Thread: Midnight Blue Showreel

Oh come on Pleeeeez. You know I am the king of random no purpose videos, Rain, Wind, Fountain Birds etc....

...and I thought it meant "pour in more of that cheap wine please!"

Originally Posted by Rembrandt Rob

...and I thought it meant "pour in more of that cheap wine please!"

That's the trouble with Midnight's mis-spelling. (And it took me a second or two to work it out and let out a massive groan)
Though it does have more than a grain of truth. Merlot would be preferable.

That's the trouble with Midnight's mis-spelling

You always have to pick on the disabled kid don't you.

Good question... ermmm. Me and the Mrs got married in the Ukraine,..we hired her sister and her DV corder. The wages we paid was a seat at the table!!!.... ( yes I know, mean isn't it?)

I've updated my showreel a little. Thoughts ?

Hi Midnight

Hope you are having a great weekend.

I appreciate I don’t know much (at all) about putting together showreels Midnight and obviously it will better when the big guns drop by for feedback but here goes.

First of all this was fun as I have watched all your videos so I recognised most if not all of your clips!!

I realise there are so many ways to add text to videos and I liked your approach but thought that is a part that could be improved. …Don’t ask me how but I feel the text could be tweaked in some way. Interesting to see what the others think who have more experience.

Loved the underwater footage as it is different (37 sec)
Loved 41 sec to 52 sec (ie) nature /landscape shots FANTASTIC MB!
The sparrow section 52 sec is very unique and stands out very well I really like that clip in my top 5 personally .

Don’t like the blood on the knife 1.40 – to me it looks too fake you may of actually used real blood (pigs etc) but I must be honest for me personally I don’t like that part.

The transition from water droplet on ice then to water drop in puddle/pond I liked very much.

My favourite editing was the blending the flame part of story with reader (liked that story by the way ) to inside the church (ie) the way the shapes complement each other……….Loved that !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought the end was perfect (ie) ending with applause and an attractive girl turning and then freezing fading.

Music = very hard to pick music (ie) can always be better.. Personally I thought it worked very well.

Don’t like the end (MBP) logo? Again just a personal thing I thought it was too colourful MBP
Looked cheap compared to your show reel which I thought looked very professional.

So how to improve ? In my humble opinion

Text
Remove knife part
Change logo

Feel free to tell me to get lost MB ha ha !!

Cheers MB (overall I loved your show reel)

Very nice showreel! And clearly a wide variety of videography.

I really like the multicoloured flare that comes across the bottom for the titles. Looks swish. I'd change the text colour to a darker colour though - possibly black - because there might not be enough contrast between the two. Perhaps adding shadow underneath could do the trick. On a picky note, I think the 'videos' in the titles could be just 'video'. That's probably just me, but I think they'd work just as well without the plural, especially as MBP Video is written at the end without an S.

I was a little confused with the logo being different at the end compared to the intro. That might just be simply down to how you label your products, in which case, ignore me. I just didn't understand the difference between Midnight Blue Productions and MBP Video? On a similar note, I know you've been through a few variations of the plane flying in front of the moon logo, and the one you use at the beginning is definitely my favourite so far.

Apart from that, it's all very nice. I like your edit of some parts of the video to the music, and the choice of shots of shots are all great. If you went back to add anything, I'd stick in the final shot from your film Street Songs, because I remember that being particularly amazing.

Thanks for your in put guys. I find a variety of view points to be helpful. It helps me analyze the the good and the bad bits. There was a lot more I would have liked to have added ie the end shot of Street Songs but I didn't think it would work with this music. I feel I've already shoe horned more than enough in as it is. May be too much ? I was playing around with the lower thirds thing in Vegas which then led me to find something to use it with. The text colour is a difficult choice because I wanted the same colour throughout but it needed to be clear for light and dark clips. I'll re-visit this. Looking a font and colour.

I understand the logos are confusing. I have come to realise the Midnight Blue Productions is a bit off putting to some people because it sounds too much like a porno company. So I am transitioning it over to MBP Video. When I first thought of the name I didn't have any real intention to get paid work, it was more of a joke.

Bob, your in put is just as valid as any ones. It was fake blood and too thick to be real but this was the best I had at the time, being thick, I liked the way it did the long drip. If I need blood in a future project I'll just open up a vain.

Thanks again guys very useful points.

I like the updated version better but I agree with BritishEye about the text: the lower third backing is pretty eye catching (concocted yourself??) but the actual text is hard to read. Personally I think it wants to be lighter - even white - I think darker will lose it totally but try both and see what works. The music was on the verge of becoming annoying and it was a relief when the pulsating disappeared for a second or two - although it felt more annoyng when it came back. Acvtually i thought you'd changed the music for the drama section (before the main bit returned) and I wonder whether it might be worth considering very different types of music to emphasise the different types of video - ie change the music with each new "label".