Director demo reel question...

[Dennis Stevens]

Sorry to bore people with yet another demo reel question....

I'm putting together a demo reel to showcase my directing ability.

I have some nice scenes from early shorts I did, but the production values aren't as good as I'd like. Nice, as I in I liked the performances, and some of the shots are pretty good, and I liked the dialogue I wrote.

But the sound is usually spotty, and some of the shots could have been framed better.

So my first thought is not to use them. Even though I'm not selling myself as sound engineer or dp, bad is bad. Even if I say 'This is early stuff, I have a better crew now and I know more tricks of the trade', no one cares. Show something with good production values.

Would everyone agree?

[Matt Champagne]

Originally Posted by Dennis Stevens

Sorry to bore people with yet another demo reel question....

I'm putting together a demo reel to showcase my directing ability.

I have some nice scenes from early shorts I did, but the production values aren't as good as I'd like. Nice, as I in I liked the performances, and some of the shots are pretty good, and I liked the dialogue I wrote.

But the sound is usually spotty, and some of the shots could have been framed better.

So my first thought is not to use them. Even though I'm not selling myself as sound engineer or dp, bad is bad. Even if I say 'This is early stuff, I have a better crew now and I know more tricks of the trade', no one cares. Show something with good production values.

Would everyone agree?

Yeah, I would say top notch stuff only. Even if it comes in at only a minute, a minute worth of "wow" is better than 5 mins of "eh, well some of it was pretty good".

[Don Donatello]

all depends on who you send you reel to ..
a certain amount of low production value is acceptable in area's BUT if i can't hear/understand the dialogue then what is one to think ? you're the Director

commercial reel - only the BEST should be on it

Music Video reel - it has to grab em from the start ..

dramatic reel - all depends on who's viewing it - i find too many of these reels look like music video's ( fast cutting , loud music ) ... many reels start off with a 2 min fast/loud intro then they let selected scenes play out longer.


Doc reel - most persons looking at Doc reel will understand low production value ( within limits) and look at content ...

[Benjamin Hill]

A good question to ask yourself is, "how does this demo reel showcase my directing skills, in spite of some low production values?"

[Dennis Stevens]

Thanks for everyone's reply.

Is there a convention for how many scenes you should have?

This would be creating 'character-driven dramas' reel. I was thinking 3-4 scenes? Perhaps showing different emotions, and at least one scene with an exterior shot.

I did a bunch of shorts which I got into film festivals, and I was told basically because they liked my characters, story and dialog.

Then I worked on a lot of other people's films, and some event videography. Good experience, but I can't say I directed them.

I was thinking of filming some select scenes, and punching up the production values. Even re-film some old scenes.

Is it kosher if they are stand alone scenes, not excerpts of longer works? I'd rather have a reel of well-directed, well-produced, good-sounding scenes that really impressed people.

If they want to see earlier work with less production values, I can show them.

A lot of my favorite scenes occur later in the film. Do you usually introduce the pieces, so the viewer knows what preceded the scene?

[Andzei Matsukevits]

here is a good link about creating good showreel, take a look:

http://www.fxguide.com/fxtips-269.html