A showreel, or demo reel, is like a video resume you send to producers to showcase your skills and creativity.
It’s your way of promoting yourself and showing your experience in a very short amount of time, so it needs to make an impact.
If you’re wondering how to make a showreel that really stands out, here are our top tips (with examples) for creating one that will blow them away!
Keep It Short
A common mistake is trying to include all of your work and accidentally pushing the duration past five minutes. Producers will have watched plenty of reels before yours, so aim to keep it under three minutes.
This helps keep them engaged and leaves them wanting more instead of tuning out early.
Lead with Your Best Work
The person watching your reel has limited time, so the first 30 seconds should feature your strongest work—your best visuals and shots. They may not watch to the end, so grab their attention right away.
If you’ve worked on big productions or recognizable names, use that to your advantage. Big brands, major films, or network TV shows can make a strong impression in your reel.
This is your time to show off, don’t hold on to clips that don’t reflect your best work, even if you’re attached to them.
Customize Your Showreel
Whether it’s a big production or a small indie film, find out what the recipient is looking for in terms of content.
Once you know that, you can select the best footage and customize your showreel for the job. For example, if you’re applying for a commercial, documentary, or feature film project, tailor your clips to match. It might even help to create a few different versions of your reel for various types of work.
Also, think about the kind of projects you want in the future and build your demo reel with clips that attract that type of work.
Avoid Random Montages
Your showreel should be a curated collection of projects, not just a random mash-up of clips. Flooding the viewer with a barrage of short shots makes it hard for them to get a sense of your individual strengths.
Show your creativity with a sense of structure and storytelling. A clear flow gives your reel drama and cohesion. Throwing everything together without order can come across as unpolished and disorganized.
Clarify Your Role
Film is a collaborative medium, and most showreels feature work created by teams. Make it clear what your specific contribution was to each project. Don’t claim credit for work that isn’t yours.
The easiest way to do this is by adding short text descriptions over each clip to identify your role and highlight what you did on that production.
Highlight Your Skills
Your demo reel is also a chance to highlight your technical ability. This is especially effective for animators and VFX artists who can show a “before and after” or split-screen comparison of their work.
This kind of breakdown helps viewers appreciate how much work goes into each shot—details they might otherwise miss.
Add Your Name and Contact Info
This might sound obvious, but make sure your name and contact information appear on a quick slate at both the beginning and end of your reel. With all the creative details to think about, this step is often overlooked.
Keep it simple: include your name, email, and website. Your reel won’t do much good if people don’t know how to reach you!
Review and Update Your Reel
Once your showreel is assembled, watch it several times and look for areas that could be improved, enhanced, or trimmed.
Film is subjective, so get feedback from friends or colleagues. Ask whether it grabs their attention and feels professional. Use their input to polish your reel—no one will take it seriously if it has awkward cuts or sloppy transitions.
Finally, keep your reel up to date and replace older clips with your latest, most impressive work.
