Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hey everybody, this is Richard Smith
I'm going to offer a little bit of
advice on demo reels
everyone's wondering what should I put on a demo reel
The obvious answer is
really really awesome animation
you know if you've been in the industry for a while chances are your reel is kind of
grown as you worked in the industry, and you know, go through and picking your best pieces
chances are studios already know you, people already know in studios so it's a lot easier to
get a job
When you first try to break into the industry
your not sure what you are going to have in your reel because you are a student and you don't have a
wealth of work to draw on. So you are like,
"What, should I put on my demo reel?"
and you know, that's a pretty good question
so hopefully here's some answers
first thing
is uh... you're trying to break into the
industry
you are probably a student. You may be
going to school. Maybe you are self taught
uh... and really what you need
if you need some production experience so now where is a good place to get
some production experience if you don't have any
uh... and a lot of people really want to get into
feature films as the first gig as they are inspired by
movies at the big studios and making like
you want get into the film industry and i want to work on those movies
it's good to
build up your experience first and don't jump into the deep end. You'd be better
off if you kind of build up a
a nice base so
where is a good place to start
where where where
I always recommend
right here!
not watching tv but
working on tv
So, what's the reason for that?
well
tv structure generally has a much
much
higher quota
Quota, I don't even know what that word means
uh... that's the amount of animation you're gonna be required to do in a
specific week
and quota
generally means practice. So if you are working in tv
tv quotas versus film quotas are quite a bit different
because chances are if you work in a tv show you're going to be doing upwards of
about thirty seconds a week
uh... if you're working in film
might be doing three to five seconds week
so
look at that
thirty seconds of practice here versus three to five seconds of practice here
higher quota on tv means
more practice and if you are just starting out
What do you need? You need the practice!
So, look at tv as
a good place to be
not a bad place to be
I started in tv, well video games and then tv. Most people I know
started out
on tv working on shows that they don't necessarily
love
but you learn to be quick you learn tricks you've learned how to take
criticism you learn how to
be in a production. So!
great place to start
Just to remember
and other
the word more
don't forget that
so question is
how long should your demo reel be
uh... assuming that you don't have a lot of
professional or any professional work
I would say keep it to a minute
the reason being is
you know as in love with your demo real as you may be
people who are are looking at reels maybe are looking at
a dozen
Maybe two dozens
and if your reel is going to be like five minutes long
and say you want to times that by
twenty reels, you know. You are looking at two hours of your day
almost gone looking at student films
That can get a little tiring, so!
What I would recommend is that your reel is
one minute
that will force you to make sure that your
you're putting your best work forward. You are not animating a bulk of material
just trying to get it in front of someone. You are refining your work to make sure it's the
best representation of what you can do. Because that's what studio want, they want
your best work
So!
what should be on your reel
I like to say that
that would cast the net pretty wide so
you know that different styles of animation that are out there
uh... some stuff is realistic
some stuff a little more cartoony. So if you are going to do your reel,
you want to make sure that you've got the best chance to land a job
in any one of those styles of generally tv is going to be a bit more cartoony. But when you get into film
realistic animation is something that
we really can't get away with putting cartoony animation into a realistic environment
So just remember any time you watch a hollywood
hollywood blockbusters something like that, imagine the main character who is supposed to be real suddenly started moving
like a
cartoon character how much
that would jump at it you. It'd be obvious. You want your animation to be seamless.
So you have to make it look real.
uh...
but i would recommend is that you've got
acting
and you've got
physics
PHYSICS
right over here you have
cartoony
and over here you have
realistic
So if your reel is going to be one minute long
you want to divide it up into these
various sections so
Let's see some acting
but let's see some realistic acting
so
there's a definite difference between how your characters is going to act if he is
realistic versus how your character's going to act if he's cartoony
You know,
this is a bit of a representation of what you might see
two different styles if you can show you can have a character act
in a cartoony and stylized way,
that's great if you can show that a character can act in a
realistic manner
that's something else to be ticked off your list.
uh... physics
Now I need to think about a drawing for this
Well we are going to have jumping
way way higher than he can normally jump.
cartoony
realistic acting: small jump
does that make any sense? Anyways
Two different styles. Anyways, the physics that you are going to have
in a cartoony style, you are going to get away with a lot more
you are going to be able to push the envelope and be able to cheat things quite a bit so
if you think that you can show that, and I think most students would tend to lean
towards this kind of physics
because it's more fun more stylized
But like I said, this kind of action here is not going to translate
into this
if you can cover this, great
but if you can also show actions looking
like their little more realistic that they're based in the real world physics
like this guy here who's not
jumping a little bit, not as high as he can.
If you can do this and you can also do this one
There you go! Say there's a job out there that needs somebody doing some real physics
well you've got your reel covered in this
and the realistic acting back here
but say at the same time there's also a show at that particular studio where they
need someone to be a little bit more zany, a little bit more stylized.
if your reel has
all four
of these aspects
well the chances of you getting hired are much much better
keep that in mind
you are going for quality
but you are also going for a tight, concise demo reel.
one thing to take in consideration is that uh...
a lot of students might actually have
short films that they've been working on
and use this term short kind of loosely. Sometimes they get a little bit long.
So when you take into consideration when I mentioned before about keeping
your reel to one minute
so that
people can stay
in tune with it
if you've got a short film and that short film is going five minutes
well you know you will start finding the attention start waning especially if this is the
tenth five minute short film that you've come across
So when it comes to short films and a lot of people were in love with them but
one thing you're going to know is that
when we're hiring we're looking for animators
not filmmaker and I'm sorry to bust some people's bubble there
but that's the truth of it
we need people that we can dump into a production
and they can start creating the work that's
in a film that is already being made
we're not making your film
for making our film or someone else's film so
just keep that in mind that if you've got a film you want
to finish that's great but for when it comes to demo reel
to really get it, kind of keep your best work
as the focal point
if you do have a short film that you are working on
you may focus on say
a part of it
You may find that you have something that two minutes long, three minutes long
and there's a nice little chunk in there that you want to kind of
focus on so let's say
you have
three shots where characters are talking with other, take those three shots
maybe they fall into this fifteen-second rule
and polish those, make sure those are the best work that you have and then when
you're done include back in your film but you could also take these and put
them on your shorter demo reel try and get some
point
Stay concise
there you go
like I said if you can keep it to those 15 seconds
or within a minute
you're going to have a nice tight demo reel
And the last little bit of advice I will offer is
is about name slates
Alot of time you get a reel and
You see someone spend all this time making this
super elaborate
name slate
character walks out here
lifts up name
Something blows in here and it's like this little art piece in itself
this is kind of a dead giveaway for
for somebody who's maybe new to the industry
Really this is what you need
There you go
this is what i have on my reel
mostly people who have been industry for a long time this is what they do because
they can't be bothered
to do this
because they just don't care
and it really doesn't do them
any service because the real that they are looking at
so what you need
is your contact information
so i would recommend you have this at the start of your reel
keep it on there for maybe a second
two seconds
maybe throw it at the end
but this is all you need
Okay? so,
take all those things into consideration when you're doing a demo reel. You wanna make
sure you keep it
nice and short and concise
don't be afraid to work in TV
Got a short film
steal a little bit
polish it
Don't focus on the whole thing as it's all about
quality not quantity
and give yourself a nice simple name slate
And you
might find yourself
at a job in the animation industry
good luck