The Importance of a Demo Reel

Video Transcript

"Hi, it's Craig Scime from Clear Star Media dot com and we're speaking on behalf of Expert Village. Today we're talking about demo reels and the purpose of a demo reel is to really showcase your ability. Whether it be in sports, music, dance or acting. Now, the purpose of this demo reel is to give to people who are in the profession who really need to see what you are capable of. For example, a lot of the demo reels that I edit and cut for people, which is another term for editing, is primarily acting. And so with an acting demo reel what we want to do is make the reel anywhere between two to five minutes. We want to showcase the actor's ability. We want to put the best clips first. Many times demo reels are really flashy and exciting and that's all good but what's most important is the meat. The most important part...what the meat is...is your acting ability. Or if you're a dancer, your dancing ability. And you want to put the best clip first. Because some of these Hollywood agents or casting directors or managers may not have a lot of time on their hands and certainly they may not have a lot of time to "waste" a demo reel that may not be very good. So what you want to do is "wow" them. You want to in the first minute, thirty seconds, put that demo reel in front of them and they say "Wow. This is somebody we really, really need to see." And then they will of course, bring you in, hopefully, for the audition, for the interview or what ever it is. Now, also the other purpose for demo reels, as I've said, is to get an agent, manager or of course for acting, for casting directors. The other thing you want to be able to do is to promote yourself. Put yourself up on a website called Actor's Access. LA Casting. SAG offers iActor or even YouTube. Or even your own website. You Tube is a great way...and I will show you that in another segment on Expert Village...how to get your stuff up on YouTube so other people can see. Because as an actor, the best thing you can do is get out there, get known and market yourself and a demo reel... a demo reel, easy for me to say... is one of the best ways to do it."