Demo Reel or Multiple Videos for clients to see?

[Silas Barker]

Hey guys,

I ve noticed that some of you guys have 1 really powerful demo reel geared towards a specific market and others of you, like myself, have a demo plus multiple finished clips. Because I have alot of old, and alot of new videos on my website, I am thinking of cutting down and making one really good demo reel, with maybe 5 other finished videos that I ve completed for clients. Does that make sense or does having as many as possible seem better and work better for you?

The basic idea of cutting down would be to show only newer, more current film and editing work.

Sacramento Video Production, Videographer & Cinematographer Silas Barker

[Josh Bass]

When you say "demo reel", what do you mean exactly? Just a montage of clips? I think of a reel as maybe a montage followed by some full cilps (short scenes, commercials, whatever). I think this is the old model, though, when people used to mail out tapes. Since so much is web based these days, you can customize way more. Even if sending out DVDs, you could still have chapters with different genres of work.

I personally have a web page with a clip montage, about 1 minute long, all my best stuff from any genre (corporate, movie, whatever). Also have short (30 secs maybe) clips from different movies, commercials, talking head interviews, whatever. I recently divided it so I have a main home page which then has links to a interview page, a movie page, and a commercial page. Seems to make more sense to me than lumping it all together.

I think, like with resumes, you can have different things tailored to different types of clients (corporate "reel", wedding reel, movie reel, etc.) Show the prospective client what they'd want to see if they request samples of your work, or let them find what they want to see on your site if they google searched and came across you ("oh, here's his documentary work samples").

BUT, more importantly, ONLY SHOW YOUR BEST WORK. You don't want to mix your recent, very polished pro stuff with your early college projects (or anything that looks less nice than your nicest stuff) and risk somebody looking at a college project first and then saying "screw this guy" and leaving the site.

[Silas Barker]

I mean a montage of best shots in 1-2 minutes for a demo reel....

That makes sense to make different reels for different types of work, but I was thinking of focusin on a specific line of video work like corporate....

I just not sure if I should have all my old "full length" clips on my website lol

[Josh Bass]

I would keep the montage to 1 minute or less. Looking at random clips set to music gets real old real quick.

If you're planning to focus on one line of work to the exclusion of others, I would think losing the non-applicable stuff from the site is the way to go. If you're only doing corporate, why would you need to sell your skill at shooting movies, music videos, weddings, etc.?

And again, if the old clips are your best work, keep. If not, no. Even if you only had one really good piece to show, that's better than a bunch of not so good pieces. Or a mix of good and not so good. Quality over quantity is what I'm saying.

[Silas Barker]

I am thinking doing a 1 minute video that shows everything I do (commercials / film / non-wedding events).
That way people can quickly see that I have alot of experience in many areas instead of one area only.

And then I could add 3 finished recent videos from each catagory like 3 commercials, 3 films, etc

Basically the idea is to have less videos, but more high quality recent videos available to watch.
(Right now I have about 25 videos on my website, I think maybe 10 max?)

I guess the other thing too is that sometimes what I think is really good does not impress a client, but something that i did not think would help me get the job might help! So its hard to know what to keep and what to trash.

Just another thought too - what format should i use so that smart phones can watch the videos?
Youtube embedding works?

[Josh Bass]

Youtube is generally phone friendly, i think. If youre really thinking about courting phone-based traffic to your site, you might consider an alternate version of the site that detects when the viewer is coming from a smart phone, ipad, etc. i have a site like this..its much simpler than the desktop site and is oriented toward being phone viewable. I paid about $180 to have ifolios set it up and install wordpress. Go to joshbass.com from a phone and you should see it.

the way youre talking about setting up your site structure sounds just like mine. I would say theres no limit to number of videos (just keep subdividing into new categories if it seems like the site is getting too ckuttered), just as long as theyre GOOD. This to me generally means good lighting, sound, editing, acting, etc. trying to show the stuff with the more polished production value regardless of genre. Anything with shaky camerawork (unless it was an intentional stylistic choice), bad white balance, soft focus, etc. should go.

Another thing about having lots of content is that ive heard of a phenomenon where clients cant imagine something they dont see right in front of them. what i mean is, lets say you have a prospective client who wants a commercial with bikini girls on the beach. You show them all your commercial work, but you dont have a commercial like that on your site. so they dont realize the skill that went into everything else youve done should demonstrate your capability to shoot such a commercial. all they see is no bikini girls on the beach, so that guy cant shoot that commercial. so they pass on you. So i say the more examples of your work, the better, AS LONG AS LONG AS THEYRE GOOD. see above.