Demo Reel (35mm, 16mm, 8mm, DV)

[Colton Davie]

I am working on putting together a new cinematography reel. Before I start handing them out, I would love to get some honest opinions from outside sources. What I have now I consider a rough cut, so feel free to tear into it and offer critiques concerning the editing, shots that should or shouldn't be there, etc.

 

Pardon the compression, but here it is. Once I get closer to a final cut, I'll upload a higher res version.

 

Comments highly appreciated. Thank you!

[Rob Vogt]

You have a lot of beautiful stuff but please get rid of those shots with the light sabers.

[Colton Davie]

Ha! Thank you for the comment. I figured the light saber shots might not go over so well...

[dean s moriff]

Heres an interesting quandry mainly directed for freelancers or those with contracts in the industry:

What type of wording or phrasing is present in your contract or agreements to guarantee you rights to your work once it has been completed? How do you guarantee you will have partial ownership, or at the very least, rights to display the work you have created either before or after the broadcast date of the work? This is all related to making sure that you can legal put your work on a demo reel. There was a thread on the buzz and/or on General 3D that I created having to do with the ethics of putting unbroadcast material on a demo reel. Now Im wondering what ways one can guarantee the right to even use the work at all either before or after it airs. Any advice would be interesting and appreciated.

[David Rakoczy]

'Glory'

 

Kindly go to My Controls and change your screen name to your real name per this forum's rules...

[Charles Talbott Jr]

I love the shot of the kid running across the street at the beginning, and the title at the end when the book is dropped down. Nice touch. As far as the lightsaber shots, I like the inclusion. Having (at least partially) dealt with special effects in your work could be a plus. Too bad there isn't more of that type of work represented...then it wouldn't seem out of place.

[Frank Barrera]

#1- as a DP you are a 'below-the-line' position. you are not (usually) in the position to demand anything concerning the footage as you have zero claim to its ownership. you have no right to any guarantee for future usage of the footage.

#2- however as a DP you should cultivate a positive relationship with all the 'above-the-line' people (director, producers, writers and actors) so that when you do ask for permission for future usage of the footage they will act kindly and (reasonably) grant you limited usage.

 

as to the ethics of using pre-broadcasted material in a broadcasted reel thats quite simple: in general, its illegal to do so. every deal memo i've ever signed has made it abundantly clear that the network owns all rights to all footage. if for example after shooting some reality tv show i decided to air some shots before it went to air i would be in breech of the confidentiality portion of my contract.

 

that having been said if you want to demand anything in your deal memo then feel free to do so. i'd be curious to know an executive producers response to such a request.

 

naturally if we are talking about low budget filmmaking the rules are greatly relaxed.