1. Packaging
Not perhaps the first thing you would think of, but it is the first thing someone sees. You would be amazed how many people do not have good presenation and most importantly their name and contact details clearly shown on the front, and side spline of a show reel. It is commercial suicide to not have your name and contact details permanently attached on both the cover and on the tape or DVD. Over the years we have actually been sent reels were we could not find the phone number of the compositor to ring them. In several cases they only included their details on the covering letter, in one case their phone number and email was only on a post-it note attached to the VHS - and I swear one guy only had it at the end of the actual tape after 10 seconds of black. Not only are your name and contact details vital but so is presentation, for two key reasons. First, the reviewer will use the packaging as a quality clue to the sort of work you do. The very style of the design will frame the viewing of the material - rightly or wrongly. If you're after a design position, presentation is naturally vital, but even if your not, a hand written label speaks volumes about your attention to detail and your attitude to your own work, "if he/she can't even be bothered with their OWN work - how will they deal with my project ?". The second reason is the desktop clutter of the person your sending the tape to. Anyone who professionally looks at show reels - looks at LOTS of show reels. You need your reel to leave an impression but also to be able to be found again should a job or project come up, "where was that reel of that new compositor... it had a sort of funky lime green label and a big,... ahh there it is". Hard as it is to accept, - whoever you're sending your reel to has a lot of other things on their mind - other than remembering all your details and where they left your reel. Make the packaging professional and distinctive. Do not use the labels of the tape house who ran you off 15 VHS, - the reel will blend in with 100 other animatics, offlines and client review tapes in their office and you'll never hear from them again.
What position do you really want, if you can't answer that then no one will hire you as anything but a runner. I once got a reel from a guy who "specialized in 2D, 3D, design, animation, special effects and compositing", - and worse, his cover letter said his skills covered, "Flame, Maya, Softimage, After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Henry, AVID and HTML web authoring". This might impress your friends but post houses don't hire generalists, they hire specialists, of course it helps if that specialist has a wide knowledge. So make it clear what position you want. If you want to be an animator call yourself one, if you want to be a compositor - say so right up front, do not claim to be a colourist, who composites their own character animation from their own motion capture data, for characters they design using charcoal and sometimes clay. It may well be that you are a modern genius but you need to approach people as an expert in one area, or at the very least someone passionate about learning a particular craft, and never - ever - write you want to direct. The scene you need to imagine is a bunch of people sitting around an office and someone saying, we really need an X, and someone else saying - "hey I have maybe just the guy, - I got their reel the other day - this is right up their alley - they would be perfect for that". If you can't articulate that position - the one you'd be perfect for - then you can't make a reel that shows your the right person for that job. People do not say - and trust me on this - "this guy is multi-talented - knows everything and we should just have him round the office to work on anything that comes up".
3. Play the reel first
If you are meeting to show your reel, show it early, and let the work speak. If you play the reel it will give you something to talk to and discuss after it is finished, but avoid the desire to talk over every shot, people will normally stop watching your work and turn to hear whatever your saying - not what you want. Also avoid the desire to grab the remote and pause, rewind and fast forward. It is likely that much of your work is new to the person your talking to, give them a moment to take it in. You know it backwards but no one else does. If it is not clear what you have done (since your work is so seamless) - then edit in a section of before & afters or print out some high quality stills showing what you had to work with. These can be great to talk to and discuss and much more friendly than jumping up and down and pointing at the screen with the remote.
4. Put your best material first
All show reels are watched with one finger hovering over the fast forward button, you job is to so knock them out with your first set of images that they put the remote control down and sit forward to watch more closely. Forget building to a climax - you have one chance: the first 5 - 10 seconds, after that they will either be watching it or scanning their desks for the next reel. This is why montages are great at the start of reels - immediate and quick visuals to signal a range of work and a reason to keep watching. Montages are not without their flaws, but so long as the editing is not too quick and the quality of the work sustains it, a montage is a good idea. The exception to this is directors or character animators. In both cases the viewer is looking for story telling and thus a montage works against showing you can tell a story. I would recommend selecting music that isn't too fast - so the images have time to breath, and also music you like. You'll see this reel alot and if your cringing as your reel starts it can send the wrong signal.
5. Don't point out faults
If you're present when your reel is played, you'll know every problem - every fault - but just shut up. Constantly we see people put on a reel and almost immediately say, "oh this was a horror of a job, - the director made me grade it like that, those matte edges were not my fault - if we'd been given more time we could have..." Shut up. Be proud of your work and only if they comment or ask should you make a brief comment, do not get side tracked into canning the director, the agency or the client - chances are the person your sitting with is their best friend and if not, you just look unprofessional.
6. Make it consistent
Do not show loads of character animation and a logo design, if you want to be a compositor. Show a reel that backs up the image of the position your after. You might have 30 great wire removals but they are not relevant if you want a job doing broadcast design.
7. Keep it short
Please.
8. By all means, try anything innovative
If you have a great idea for your reel - so long as its done well - include it . Sometimes a clever idea can make a reel stand out. Perhaps it is a graphical device, like the countdown, or a graphical theme you repeat throughout the reel. It might even be a piece you shoot yourself as a 5 sec intro or a 15 sec closer. It was once said that if you write a personal CV list one really odd thing at the end under personal interests, like "my interests include skiing, movies and underwater football". - The theory is that later people will say "oh yeah the underwater football guy"... similarly you might composite 12 versions of yourself packing up the studio - leaving and turning out the lights at the end of the reel, or a cute intro piece direct to camera to open - but make sure it is professional quality, - if it looks amateurish, dump it.
9. Do not start your reel with space footage or space ships unless you're ILM
Come to think of it ILM doesn't lead with spaceships... Every major facility will have done major space shots, unless your work is exceptional beyond Star Wars and then some, forget it. It is tempting to want to show the sort of work that company is famous for, and to a point this is relevant but it can so easily backfire, I know of designers who have been offended to see their work copied on someone elses reel. Try and show relevant material but not a copy of their house style - originality is rewarded, so is a range of work. I once sat looking at a reel of an animtor who only animated dolphins. That's it. If I wanted an animated Dolphin - I should call him - otherwise he wasn't interested. It is desirable to know as much as you can about the company your sending the reel to - or meeting with, but genuine original work, and a good attitude are the most vital.
10. Be honest
Do not claim to have done work you didn't do. I once used a freelancer to do a small amount of particles - we were full up - so we outsourced this one element, a year later this guy sat with in a director's office and explained that they had done the whole job - everything - himself, - this director let him go on for 5 minutes and then cut him off by commenting that it was funny but when he was personally directing this spot he never met this guy... needless to say that cut the meeting short. Never claim to have done work you didn't and don't claim to know things you don't, people can sense these lies a mile away and you'll never be trusted again. I once had a guy tell me he knew everything - I mean everything about particles in flame, as we were in the flame suite I innocently spun around and started building a set up in action and invited him to explain further. He went white and confessed that actually he'd seen it demoed once and not much more, - to this day I feel badly for the guy - but that is what happens.
One last point if you have the resources -- log every reel that goes out. Note on paper or in a database what was on that reel, - when you call that client back a year later and someone says that they think they already have your reel - you'll be able to explain that while the reel they have has X, Y and Z on it - it does not have A & B - which your really keen to show them, - this will impress them as you remember exactly what you gave them so well and it will allow you to re visit and remind them of your skills and talents. If you keep an accurate history reel, you can easily make new reels- if you don't then putting a reel together can be a nightmere of lost audio tracks, half finished tests and missed opportunities.
Every reel is different but the best ones are simple, stick in your head and are easy to find on your desk a week later.
Good luck.
