Strategy for making a banging showreel...
To reel or not to showreel…?
Wanna land that awesome job crafting beautiful visuals & have that sense of fulfillment at the end of a project or working day?
It all starts with your reel!!!
The 'Reel’ why is it important? It's important because it's your calling card (a visual calling card). Whether you're a fresh designer straight out of grad school, or you're a veteran with years of experience under your belt. You'll need a reel. A reel that showcases your talents and skill-sets.
Lots of organizations who are looking to recruit a team for their next project are reviewing through 100s or thousands of reels. Bear in mind these individuals have the power of YAY or NAY have limited time in their day. So, it's frikkin important to capture their attention for being on the shortlist of candidates.
To make things simple and concise - I will list down the major ingredients of what a strong showreel should consist of:
A showreel should be 45-90 secs in length. LESS IS MORE!!!
Start with your best work first:
This should be common sense, put your best foot forward and then dance per se. You want to grab the attention of the hirer in the first 10 secs. Simple!
No story-telling in your reel…more so, demonstrating your artist ability in a service market.
Gotta have the right soundtrack. Answer to this is a big fat 'NO’ you don't! You just want something that sounds nice to go with your visuals. However, remind yourself are you being hired as a song-selector (DJ) or a visual content creator?
Your responsibility is to make your reel super tight, leave nothing to cut and screwed.
Get feedback & critique on your reel! Find a mentor or something!
Don't be afraid to showcase your stuff, even if you feel it isn't good enough. Remember this saying "One man's trash is another man's treasure”. You just never know until you know…
Here are some good examples of reels as a starting point.
Alex Burton - Freelance Motion Designer
Nol Honig - Freelance Motion Designer
Greg Stewart - Animator/Designer at Ordinary Folk
Yaniv Fridman - Motion Designer
Jess Herrera - Motion/Animator
Lana Simanenkova - Animator/Character
Allen Laseter - Animator/Character
Greg Henderson - Freelancer Motion Designer
Nidia Dias - Art Director
Julie Craft - 3D Design/Animator
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