Over the course of my two years at university I have come a long way from where I started and I feel my show reel shows this most. When I started the course I had no content to put into a show reel as before this course I did a film and media A level which didn't give me the opportunity to do much practical work. Below is my show reel after my first year at uni where I was finally able to get some projects created and develop my practical camera skills more. Then at the bottom is my final show reel after two years of study that includes content from a range of different projects. Over the two years I feel I have been able to really focus on the production aspect of the industry which is what i was hoping to do. I feel I have also learnt a lot about how to promote my work and get my businesses name out there.
After creating my first show reel I was happy that I finally had enough work to create a show-reel but I knew that it could be more professional. The main thing I needed was more content to put into it so that I could keep the cuts fast so I decided I would wait until I had completed a few more projects before making another show reel. Half way through the second year I felt I then had enough content to create a more professional show reel so I started looking at professional examples and taking notes on what things should and shouldn't be in a really good show reel.
One show reel I thought was really well made was the cinematographer Dillon Pearces, much like I wanted to do his show reel is a mix of his best work over the last one and a half to two years. Dillon's show reel consists of mainly more cinematic projects as a opposed to corporate ones however I don't have enough content on each section to have a separate show reel for both sections. I do recognise that once I have enough content to do so having a separate show reel for each section of work you do is important. What really interested me about Dillon's work is that he has a lot of slow motion shots but with quick cuts so you get to see how good the quality of each shot is without being stuck looking at the same shot for too long. I also like the fact that his show reel is short and some of the other show reels I looked at were three or four minutes long and it is easy to get bored watching a show reel that is that long although I do expect that once you have a lot of content that you are proud of it could be hard to choose your best shots and that's why having separate show reels is important.
There were also a couple of things I learnt just by watching a range of different show reels. The main one being that rather than using a company name most people use their own name in their show reel and I think this is because most cinematographers work under their own name. As I have worked hard to put a company identity together this year I wanted the company name to be there somewhere so I used my actual name in the video but the title of the video is still Iris studios show reel. The final thing that is important to look out for in a show reel and another thing that Dillon does well is cutting to the rhythm of whatever track you use so you get cuts that are roughly at the same time.
Using my research I was able to pick out the best shots from my work over the last two years and put them into this show reel (see above). It is a show reel I am really proud of and one that I think represents my company and my skill level at this time well.
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