HD vs. 16mm in a business/reel perspective

[drew_town]

Greetings,

 

A friend of mine is in preproduction for a short film. He's worked out a deal to shoot it HD and I'm trying to convince him to shoot it 16mm instead, mainly because I want the experience. What do you guys think the business advantages are to either format? I mean would having a 16mm project under your belt be better for a demo reel and/or resume than HD? These guys are interested in feature films and not so much commercial or client work. Money and aesthetics aside, what do you guys think? Is it that big a deal or not?

 

Thanks.

[David Mullen ASC]

If you shoot either WELL it shouldn't make a difference in terms of the quality of your reel, but obviously if you're trying to get hired on a 16mm shoot or an HD shoot, any experience in the relevant format will be taken into consideration.

[hugovillasmythe]

I think either format is good as long as you shoot it with care and profesionalism. Be reminded that most clients look at a reel and tend to decide they want you to work for them based on whatever they saw and liked. Therfore, I believe that as you increase the variety on your reel you have a better chance of geting more work from it (point 1 of a Demo reel) and getting more interesting work at that.

Also, a reel is not "a reel".

I think that, as you progress in the industry, and with the advent of tools like final cut you can come up with tailor made reels for specific targets.

[drew_town]

Thanks for the input guys. We'll probably end up going with HD. I've cut three different reels. One with emphasis on motion graphics that's paced rather fast, one that's got short full-length clips, and the other that's a combination of the two. I'm constantly changing them, adding newer footage to replace some of the less intriguing work I did earlier on. Thanks again.