WHAT MAKES A GREAT REEL?
3/6/2021

 
 
 
What Makes a Great Reel?
Julie Dove, Guest Columnist
 
When I first moved to Los Angeles in 2001, a friend of mine was a casting director and I asked for her opinion on my headshots. She said, "They’re good, but don’t get wrapped up in chasing a perfect headshot because it doesn’t exist." I think that’s good advice for a reel as well.
 
If you have representation, I think the most important thing in a reel is for an actor to give their reps the footage the way they want to use it. If the rep likes clips give them clips. If the reps like a comedy and a drama reel give them those two reels. If the manager wants it one way and the agent another, see if they can get on the same page or post both versions. I have had actors that wanted their reel to be slightly different from their reps and I said, "Great let’s export your version for your social media, IMDB, and then everyone gets what they want."
 
If an actor doesn’t have a rep then that’s when the input from an editor can help. I often deliver and edit for unrepresented actors and say once you’ve signed with a rep let’s make changes if your rep wants something else.

What makes a reel good is the footage. What order and what footage to use depends on who you ask. There are so many different opinions on this. I've heard several casting directors share about what they like in a reel, but my experience is every casting director doesn’t like exactly the same things.

Some quick technical thoughts...
If an actor can’t have a conversation with an editor about sequence settings, frame rates, and codecs then I don’t advise they edit their own reel. Regarding footage, actors come to me with footage they have pulled themselves that ranges in size and frame rate and there’s no consistency. It’s usually zoomed up, skipping frames, or the sound is bad.

I get that it can be expensive to pay for footage. There are so many great editors with a range of prices. I implore all actors to please invest in finding a professional to pull and edit the footage. If an actor absolutely wants to be their own editor, I encourage online classes and professional editing software like DaVinci Resolve or Adobe Premiere. iMovie is not a good program for reel editing.
 
Below are the topics I am most often asked about with my answers and the answers from our panel of industry professionals.
 
1. What type of reel do you prefer actors post?
 
Top Secret Primetime Casting Director, C.S.A.
I think a strong comedy reel and drama reel are good to have, if possible. Sometimes, we may show our Producers a reel and we'd prefer to show them the comedy reel (obviously, since we primarily cast comedic shows) so it's best to give them something that they can see quickly and efficiently. Show clips are good too.

 
Jamie Castro, C.S.A.
I like one reel or a drama and comedy reel. I only like individual show clips for actors who have an enormous body of work (i.e. multiple Series Regular and Guest Star credits). If there is not a ton of work to sort through, keeping it all together is better.

Eileen O’Farrell, Eileen O’Farrell Personal Management
It depends on the credits the actor has. If they have strong scenes for both genres, then two separate reels, comedy and drama. If they have mostly comedy and a little drama, I might suggest they still try to do both by adding some less comedic scenes pulled from the comedy reel to help create or add to their drama reel.
 
I'm not a fan of clips unless their vocal (singing) or languages or a special skill like Martial Arts.

Julie Dove, ActorEditing.com
This is where I defer to what the reps want to use. It takes more work for a rep to go in and select individual clips per actor when doing a submission. If they aren’t going to use clips, then I say don’t pay to post them on Actors Access, but if the actor loves individual clips then put them on IMDBPro for free.

If actors don’t have a rep I say separate the comedy from the drama in two reels even if that means the comedy reel is just one clip. I think it’s important to easily see that the actor has footage in both genres.
 
2. Should actors use taped auditions in a reel or in place of a reel?
 
Top Secret Primetime Casting Director, C.S.A.
I don't prefer to see another taped audition in lieu of a reel. The actor must have something that they can show...unless they are truly starting out and have never shot anything on film. Short clips are fine...anything that is recent and can present them in a good light.

 
Jamie Castro, C.S.A.
If the actor has no footage, I can understand why they would put a self-tape up but I don't think it's necessary nor do I really watch them.

Eileen O’Farrell, Eileen O’Farrell Personal Management
I sent a good audition tape to a casting director for an actor today. So it's one of those things where you do/use what you have.

Julie Dove, ActorEditing.com
I strongly discourage this even if you have no other footage.

 
 3. What is a good length for a reel?
 
Top Secret Primetime Casting Director, C.S.A.
It doesn’t matter if the material is good.

