Soon to be Film School Graduate Demo Reel.

[Brandon J. Garcia]

Hello, all.

I wanted to get an completely outside opinion from you guys on my reel, specifically with shot selection and editing.

TRT: 1:41
Mainly shot with a variety of DSLRs, 5DmkII, 7D, 60D, t3i and occasionally a panny hmc150.

I have recently got my first paid shooting gig with EPIC + Scarlet and I must say I was very impressed.

P.S. if you are in Northern California and are shooting - I would love to come help out on some more shoots of any kind, especially if you are shooting RED or any other higher end cameras.

Thanks Gents.
BG

 

[Andrew Burhoe]

I think your reel was pretty good man.

I'd love to see some the projects in full. Look cool.

Especially the scene in the desert

 

[Brandon J. Garcia]

I think your reel was pretty good man.

I'd love to see some the projects in full. Look cool.

Especially the scene in the desert

Thanks man.
That's from a film called "Anthropoid" directed by Ricardo V. Saldana.
This was a fun shoot because it was really short (only about 4 minutes) and had MINIMAL dialogue. So all the focus was on the visuals. It was a fun film.
It's not public online yet, hitting some festivals but I will post when I can.

I also have my senior project film, which I directed but didn't shoot, called "Piecework". If you'd like to see that, I can PM you the link and pw.
Thanks for the compliments.

BG

 

[Eric Simmons]

You've got some shots around the 1:20 mark that I thought were especially strong.

 

[Brandon J. Garcia]

You've got some shots around the 1:20 mark that I thought were especially strong.

Thanks man.
Did anything stick out as funky or you felt didn't work or flow?

 

[Brandon J. Garcia]

I'm curious why there isn't more responses.. not sure if thats good or bad. I'm thinking not so good?

 

[Chris Henze]

The music was incredibly annoying. The images are competent and show promise. If I was in Northern Cali I'd contact you for work. As far as the music, trust in your images and your point of view. Why are you unique? Show me that, trust it, then add some underscore that adds without calling any attention to it. We shouldn't notice anything else except for your images, not the music, not the cuts, not the titles. Good luck.

 

[Mohamed Younis]

Looks good man. I don't like the lighting in the scene at 0:05. I feel like the talent is underexposed. The image is a bit flat since you lit the background so well. Also, I feel you could've done more with the candles. Other than that the reel is awesome. Great Work.

 

[Peter Dmitriyev]

I too felt the music didn't really fit the imagery at all. I kind of like that m83 song but feel it is very strident especially in comparison to a lot of the imagery shown here.
I think the reel as a whole is pretty good there's a few questionable things like weird shaky cameras in the scene where there's a sticky note on the lamp, not sure that that needs to be included, and other than that the only thing to me that stands out is that all of the reel is very obviously shot on DSLR level cameras, i.e. the visual quality of the image is never high enough to look like it was shot on Red/Alexa/16/35mm etc. And so because of that it feels a little low-endish to me although it still shows good level of skill in DP'ing. I just mean in the sense that if you were applying for a higher end gig shot on a higher end camera system this is something that would be immediately noticeable at least by me, that you have very little experience with higher end camera systems as seen in your reel, but in terms of craftsmanship I feel it is pretty good, shows good variety of settings and characters. Just needs perhaps a little more variety in types of shots for instance some action shots, jib shots, anything else not already there etc.

 

[Brandon J. Garcia]

I too felt the music didn't really fit the imagery at all. I kind of like that m83 song but feel it is very strident especially in comparison to a lot of the imagery shown here.
I think the reel as a whole is pretty good there's a few questionable things like weird shaky cameras in the scene where there's a sticky note on the lamp, not sure that that needs to be included, and other than that the only thing to me that stands out is that all of the reel is very obviously shot on DSLR level cameras, i.e. the visual quality of the image is never high enough to look like it was shot on Red/Alexa/16/35mm etc. And so because of that it feels a little low-endish to me although it still shows good level of skill in DP'ing. I just mean in the sense that if you were applying for a higher end gig shot on a higher end camera system this is something that would be immediately noticeable at least by me, that you have very little experience with higher end camera systems as seen in your reel, but in terms of craftsmanship I feel it is pretty good, shows good variety of settings and characters. Just needs perhaps a little more variety in types of shots for instance some action shots, jib shots, anything else not already there etc.

Yes, I have mainly shot with DSLRs and lower end professional cameras such as Panasonic HVX-200, HPX-300, and HMC-150. But I don't feel like cameras are that much of a burden for me, I feel pretty confident I can pick up any camera system and get a good image out of it. I have just recently started shooting EPIC, but that was only for B-Cam interview stuff, so nothing impressive about that, I guess. I just haven't much opportunity to shoot on higher end cameras, let alone a budget.

The music was incredibly annoying. The images are competent and show promise. If I was in Northern Cali I'd contact you for work. As far as the music, trust in your images and your point of view. Why are you unique? Show me that, trust it, then add some underscore that adds without calling any attention to it. We shouldn't notice anything else except for your images, not the music, not the cuts, not the titles. Good luck.

You are not the first person I have heard this from. Perhaps I could pick a different song or at the very least a different part of the song.
I will put a lot of consideration into that.

Thanks guys for the feedback and compliments. You have no idea how much I appreciate it.

 

[Craig Parkes]

Lots of nice work in there, but I am going to put a heavily critical eye to one thing...

The shot which tracks along the candles about 10-15 seconds into the clip has has a slight wobble on the end and a poorly ramping track speed (starts slow, gets faster but not in a very smooth looking way, could be a poor ramp in post though?).

This is likely a limitation of gear, but as something looking at your reel I may think "The best he can offer and he opens with a shot with a wobble at the end?" which would throw questions up for me about having you as a DOP. Because if you were happy enough to use it in your reel you might be happy enough to say the take was good when the director was happy with the performance, and as a producer or editor I end up sitting in the suite with the client asking where's the take that DOESNT wobble slightly at the end.

You are meant to be the guardian of the look of the piece, and you indicate with the inclusion of that shot in your reel a low duty of care and a willingness to let the limitations of equipment get the best of you (rather than insisting on proper gear or reworking the shot to work with the gear you have access to, or just working on the shot til you get it right.)

 

[Brandon J. Garcia]

Lots of nice work in there, but I am going to put a heavily critical eye to one thing...

The shot which tracks along the candles about 10-15 seconds into the clip has has a slight wobble on the end and a poorly ramping track speed (starts slow, gets faster but not in a very smooth looking way, could be a poor ramp in post though?).

This is likely a limitation of gear, but as something looking at your reel I may think "The best he can offer and he opens with a shot with a wobble at the end?" which would throw questions up for me about having you as a DOP. Because if you were happy enough to use it in your reel you might be happy enough to say the take was good when the director was happy with the performance, and as a producer or editor I end up sitting in the suite with the client asking where's the take that DOESNT wobble slightly at the end.

You are meant to be the guardian of the look of the piece, and you indicate with the inclusion of that shot in your reel a low duty of care and a willingness to let the limitations of equipment get the best of you (rather than insisting on proper gear or reworking the shot to work with the gear you have access to, or just working on the shot til you get it right.)

I think we got a few more takes, I'll take another look. Thanks man.
Thanks for taking the time.