Cinematography Reel critique - rip it apart

[chris.goodhue]

What's up guys, been working on my cine reel for the month or so. Pretty stoked with how it's come out and would like some criticism on it.

Few things

- i know the natural sound for the shots isn't great, definitely something I'm trying to work on going forward

- the title sequence at the end is pretty basic, haven't spent much time working on it, very busy with school right now

[video]https://vimeo.com/235244885[/video]

 

[eheath]

1. Its way too long. Get it under 90 seconds (including your titles, which TBH could be a slate with your info, unless you you want show off some animation skills. This would only be worth it if you did something complex, but fast)

2. speed up the beginning sequence, I was bored after two shots (I kept watching, but your clients/potential employers won't)

3. A good chunk of your shots were out of focus, some seemed to be artistic (shot of the dog in the grass with the sun coming towards the camera) but many seemed like shots you liked, but they weren't perfect. I'd say cut any shot that presents a mistake in your filming, that leaves people unsure.

4. You had way too many shots panning up into the sky, repetitive shots get boring, keep the best ones, cut the rest.

That's about all I got for now, basically 2-4 will probably fulfill #1. Natural sound is always great, but you have a large variety of clips. Ideally when you shoot now, always think about getting some shots just for sound, sometimes I'll set up a shot and shoot it, then again from another less attractive angle, but closer to get better audio. Or if you have another camera, you can set up a closer angle, out of your angle, to grab audio, tons of ways but its easier to capture that sound when you're already out there vs going out again to get just audio clips. Good luck man

 

[chris.goodhue]

1. Its way too long. Get it under 90 seconds (including your titles, which TBH could be a slate with your info, unless you you want show off some animation skills. This would only be worth it if you did something complex, but fast)

2. speed up the beginning sequence, I was bored after two shots (I kept watching, but your clients/potential employers won't)

3. A good chunk of your shots were out of focus, some seemed to be artistic (shot of the dog in the grass with the sun coming towards the camera) but many seemed like shots you liked, but they weren't perfect. I'd say cut any shot that presents a mistake in your filming, that leaves people unsure.

4. You had way too many shots panning up into the sky, repetitive shots get boring, keep the best ones, cut the rest.

That's about all I got for now, basically 2-4 will probably fulfill #1. Natural sound is always great, but you have a large variety of clips. Ideally when you shoot now, always think about getting some shots just for sound, sometimes I'll set up a shot and shoot it, then again from another less attractive angle, but closer to get better audio. Or if you have another camera, you can set up a closer angle, out of your angle, to grab audio, tons of ways but its easier to capture that sound when you're already out there vs going out again to get just audio clips. Good luck man

Appreciate the critique! I'll definitely take those things into account. I've had a few people comment on the length and might decide on a different song to speed things up.

For the natural audio, do you use anything besides another camera? Like a personal mic or anything of that nature? Just thinking how setting up another camera just doesn't make sense in a lot of situations, especially in the mountains / on trips

 

[lelandbroadhurst]

Now, I personally think you should take off the lut/preset/color grading profile. I don't like the way the colors look so unnatural, they sort of hurt my eyes and want me to stop looking at the film. Especially since now everyone is using them they're so common with GoPros and iPhones and etc. Imo took the magic and wow effect out of color grading. I would say just record in a flat picture profile and not adjust anything, that what I do and I personally like it better, but that's just me.

 

[chris.goodhue]

Now, I personally think you should take off the lut/preset/color grading profile. I don't like the way the colors look so unnatural, they sort of hurt my eyes and want me to stop looking at the film. Especially since now everyone is using them they're so common with GoPros and iPhones and etc. Imo took the magic and wow effect out of color grading. I would say just record in a flat picture profile and not adjust anything, that what I do and I personally like it better, but that's just me.

I actually color graded it myself, but I feel that, definitely think I overdid it a bit. Wanted to go with a surreal kind of feel to it

 

[eheath]

Appreciate the critique! I'll definitely take those things into account. I've had a few people comment on the length and might decide on a different song to speed things up.

For the natural audio, do you use anything besides another camera? Like a personal mic or anything of that nature? Just thinking how setting up another camera just doesn't make sense in a lot of situations, especially in the mountains / on trips

TBH a shotgun mic on a camera (with low wind of course) sounds real good.

If you want, you could buy something like a tascam audio recorder, hook up a shotgun to that and run around and get audio, or put it next a feature, etc. Only problem is syncing audio, if you're using another camera, at least you have the image to help sync the sound, with an audio recorder you're just gonna have to do a lot of guessing and checking.

 

[chris.goodhue]

TBH a shotgun mic on a camera (with low wind of course) sounds real good.

If you want, you could buy something like a tascam audio recorder, hook up a shotgun to that and run around and get audio, or put it next a feature, etc. Only problem is syncing audio, if you're using another camera, at least you have the image to help sync the sound, with an audio recorder you're just gonna have to do a lot of guessing and checking.

That makes sense. I'm shooting with the gh4 now and the slo-mo option doesn't record audio and my a mic on my gimbal might weigh too much so trying to get around those things is proving to be difficult