A film student is creating a demo reel to showcase their skills such as camera work, lighting, editing, and storytelling. The demo reel will include different shot types like tracking shots, pivots, and reveals. It will also include a dialogue scene and a black and white short film clip. The purpose is to demonstrate the quality of work they can produce and their experience to potential sponsors and actors in order to gain their support for future film projects.

2. A Film maker Demo Reel is usually a collection of a film makers work. You could
also say it’s the film makers best of.
Scenes from different films, clips and shorts intercut.
A Demo Reel is just a collection of cool shots and small dialog or storytelling
segments.
Here are some examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XwEefm9Ccw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBgkvjrMyEA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1niRvgq6dks

3. We are making a Demo Reel. But why? The reason is to show off our skills before
the actual production starts.
A Demo Reel makes it easier to get sponsors and actors.
People see your storytelling skills and all the other skills like:
• Camera work
• Lighting
• Sound design
• Editing
• Special Effects
When the crew sees what the end product might look like they are more motivated.
This makes it easier for people to trust in your decisions.

4. So to show that we can produce high quality images and that we have a lot of
experience, even though we are just students, we will focus a lot on camera
movement and story telling.
So here is what shots we are going to do:
Tracking shots
Pivots
Converges
Steady-cam
Reveals
We also want a Michael Bay “Bad Boys” extreme spinning shot.
Here is a compilation of that shot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPtHPgZmZdA

5. To show our storytelling scene we will show a 20 seconds Dialog scene and a 20
second black and white Charlie Chaplin style clip.
In these scenes we want to show the basics of blocking a scene, which is really
important for sponsors.
So here is the Dialog for the 1st scene:
Student 2 is reading in the common room
Student 1 enters and sits opposite him
1: When are you going outside?
2: When I finish this book.
1: Since when did you start reading?
2: fuck you!
1: Calm down I m just joking…What are you reading anyway?
2: Twilight.
1: (slaps him and throws the book away)
They look at each other.)
The dialog scene also shows the quality of sound we can pull off. This scene will be
in a controlled and professionally lit environment.

6. The last thing we want to show is that we are able to pull off small special effects
like time-lapse.
So we will have someone running/jumping and we are going to slow it really
down with after effects.
Another thing which we will show in the Demo Reel is colour-grading. All the
footage will look cinematic.
Here is an example:
Before After

7. I storyboarded some shots, so I could share my ideas visually with my partners.
I didn’t use the storyboards to plan
all my shots. These were just to get
the mood across.
For the actual planning I used the
technique of writing down camera
moves, like notation is used to
write down music.
I learned this technique from a
course called the Master course by
Hollywood camera work.
Here is a Link.

9. • The first shoot will be in Roberts Park. We will be doing some of the tracking
shots and the slow motion shots. There was a problem I had to overcome, the
ground in the park is uneven and very ridged at some places, so the wheels on
my dolly won’t be able to keep the camera steady and the shot smooth.
After a bit of research I had the solution, a steady-cam.
But I don’t have £400 for a steady-cam, so I found a DIY solution on YouTube.
I just turn my tripod into a steady-cam, here is an example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW6AWmqa8ZM
This is a really good technique and gives me new possibilities of telling a story
visually.

10. • The second shoot will be in the common room after school. There we will be
shooting the Dialog scene, using the boom microphone. I also want to use
cinematic lighting. I was thinking about a contrasting look with hard
shadows.
• The Third shoot will be in the school-corridors and classrooms. With these
shots I want to show what the tone and style of our short film is going to be.
• The fourth shoot will be in the moors. We will show our storytelling skills
and our ability of using props right. It will be a black and white short film.
We will be wearing black and white clothes and makeup like eyeliner etc.