- IT’S COMPOSED BY WHITE BACKGROUND SCENES
Let’s put an example: Dabiz Muñoz, leader and chef of Diverxo, 3 Michelin stars winner restaurant. This restaurant offers haute cuisine dishes, presented with fine taste, in a very creative way, and with a very excentric style. It requires more than 20 workers, a more than 100 m2, and a modern styling.
This restaurant is for Dabiz what could be a movie for an actor, or a showreel, or a portfolio website. It’s a professional cover letter.
On the other hand, Dabiz has his home kitchen, where he just cooks for his wife and his friends, on a casual style. For an actor, this simile of the home kitchen could be a white background scene. They are ok for a selftape, because it’s understood that there is no need, no budget, and no people resources to have cinematographic quality.
We understand that if Dabiz would never offer dishes made of supermarket products, or place plastic chairs and tables, an actor shouldn’t pretend to offer acting quality without: a script that do not enhances his/her profile, a director that can evoke wonderfully the story of his/her character, and make professional shots, an acting coach that helps her/him relax and discover interesting shades, a photography director and editor who gives a cinematographic look, and professional edition and sound.
- IT LASTS TOO LONG
It’s not a movie, it’s a showreel. You want that the person who watches it ends before getting distracted with Intagram. If your showreel lasts more than 3 minutes, it’s too long, said by casting directors and agents.
- “SHOW THE WORST AT THE END”
Probably you have listened to this quote, right? Are you sure the worst at the end? It’s a showreel of just 3 minutes! You shouldn’t show anything below remarkable. If in those minutes you are forced to show an amateur result, you are throwing rocks to your own roof. It is very important to keep coherence and constancy in quality standards. So, everything that’s not good enough better discard it.
However, if we are referring to “show what’s remarkable” at the end, and “what’s excellent” on the beginning, we are on the right way!
- SHOWS TOO MUCH DIVERSITY
Sometimes we want to do it all, and do it very good. And, even if maybe our acting range goes very large in the future, it’s not probable that all that experience gets reflected in this year’s showreel. Even Christian Bale needed 18 years of difference between American Psycho and Vice.
If you already have that background, and those characters on your back, congratulations! If not, it’s a good idea to show that you can perform wonderfully one role, and not many roles poorly.
7.GIVES THE LEAD TO THE FAMOUS ACTOR
If you worked with Paco León and you have a lot of enthusiasm to introduce those scenes in your showreel, but your agents tell you not to be that bold…For example, adding a fragment, with the famous, at the beginning, at the middle, and at the end of your showreel is too much. And if Paco León is seen more than you, then maybe you should ask yourself if it’s fulfilling the objective of showing your acting.
