Showreel feedback needed

Nikola Damov

Nikola Damov

Hi folks ,


I've just finished my showreel for 2014 and I was wondering if you guys could give me some feedback and tell me if it's any good.

I have a little over a year left to graduate high school and I really hope to get accepted in film school with cinematography.

So here it is.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\watch?v=CblnmFs4Tj4&feature=youtu.be&hd=1
 
Wow! and you're still in high school? a lot of that looked very professional. wouldn't doubt your ability to get into some kind of film school with that. perhaps adding a slight warp stabilizer to the handheld footage of the space man (?) would help, some of it seems unnecessarily shaky. great great work.
 
I am incredibly thankful for all the great feedback. Thank you so so much. This forum and the people here have been of a great help.

I've shot all the shorts with the BMPCC and 18-35mm sigma lens. I also use spider steady rig and a DIY slider.The aerial was done with a GoPro attached to a Quad. For all the interiors I use 2 work lights.

Nothing fancy.
 
Lovely, I have just this week picked up a BMPCC,what are you using to grade mate?Nice aspect ratio too,cropped in post?
 
Nice work! I think you have a great eye for composition and color, and this reel communicates that effectively. It's a good length too for the content.
 
Didn't go through resolve at all then? Nice, seems a pretty decent workflow,did you use proxies or just edit the DNG files?I'll have to look into that sigma as a replacement for my 14-45.
 
I feel like you have a lot of similar shots that aren't needed. For example, we see the guy by the water twice. Once presumably during dawn and once at dusk. We also see the same shots with the light coming from window. As a showreel this is ok, but you should really highlight the amount of variation you can create as an artist. Right now, I don't see that. I see mostly natural lighting with a camera mostly being handheld or on sticks.
I would also consider trying to brand yourself as a specific role. Again, as a showreel this is ok, but there is no way for me to know what roles you had while filming. If it was all you thats fine, but you should say so. Reels need to serve you a specific purpose like showing you skills as a DP or showing that you can edit, or direct. Whatever role you desire to highlight should then be portrayed differently. For example, this would be more of a DP or colorist reel. If you wanted to be an editor, then you would show longer excerpts.
All that being said, I think this could easily be less than a minute in length if you left only the best of the best
 
Foggy said:
seems a pretty decent workflow
Click to expand...

If you value your time (and perhaps your sanity), grading in AE is certainly not a better (or even really a decent) workflow... not when Resolve is free, and the black magic cameras are kind of intended to be used with resolve doing the finishing. ;)
 
Will Vincent said:
If you value your time (and perhaps your sanity), grading in AE is certainly not a better (or even really a decent) workflow... not when Resolve is free, and the black magic cameras are kind of intended to be used with resolve doing the finishing. ;)
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I still need to try Resolve.
But actually there is no need to leave Premiere Pro at all when using Colorista and Looks or speedgrade.
If time is an issue... :P
 
WalterB said:
I still need to try Resolve.
But actually there is no need to leave Premiere Pro at all when using Colorista and Looks or speedgrade.
If time is an issue... :P
Click to expand...

Speedgrade, maybe... but looks isn't really a proper color tool, more a gimicky toy. Colorista is good for what it is, but it's slow and limited.

There's a reason that Resolve is the standard, and most popular tool for color correction in the world. ;)
 
Will Vincent said:
Speedgrade, maybe... but looks isn't really a proper color tool, more a gimicky toy. Colorista is good for what it is, but it's slow and limited.

There's a reason that Resolve is the standard, and most popular tool for color correction in the world. ;)
Click to expand...

Standards are also often based on legacy and pricy investments :-p

( I really need to take some time to install and try it. Too much to do...)

True: Looks is more a quick fix you can tweak, than that it's used from scratch.
 
Free isn't all that pricy.. :lol:

Anyway.. back on topic. Nikola I like your reel. I would agree (to a certain point) with RobertHenry, not so much that you need to cut half the footage or whatnot, but update the title on the reel so it's clear that it's a cinematographer reel, not a hodge podge of various disciplines. I don't think it necessarily comes off that way, but I can see how it might be confusing to some people.
 
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