Time Lapse Demo Reel 2012

Here is my new http://www.youtube.com/user/RWMMEDIA/videos. Any feedbacks?

Rudi
http://www.rwm-media.com/

Overall I like it, but I would perhaps have shortened it to about 90secs by making some of the cloud sequences shorter.

Cloud timelapses are the things (I think) most of us start off trying - I would concentrate on the other stuff more.

I like it Rudi.
Like Engineer I would shorten it. almost 3 minutes is long to keep the attention of the audience.
Music was a great choice.

Jake

One shot of clouds looks like you use it twice? Another shot looks like it has slight shake, I would cut them out and focus more on the street shots, and the cool waterfalls, and the buildings, and less on the clouds. Some of the cloud shots are cool I'm not saying they sucks or any thing negative, I just think that some of the others are much better. I would open with that too, you want to grab your audience asap, and I would go shorter like Jake said.

I like it - I'd better....it's very similar to the piece I'm working on now. Except mine is specifically time lapse/nature.....not city or other types of shots, and my other shots (not time lapse) will be represented in other shorts.

My personal take on it is that I like nature better than cities. That's why I live where I do. So I was actually not as happy seeing the city shots...that's my opinion, obviously in the minority. The shot of the busy traffic street, even though it was different moments, could have been used only once.

Some very awesome shots in there, and if someone is enjoying it, or wanting to peruse your offerings, I don't see why they would not sit still for 3 minutes. Matter of fact, mine is longer... 3:36. Of course it's based on one of my songs, a recording/arrangement I've been mucking about with for a long time. And I'm doing it as art, for enjoyment, and not "just" for promotion.

On that note, the issue of theft of music rears its ugly head. You sidestepped that by using freely-downloadable royalty-free music. I feel the need to put a watermark on my video, and perhaps some similar thing on mine.

I liked the choice of music, but not the sound quality of it. It sounded a bit, well, synthesized. Of course that's just me again....I like my music to either be real and sound real, or be electronic and sound electronic (even mixed together) ....but I don't like synthesized "real" instruments or voice.

I appreciate a lot of the subtleties and care in the edits...the way you used complimentary motion between the clips to augment the fades.

Overall, Bravo!

Dudes, don't diss the clouds. Most buyers aren't
cinematographers/videographers and the fast movement of time lapsed clouds can be mesmerizing. Some of those cloud shots are gorgeous. Like Mizamook I am particularly fond of nature :)

I said what I said not so much because of my personal feelings about cloud time lapse but because they are so common in the industry. Shorter less then three minutes is also very industry standard for demo reels. The idea behind that is if you can show 3 mins of good, it's not as good as even a min and a half of amazing. Also if your featuring a particular skill and not multiple skills less is more demo reel wise. If you had a minute of amazing editing being showcased a min of amazing camera work being showcased a minute of 3D modeling being showcased and then finally a minute of character animation then it's more acceptable to have a long reel, but still you might want to break that down into separate reels to cater to particular jobs.

A search for time lapse clouds showed me there are 26,393 results on Pond5 alone. Also I'm not saying remove all of them, just the one you show twice and the one with the camera shake. I might remove one more depending on where your at time wise after you take the other two out.

I'm keeping all you said in your posts above in mind as I edit my piece. It's better because of it, although I do have several time lapse clouds, and I cannot (or simply refuse) to shorten my song. (Look what they DONE to my song, Ma!)

I see what you are saying in Rudi's piece too, especially watching without music. All that said, I think Rudi's shots of the vast mountain valleys and the onrushing rain squall shots are epic. The opening shot with the pan that became a time lapse is creative....kinda took me by surprise, and expresses not only the vastness and ruggedness of the space, but also a creative way to solve that quandary one faces when in a situation where you have more awesome beauty to shoot than you have cameras.....which way do ya point it?

The clouds-only shots (billowing cumulus against blue sky) are the ones that need to be limited...the storm clouds are cool and the shots that offer a sense of place or specific objects are useful and unique because of those places/objects.

I think the pacing makes for a good relaxing viewing - I kinda prefer that to the way I'm working now, which is with the music, and some of my cuts and dissolves are too quick...finding that balance is really difficult, but am seemingly unable to let go of certain clips/edits.

Can't the shot with the camera shake be cut right after the main shake and extended to fill the gap? It'a dynamic shot...I like it.

Hope all these words help!

Well you could actually fix the camera shake clip possibly, there are programs that help with that kind of thing.. Not sure how well they work on time lapse.
I don't see how it would be any different but who knows.

I personally like the clouds, I think they are great, the rain, I like that stuff. I'm not going on personal preferences here, just on uniqueness, and what I think would be best foot forward industry wise. It's not like I'm a city guy I grew up in the Florida Keys...

As far as the work your doing personally don't cut your song to fit the piece if your trying to showcase your song, that's no good. If your doing some kind of personal music video thing then by all means extend it out as long as the song. What I'm saying is really just more for demo reels, not music videos.

As for the editing, just let it go! Don't fall to much in love with some thing and not cut it, fit it for the piece and junk the rest. Render 5 different final drafts so you can check and recheck all your timing, don't rush, you will do fine. No one wants to watch a four second fade. Watch some TV it will help you with your editing. Not that I have seen what your working on, I have just done some really crappy editing when I was starting out and remember it fondly.