Demo Reel

The_Sired_Ward

Hi all!

I have uploaded a demo video on my YouTube channel where I demonstrate taking a simple melody and placing it through different variations to fit different themes. I believe this is a valueble ability that is often applied to both film and game. Feel free to share your thoughts and/or criticism!

FanieG

This is a cool experiment. felt you left the best for last. forrest was best. farm was weak. Hope some of the more experienced sound guys and studios give feedback on this.

The_Sired_Ward

FanieG said:

This is a cool experiment. felt you left the best for last. forrest was best. farm was weak. Hope some of the more experienced sound guys and studios give feedback on this.

Thank you for the feedback! The order of the clips is actually in the order that I made them - I started with 'the farm' and made my way towards 'the forrest' - so, taking your feedback into account, I improved during the making of this reel haha. However, that being said, midway through composing, I accumulated more sound libraries and for 'the forest' I tried a new technique of composing which I found really helped.

PS89

I only have one critique:

The bridge of your hand is not strong, and as such you fall on your thumb (and flatly at that!) There is tension between the thumb and second finger which is indicative of either poor technique or weak muscles. Practise makes perfect!

The_Sired_Ward

PS89 said:

I only have one critique:

The bridge of your hand is not strong, and as such you fall on your thumb (and flatly at that!) There is tension between the thumb and second finger which is indicative of either poor technique or weak muscles. Practise makes perfect!

Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment! I admit, I am a pretty lousy / average pianist haha that is why there is only a few seconds of me actually playing to show the keys of the melody and definitely not to show my level of playing piano :)

PS89

The_Sired_Ward said:

I admit, I am a pretty lousy / average pianist)

Time for Hanon/Pishna/Czerny!

Sash

I am not a musician per say - but work in audio. When it comes to audio demo reels, its usually best to go with short and concise - Put your best work upfront and get your point across in the first minute at least. This is a bit slowly paced.

I agree that taking a melody and showing how versatile you can be with it is a good a idea. Just find a way to get that story across in a much more compact package :)

Great work though, I also agree that you left the best work for the end - bring that stuff forward! Put your best foot first! Not many people are going to watch the whole video, make sure all that do, hear you at your best!

Andrew_Sound_Foundry

I second Sash's comment about length - there was a talk at GDC about music showreels and the main point was that they should never be longer than 2 minutes. It's also much more helpful to have any relevant text appear during the video it refers to - it's asking your audience to retain too much info giving them explanations between videos rather than during (plus this saves time). Hope this helps! :)

The_Sired_Ward

Thank you so much for the feedback! Looking back at it now since I uploaded it I do agree it is quite a slow drag of sorts, and that demo's (and even trailers) should never give even the slight notion of "let us see how long you can watch
The feedback gives me hope again! Thank you, guys!

Sigh_Leeeee

One thing i want to emphasise is that I think the way you present the demo reel with a clear technique and this threading an idea between compositions is very Interesting. I think the reason behind that is because it turns people's thoughts from "Is this good?" to "Can he do what he claims?". Might just be how i experienced it, but this sticks out to me in comparison to the other demo rolls I've seen (not that many mind you) and kept me engaged other than the explanation text.

As people said earlier length and when you choose to explain things seems problematic, the action on screen to accompany the video is good for context building. but overall I like the video quite a bit. Well Done!

The_Sired_Ward

Thank you so much @Sigh_Leeeee! I appreciate the feedback. I am happy to know you experienced it the way you did, and I agree there are a few things I could have done to polish it down a bit.