With every project I work on I try to make sure there is something that is reel worthy but sometimes it just doesn’t happen. Maybe the client killed that one awesome piece or perhaps the subject matter of the video just wasn’t something I was that into. No matter how much I want to show every project I work on there are a few that I tend to just sweep under the rug. I’m not ashamed of them but they perhaps just weren’t my best work or not the work I want to be doing. We all have a few of those jobs from time to time and it’s alright, they all can’t be winners. Don’t feel like you need to be showing off everything you’re working on just to show something. A bad or sub-par piece of work is going to hurt your portfolio and brand more than posting nothing.  

I’ve been working on getting together a new show reel for LooseKeys and myself over the past couple weeks. Even if I don’t think reels are as important as they once were it’s still a nice calling card; it’s the motion designers business card. Building a reel is always a bit of an obstacle, there is a lot to think about when you start piecing it together.

Matt Butler shared a few tips on his blog the other month but I wanted to share my workflow. Matt says he brings all his footage into After Effects… I’m all for using whatever tool you are most comfortable with in order to get the job done but I don’t think After Effects is the best tool for editing. If you don’t know Premiere or Final Cut then ok, but if you know either of those programs you’re going to save yourself a lot of time editing in an editing program and not in an animation program.

The first thing to do is to find a song; this is the hardest step for me. When you do find a track that you think could work, you’ll know it and it will just click. You want a song that will be good to edit to, something with a good beat and also a song that reflects a bit of your personality.

Next, gather all your clips and videos. Hopefully you’ve been saving those to a folder over the last year or so, otherwise you’re going to have to do some digging. Try to find the best & highest quality versions you can. If all you have is an h.264 then ok, but you’re going to notice the compression.

Once you have all your clips, bring them all into your editing program. This is where doing this in an editing program comes in handy…. playback. You can just watch all your clips, you don’t have to ram preview or render, all you have to do is hit play. If you don’t know which part you want to include, watch all your videos again. Heck watch them all again just to see what you’ve done over the last year or so and refresh yourself. You want to find the best parts, make sure you’re happy with what you’re choosing.

As you find your favorite parts, drop them into your timeline. Oh! And make sure your timeline settings match the size and format of most of your clips so you don’t have to keep rendering. Just drop your favorite parts in the timeline, don’t worry about getting them the exact length yet, right now just get it all into the timeline.

Now that you have all your best clips together, grab your song and trim it down to the length you’d like, whether that is one minute or two minutes. Try to keep it under two minutes. Don’t be afraid to keep it short. One minute reels are great and keep whoever is watching wanting more.

Your song is ready and you have all your favorite clips selected. It’s time to start editing.

Start with your favorite and best work up front, you want to start strong and grab their attention. Then start grabbing other clips, move them around and see what works together and see what shots work from one to another. Start to play around, since you’re in an editing program you can move clips around much quicker than After Effects; time to figure out what’s working and what isn’t. Don’t feel like you have to use all the clips you selected, it’s ok if something get’s left on the cutting room floor. If whoever is watching your reel wants more, they will dig through your site or Vimeo page.

Matt recommends coming back to your project in a few hours or even a day and think about the clips you picked. I couldn’t agree more, you often get caught up in your projects and that time away can give you a new insight into what you’re doing. You could also send a rough cut around to friends or peers and see if they have any input for you. There likely isn’t a deadline for your reel, so take the extra time and make sure you’re 100% happy with it.

The demo reel or show reel for years has been the business card, the resume and the general standard as to how dope a motion graphics artist can be. These days with online video and sites like YouTube and Vimeo making it so easy for us to see all the projects someone has worked on, is the show reel even needed?

We have instant access to a full portfolio for every one these days. And when all you see or can view is a single show reel, it might be a bit of a turn off. I know most of the time when I see an interesting project in someones reel I will go back and look through the rest of their other work and see what the full piece was like. If I can’t find or don’t see it I’m a bit disappointed and might question what that project was.

On the flip side, if I watch someones reel and don’t see anything of interest to me, I move on. I guess that’s the real point of the reel; a teaser of the work that person can do that gives you a quick idea if this is someone you want to work with.

These days I think the show reel has become less of a resume and more like a cover letter. A reel gets you interested in looking at more work from a person and watching their full projects.

“Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” I’m sure you’ve heard that before many times. Its good advice that can also be applied to your portfolio. You need to be showing off the work you want to do. It can take some time to figure out the type of work you love doing and want to be doing. But once you figure it out, you need to immerse yourself in it and work with the businesses and companies that do that type of work. And make sure the work is heavily represented in your portfolio. If your website is dedicated to wedding videos, you’re not likely to get a music video project. You have to show prospective employers or clients that you can handle their specific job. They may have seen the work you’ve done in the past but sometimes they just can’t visualize how your previous work applies to them and their needs. And doing a free animation for them just to win a job usually isn’t a great option. If you want to model mobile phones for commercials then you need to have a mobile phone commercial in your demo reel or on your website. I love working with startups and social apps are some of my favorite projects to work on. On these projects I’ve created primarily 2D characters with simple shapes. This is the type of work I continue to get and I rock out every one I have the chance to work on. Clients trust that I’ll be able to deliver a quality product for their brand because I’ve proven what I’ve done for similar businesses. If you’re not happy with the types of projects you’re currently working on, make sure you portfolio reflects the types of projects you want to work on and leave out the projects you don’t.