Showreel Video Editing Services
Your showreel is your acting business card
What is a showreel?
A showreel is a video portfolio of acting moments that show you in the best possible light. Usually 3 minutes long or less, it contains scenes from shows and films you’ve been in, clips from performances filmed by others or audition self-tape moments. It summarises you, and your acting range, in an efficient and interesting way.
A showreel allows a casting director, producer or director to assess your skill and suitability for a potential acting role. It’s often the first step in creating a shortlist of actors who will subsequently be invited to audition.
The importance of a good showreel
Being an actor in the modern world is about presenting yourself in an interesting and dynamic way in order to stand out against all of the actors vying for the same role.
In a world where so many actors compete for the same roles, you need to be able to make yourself look good on video and present yourself in the best possible light to capture the attention of casting directors.
That’s where having a killer showreel is so important.
Professional Showreel Editing
Our editor Lucas Young worked with the team who produced Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King and has been an editor since 1995. He's also an actor and writer.
He'll find the moments in your footage that best represent you as an actor.
A Selection of Our Showreels
Asa Butterfield Sizzle Reel
This short sizzle reel was put together to showcase Asa’s film history, rather than as a traditional acting showreel. At the Reel Scene, we use this to introduce new actors to Asa’s work, and we update it regularly with clips from his most recent films.
David Schaal Showreel
This is a showreel for actor David Schaal (The Inbetweeners, The Office) and includes both comedy and drama scenes. Different versions were put together for the American market – a drama-only version and comedy version.
Steve North Showreel
This is a showreel for actor Steve North (Doctor Who, Holby City). Steve is also a coach at The Reel Scene. We reworked his older showreel to create this more up-to-date one.
Manpreet Bachu Showreel
This is a showreel for actor Manpreet Bachu (Doctor Who, Humans, River City, The Royals). We expanded his older showreel to show more examples of his range and include more footage from The Royals.
Shobu Kapoor Showreel
Shobu Kapoor is most well known for her roles in Bend It Like Beckham and Citizen Khan, but she’s an experienced actress with a long career covering many diverse roles. In her showreel, we tried to show the range of her acting skills across multiple eras and genres.
Hakeem Kae-Kazim Showreel
After working alongside Brian Cox and Ian McKellen for The Royal National Theatre, Hakeem Kae-Kazim made a successful transition into British television, appearing in The Bill, Trial & Retribution and multiple episodes of popular BBC series Grange Hill.
What Makes a Good Showreel?
Often a casting director will only have the time to watch the first few moments of each reel. Your face needs to appear right at the start, and it needs to be your best scene, or the one from the most famous show you’ve worked on. If you’ve worked with a big name celebrity – that’s another scene that should go first. Impress them, and make them want to keep watching to see the other nuances of your work.
If they’re looking through 50 showreels to find an actor, they won’t appreciate that yours is 5 minutes long. They may not even bother to watch it. They probably won’t even watch the whole thing. Keep it to 3 minutes or less – 3 minutes is a long time on screen. That’s where having a good editor can be vital – they’ll know what to cut and what best represents you.
That short you starred in at film school ten years ago? You don’t look like that any more. Ditch it. The scene you did that was hilarious even though you’re an extra in the background? Ditch it. Show off your best performances that are recent and represent who you are as an actor now, and be ruthless – this is where having someone else edit your reel is so important. They won’t have an emotional attachment to your scenes, they’ll cut away the excess, the boring moments, and leave you with something vibrant and exciting.
The footage you choose must be of the highest quality. Each shot needs to be well lit. Each scene needs to be properly scaled to fit in the frame – footage shot on a phone, for example, needs to be sized to fit well with the widescreen clips that come before and after it. Blurry, dark or low-quality clips should not be included – remember, if a busy casting director chooses a moment from your reel where you’re barely visible…. you’ve lost your chance at grabbing their attention. Make sure your editor has adjusted the lighting to be consistent throughout the reel
You need to make sure the scenes you include in a showreel feature you. You may need the occasional shot of another actor for the scene to make sense, or for context, but this is YOUR showreel. A casting director may simply skip through your reel, stopping at random points – and if each time they stop they see another actor, or a prop… you’re missing the opportunity to present yourself to them. Your editor should be able to recut your scenes to focus more on you, while keeping the sense of what’s going on.
What Does a Showreel Cost?
We are offering actors a great deal on showreels:
A new showreel starting from scratch… £200.00
Updating an existing showreel… £100.00
This price includes a maximum of 3 drafts based on your feedback. The final edit will be delivered by WeTransfer as a 1920×1080 mp4 file.
Questions?
We accept payment by PayPal and bank transfer.
Our details are:
FULL REEL: £200
PayPal: https://paypal.me/reelscene/200
REEL UPDATE: £100
PayPal: https://paypal.me/reelscene/100
Bank Transfer
Name: The Reel Scene Ltd
Account Number: 58865568
Sort Code: 30-95-36
IBAN: GB25LOYD309536558865568
BIC: LOYDGB21030
Ref: (Your name)
We’ll send you up to three drafts to review by private YouTube link. Once you’re happy, we’ll send you the final file as an .mp4 video at 1080p resolution, which will work on most devices, by WeTransfer.
We’re happy to send the file in other formats or upload it for you to sites like Spotlight etc if needed.
You’ll need to supply the following:
- All of the scenes, episodes or movies you want to be included in your reel as digital files. These need to be in the highest possible quality. You’ll need to include the name, year of production, prosecution company and your character role, if you know these details
- Your professional headshot
- Your agent’s name and contact details
- Your preferred moments from each scene and the order you’d like the scenes to appear (or we will decide this)
Of course! We will post up to three drafts to YouTube privately for you to review and make tweaks (within reason) until you’re happy with the final product.
Once you’ve supplied us all of your footage, we can turn around your showreel in only a few working days!