Jamie Castro, C.S.A.
It doesn't matter much if we are able to click ahead, but keep it around 5 minutes or less.

Eileen O’Farrell, Eileen O’Farrell Personal Management
I have one actor who works often, he has a 2.5 minute reel and what we call a long reel. Depending on the actor's credits, I like a short reel for casting and a long reel for directors and producers. We send a long reel for Offer Only actors. But for everyday submissions, up to 2 minutes is good.

Julie Dove, ActorEditing.com
I think less than five minutes is good. Actors Access is the most important place to post your reel and it’s $22 a minute. LA Casting/Casting Networks has a maximum length of four minutes so I often tell actors to keep that in mind. I think it’s also good to have a longer reel for producers if you have a large body of work.

 
 4. Should you have a montage of scenes to music in a reel?
 
Top Secret Primetime Casting Director, C.S.A.
Not advised, sometimes we will see that in the first 10 seconds of the reel...like a pop of clips to music...then it will fade to black and then the reel will start with dialogue, etc.

Jamie Castro, C.S.A.
Unnecessary.

Eileen O’Farrell, Eileen O’Farrell Personal Management
Not advised.

Julie Dove, ActorEditing.com
I don't think so, it reminds me of an 80s movie.
 
5. What’s one thing you want to share with actors when it comes to your thoughts on acting reels:

Top Secret Primetime Casting Director, C.S.A.
Always have something updated to show. Even if it's for a student film, web series, something you have shot in your friend's backyard...whatever we can see you doing is great. Selecting an actor to audition for a role by just a headshot is something I don't prefer doing...I will always view their reels/clips whenever possible so that we don't waste anyone's time in the audition process.

Jamie Castro, C.S.A.
Make sure to add the title of the project at the start of each clip. Even if it's a short film we have never heard of, we might be interested in seeing more so it's good to know what we are watching instead of leaving us to guess from your resume.

Eileen O’Farrell, Eileen O’Farrell Personal Management
I want to use my final time to talk about self-taping. There's no reason for working actors not to produce professional taped auditions. If the actor needs to order a taping kit/rig from Amazon. It's an investment of between $100 to $200 bucks for a good setup, including mic, tripod, lights & backdrop. Either get great at that or be ready for pay for a taping session. This isn't going away anytime soon.

Julie Dove, ActorEditing.com
I have several final thoughts that I hope will help my fellow actors:


A reel needs to focus on the actor and not how others are reacting to your acting, which means it’s important that each scene starts and ends with the actor if at all possible.

If an actor doesn’t have any footage, paying to film even one scene with a professional reel creation service is a really good actor investment. When I worked as a talent rep at least five of my actors booked their first jobs with reels from CreateYourReel.com

Student films are not a great way to get footage as the wait time is usually many, many months and often sent without sound and color correction. Clips with bad sound are not ever worth putting in a reel or posting.

Keep your reel current. If an actor hasn’t booked anything new then consider a new edit of the old reel to give it a fresh feel.

I have had clients pay for expensive consultants to give them reel feedback. Once a consultant said I needed to make the reel have more of a Netflix feel to it, but the footage was all from network TV and webisodes. I have had many clients with all co-star credits be upset the reel doesn’t seem like they’ve done a guest star. I don’t know any editor that can make someone’s footage something that it’s not. I also don’t think actors need to worry about these things.
 
There is no one answer or set of instructions that will lead to acting success. If there was then I would definitely give them to everyone I know for free.


I hope you’ve found something helpful here. Please take what you like and leave the rest.

Actors wanting to try my services can receive a special $25 rate for Airchecks through this private link ActorEditing.com/offer

All other rates and info can be found at ActorEditing.com One great thing about my company is our reel editing rates include our company gathering your footage at no additional charge. We can pull it from scratch or replace your old footage with higher quality.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions juliedove@juliedove.com
 
Special thanks to our Top Secret C.S.A. Casting Director, Manager Eileen O’Farrell, and Jamie Castro, C.S.A. Actors can reach Jamie for coaching or class info through her website castrocasting.com
 
About The Author
Julie Dove is the owner of ActorEditing.com and a working actor known for her work on shows like Angie Tribeca, Tyler Perry’s Young Dylan, Insatiable, The Office, and Jimmy Kimmel Live. Julie has also worked at Maier Management, 6-8-10 Management, and The Ward Agency.

 
 

 
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