Get Out There! – Updating Your 2019 Showreel

I am at the begining of my career, no flashy collaboration, and most of time terrible footage I had to rescue. So not many eye catching options. So:
1) What is your opinion about before/after showreel style?
2) I got some footage I shot myself, mostly sceneries, so not real jobs. Opinions?
3) Maybe take something I shot and show different grades options?

Check out a series I did a few years ago on this topic:
https://mixinglight.com/color-tutorial/how-to-build-a-color-correction-demo-reel/

And then be sure to click through to Part 2 where I talk about how to build a Before / After reel.

Great reel! Lots of good tips there – do you have any advice about choosing music? I once put some music on a reel and had YouTube refuse it because it recognised the copyright, is this a problem often?

I missed it, thanks for pointing it out.

This is my current reel, already seeing a few ways to improve it from your article!
I am onto it.

Dope reel, Dan! Mad props. Thank’s for your great tips too. I just finished mine today too (but need to wait for a job to release to post it).

Wow, Dan! Your reel just gets insanely better every year. Great tips. What are your thoughts about length?

I too am spending some time this month cutting a new reel, so this post was especially timely for me. Definitely changed my approach. This is a great reminder that your reel is about selling yourself, not just showing the stuff you love. Just like a commercial spot, every shot needs to have a purpose.

Dan, what are your thoughts about doing trim passes, adjustments and re-grades to the shots in your reel? Maybe you want to touch up some older work with newer techniques, or you had disagreements with clients on the look, etc? Do you stick with the material as you delivered it to the client, or do you feel ok making it look the way you want for your reel?

What if someone is just starting out and has no footage or limited footage for a reel? There are places to get samples of ungraded footage, but they all come with limitations. Blackmagic, ARRI, RED and other stock websites have sample footage but are limited in their use. To get even a 1min show reel created, you would need a substantial amount of scenes.

This is a bit of a hanging curve ball for us on Mixing Light… Check out these two shorts that we sell: https://mixinglight.com/color-projects/

The plain English terms and conditions for using that footage is here: https://mixinglight.com/color-grading-tutorials/terms-of-use-training-footage/

Terms allow using the footage to build your demo reel.

I’ve pinged Dan to get check in on the comments for this Insight… in the meantime, my thought on the question at hand: I am against changing client approved footage.

If it’s paid work you’re demoing then it’s not yours to change to fit your needs – you’re working for hire and you don’t own the footage, unless you have a written agreement from the client allowing you to modify it for demonstration purposes (I’ll do this with no/lo pay jobs, but it’s an agreement reached *before* we start grading and it’s written into my bid).

I’ve also negotiated rates down with a client to allow its usage by Contributors here on Mixing Light. But again, the client signs a specific agreement allowing for that usage… and then their discount is applied to the job.

I 100% do a trim pass on my grades for the reel. I do keep the creative intent with in reason of the original grade, so if the original was B&W I would keep it B&W but happily revise it until I was happy that it worked well.

The other thing I do is I actually match the shots in my reel. If one shot looks extra milky as the shot previous had dropped black levels I’d to a small tweak to help it flow better.

Thanks sir! My main advice for people is keep it short and intense. A 3 min reel with all the good shots you’ve graded ever will not be as good as a 1 min reel that only has the very very best of your work in there. I think this is possibly my longest reel ever as it’s a bit of a “best of reel” from all the different companies I worked at + my freelance grades.

I know that feeling well! I did one job that I had to wait 3 years to post, it’s still not actually in my reel as it finally came out 2 weeks ago.

Music is tricky. I’ve only ever posted my reel on Vimeo and I actually chop up the music to make it fit the length of reel that I’m trying to make. Not sure if that helps avoid any take down notices but I’ve been lucky (touch wood) so far.

Wow, that’s insane! Never heard of such a long time period. Fortunately I’m already able to share mine. Would love to get your opinion about it if you find some time. 🙂 https://vimeo.com/312918905