Everybod needs their own style, ...Right?

Before going into more detail about the project as a whole. I want to take some time to talk about style and how I feel that it could make or break a VFX showreel.

Looking though show reels on the internet you can quickly get an idea of the average level people are at in the world for compositing and VFX. This is a good way to see the competition and what I need to do to improve my work. But lately I have been witnessing some show reels that are a complete carbon copy of Video Copilots tutorials and some CG tutorials out there. It confuses me when people think that they can make a show reel based on a step by step lego book tutorial. I feel that the major pitfall is that some people don't think about how to use the techniques applied in the tutorial and how to make it into your own style or version of the tutorial. I'm slipping into a rant so ill make my point. I need to make sure that my show reel after this project has a unique feel to it and is enough to catch someone's eye. So for this I have started looking into how I could apply different styles to my short such as mashing Anime type of shots with Edgar Wright's unique take on an action movie 'Scott Pilgrim'.

For an example, 'Scott Pilgrim' has a special comic book feel to it which I found interesting. I'm not a huge fan of comic books but this has a fast style which I guess is what Edgar Wright is known for.

Here is an example of how Edger Wright can summarise a scene in a few seconds without wasting too much time.

This is a nice technique and I would love to add this to my short but I don't know where I could add it in. But I would also like to combine this style with a comic book style Edgar Wright created in 'Scott Pilgrim'. Look at the split screen technique that is used in this next clip at 0:05 in. I like how this shot has two focal points, again summarising the moment in half the time needed.

If you have a film that can keep an audience that like this style I feel that it could be used as a very nice device to progress the plot. But I feel that this can only be used in a specific situation. Any cinema movie could not get away with this technique.

Here is a test shot of my take on the former styles discussed. This is a shot that I didnt know if it would work so I thought I should try it out and see.

I thought this shot worked well and I think it will turn out to be a nice input to the path towards my style.

I know this is kinda contradicting what I first stated in this post but I guess my main point is that I am aware of what I need to achieve in style for my work to become interesting and different to others. I need to do a little more research into a few other areas of cinematography styles and by the time I shoot this short I should have a good collection of research to apply to my work.


Next post I have decided it will be a Vlog and you guys can put a face to my name. Hopefully I can cover some areas that will be more interesting from the production point of view.

Until then, here is my You Tube channel which has a collection of clips related to the project and some that are from old projects created. Enjoy!

You Tube Channel