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In Depth: The Ultimate Guide to Building a Great Demo Reel

In Depth Demo Reel

Introduction

A demo reel, sometimes called a showreel, is a 1-2 minute video commercial designed to sell your skills to a potential client or employer. It should show your best work, your style, and your diversity in skills…. however, it’s not quite that simple to make something that will get attention and get you the work.

Demo reels, showreels, and VFX breakdown reels serve similar but different purposes. A showreel is usually a demo reel for a studio or a school and includes content from several artists. This is just semantics and I’ve seen the words used interchangeably, so if you’d rather call your work a showreel, don’t sweat it. VFX breakdowns show, in layers or stages, how effects were created and usually consist of a single film or project.

Let’s take a step back about how this topic came up. I am on the board of the GVSU Film and Video Alumni chapter and last month we held a résumé and demo reel workshop. I was on the panel talking along with several other professionals about the do’s and don’t’s of producing your demo reel. During the initial planning meeting, I talked to Suzanne Zack, who is the secretary of the Film & Video Alumni chapter and also an Affiliate Professor of Film and Video in the School of Communications at Grand Valley State University. She sent over a document that she hands out to her students about preparing a demo reel and instead of being straight forward with the technical details, it gets more into the analytical reasons behind choosing demo reel content.

I am also an admin in the After Effects Portal, a group on Facebook that is very busy and full of smart After Effects users. To prepare for the panel, I asked the group what they thought and they mainly gave technical details on length, music, getting permission, etc. Between the input from Suzanne Zack and the After Effects Portal, not to mention what I know from my own experience, this IS the ultimate guide to creating a demo reel.

Featured image credit: Yannis Papanastasopoulos @Yannispap

Demo Reels You’ll Have Over Your Career (in VFX)

Adam McCay talks about the different types of reels you’ll create over the course of your career. I came across this video yesterday and, on the whole, it really hits a lot of points that I mention in this article.

The Planning Stages

Choosing and Preparing Content

Suzanne from GVSU sent me a worksheet that she gives to her Digital Post Production class about preparing reels. Her worksheet did not get into the details of a reel (duration, music, etc.) but instead focused on the content. She told me that the purpose of the worksheet questions is what help students think about the content and the goal of the reel.

Below are the worksheet questions that she hands out to her students, along with my own comments.

Use this worksheet to guide the production of your reel. Write or think through the answers to the following questions before editing. Thinking this through will help you design a more effective reel.

1. What kind of work do you want to pursue?

I take this one as sort of a “dress for the job that you want, not the job you have”. If you’ve been shooting weddings for the past 5 years and that is mainly the content that you have for your reel, but you want to be a 3D modeler, you need to have work on your reel that shows 3D modeling, not weddings. If you have a variety of work that you’d like to pursue, whether it be, corporate, commercial, motion graphics, Director of Photography, colorist, etc., consider creating separate reels for each type of content.

2. What strengths do you have in the type of work you want to pursue?

Make sure you include work that shows off your skills and strengths. List your strengths and make sure they are represented in the work on your reel. Then, go through your work for the past year or two and find clips of the most captivating and interesting work. Include work for recognizable clients. It doesn’t hurt to show that you’ve worked with big clients. You will probably want to show a variety of styles to show your versatility, as long as it fits your audience and the focus of your reel.

3. In one sentence, describe the message you want viewers to get from your demo reel.

Of course, it’s “hire me” but what else do you want them to know about you? Does your work have lots of variety? Who is your audience? You will need to do is decide what you would like to include in your reel and also decide who your audience will be. Are you creating an editor’s reel for a director? Are you creating a character rigging reel for Pixar? Consider your audience when choosing the content of your reel.

4. List all the clips you have to include in your reel. Order the clips from strongest to weakest.

This one is self-explanatory.

5. Describe the structure you plan to use for your reel (i.e.. – scene based or collage style)

You’ll need to view other reels to get a feel for what will work best for your reel. It will depend on the type of work you’re trying to obtain and the work that you’re showing.

6. Why do you think this structure will be an effective way to communicate your message (answer to question 4) to communicate to your intended audience (answer to question 2)?

So, what else should you consider when collecting your work for your reel?

