6 Tips for Editing Your Show Reel

Here's my reel: https://vimeo.com/383398961

It’s always fun taking a little bit of time and looking back over every video that you shot the year before and see what worked and what didn’t. I’d say that out of the 123 videos that I shot, I’m honestly proud of maybe 30+ of them (1 out of 4). Some projects were rushed, had low budgets, or just boring stuff like interviews and corporate stuff (gotta pay them bills nah what I’m sayin’). I was hoping to walk out of this year with ten solid projects that would look great on my reel and I ended up walking out with more! And I’m super proud of my reel, it keeps getting better and better every year. Are you a director, DP, or editor?

Have you edited your reel yet? Here are some tips that I can offer as you work on this year's reel:

Show your best work. Duh Mika! Your reel is short snippet of all your portfolio, so only include the best of the best.

Music Matters. pick a song that cuts with the type of work you do. If you shoot a ton of short films, pick something cinematic that matches the feel of your work. If you shoot music videos, what genre of music do you end up shooting most? For great places to find music, go to Musicbed or Soundstripe.

Cut To Music. Listen to the beat and emotion of the song. You want to leave your viewers feeling an emotion by the end of your video.

Start and End the video with your best shots. You wanna captivate your audience in the first few seconds and last few.

Keep it under 2 minutes. People start losing interest after a certain amount of shots. Anything over gets a little redundant.

Have a balance of wide, medium, and close ups. Have a good mix between all! If you have a chance, check out my reel!

What are your thoughts? Do you agree with my tips? Anything else you’d add?