My First Reel

[Andy_Alderslade]

Hi,

 

This is my first reel.....well.... i've been tinkering with it for a while and a rough version has been on my Jumpcut space (so one or two of you may have seen some of it before), but here is what I regard as my first reel.

 

Tell me what you think.

 

http://www.blip.tv/file/198499?filename=An...eelLarge221.mov

 

Cheers Andy

[Elliot Rudmann]

Hi,

 

This is my first reel.....well.... i've been tinkering with it for a while and a rough version has been on my Jumpcut space (so one or two of you may have seen some of it before), but here is what I regard as my first reel.

 

Tell me what you think.

 

http://www.blip.tv/file/198499?filename=An...eelLarge221.mov

 

Cheers Andy

 

Hi - I think the versatility of formats you have on your reel is good and will end up being beneficial, however, I feel that there are too many exterior shots with all natural light. And if you're advertising yourself as a DP/cinematographer, or even as a "lighting cameraman" you want to show how well you can control and shape light, most of which your reel does not have, therefore it relies too much on angles and composition. Even if using this reel as a cameraman I would cut out the steadicam shots (most of which I found to be unflattering). The interior stuff looked ok, a little flat in contrast, but I did like some of the black and white, particularly the wide shot of the man looking out the door. The closeups I feel, especially in the shot-reverse shot scene between the man and the woman (in black and white) I feel need a stronger key light, perhaps to add a catch light in their eyes, but that's purely an aesthetic opinion I have without knowing any context of the scene. I'm the process of editing my reel right now, and it's very difficult trying to show how creative you are in different situations. But overall, I think some diversity, in lighting styles, compositions, and settings would greatly benefit your reel. I wish you the best of luck.

[Andy_Alderslade]

Hi - I think the versatility of formats you have on your reel is good and will end up being beneficial, however, I feel that there are too many exterior shots with all natural light. And if you're advertising yourself as a DP/cinematographer, or even as a "lighting cameraman" you want to show how well you can control and shape light, most of which your reel does not have, therefore it relies too much on angles and composition. Even if using this reel as a cameraman I would cut out the steadicam shots (most of which I found to be unflattering). The interior stuff looked ok, a little flat in contrast, but I did like some of the black and white, particularly the wide shot of the man looking out the door. The closeups I feel, especially in the shot-reverse shot scene between the man and the woman (in black and white) I feel need a stronger key light, perhaps to add a catch light in their eyes, but that's purely an aesthetic opinion I have without knowing any context of the scene. I'm the process of editing my reel right now, and it's very difficult trying to show how creative you are in different situations. But overall, I think some diversity, in lighting styles, compositions, and settings would greatly benefit your reel. I wish you the best of luck.

 

Thanks for the tip - your critism is fairly spot on - the reality is many of those shoots have been so fast/understaffed that I haven't been able to light them - often using a found light strategy and then altering then using reflectors, diffusion, practicles etc (ocastionaly using blondes, redheads maybe) - in many ways i like this strategy, I like natural lighting and there's nothing worse than seeing a production suffer because of slow lighting.

 

I do have some more DV productions with more interior scenes (that I haven't collected copies of the rushes of yet) I will consider trying to replace certain scenes - to get a bit more outside/inside variety.

 

Don't know why I use the term 'Lighting Cameraman' - i think its an old british tv term - but it seems less pompous than calling yourself a Director of Photography when 24 (actually I admit, was 25 wednesday) so I should think about changing that too.

 

P.S. I've never shot anything with a steadycam - those are AndyCam shots - a secret I will keep safe to myself.

Edited April 13, 2007 by Andy_Alderslade

[David Bradley]

Really liked the super 8 indoor scene, it exemplifies your ability to control light. Some of the exteriors particularly the hand helds didn't really hold as well, not to criticise them ofcourse as they may well have been appropriate for the scene.

[Zamir Merali]

It looks good. The only bit that I didn't like as much was the minidv shots in the middle where the guy is leaning against the pole. The shots seem to be very blue tinted. I'm sure it worked great for the scene but it looks like a bit of a blemish among the other very nicely composed and lit shots. Was the black and white film you used reversal or negative? Thankyou, great reel.