Get Permission from Clients – If you have your contract set up so that you can use any creative work on your reel, you’re probably all set. It’s nice to ask clients for permission, though. It shows that you are conscientious and it gives you an excuse to get in touch with a client who you may not have talked to lately. When I was at Postworks, we would sometimes have clients who had content that was for internal use only, even if it had high production value, and that was content that couldn’t be put on our reel. You don’t want to piss off a former client for the purpose of getting new work. Perhaps that piece that you can’t include can be modified to not give the client or content away, and then there is no question.

Include only YOUR Work – What do I mean by only YOUR work? I hear about reels that contain the results of Video Copilot and Greyscalegorilla tutorials. Michael Christophersson of scratch/post says it loud and clear, “for the love of God, take out anything that’s basically a VCP / GSG rip off.” Those are excellent learning resources, but don’t use the project files on your demo reel! I talked to a girl at a user group meeting a few years ago who was passed over for a promotion by someone who brought in a reel full of great Video Copilot stuff. She recognized it, but the guy still got hired. She said he was incapable of doing the work on his own.

I’ve also heard of people using templates in their reel and passing it off as their own work. I am not saying that you should never use templates. They have their place in the world. I’m saying that you should never put work that was generated with a template on your demo reel.

Don’t include obviously old work. If the fashion in the piece screams 1990’s and it’s not a retro piece, you will probably want to skip it. Just like clothes, motion graphics and design have styles. If your work was done 15 years ago and looks like it was, even if it is great to work, consider updating it or skipping it entirely. Also, if a lot of work on your reel is HD, except for a couple of SD projects, that’s a dead giveaway that the work is old and may make a potential client think that you haven’t been working much recently.

Viewing other reels

In number 3 on the list above I mentioned that you should watch demo reels, and there are many on Vimeo and YouTube. Watching other artists’ reels will help you to get a feel for what works and what doesn’t. “Research,” says Michael Foucault of Foucault Design, based in Brookfield, Wisconsin. “Spend time watching demo reels. If you skip it think of why. Remember what you like and what you don’t.”

Note that there are a couple of types of reels that you’ll see on YouTube and Vimeo:

Vimeo is a great place to see reels. Here are a couple of examples.

I thought it might be fun to look at a few really good demo reels and point out what’s good about them.

VFX Reel: Viacheslav Loiko​

This one has great pacing that goes with the music and the before and after shots are interesting to watch. There is a lot of variety yet the editing ties it together really nicely.

 

VFX Reel: Sickboat’s VFX 2018

In Sickboat’s reel, the sound effects and music really tie it all together. The editing is tight and the visuals keep you watching. There is a nice variety of work shown too. The length is about right.

Director’s Reel: Nathan Presley

Nathan’s reel features dramatic music that works well with the incredible footage. The pacing is spot on.

Andy Le Cocq – Animation Reel 2018

It helps to have work from Star Wars Episode VII and Jurassic World on your reel! The music choice is very interesting but really works with the content.

 

VFX Compositing Reel: Josh Parks, Digital Compositor

Another reel with work from Jurassic World. He also features work from Jungle Book, Transformers, Wonder Woman, and more. The work is stellar, and it really left me wanting more, which is what a reel should do!

Advertising Reel: MPC

MPC does major motion picture work but this reel shows only their work in commercials, so it’s clearly targetted to a single audience. They show an amazing variety of styles and content. They’re using a Rolling Stones song for their reel but they’re a big enough company that I’m guessing that they secured the rights to use the tune.

Choosing Music

Avoid copywritten music unless you have permission. Whatever song you end up using, make sure that you have the full rights for its use. You may think that no one will care, but with Content-ID flags algorithm on services like YouTube, many songs are recognized right away. Certain music is immediately flagged for copyright infringement.

How To Avoid Music Copyright Strikes on YouTube

Where to find music

There is a LOT of music out there and you will find something that is Creative Commons, quality royalty-free music, or independent musicians who would be happy to let you use their music.

You will be judged by your music choice, hence, choose wisely.  Pixar is pretty harsh about your music choice for their applicants. “Nobody cares about music/soundtrack. We turn off the sound. But sometimes we listen to it and get really annoyed if we don’t like your taste in music. Keep it basic or leave it off.”  I watched a showreel just yesterday from a very well known motion graphics school. The work was excellent. The music was an obnoxious and grating dubstep track. Show some personality in your music choice. Dubstep and bland electronica show no personality, in my opinion. With this in mind, choose something compliments your work, perhaps with a bit of quirk if it works for your content.

Editing your Reel

What is your theme? In this video, Zachary Ramelan starts off by talking about having a cohesive theme that ties your reel together.

