Showreel

Market Research - Example One: 

I thought that it would be a good idea to choose one of the student's showreels from the year above me to look at as part of my market research as it was something created by someone who had access to the same materials and time constraints as me meaning that I could look at it objectively (such as if I would be happy if this was a piece of work of mine.)

I feel like the opening clip of the showreel could do with some explanation as the name of the youtube video does not give a good explanation as to what an animated short has to do with a media-related showreel. Moving on to the first clip that Emma actually recorded, I would not have personally included these clips in my showreel as it is clear that all of the Christmas footage was filmed by hand as it is all shaky and could have done with some stabilizing on software such as capcut or premier pro. I would prefer to have my footage be cleanly shot as I feel it make the whole thing look more professional. I feel like these comments could also apply to the recordings of the barbering competition as you can tell they were recorded handheld and this affects the professionalism of it all.

I feel like the reason this showreel falls flat to me is purely just because of the quality of the footage, apart from the footage from the western recordings, all of it is shaky and/or bad quality.

From looking at this piece of work, it helps me decide what I do and don’t want from my own showreel. I will make sure that my footage is to the best quality that it can be, putting special care into choosing footage that isn’t shaky and of poor quality because this could be an issue when it comes to grading my piece of work. Along with this, I wanted to make sure to include footage from in and out of college as it shows that I am someone who takes media seriously as I’m looking at it inside and outside of college.

My last issue with the showreel is that the music feels like it is far too calm for the content within the actual showreel and I feel like it would do better with some more upbeat music.

Market Research - Example Two: 

For my second piece of Market Research, I decided to look into someone who is also in an education environment (The person who created this showreel is a student at Edinburgh Napier University studying film which was actually a course I had considered however I did not think that this would be someone I could enjoy pursuing.)

In comparison to the first example I looked at when I began looking at other people's showreels, most of these shots have been well recorded with a professional camera. There is a range of content ranging from videos of landscapes to videos of people running on a beach as well as the odd video of food. The cinematography of the videos within the showreel. 

Unlike the last video, I feel that the music within this video pairs well with the content within as all of the videos share the same somber feeling that the music gives whomever is listening to it. I think that these choices were carefully thought through as everything aligns well with each other.

I would say that if this were my showreel that I would be very pleased as everything seems methodically thought through. The composition is well done in a lot of the shots and you can tell that Rowen truly cared about making sure these shots were of high quality when they were filming.

What I would take from this is to make sure that each of the videos that I plan on including in my showreel needs to be thought through as I would like my sequencing to be as well done as Rowen's is. It truly sets a high example for other media students in the process of creating a showreel.

Process of making my showreel:

Showreel.pptx from KatieLouiseMcCririck1

Draft One:

Feedback on my showreel:

The first question I asked those I sent my showreel to was if they actually liked the footage that I had included in the video as if there were a certain clip that they had not liked, I would have removed it and then replaced it with something of a better quality. To my relief, every clip included in my first draft of my showreel appealed to the people I had sent the survey to.

After asking if they actually enjoyed the footage within my showreel, I figured that I may as well straight up ask them, if they were the person making my showreel, would they change anything they saw within the first draft of my showreel. To my suprise, the only thing that people had thought I should change was the music and this was already a quality that I had planned on changing when it came to making a second draft of my showreel.

As I mentioned above, the music within the first draft of my showreel was not really something that I had liked so I figured I may as well as those who had seen my showreel if they had actually liked the music. To my suprise, only two people had said that they thought the music fit with the way I had edited the video even though three of the people had said they did actually think the music fit the video which was a little confusing. I decided that I was going to change the music from the video anyway though as I thought it didnt make my work look its best.

My final question for those taking my survey was the question of if they thought my showreel was edited to the point where they thought it looked professional. Thankfully, all of those who had taken my survey thought that my showreel looked professional. I had forgotten to cut down the music for my first draft so it was a good thing people thought I should change it.

Draft Two:

Draft Three:

Final:

Evaluation of my Showreel:

I would say I am very happy with my final product as I feel like this shows off the best of the work that I have filmed over my time being on this course. It features work that I have recorded in college however as well as this there are recordings that I had done outside of college hours. As well as this it includes my logo at the end of the showreel which was a good way of showing off something else I had made for this project.

I had taken feedback that I had gotten from my classmates on board and changed my showreel according to what they had thought needed changing and to my surprise I ended up liking these changes a lot, feeling that they made my showreel a lot better than it had been before. It was great that I made a showreel as even though none of the universities I had applied to required a showreel to get in, there may be other opportunities such as film schools/summer schools that require one, and now I would be able to have one on hand including the footage I recorded during my time at Sunderland College with limited resources.

I made sure that the cuts within my showreel were on beat to avoid having to overuse transitions and I feel this worked in my favour looking at the final outcome of my showreel.