First Cinematography Reel, please critique

[Cameron Busby]

Hello all, my name is Cameron Busby. I'm first year film student. I've recently made my first cinematographer reel. I've only recently starting DPing. All content showed was shot in the last five months. My reel consists of two short films, one music video, a cooking show, Ocuppy Wallstreet stock footage,and a promotional boxing documentary. I still trying to find myself as a cinematographer and have very much to learn as a student, and would kindly appreciate some guided advice about my reel(editing,shots, color correction, lighting, movement,etc). Please don't hold back any thoughts. Thanks

 

Reel Link: http://vimeo.com/33205294

[SheaFlynn]

Hello all, my name is Cameron Busby. I'm first year film student. I've recently made my first cinematographer reel. I've only recently starting DPing. All content showed was shot in the last five months. My reel consists of two short films, one music video, a cooking show, Ocuppy Wallstreet stock footage,and a promotional boxing documentary. I still trying to find myself as a cinematographer and have very much to learn as a student, and would kindly appreciate some guided advice about my reel(editing,shots, color correction, lighting, movement,etc). Please don't hold back any thoughts. Thanks

 

Reel Link: http://vimeo.com/33205294

 

Theres some good stuff in there Cameron, I feel it's a bit on the long side for only having a few project. From my understanding your if a potential client watches a solid minute of a reel its a major accomplishment,so I'd aim to cut it down to a minute maybe minute and a half. The narrative stuff looked good to me it's sharp and nicely composed, try and work a bit more on creating stronger visuals for the documentary type of footage. Anyways that's just my two cents, cheers!

 

P.S. I also have a reel on here that trying to get some feed back on feel free to take a look and let me know what you think.

[Cameron Busby]

Over a hundred views and only one reply???? Anyone please chime in.

[Paul Salmons]

Your opening music transition from your title slate to your reel is very jarring.

 

I felt like your white balance in the cup cakes footage looks like it is mistakenly to warm, that may be influenced because focus is floating around. In the last clip of the cup cake shot the lady is topping off the cupcake, that's where my eye was drawn, to the action in the shot but focus wasn't there. I don't feel that any of the handheld stuff worked for that cupcake scene as it feels like it was out of necessity rather than creativity.

 

I really like the training footage of the guy hitting the pads.

 

25secs, that shot does nothing for me, it looks a little under exposed and to warm.

 

Guy in the recording studio looks great and I love the effect.

 

32secs in I don't like how heavy the vignette is (personal opinion though, I like vignettes when you cant even notice them personally, just a little bit to help draw the eye).

 

Protesting stuff is great.

 

The man at the computer doesn't match in terms of light, one scene the computer is bright on his face then we flip around and his face is dark, they might be different scenes? As they stand now it feels like your jump cutting all in the same moment but something keep changing.

 

Slo-mo speed bag is ok but soft.

 

man right after slo mo is again to warm and it seams like there is some kind of artifacts? did you slo-mo him mid shot?

 

Train track looks good.

 

Your reel is over 3 minutes long, with 2 minutes or so of black slug?

 

Did you edit your reel? I think the editing is the strongest part of your reel.

[Cameron Busby]

Your opening music transition from your title slate to your reel is very jarring.

 

I felt like your white balance in the cup cakes footage looks like it is mistakenly to warm, that may be influenced because focus is floating around. In the last clip of the cup cake shot the lady is topping off the cupcake, that's where my eye was drawn, to the action in the shot but focus wasn't there. I don't feel that any of the handheld stuff worked for that cupcake scene as it feels like it was out of necessity rather than creativity.

 

I really like the training footage of the guy hitting the pads.

 

25secs, that shot does nothing for me, it looks a little under exposed and to warm.

 

Guy in the recording studio looks great and I love the effect.

 

32secs in I don't like how heavy the vignette is (personal opinion though, I like vignettes when you cant even notice them personally, just a little bit to help draw the eye).

 

Protesting stuff is great.

 

The man at the computer doesn't match in terms of light, one scene the computer is bright on his face then we flip around and his face is dark, they might be different scenes? As they stand now it feels like your jump cutting all in the same moment but something keep changing.

 

Slo-mo speed bag is ok but soft.

 

man right after slo mo is again to warm and it seams like there is some kind of artifacts? did you slo-mo him mid shot?

 

Train track looks good.

 

Your reel is over 3 minutes long, with 2 minutes or so of black slug?

 

Did you edit your reel? I think the editing is the strongest part of your reel.

 

 

Thank you Paul for that insight about my reel(really helpful), this is actually the second cut so far. Firstly, Yes I did edit my own reel, and I actually did use focal changes for creative effect(I was naive then) for the cupcakes part because I had limited tools at my disposal to make things more interesting. I only used the talking head scenes to demonstrate interview footage, but they are going to replaced by some more recent and better shot footage and I'm going to cut out the speed bag. The black slug is accident I didn't notice while encoding until I uploaded it on Vimeo. The second talking head spot I haven't done anything actually to beside fixing exposure levels and curves actually.