Making a Showreel

Since we have to make a showreel soon, I decided to do some looking around for tips to see what I can do to make it more interesting.

"How to make Demo Reels - Vlog 09" - ECAbrams
'like a delicious sandwich' - good way to envision what you are putting into it. Excellent bread = excellent sandwich - great end and start. Something unique to the piece/best stuff at each end. Should impress people with skillset.

'Make someone excited about your work' so make sure to put in contact detail in and a half or less. Fairly steady counting beat. Music that sounds like it was made for the piece or vice versa. Make sure what you are good at takes up a good chunk. Consistent quality, not consistent style; variation/versatility is good. 'Don't make it a bunch of little sandwich' have enough cuts so that the same thing isn't too close to each other i/e multiple cuts from the same film. If you don't have enough material to fill it up, make some. Boring minute, or exciting 30 seconds? Don't feel you have to show everything you did - everything you did is not your best stuff.


"6 Tips from Recruiters Who Look at YOUR Animation Demo Reel" - Animation Mentor

You have 30 seconds to make an impression. Don't waste too much time on name/introduction. Start with a simple title card including your name and contact information. Move to best shot and then follow up w/other relevant shots. End with contact info again. Do not exceed 1 or 2 mins. Recruiters would rather see 2-3 really strong performance shots than everything you’ve done in school. Tailor your demo reel to the studio you are applying for. Character driven places prefer unique ideas and non-cliché acting choices. Know your audience. Everyone has a different type of sense of humor. Stay on the safe side when choosing your shots for your demo reel – being offensive reduces your chance of getting hired. Be aware of trends - don't do what everyone else is doing. Animate something unexpected.  Also show that you can animate different types of emotional beats.

I feel like I have found some very important things to concentrate on here, which should help me make a more effective showreel. The parts I have bolded are what I think are the main points here to take into consideration, so I will try to apply these. I don't have a lot of animation to choose from since animation is not my focus, so my showreel won't be too long either way but hopefully I can find the best parts out of all of them to use.