Demo Reel

Since this thread involves marketing, I thought this forum was the best place for it.

I am applying for a grant and need to create a demo reel. I am producing / directing the short film; however, most of my previous projects I did the cinematography for. What type of demo reel should I create...one with some of my cinematography or one with some of my directing, or one with a combination of both?

Also, one of my projects was filmed with the DVX, which was letterboxed. The others are in 16:9. I don't want the aspect ratio and picture size to jump all over the place throughout the reel. What would you recommend for this?

Thanks
 
If the grant is asking to see a "director's demo," I'd focus on including clips you've directed. If you think your best work is as cinematographer, maybe include a short clip or two of that near the end, but I have a feeling you want to keep the demo more focused on one area of your expertise. Make a separate demo for your cinematography work.

Keep the demo to no longer than 5 or 6 minutes. Even just 3 or 4 minutes is fine. Open with some nice music in front while a title card comes up that clearly states your name and what kind of demo it is ("Directors's Demo"). Then have black with titles clearly stating which project the next clip will be from, with info such as: "Movie Title," year made (if you want to include the year), format, running time, your role(s). Then have your best clip from the project, no longer than 1.5-2 minutes. Shorter is better if you want to show more clips, but you don't need that many -- I'd say anywhere from 3 to 6 samples/clips, at the most. I recently made mine, and it was exactly 5 minutes, with 3 clips of my best work. Quality is better than quantity, so don't get caught up in thinking you want them to see a little bit of everything you can do. Allow the most time for your best scenes. Have each clip fade to black, then a moment of black between, with the next title, and the next clip fade up from black. This will help the fact that some are letterboxed and some are not. Definitely have your name, email, and phone number at the end, holding steady for a long enough time for anyone to be able to read all of it before it fades to black. Use the same music from the opening. You'd be amazed how many people forget to put their contact info in their demos.

Do not create one of those demos that just have your clips running while a music track plays through the whole thing. I have heard industry people say that that tells them nothing about the filmmaker. They generally feel that anyone can put together a bunch of pictures with music behind them. For a director's reel, it's better to have the actual sound and dialogue from the movie, because they want to get a sense of how you directed the actors and set the mood, etc.

Hope this is helpful.
 
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