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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Need to kill some darlings...

Björn Benckert

Björn Benckert

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Our reel is getting 2 years old and to make room for new stuff in a new edit some old stuff needs to go, especially as the edit is far to long as it is all ready. So please if you have the time look trough it trough and post what you think should be chopped away from a VFX point of view. I would very much appreciate your critesism as I'm personally tend to weight the shots more from the effort I put into them and for that reason have a bad judgement for what is showreel worthy or not.

http://vimeo.com/28344158
 
Tough call to cut anything, they are all some of the most amazing shot's I've seen and to be honest I liked them all. I can tell you which ones resonated with me the most but I'm probably biased, I picked the ones that I felt could of been part of a larger story rather than the commercials. I tend to like the shots that look more cinematic.

Sail boat and the whale 2:52
The UFO 2:58
Guy with girl's body (pretty much all of it, and not in a gay way) 3:14
Guy falling through clouds 3:16
Biker guy with the glider 1:25
The tracking shot through the house 2:16
Dialating eyes 0:13
Rocket jet pack painting 2:35
 
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All great looking shots, I won't try to tell you what you should cut but just don't cut the fisherman getting flicked into the water. I'm going to go watch that bit again :)
 
Extremely tough call! Here are a few that I don't think quite match up to the quality of the other shots.

1.18 - 1.28 All the shots including mobile phone, man in the crate, planes and the flying bike.
1.35 - 1.39 Pizza delivery car and next shot of lady in car
1.42 Roller coaster
1.45 - 1.54 Lady swinging around the energy plus power station shots
1.59 - 2.01 Toy car
2.06 - 2.08 Guys removing sunglasses
2.16 House interior - looks a fraction dark and hard to see whats going on, otherwise looks good
2.36 World floating over bed
2.40 Kinder toys
2.43 Spaceship
2.47 Dropping names on map
2.51 - 2.57 Whale
2.58 - 3.01 UFO

And since you no longer need these for your reel, can I have them for mine? :)
 
I think I would ask myself what kind of jobs I wanted to get in the future and then cut the type of stuff that didn't fit into that goal.

Right now I see 3 major types of work. Motion graphics, realistic vfx and cartoony vfx. The question is which ones are most important and which ones can stand to be cut back.
 
Thank you guys! Those comments are really great help. Huge, that you took the time to list everything.
 
The whole thing is very impressive - top notch stuff, so many different styles. But maybe that's the problem - you might break it into several videos and show one or another depending on what the client says he wants. Horror? Whimsy? Fantasy? Suspense? Comedy? Farce? There's just so much in this video that I think it might be overwhelming and perhaps a bit frightening to clients.

Your work is sterling, just wonderful.
 
Thank you Douglas. Agree, it's difficult to balance these parameters, to show great width and at the same time be a bit specific. We got, all kinds of reels, music video reel, talking animal reel, CG animal reel, motion control reel, latest work reel .and so on. But then what do you end them when they just ask for "the reel", or what goes first on the web page on the showreel section... For requests I all ways send vimeo links for films that we made are relevant and then that needs to be in company with a showreel and that is later sent to the creatives and I know (from asking) they very rarely even watch trough a 2 minute reel. So we try to get a 45 sec together but then there is other problems... how do we show that really nice super long one take film we just did... etc. This short one has long to go before done just got started today. I think it needs at least twice as much clips in there and more energetic/more action kind of stuff. And when looking at it now I realize there is some oldies goldies that have to go, Kylie Minogue for example does not cut it as new and fresh any longer Im afraid. :)

http://www.syndicate.se/Files/~usr/hawk/SHOWREEL_2012.mov
 
If this is sent to a creative and they don't hire you based on the reel, the creative should be fired :) that is some really inspirational and overall impressive work.
 
:)

This reel does give much more diversity right from the start.
I still really like the original one too. I'd keep that reel for certain occasions, if for example a new client comes over to the office and they are completely new to your work.
 
You are in a difficult amazing position here.
I loved the the first reel even if it's long.
In the last one i would add some different cuts replacing frames that seems redundant: the second man running on the rodent weel, the man choosing is body (leave the shot when he's choosing the torso), the man running through the ice.
I think that in this 45 secs you just want to shock omitting any explanation.
Best regards,
p.
 
Björn this is f***ng awesome. This footage is really amazing.

My two cents since you asked ;)

I find the intro to be a tad too long (a good 10sec of the 45sec reel). What about if you see the die/cube being thrown in and land - cut - show the reel - and end the reel with the robot pushing the die out. gives a nice bracket cut for the reel and a cute ending and it makes for a faster entry into the reel. And with the blast of pictures you have going, you can hardly stop yourself from looking once you're in.

@*00:35 the severed head shot is so short, you don't even notice it's cut off - it only works if you know the footage already (even with the taking off the head part before) so I'd take it out, or I'd switch it with the sliding display cut and take the stepping out from behind the displays back in @ 00:40/41

personally I loved the shot of the falling displays with the shattering vases etc. which is now out ;)


All in all, this makes me want to go out and shoot or even work at your office :)

Great stuff!
 
Björn, Fabulous work. Just fabulous.

Not that you either A) need a reel or B) need my advice, here are my thoughts:

Old work looks old. New works looks new. I'd give the new work more prominence in your latest reel than the old stuff. In fact I'd cut everything that's more than three years old. Make a legacy featuring that stuff.

Again. Fabulous work.


