Cover Letter and Career Help

[Chris S]

Just like your cover letter the more you can target your demo reel to your future employer the better. If you are looking to do news or documentary work the more of this type on your demo the better, the same with promotions or commercial production. Sometimes this isnt possible, I know. When I got my first civilian job, I did this for the Army for a number of years and all I had was government work. Luckily this showed what I was capable of doing. But when you are able to target it, do it.

Once you get your job, keep updating your reel. This way your ready for the next opportunity. Remember the best way to get a raise is to change employers.

[Ron Lindeboom]

[c staley] “Just like your cover letter the more you can target your demo reel to your future employer the better.”

You make a good point: The one doing the hiring is looking at your work from the perspective of what it brings (or not) to their situation. This is why many people I know in this business have multiple demo reels edited for different situations. A demo reel full of longer form shots that are shown in a camera person’s demo reel is far different than the fast paced eye-candy parade on a motion graphics artist’s reel. The pacing is different and the purpose is different.

One general purpose one-size-fits-all demo reel is often very self-defeating and can work against you.

In any event, the best demo reels I have seen are almost always one minute or less. Done correctly, they leave you with a feeling of wanting to see more — too often, demo reels lumber and plod on until you feel as if sand is being poured into your eyes. When it ends — if you get that far and haven’t already hit the stop button — you are almost muttering “Good grief!” to yourself.

Build your demo reel from your client/employer’s perspective, not as a document of your history in the industry.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom

[Seth Bloombaum]

Tao of the demo reel:

A prospective employer is interested in what you have done, not what you can do.

Other points made above are excellent.

I’d encourage you to find a way to include at least one for-pay project in every demo. This is one of the things an employer wants to know, can you work professionally with teams, clients, schedules and budgets?