EDITING YOUR ACTING REEL - REPOST

I get asked about reels a lot, so I decided to update it a bit and repost.  I hope you find it useful.

I was an assistant editor when AVID (the first digital editing system) was born, and now see many video monkeys with Final Cut Pro on their lap tops claiming to be "An Editor". I love that technology gives everyone access, but you can't download talent, timing, or skill from the Apple store. Luckily, when it comes to editing your acting reel, you can take a creative lead on how it should flow and not be too dependent on the editor if you don’t want to be. Here are some basic rules to follow.

1. GET A GOOD COPY of the shows/ films/ projects you are in. Be persistent, get phone #’s on the shoot of everyone who might be able to help you later in case you run into trouble getting a copy (keep you call sheet). This sounds obvious, but the idea is to think ahead… and get EVERYTHING, even if you think it might be crap… you never know what an agent or friend might think of it later on.

2. DO SOME COLOR CORRECTION if the clip looks old or flat. Final Cut has wonderful Color Correction abilities. I fear that unless you ask the editing service you are working with, they probably don’t take the time to go in and do it. If you are editing yourself it’s pretty simple, just keep it basic. Contrast, brightness, and chroma… play around with those 3 things and you’ll find the quality of your video improve greatly.

3. KEEP YOUR ACTING REEL SHORT. Shorter is better! This means the clips as well as the reel overall. Attention spans are nil out there, and most casting directors just want a taste of what you can do… so don’t linger too long on any one clip… keep it moving!

4. ONE ACTING REEL is often better then 2 or 3. I see a lot of “Comedy Reel”, “Theatrical Reel”, “Commercial Reel”. Your best bet in my opinion is to make a “Best of” reel and roll with that… especially when posting on a casting site. Eventually you might want to categorize everything, but this is only when you have very strong work in each genre.

5. NO CLASS WORK unless it’s shot in such a way it looks like a short film. It just looks amateur… the sound is usually terrible, and people probably won’t appreciate your acting, rather they’ll say “Oh, they haven’t done any real gigs yet”. This applies to most theater work as well.

6. IF YOU ONLY HAVE 1 OR 2 THINGS, SHOULD YOU MAKE A REEL? I say YES… as long as it’s solid stuff.

7. DON’T BE REPEATITIVE. I have a friend who gets cast as a nurse a lot. She had 3 or 4 clips of her being a nurse spread out on her reel, and the problem was I felt like I was watching “the same thing only different” after a while. Just pick your best one or two pieces in a certain genre, put them back to back, and leave it at that.

8. GET FEEDBACK. Once you cut it together, bounce it off of at least 5 people who’s opinion you respect and see what the feedback is… especially when it comes to the order and length.

Finally, I would say consider learning to edit yourself, even if it’s just to do your reel. You may find you have a knack for it, and this may come in handy for the short film you plan to do, or even to tighten up scenes you are in.

I leave you now with a highlight from my commercial editing days, sorry I can’t resist... enjoy :)

- Scott

Have a question?  Feel free to ask...