HD Director's Reel

October 8, 2010 8:14 PM

HD Director's Reel
Clips from my various film projects, set to what I felt was appropriate music.

(I'm not actually sure what is "standard," but I made the call to drop all the dialogue and put music over everything because I like it that way. All projects included are "homemade" - ie self-financed and produced.)

posted by drjimmy11 (5 comments total)

Your stuff looks good. The question is, what exactly do you want this reel to accomplish for you?

Penelope Spheeris on the topic of a director's demo reel:

In the past, having a clip reel to illustrate your abilities as director might have been helpful. Today, they are probably helpful if you are trying to get a job as a commercial director of music video director.

However, if you are trying to direct a feature, my recommendation would be to make a reel of a few scenes which would represent the way in which you would execute the movie. Some people are good at talking and pitching, and some people are good at making movies. What I've noticed is there are very few people who are good at both. Oftentimes, the studios hire people that are good at pitching.

And just to demonstrate that you're never too accomplished to make a reel of scenes for your upcoming movie, I will mention that I did just that in an effort to cast Pink in the Janis Joplin movie that I'm doing next. It served as indisputable proof of her acting ability and gave the potential executive producers a clear view of how we intend to make the movie.
posted by philip-random at 10:01 AM on October 10, 2010

Interesting.

I recently completed a short film that I would use a sample of how I would execute a feature film based on those same characters. It was the last project I posted. Anyone who is watching this is at my Vimeo account so they don't have to look very far to find my other work.

I would use this reel to show to agents, people I might potentially work with or who might hire me for just about anything, etc etc etc etc. I would certainly take commercial or music video director right now if I could get paid. I don't think I am in imminent danger of anyone hiring me to direct a feature film right this minute.
posted by drjimmy11 at 11:27 AM on October 10, 2010

Music montages are for Directors of Photography. This reel doesn't convey any sense that you can structure a complete scene. No one watching this can get any idea of how you direct a dialogue scene, if you're any good at blocking or how you use coverage to convey a sense of space.
I would string together a group of complete scenes to show that you can actually direct complete scenes.
posted by matt_od at 8:33 PM on October 12, 2010

Sigh.

As above, their are complete *movies* on my Vimeo account. I certainly did not intend this as a referendum on my career and I think I will ask this project be deleted.
posted by drjimmy11 at 12:21 PM on October 13, 2010

Actually, scratch that. I am not going to have the project deleted just because of one semi-informed comment that fails to address the substance of the project or bother to read the comments above it.

*Of course* the first thing I would show someone is a complete movie where I, as you so wonderfully put it, "show the ability to string scenes together." It's often hard to get people to watch a whole movie. This is what I would show them to get them interested and give them a basic idea of who I am and what I have done in two minutes.
posted by drjimmy11 at 12:29 PM on October 13, 2010