Thread: Making a demo video

Help I trying to make a demo video made up of multiple styles and clips.

What is the maximum length I can go for a demo video? This is for a troupe if that makes difference.

Some clips are better than others, is it better to put all the better parts at the beginning in case they don't watch the whole thing? Or would it then go downhill near the end?
If I put the better clips in an order that makes sense(energy, music, intensity) I may risk the viewer not even seeing them.

Any advice would help!

Thanks.

What's the demo video for? Is it for an audition? Is it for your website?

I suggest putting your best material first.

I would suggest using ONLY what you believe is your best material! And that will determine the length of the demo clip.

Even if there's only 30 seconds of good material -- lots of TV commercials are only 30 seconds, and they're rarely more than a minute.

Thanks ladies!

The video is mainly for submission to festivals etc, not really for public viewing. WE have longer clips for public viewing.

Of course we want the best material but as our company offers a huge variety of styles we also want to show diversity. How I can do this all in under 5 min? Is 6-7 minutes too long?

Originally Posted by SamanthaFortunata

Thanks ladies!

The video is mainly for submission to festivals etc, not really for public viewing. WE have longer clips for public viewing.

Of course we want the best material but as our company offers a huge variety of styles we also want to show diversity. How I can do this all in under 5 min? Is 6-7 minutes too long?

does the festival have guidelines for audition pieces they want you to follow?

i think you can fit more clips into a shorter amount of time if you put one song over all of them. of course this means you don't see how you're interpreting the music, so it's better for a commercial-style video.

you want each piece of music to last long enough for the viewer to 1-register what they're hearing, 2-find the rhythm 3-sync up with the music 4- move their attention to what they're seeing 5-soak in and understand what they're seeing. making too short a clip of music will be too distracting and they'd leave the video confused.

i think the biggest thing is to consider you target audience: what are they "shopping" for? which of your services do you want to showcase to them? where they are on the spectrum of looking for entertainment-art (ie, what balance of it they want) will probably relate to how long they'll look at each group they're considering. it might mean having several shorter clips showcasing different styles that you place where they're most likely to find that clip.
think of the flow of the energy in a set, and just shorten it. also think of the elements that tie a set together. if you use one piece of music over several sets, still try to tie the visual to the music, so that you don't loose that magic.

for ideas that you can then make your own:

Thanks Fariha. Lots of good info there.

I agree with most everything that has already been posted. Keep it short and simple.

I just spent 6 hours looking at video auditions yesterday, so I'm happy to give you some of my own perspective as an organizer; however, this is only valid for the Vegas Intensive. I won't pretend to speak for anyone else.

We had nearly 60 to look at, so it's honest and fair to say that we don't generally watch the entire video for every single submission. Our committee usually just skims them to get a "feel" for the level of performance that is being submitted, so definitely put your best foot forward right away. I highly recommend that you start with a "bang" and aim to get the attention of those watching. I think sleek professional videos with lots of edits are great for the general public and for websites, but we don't love them when they become "auditions" for our shows, mostly because the cuts are too quick for us to get a feeling for what you can do.

Once we've narrowed things down a bit, we usually watch them a bit more fully.

It's a not a perfect system. I've seen people on video that I thought were stellar that disappointed me a bit when I saw them live. I've also seen poorly done videos that eliminated folks from our show, but when we saw them live we were terribly sad we didn't know how good they were.

There are a lot of technically great dancers, so usually the deciding factor often boils down to a few things that matter to us.

1) Does the group utilize their space effectively? So many times we see submissions where the same dancers are in the same position doing the same moves together for 8 minutes. That approach doesn't thrill us. We like to see formations and movement. We have a large stage to fill and we want to see how you'll accomplish that. If we get a submission video shot in someone's bedroom, it does very little to show us how they would handle a stage.

2) Do the dancers have personality? We see a lot of great dancers who don't smile, growl, or engage the audience in any way. We want to see performers be entertaining and engaged in the performance. Sometimes we've placed groups that had less technical ability but had a tremendous amount of personality over groups that were technically precise but dry and boring to watch.

3) What styles can you offer? For our show, we are working hard to create a diverse evening for our attendees. We tend to get less folkloric submissions, so those who offer us as an option are more likely to be considered.

4) We tend to love groups. We have very tight time constraints and groups give us the chance to have more people on our stage.

...part 2

I don't know if any of this helps with the demo video question, per se. But hopefully it gives you some perspective on what goes through the head of the person on the other side.

I'd also like to be clear that there are a million other factors that go into these decisions that have nothing to do with talent, ability, or videos.

Sometimes we just have too many great dancers to choose from that are all equal in terms of talent. In this case, we try to consider other things like how far a person is traveling and whether they could re-audition for the next year. Sometimes people have already performed in our show so we give someone else a chance. Sometimes we choose the group/individual that makes our show even more diverse based on gender, age, ethnicity, etc. Sometimes we aren't able to place someone because their availability doesn't work with ours (ie, we need them Friday, they can't be there til Sunday).

Regardless of the outcome, I encourage people to resubmit if they aren't chosen. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries for us to fit you into the line up.