Of course, in the first video above titled Different Reels with Adam McCay, he says not to worry about themes. In reality, it’s your call.

Music will set the pace.

“Cutting to the beat is pretty restricting and results in a very mechanical edit,” says Philip De Wandeleir aka Pixel Phil. “Just cut to the flow of the music, don’t be afraid of the off-beat cut if it feels/looks alright.”

Length

The consensus is to keep your reel about a minute long, and no longer than two minutes. Why so short? Short attention spans. People tend to stop watching after about 30 seconds. Check out this study from Wistia about the viewing duration. Expect an employer to make the decision to contact you or not within 30 seconds. You need to impress a client fast so edit out as much as you can, leaving only the best content.

Best work first

To go along with the last point, show your best work first, in case they switch it off.

Second (or third) best work last

Frank Collins says, “try to end on a high note. Like I was told with a portfolio years ago, best in front, maybe your third-best at the end.”

Anatomy of a Demo Reel - length best piece first

Don’t repeat footage

To put it another way, it’ll look like you’re trying to pad your reel.

Title cards

Put your name, email, and phone number at the beginning and end of the reel, but keep it simple. Michael Christophersson explains, “Avoid ‘showy’ intros with your name unless you can make it really classy and fast. The sad truth is you are not as important as what you can do.”

Title your work

If it works with your reel, add lower-third titles about each of the projects on the demo reel, such as the name of the project and your role. If it doesn’t work with your content, you can include this information in a shot breakdown list with your reel, either on paper if you’re mailing it, or in the description on YouTube or Vimeo.

Shot Breakdown List

Frank Collins suggests, “a shot breakdown on the back of your resume is a good idea, especially if you worked on layers/parts of the shot.” Many artists do this on Vimeo and YouTube and it’s very useful information. Include the title of the piece, what time it occurs on the reel, and the part that you played in the production.

Double and triple check for spelling errors

Mixing resolutions

Be mindful when mixing different aspect ratios and resolutions. A reel that has bars on the left and right and then a letterbox layout can distract from the work. Michael Foucault has a solution on how to work with mixed resolutions. “When I worked in the news industry as an animator and we had SD content come in for HD broadcasts, we would scale the SD footage up and blur it out, then overlay the footage in SD over the top so it all played and moved together and wasn’t overly distracting. I would try something like that.”

Boris Continuum has a plug-in called BCC Reframer that is designed to reformat and stylize “vertical cell phone” video footage into a standard 16×9 aspect for broadcast. You could try this for lower quality video.

There are several uprezzing plug-ins out there too. Boris Continuum UpRez and Red Giant Magic Bullet Instant 4K (Discontinued) are two you might want to check out. Uprezzing can also be done in your host application. Read more here.

Cut out the junk

Dorian Heller, a motion design at Microsoft, explains, “Look at your reel once you’ve cut it and take out the worst thing about it”.

Get Feedback from others in the Industry

After editing your reel, you’ll want to get feedback. There are loads of groups on Facebook and LinkedIn if you don’t know anyone personally. In fact, someone that you don’t know personally may find it easier to be more honest with you.

After getting feedback, re-cut your reel as needed.

Other Random Reel Advice

Applying to the same company twice? Frank Collins says, “Something I heard a long time ago at SIGGRAPH is if you’re applying to the same company twice, make sure your second reel is ALL new. In other words, if you apply to a company again, later on, use a new reel.”

Do a film short instead of a montage? PremiumBeat mentions this in an article with Show Reel Tips that you might want to check out.

Updating your reel?

Keeping your work fresh is important but how often do you update it? There are no hard and fast rules on how often to update your reel. Let’s be honest: putting together a reel is a lot of work! If you’re busy with paid work, you’re probably not keeping your reel up to date anyway. Some companies put out a reel every single year. My old company put out a reel every 2-3 years.

Here’s some advice from Premium Beat.

VFX Breakdowns

If you’ve done some intricate or really good visual effects, you can include a VFX breakdown to show how something was composited. I’ve seen this included in the reel as simple linear wipes between different stages of work to complex 3D elements falling into place. I’ve also seen this as a separate video file or following a demo reel and only including VFX breakdowns.

Stargate Studios – 2018 Global Reel with VFX Breakdowns

I really like how they show the different portions of visuals as they’re built and composited together. This reel is incredibly well done. The epic music is perfect too.

“PROTEUS” VFX Breakdown

This is from Floating House VFX in Greece.

 

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