[Andy_Alderslade]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

 

Is anyone experienceing playback problems with the page?

 

Andy

Edited April 14, 2007 by Andy_Alderslade

[Matthew Buick]

Not I. :)

 

As for me, I loved it all, it's amazing how many highly skilled individual post here.

[Andy_Alderslade]

Not I. :)

 

As for me, I loved it all, it's amazing how many highly skilled individual post here.

 

Thanks Matthew

[Alessandro Machi]

Try to find the best shot from each scene that tells the story best for that scene rather than creating mini-storys that require editing back and forth within the same scene. If you want to include a completed scene at the end of your reel, that might be fine to do, but I'm not a fan of doing that in the middle of a reel. Having said that, it's not necessarily a bad thing to do one intercut within a scene that shows that the lighting matches, but beyond that and you begin to tell a story rather than show off your cinematography.

 

The 2 or 3 back to back purple shots in the middle of the reel, either it was very stylized, or crappy color, lol, who knows, I don't! There was a steadicam shot early on that had a pretty hideous hot spot on the girls forehead, I kind of let it go but then later on you cut back to that same scene and the girl has no hot spot on her forehead, which just reminded me of how much worse looking the prior shot was. However, later on in your reel you have a hot spot motiff in which images with in the scene flare out, so I don't know if there is some connection with the earlier shot and the hot spot on the forehead. In my opinon hot spotting always seems to work better on film than video because usually some semblance of something is in the hot spot whereas in video it just kind of looks bad.

[Matthew Buick]

Thanks Matthew

 

Thanks.

[Andy_Alderslade]

Try to find the best shot from each scene that tells the story best for that scene rather than creating mini-storys that require editing back and forth within the same scene. If you want to include a completed scene at the end of your reel, that might be fine to do, but I'm not a fan of doing that in the middle of a reel. Having said that, it's not necessarily a bad thing to do one intercut within a scene that shows that the lighting matches, but beyond that and you begin to tell a story rather than show off your cinematography.

 

The 2 or 3 back to back purple shots in the middle of the reel, either it was very stylized, or crappy color, lol, who knows, I don't! There was a steadicam shot early on that had a pretty hideous hot spot on the girls forehead, I kind of let it go but then later on you cut back to that same scene and the girl has no hot spot on her forehead, which just reminded me of how much worse looking the prior shot was. However, later on in your reel you have a hot spot motiff in which images with in the scene flare out, so I don't know if there is some connection with the earlier shot and the hot spot on the forehead. In my opinon hot spotting always seems to work better on film than video because usually some semblance of something is in the hot spot whereas in video it just kind of looks bad.

 

Thanks for the feedback Alessandro,

 

You are right, I do like leaving film burnt out or 'hot' in places, cos it feels natural and on film it can look good - on video, it looks horrible.

 

Of course sometimes is more deliberat than others - some shoots are so rushed and shot with only one or two crew members that not everthing is intended.

 

I'm a bit concerned by the negative feedback regarding the guy jogging in the woods regarding the deliberatly blue colour - it is very much deliberate, as was the dileberate blue and yellow shifts in Traffic.

 

I have however taken it out for th next one, after everyones advice i've redone it and should be online soon.

[Alessandro Machi]

Thanks for the feedback Alessandro,

 

 

I'm a bit concerned by the negative feedback regarding the guy jogging in the woods regarding the deliberatly blue colour - it is very much deliberate, as was the dileberate blue and yellow shifts in Traffic.

 

I have however taken it out for th next one, after everyones advice i've redone it and should be online soon.

 

 

That's why I said I wasn't sure whether it was stylized or not, maybe you should just make it look pretty and be done with it, or have it look normal, than have a dramatic change in the music, and then have it turn purple.

 

The color of those shots brought back bad memories for me because I accidentally had that happen on a shoot once just before my E.N.G. camera gave out and had to be repaired. I own a component color corrector so now I could fix it but back then I couldn't.