Reeling It In

As is often the nature of art, I'll probably change my mind later, but in this moment I've decided to put an end to my reel editing process. Over the past two weeks or whatever I've been working on it, I've come to a new version or structure just about every time or every day I've sat down to work on it. I've gone through at least a dozen different drafts, adding things, subtracting things, putting things back in, remembering pieces of footage I hadn't thought of at first and thinking "oh actually that's really funny" then reworking another existing piece, then taking something else out, extending one thing, shortening another, lengthening something back to it's original length, shortening something again... on and on. Well, I have a cut which is running two minutes and twenty seconds, has good momentum, some really nice segues, is generally fun to watch and ends on an up beat note. So you know what? Good. Let's go with that, and stop fussing around endlessly. It's tough with this kind of stuff, because there is no one "best version", every different piece has it's own merits as do the possible relationships between pieces in terms of order and length, etc. If I were cutting together a skit or short film, it'd be much easier, because there would be a linear story and it would be possible to find the most effective way of communicating that story as succinctly as possible. But this is just me, so what's the best way of showcasing that, again as succinctly as possible?

My understanding, and this makes sense, is that with a demo reel, the shorter the better. The perfect length I've been told is two minutes, less than three minutes tops, three or over is indulgent. Also though, this is from the perspective of professional agents and casting directors. Eventually, I would like those people to see my reel, but probably they won't be seeing at least this particular version. And part of the reason it should be two minutes is because those people are busy and they don't watch something longer and if you give them a whole five minute short or whatever it's amateurish and demonstrates you don't understand that principle. It's pretty much true of all casting and auditions, they know within 30 seconds whether or not they'll like you. And if you want someone to respect a piece of footage demoing you, give them the very best of you that you can. Take that clip that's 30 or 45 seconds and make it 15, cut off the fat and keep the absolute best stuff. That's my philosophy.

What I was starting to get at though, is the other side of the coin, because really the people who at this point I'm more likely to use this on are people closer to my level, independent creators who probably have day jobs and don't necessarily have a bajillion headshots to sort through like a higher level producer might be dealing with. So probably, if your clip is closer to three minutes, they'll watch it. And if they see seven separate clips of you acting, their more likely to be impressed by that volume of work because again they don't have a bajillion headshots.

So admittedly, I actually have two cuts, one which is nice and lean at 2:20, and another more indulgent one with a few extra bits that runs about 30 seconds longer. The shorter version will definitely go on IMDB, the longer one maybe Youtube but I'm not sure. I'd link to it, but I haven't put it online yet and I'll just put it to Facebook and you'll see it there like you saw this.