[James Cee]

Wow that’s a good idea. I’ll see how well that works out. Thank you

[James Cee]

I guess the general consensus I’ve taken from the average answer is that a sizzle reel is just a demo reel with a different name and that also I needn’t worry so much about it. I’m still concerned however about the form it ought to take. As I said most of the reel’s I’ve seen including many on this site, have been 2 minutes maybe 3 at a pinch and set to a single track and only occasionally, if ever, taking any lengthy chronological sequences from their source material or dipping in to their dialogue. I’ve seen some that do, but most don’t. But at 5 minutes, do I basically have to take the uncommon approach of mixing dialogue, scenes and potentially more than one track? Or should I try to reach 5 minutes using the no dialogue, single track format and just hope I can do well enough to avoid a viewer getting fatigued by it?

I can see one comment implies that using only a single track and not mixing several is self-evidently a bad idea because it would be like forcing imagery to music that is unrelated and while I can see the logic behind this statement, it seems to be the industry standard to do exactly that and I also thought that was part of the demonstration of skill as an editor that a showreel provides. How adept he/she is at making the imagery work even though it’s all from disparate sources in a single tight unified package.

I know no one can tell me exactly how to do my reel, but basically, I’m a newbie, with only a handful of projects to my name, and all of them are advertising based; so short, and mostly without dialogue to begin with. I think I edit well and if accepted, this course could build my reel in to something much more attractive, hopefully, by the end I’d have greater chance to become an actual editor if I can combine the contacts I got working, plus the reel and the skills I pick up from the course. But this admissions process is making me nervous and I’m trying to get a picture of how seasoned editors would approach the same challenge given the same conditions as I have.