links. I thought they were three different reel links but play the same reel. I'd rather see three great shots and one link, perhaps the word "play" as the link centered under the three pictures. Also some of your images are letterbox, others not. I'd rather see all or none letterboxed for visual continuity. How about resizing and cropping off black in those that are, then resizing and cropping in the wider format in others so all you have are identical size and look to images.

 

 

Some nice stuff on the reel.

[Ken Cangi]

I can see that you probably intended the three-image thumbnail as one, although it looks like a mistake. It gives the impression that there will be three different clips. I also agree with Bernhard in that you should de-interlace the footage. You are, afterall, advertising yourself as a cinematographer, so technical errors should be addressed.

 

Good luck with your site.

 

Cheers,

 

KC

[Jon Rosenbloom]

Thanks for the feedback!

 

Bernhard,

De-interlace the footage? Hmm, what would that look like, and how would I do it? By "horizontal artifact" do you mean blockiness? I kind of accept that compressing the reel from 5.5 gig to a streamable 450 mb will result in some "digital weirdness," but I can't see anything that strikes me as a "mistake." (Besides all the equipment in the shots B) ) Were you looking at the high res or low res version?

 

Best,

Jon.

[Walter Graff]

There is often a compromise on the web with video so lower rates garuntee everyone can see them. Deinterlacing takes the video and recreates the retrace lines that normal television uses (lines you normally not se on a regular TV, but can with more movement on a o computer screen). Many programs that do video conversions and compression offer a deinterlace option. Computers are not interlace (they draw the picture you see all at once instead of scanning line by line). If you deinterlace video, it usually looks a bit sharper.

[Bernhard Zitz]

De-interlace the footage? Hmm, what would that look like,

 

It would look pretty much the same, just without the horizontal lines (artifacts) you get in fast movements. It will be slightly less sharp since you're using only half of the pixels. If you de-interlace in standarddefinition (I guess it's ntsc 720x480) and then scale it down to your 480x320 H.264 you won't loose much sharpness.

 

and how would I do it?

You can do it your editing software, in FCP it's somewhere in the effects-menu, videofilters, video. In Quicktime you also have a de-interlace option in the size menu.

[Morgan Peline]

Hi,

 

Some nice stuff but I also feel there's a little bit of repetition of shots that are similar. Also I think the food shot at the beginning isn't very appealing and I also feel the reel as a whole is too long...like my teachers say 'It's always a work in progress!'.