Preparing My Demo Reel

step one / step two / step three



1. What Do You Want Your Reel To Look Like?

Design Demo: a.k.a. The PV Approach. We edit and design the demo to a rough draft for you, then you tweak it.
Mapped Demo: You design your demo, we edit it, then you tweak it.

One person should drive the session until a rough version has been edited. At that point, you can tweak your demo until you're happy. 50/50 collaborations from the start don't work very well and can keep you on the clock for much longer.

 

2. Choose Your Best Acting Scenes.

 Go through all your taped work and select up to 8 of your best acting scenes. These scenes should represent your range and show you at your best.

Types of tapes: We can digitize from DVD, VHS, SVHS, 8mm, HI8, BetacamSP, DVCam, MiniDV, DVCPro, and 3/4"SP.

We CANNOT use Digital8, CDRom or D2. We can get you a DigiBeta deck for $250 a day or transfer tapes to BetacamSP (call a week before for price and scheduling).

VHS note: If you're going to record your show from TV, please make sure your VHS deck is in SP mode for best quality.

 

2b. Hosting Clients Only.

Important: Please click here to view a .pdf file which goes into much more detail on how to prepare for a host reel. To download to your desktop, "right-click" (windows) or "option-click" (mac) this link or call us so we may fax you (323) 651-3600.

 

3. Look For Montage Shots.

 Good montage images are any shots where the camera is mainly on YOU and you're NOT talking. You could be laughing, crying, fighting, looking damn good, turning away from or to the camera, etc.

Not everyone should have a montage. It's a good idea to consider one if you are very sexy and/or glamorous, if your look changes drastically from project to project, or there are emotional qualities in montage shots that aren't covered in your scene choices (and, of course, if you have the footage to support a montage). Where it goes is dependent on the rest of your material.

 

4. Don't Under Estimate Small Scenes!

 Depending on where you are in your career, you may want to include any small scenes, one-liners on network TV or on film, and any student films that you've done. We may be able to tweak bad sound or video, so bring 'em!

 

5. Cue Up Your Tapes and Time the Distance Between Scenes.

This is VERY important and will save you a lot of time (and money) in the editing bay. If there is more than one scene on any tape, cue to the first scene, and calculate the time before the next scene, etc.

0:(hour)00:(minutes)00(seconds) My first scene with Vin Diesel where he says he's scared of my power.
0:21:37 My second scene where Vin and Ben Affleck try to impress me with a monologue from King Lear.
1:53:13 Montage shot of me dying from boredom.

The best way to do this is with a real-time counter which displays an actual elapsed time, (i.e. you fast-forward the tape five minutes from the start and the counter says 0:05:00) NOT one that displays 00000 to 99999. If your VCR doesn't have a time counter, you could use a stopwatch and write the times down between scenes as it plays in real time.

 

6. Wrapping Your Package With Music.
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Bring no more than 3 choices of music that describe you, your product, the image that you're trying to sell. We will probably only use one as that helps with the packaging quality.

Having trouble deciding? Come up with three adjectives to describe yourself as an actor, then find a song that embodies these words. It can be old or new, with lyrics or without. If it does have lyrics, does it describe you, your attitude? Avoid Top-10 hits, as most people will learn to hate those songs in time.

Move to STEP TWO