Actor Growth

So one thing that I am currently debating about is creating a new demo reel. The question that is boggling my mind is what clips to use and how long it should be. Some of the general points I was taught before was that demo reels should be between 2 to 3 minutes long as more than likely the person won’t actually watch through the whole thing. 5 minutes was supposed to be the absolute max.

Another tip was that your demo reel isn’t suppose to be like a music video and so you shouldn’t focus in just showing snazzy shots as oppose to clips that show your acting range. That’s kind of the most confusing part in a demo reel I’d say. The reason is that I would think one of your goal is to capture the person’s attention enough to watch through the whole reel. In that sense, you have to treat it as if you are making a movie in some way I’d say as you are trying to market yourself.

A great comparison example before in terms of choosing the right clips is that I initially used clips from my film acting school work. In general, they weren’t exactly the best looking quality wise but when it came to acting I felt that it showed my range and it stood out as the parts weren’t stereotypical. Example, I have a monologue where I cry, some very over the top comedy and as a result I got responses from agencies.

Later down the road, I decided to get advice from an acting coach and she gave me various monologues/scenes to do which she filmed and I tried those for my reel. Interestingly enough, although the picture quality was better it seemed like no one was interested in me afterwards. I felt that the biggest reason for it was because of the type of roles she had me read for. Example, one of them was a computer geek and the other one was like some Asian low life. Hence, there are a dime a dozen Asian actors that are stereotyped in this way and so I simply didn’t stand out.

So now that I have more roles under belt, I am going to again try to choose the best clips that show my acting range. At the same time, I am going to try and use some clips solely to establish how I look playing various roles such as a serious stern character or a goofball. Mainly a matter of trying to squeeze this in 3 minutes or so.