First Cinematography Reel

[Sasha Moric]

Hello Everyone

 

My name is Sasha Moric and this is my first post on this forum. I just cut my first reel, the work is all of my narrative footage. I would love some feedback and any advice thanks in advance for your help.

 

SM

 

[Matthew W. Phillips]

To be honest, I thought your reel went on far too long for the limited amount of shot selection I saw. I would cut it 90 seconds max and try to keep it interesting. Out of the work I saw, the shots looked steady but I wasn't all that fond of your lighting schemes. Then again Im a bit biased since much of what I see now days looks washed out and dull to me. Maybe someone else will chime in to give more perspective.

[Sasha Moric]

Thanks for the feed back! I will play with the idea of cutting it down. Thanks for taking a look, I would love to hear more on your lighting thoughts, what exactly do you feel it's missing? Its always great to get different perspectives on our work,

[Matthew W. Phillips]

OK, I re-watched your reel and maybe I was a bit harsh the first time around. Your angles are good but the things that turned me off were 1) too many slow motion shots in your reel (IMO). Although slow-mo can be dramatic, I wouldnt oversell it. Most Directors who watch your reel arent looking to be dazzled...they are watching practically to see if you can handle what they want and if they can see a glimpse of something they are looking for in their minds eye. And most of what they will want will be in normal time. 2) I still stand by it being a bit long but I already mentioned that 3) The fact that there are all these parts that have words like "Block D" is distracting from your reel and just irks me. A pet peeve but you dont want to take chances when you are showing yourself off. 4) Special effects shots are not good in a cinematography reel IMO. Unless you also do effects, you shouldnt have them in your reel. And if you do, you should put them in a different reel that is for that purpose. 5) The issue witht he lighting was because, save for the child shots, much of the subjects skin tones looked washed out and not a lot of depth. Very desaturated look. Some like this look but to me it reeks of DSLR with insufficient lighting. Regardless of what you think of 35mm, you should always respect it as the standard and what most people expect as the benchmark. Get some pigment in that skin! lol

 

Hope this gave you one persons insight. Good luck and have fun.

[bobby dodd]

I thought it all looked great, for me I would have like to see which shots were what camera system. But that is the geek in me. Did you do the color or was that done by someone else? I'm looking at doing a demo and I'm curious if I should use what the client did as a final look or should I re-color so it matches my original intentions as a cinematographer. Desaturated is the trend it seems but that isn't how I lit many a project.

[Hyun De Grande]

Hi Sasha,

 

I really like your reel! First, I think it shows a broad array of styles and genres, which is always a strong point when making a cinematography reel. Second, I like that your shots feel very mature, by lack of a better description. Although I don't see the shots in the context of the film, they do feel right to me. The lighting does, and the framing does. Also, the lighting doesn't seem to draw any significant attention to itself, yet the images look beautiful. I love that it's pure.

 

But I also agree with Matthew about better not putting FX-shots in your reel, for the same reason. And it also distracts from the images. Same thing with the text-overlays...

[Sasha Moric]

Thanks for the feed back, I had to use the shot's with graphics there was no way to get the original stuff.