As for your reel. I liked the I think you've given the old material too much prominance in the new reel.
 
Very nice work. As a director my first concern of your ability to push the envelope of what's possible and then execute seamlessly is shown in the new reel. My second interest is how do you use what you do to elevate and amplify the story. There's less of that in your new reel.

Once again first class work.
 
Björn Benckert said:
Our reel is getting 2 years old and to make room for new stuff in a new edit some old stuff needs to go, especially as the edit is far to long as it is all ready. So please if you have the time look trough it trough and post what you think should be chopped away from a VFX point of view. I would very much appreciate your critesism as I'm personally tend to weight the shots more from the effort I put into them and for that reason have a bad judgement for what is showreel worthy or not.

http://vimeo.com/28344158
Click to expand...

Hey Björn,
Are you guys a post house.. ? or is this you directing or DP reel. or you flame reel...
There is alot of great effect shots in there and its very solid body of work, but all i can say is, maybe for the people that dont know who you are, put some form of communication in there that tells them what you do... post, Director, Dp, compositor, 3d artist.... ? maybe that will help when you go to cut a new montage.
Regarding length, long is fine so long as its entertaining all the way to the end. And most people only watch montages once... so why not blow there socks off with it.

Ive just cut one for myself as well... Same things your asking, I asked myself.
Good luck man...
 
Henk van den Doel said:
:)

This reel does give much more diversity right from the start.
I still really like the original one too. I'd keep that reel for certain occasions, if for example a new client comes over to the office and they are completely new to your work.
Click to expand...

Will do.

Paolo Tinari said:
You are in a difficult amazing position here.
I loved the the first reel even if it's long.
In the last one i would add some different cuts replacing frames that seems redundant: the second man running on the rodent weel, the man choosing is body (leave the shot when he's choosing the torso), the man running through the ice.
I think that in this 45 secs you just want to shock omitting any explanation.
Best regards,
p.
Click to expand...

I forward this to Marcus, our editor in chief and see what he says.

Patrick Grossien said:
Björn this is f***ng awesome. This footage is really amazing.

My two cents since you asked ;)

I find the intro to be a tad too long (a good 10sec of the 45sec reel). What about if you see the die/cube being thrown in and land - cut - show the reel - and end the reel with the robot pushing the die out. gives a nice bracket cut for the reel and a cute ending and it makes for a faster entry into the reel. And with the blast of pictures you have going, you can hardly stop yourself from looking once you're in.

@*00:35 the severed head shot is so short, you don't even notice it's cut off - it only works if you know the footage already (even with the taking off the head part before) so I'd take it out, or I'd switch it with the sliding display cut and take the stepping out from behind the displays back in @ 00:40/41

personally I loved the shot of the falling displays with the shattering vases etc. which is now out ;)


All in all, this makes me want to go out and shoot or even work at your office :)

Great stuff!
Click to expand...

Thank's agree we will do that, dice bounce and lands and then cut to reel. robot goes on end instead.

Liam Hall said:
Björn, Fabulous work. Just fabulous.

Not that you either A) need a reel or B) need my advice, here are my thoughts:

Old work looks old. New works looks new. I'd give the new work more prominence in your latest reel than the old stuff. In fact I'd cut everything that's more than three years old. Make a legacy featuring that stuff.

Again. Fabulous work.


As for your reel. I liked the I think you've given the old material too much prominance in the new reel.
Click to expand...

Agree, I saw it on a bigger screen now and some old pal cuts... needs to be left behind... Here in Europe we still send transition masters in pal to the TV stations so if it's not pushed for, then a lot of work here is still done in standard def making it sticking out in the reel like a youtube clip, wich sucks... Need to replace those darlings.

Chris Henze said:
Very nice work. As a director my first concern of your ability to push the envelope of what's possible and then execute seamlessly is shown in the new reel. My second interest is how do you use what you do to elevate and amplify the story. There's less of that in your new reel.

Once again first class work.
Click to expand...

Thanks for those comments. Yes I think the new reel definitely need some 5-10 really good commercials or such in full next to it. To kind of explain that we are actually capable of doing more than 10 frames long shots and such. We do a lot of long "stitched one takes" and that does not really shine in a rapid edited reel like this :)


Mark Toia said:
Hey Björn,
Are you guys a post house.. ? or is this you directing or DP reel. or you flame reel...
There is alot of great effect shots in there and its very solid body of work, but all i can say is, maybe for the people that dont know who you are, put some form of communication in there that tells them what you do... post, Director, Dp, compositor, 3d artist.... ? maybe that will help when you go to cut a new montage.
Regarding length, long is fine so long as its entertaining all the way to the end. And most people only watch montages once... so why not blow there socks off with it.

Ive just cut one for myself as well... Same things your asking, I asked myself.
Good luck man...
Click to expand...

Good comment Mark:Yes, we are a little VFX boutique, so this is our VFX reel. We try to work in close collaboration with Directors, Producers, DP's world wide providing them with our solutions for VFX / Post work. So your comment is very valid, for somebody stumbling into our web page they might not understand what we are about, even though they probably went there for a reason i.e been word to mouth to check us out or such. I guess also our live / current web page www.syndicate.se that holds more content is explaining things a more clear. This wordpress.syndicate.se is the new web page, that never gets finished :)


Again, thanks for all these comments . I feel like I'm digging around in my own belly button doing this, then these firm coments and tips are huge help.
 
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