Mastering a demo reel - Social Sound Design

Mastering a demo reel

2010-07-29T03:17:35Z

So, I'm finally getting around to putting my demo reel together (I know, I know... Shoulda done that a long time ago), and I was wondering something...

Is it okay to have someone that's not me do the final master? If so, should I mention that? Or should I just do the best I can, since it's MY reel to start with?

Answer by Colin Hart for Mastering a demo reel

2010-07-29T03:36:03Z

Depends on what your demo reel is for. What do you do? Sound Design? Re-recording? Production? SFX Rec?

Answer by Selcuk Can Guven for Mastering a demo reel

2010-07-31T20:04:05Z

Dave,

If you are emphasizing your mastering skills in your demo reel, of course you should do the mastering.

Otherwise, I think it is OK to have someone do it. Actually it is sometimes better to have a pair of fresh ears on it.

Besides everything, your inteded audience (people who's gonna hire you I assume) will not care about the mastering if your sound design skills are good enough.

Answer by Steve Urban for Mastering a demo reel

2010-08-01T00:51:54Z

Music and Sound Design is typically part of a larger whole, which you may or may not be a part of, so I can see having it mastered by someone else. But, if you trust another person's skills to market your own, make the distinction that you only composed the music or you only created the sound design. Don't misrepresent yourself to clients. It's bad form, and it will bite you in the ass.

A little anecdote: Not too long ago, a company I was working for was hiring for a position. We actually had two separate individual's reels show up that were exactly the same. They both worked at the same company and rather than compile their own demo reel, they obviously sent in the company's. I have no problem with that, it's work that you did and it's pretty common for multiple people to work on the same project, especially at the same company. But when presented with two reels, from two separate individuals, that are exactly the same, how am I supposed to know who did what? As a result, they both went to the bottom of the list.

Now that everything's on the web (and delivering a DVD seems arcane) I'm a big fan of lower thirds, accompanying text, replaying a sequence with your material solo'ed, personally introducing the clip and talking about it, anything really that distinguishes the work you did from the work some one else has done.