Building A Better Demo Reel
Building A Better Demo Reel
We saw where Ginny Sweeney, the News Director of KBMT/KJAC in Beaumont, Texas, posted on LinkedIn an essential reminder for job candidates to include the weblink to their online demo reel right on their resume. Let us second that suggestion! We have also had the frustration of trying to find a job candidate’s reel and being unable to do so because it wasn’t clearly on a resume.
This annoyance could mean the difference between getting a call about a job and not getting one.
We’ll also suggest including the link to your demo reel and your contact information in the signature line of all your emails to prospective employers. The idea is to make getting a hiring manager to reach out to you as “frictionless” and immediate as possible. Your phone number and email make that possible.
Back to the subject of demo reels, here are some more ideas from those of us who have been watching them since they were still on videotapes, which you had to spend time loading and unloading to view each one.
Off the top, having a slate graphic at the beginning of the reel is a good idea. Ensure you include your name, phone number, and email address. Your home address is OK, but probably not really needed. A slate graphic should be on screen for no more than about five seconds. You don’t need a ton of it before you begin showcasing your work, which is the entire point of the demo reel.
Most reels still begin with a montage of quick clips. We understand why this became a standard years ago, but we also challenge its value today. If you want to have an opening montage, it should be brief and mainly there to demonstrate that you can function in different situations in the field, studio, or wherever.
Here is where viewing your reel can go off the rails. You are applying for a job as a reporter, and your reel begins with twenty minutes of you working as an anchor on a New Year’s Eve. We cannot stress enough the importance of having the reel you present to a prospective employer exclusively focus on the job you are applying for. A reporter opening should get a reporter reel, and an anchor job should get an anchor reel. It’s OK if those reels have a sample of other work later on, but after at least four examples of work, that is the primary focus of your reel. A better approach, if you have multiple skills you are trying to showcase, is to build separate reels and put links to both on your resume.
At the beginning of your work examples, if the very first thing isn’t the best piece of work you have done in the past six months, then stop and think carefully about what you are showing. Suppose fifty people have applied for a position. In that case, the person evaluating those applications and viewing the demo reels will likely determine whether you might be in the running within the first minute or so of your reel. You should strive to make the best first impression by presenting your best work as quickly as possible. And best work means your very best work. The one story you would present if you could only show one example of your work to get the job of your dreams.
If this is reporting work and it originally included a live shot, please include the live shot on your reel. But an anchor introduction may be a confusing distraction, so if it’s possible to leave that off the first story on your reel, try to do so. Anchors, please lead with your studio work rather than remote work you may have done at some event, unless that anchoring was on the scene of a major news story.
After the first story ends, there should be no more than about three seconds of black before the next story. More than those few seconds and the person viewing your reel may wonder if it has ended or just frozen in playback. The second story on the reel should be the second-best story you can present, but hopefully one that shows a different aspect of your skills. If you have a reporter reel with three stories in a row covering the capitol, city hall, or the like, we will begin to wonder if you have done any other kind of stories recently. Again, you are trying to demonstrate your range in the role you have been working in and the range you might bring to a new job.
Please avoid including work on a reel you did years ago or in a previous job. The possible exception to that might be some major award-winning work done in the not-too-distant past. Your current work is what you are going to be evaluated on, as the hope is that you have learned and grown your skills in the past year.
We’re fans of displaying your information on screen again at the end of the video. You could leave it up longer here so that someone could dial your phone number or begin typing out an email with your address. We think that about ten minutes is the ideal length of a demo. If someone wants to see more of your work, they will ask for it.
A few things to leave out of your demo:
–Stories with an obvious technical problem, such as audio, focus, or anything that distracts the viewer from your work.
–Stories without a clear beginning, middle, and end. (You’d be surprised.)
–Stories in which you do not appear on camera (Unless you are applying for a job as a photographer or editor.)
–Stories that did not air. (Always preferable to see a story as it aired with graphics included.)
–Stories that someone else did. (Students, please don’t do this from an internship.)
More thoughts on what a demo reel should contain are available from veteran news executive Anzio Williams, now a senior VP for the NBC Owned stations. His take is available on the company’s excellent “NBCU Academy” website which you can watch by clicking here.
Are you not sure if your demo is strong enough? Ask someone you trust (and not a relative) to watch it and give you honest feedback. This will also be a great opportunity to ensure that others can access and playback your video without encountering any problems with links, passwords, or whatever else can always go wrong with video playback online.
One important point: make sure your demo reel video is always available for viewing. Use a reliable platform such as Vimeo or YouTube to host your video. If you are currently working, we might recommend making it an unlisted or private video, just to keep the questions to a minimum.
And one final thought: update your reel often—at least every four months or so, even if you aren’t actively looking for a job. The same hiring manager might consider you multiple times, and they will want to see fresh work from you if they check back in a few months.
Hope these tips help you build a better reel to showcase your work. Good luck to you!
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