Truth About Demo Reels
I have heard many actors saying their reel needs to be no more than 1 - 4 minutes, depending on who tells them. The truth be known that if you are Tom Hanks, your demo reel can be as long as you want it, in fact, does he really need one at this time in his career? Probably not.
So for someone who is just starting out or is wanting to hit a bigger job market the rule of thumb is HIT THEM WITH YOUR BEST STUFF no matter what the length is.
If you have hours of media then you want to go through it and find your best material and the popular project — one that may impress people watching it that you had a scene with Brad Pitt.
CLIPS TO USE
• With lines.
• That show of your acting talents.
• High Profile and dramatic work.
DO NOT USE — EVER
• Movies that you were background or an extra — talent agencies and audition people want to see how you act not how you stand.
• Name dropping that you were in a movie with Brad Pitt. If you cannot prove it, do not use it — look above for background clips.
• Never mix fake movies like acting classes with real clips — if you have started getting roles, both paid and unpaid, you want to showcase them, leave your acting class sketches where they belong, in the practice folder, not your Reel.
OTHER WORDS OF WISDOM
• If you are new and have no media, you do not need a reel.
• If you have nothing but Acting Class Sketches, think twice about doing a demo reel as those clips are not that flattering for you.
• Paying a service to create fake movies or roles for you is one way to get practice and see how you look depending on how professional that service is, but on your reel you want to have projects and movies that the people looking at your reel can actually go and look up and contact the people involved like the director or producers to verify the status of the project and your acting credentials.
So it is not truly wise to go with these services just to put something on a Reel.