Jack Kalian's Lounge Discussions

Casting directors and agents will never get to your 2nd or 3rd clips. The first clip is waaaayy too long. Remember a reel is about showing your buyers how they can cast you. It's not the goal of a reel to tell the whole story of the project or even your character. So unless your character goes through some noticeable ups and downs, limit the amount you show of any project. Also, the first image on the screen FOR EACH CLIP should be your face. In the case of your first clip, you could L-cut your first line over the title card so that when we cut to the scene, you're already on camera.

Nice work Derrick. I'm an Actor myself, so take my suggestions with that in mind. 1) As several folks already pointed out, maybe shorten the reel by, say, 2 minutes. 2) Have somebody re-cut that first clip so that we (the audience) see YOU more. That may mean cutting other people's dialogue -- but still having their lines 'make sense' so that YOUR character's responses are still on point. 3) I would lose the second clip altogether -- as it doesn't show as many INTERESTING levels as you demonstrate in the first clip. 4) Keep the Commercial... It shows you in a completely different light. FUNNY. Keep pushing... E www.DElliotWoods.com

Good work Derrick, the rule of thumb of demo reels is to keep it at two minutes so try to edit it down a bit, good luck and hang in there.

My comment is just about identical to the above. Good work. Cut it down to 2 minutes of the clips that show a diversity in your character development, and it's good to go. In addition, if you are seeking to be taken as a diversified actor, consider getting clips of other projects that project a "lighter side." If being a character actor is your game, disregard that suggestion. You are doing great! I wish you the very best with your career :)

Just peeped this. Yeah, good stuff here it's more like a collection of clips and not a reel. I'd cut it up so it flows into 90 seconds, 2 mins max, and have that as your reel, and have it link back to your YouTube where the longer clips are. Don't know if you've edited this since, but this could be really, really good with a touch of editing. Good stuff man, keep it up!!

new courier... and i use word with no macros... i do all the formatting manually... it is great for editing content. you edit ten times more when you format manually.

Uh, uh. So you can translate screenplays from French of course Pierre. No doubt you can also translate screenplays from Finish, Greek, Moroccan, Russian, Burundian, Serbian, Chinese, Thai, Indian, Portugese, etc. ... Great! Nice Guy! Thanks for these billions of people who don't live in English or French speaking countries. But there is still a problem: FD interface exists only in English. What a pitty! Are Courier style fonts less legible than Times New Roman or Arial style fonts? Personnaly I don't know because I never see Courier fonts used elsewhere than on Hollywood formatted screenplays or official documents in old time thriller movies. Maybe, maybe not (weasel words). We should ask RB why Stage 32 is not displayed in Courier style font. I presume there is a good reason why screenplays are written in Courier style fonts. No doubt that a good script consultant can tell us this reason.

Firstly, apologies to Rafsan that your thread seems to have been highjacked because someone wants to argue their case. Jean-Marie, I don't translate from French and I never made that claim. My French client writes in English. If you have a problem that the interface of screenwriting software is not presented in other languages, write to them, don't complain to me, though I do feel sorry for "these billions of people who don't live in English or French speaking countries" who are yearning to write their stories in screenplay format but can't. You're now saying you have no idea if Courier is less legible than other fonts but you're the one who claimed the other fonts are more legible so make up your mind. If you think there is such an enormous market for screenwriting software in different languages then go ahead and create one. Obviously these programs are designed to cater for the majority of users and they would be English speaking. You've got a chip on your shoulder, Jean-Marie and obviously you didn't like my previous post in this thread. I don't care, take it somewhere else. Again, apologies to Rafsan and rest assured, that's all the interruption you'll get from me in this thread.

So Rafsan, we can now return to what your problem is, and as it was said before, the answer is: if you want your script to be read in an English speaking country, COURIER NEW which you should have with your Word version, COURIER you'll have if you download PDF CREATOR, size 12 point. No need of anything else. Congratulations.

Happy New Year!