Sam Brody-Goldberg Cinematography Reel - ID# 354
Deerfield
Cinematography
Entry Description
Sam Brody-Goldberg Cinematography Reel Music: "Between Heaven And Earth" (Full Track), By Liborio Conti (Creative Commons Music), 2020
Copyright Info
Recent Teacher Comments
- 4/19 2:43 pm - What you have here is a fantastic reel. Great mix of both practical and creative lighting throughout the work. Really like some of the sunset stuff at the 1-minute mark. It does look like much of this is shot from one particular film oh, so my advice would be to continue to grow your portfolio with multiple efforts of work. I think the weakest part of the reel is the color grading. That's an art form all in itself, but continue to work on color theory management.
- 3/1 10:48 am - Pros - Very strong reel! Large variety of shots compositions in various lighting environments helps to demonstrate range as a shooter. The opening 3 shots cut together nicely as a scene. Good use of strong backlight (0:12, 0:26, 1:17). Lots of lowkey situational shots and the one at 0:48 is particularly strong and evocative. Nice practical lighting effect at 1:44 and great compositions at 1:48. Cons - There are a few things to focus on for improvement and growth, like minimizing visible mistakes (focus shift at 0:44 and poor camera movement execution at 1:08) and should work itself out with more time and practice. But I want to focus on two main points: 1) A good amount of the low key lighting shots are too underexposed. The shot at 0:17 has the lantern as a proactical source, but is working against you because it is overexposed as a source, but seemingly serving as the only source of light in the scene, causing your character's face to appear majorly muddy. Try lowering the lantern's level and either silhouetting your character as a result, or add a soft fill light hit give your character's face some definition. The following shot at 0:19 is very flat and appears with high grain due to underexposure. 2) Do not lose sight of the fact that this reel is very strong, but the editing is working against you. Some of these shots start out very strong (1:16) but hold too long. weakening the strength of the shot's impression. Taking only the strongest moments from each shot would raise your reel to a new level because the work is already there, just in need of more refinement.
Judge 1
Positives: • Love to see a variety of shots here- shows that you have a lot of ideas; That will take you far. Also you showcase a great variety of lighting conditions which lends to your skill as a DP; • Some very professional-looking shots here; great use of bokeh, character placement & overall framing- the stair shot is gorgeous, would love to see more of that project
Improvements: • The editing/music are the only parts of this I'd change- the pacing is a bit monotonous at times; however, quality of shots make up for it. • Ideally would like to see more projects here to really showcase the breadth of work you can tackle
Judge 2
Positives: The color technique was great throughout the piece with a wide variety of styles. There were several creative shots (such as the poker chip shots) that emphasized the strengths of the piece. There was a wide variety of settings (indoor/outdoor and daytime/night) that demonstrate a great skill set.
Improvements: Most of the shots were long and could have been trimmed for the purposes of the reel. There could have been more examples of camera movement.
Judge 3
Positives: Nice sense of an opening was dramatic and worked well with the soundtrack; the reveal of the characters were accomplished in much the same manner and the sense of drama was a nice surprise. The DP's intention was clear and concise, showing great promise with the shots in a narrative fashion.
Improvements: Sometimes the edits of the scenes were not resolved as well as the first viewing. A gray and underexposed shot leading to a rich and dramatic scene could have been corrected in the editing bay. The push in when one of the actors wins the chips is too slow and could have benefitted from an earlier start. In hindsight, the music choice was a good one and complemented the scenes nicely,.
Judge 4
Positives:
Improvements: