what do you want to see in a reel?

[Ido]

hey guys,
its time i got a little reel going. dont have any commertial work to show.
so i figured i should just make a few vfx shots of my own.
i would like to foucs mainly on vfx work, comps cg and etc. (allthough im an editor by trade)
what techniques do you think i should foucs on, or more to the point regardless of techniqe, what are studios looking to see in reel?
i think im good on equipment and software.
got a dual xeon 3.0ghz with 4 gigs of ram and quadro fx 3000, maya, modo & zbrush for cg work. combustion, AE, and DF for comps. will be editing on a avid media composer.
im thinking about shoting live action on HD using a cannon XL H1 and capturing using SDI to have a full 1920X1080 raster for my footage.

i figured i would want to end up with 2 minutes of a few diffrent shots or there abouts? correct me if im wrong as far as the optimum length for a vfx reel.

so any ideas or suggestions on what i should foucs on, that would be great.
just starting my pre production work. any help would be welcomed

thanks in advance

[tomas madrid]

I can tell you what I don’t want to see….

I get so many reels that just show a scene, without any exposition. All I can think is “So you built and textured a model of the Titanic, designed fluid simulations, hired some actors, built a green screen set, comped it together and spent $200 million to advertise it.”

“No, I digitally erased a napkin left on set.”

Don’t depend on an index sheet either, because by the time a reel has been tossed around a few desks, all the accompanying material has scattered, I suggest communicating everything on the reel itself, leave nothing to chance while at the same time demonstrate your documentarian ability.

[Author]

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