So, I have spent the last few days in Tempe AZ. Boy, it is way to early in the year to be having 90+ degree weather. I went down with Todd, and we had a chance to interact with many of the students and faculty that are there. We went specifically for the purpose of recruiting for the Prodigy. We are looking to hire 20 people to work as mini film crews during the summer. There where a few things that I took away from the event, especially after seeing more then 30 demo reels over the three days that we were there.
Transitions
There is one rule that I learned as soon as I left high school video editing. That is anything beyond a cross dissolve, and a hard cut, is not allowed in any professional video. If I am looking at your professional reel, one that you want to get a professional job with, NEVER have a page flip, cube flip, anything like that in your reel. They are terrible, and should never be used.
Titles
In my mind, titles are just as important as the footage itself, so, never use anything that comes bundled with your computer. I.E, never use the canned titles that come with iMovie, LiveType, and anything else of the sort.
Footage
One of the things that I found the most difficult to bear was when someone handed me a reel that was only 45 seconds long, and said that that was all the footage that they had, so they put that all in. For the love of everything holy… You are in film school! Check out a camera, and go and shoot something! Really, that should never be an excuse.
All in all, we saw a lot of things that we really liked, and are really pumped about the prospects for this summer. I just have a few things that really bother me sometimes. I think that it is just errors that I have made, and, I don’t want people to make the same errors that I did.
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