In this day and age, your first audition takes place digitally so consider your reel to be your best and possibly only chance to get in the room. If you want to be called in for film and television work, the reel better be great and editing is a big part of that.
To help you figure out how to cut a reel that will turn heads in Hollywood, I chatted with master actor reel editor, Suzanne LaChasse. Here’s what she had to say.
1.Keep the reel close to one minute.“Or even better, 59 seconds! Casting directors are busy. It’s not unusual for them to view hundreds of reels in a single day, so you have to grab their attention and keep it. Powerful and fast cuts. Cuts that land. The four-minute reel is a punchline behind closed doors. It makes CDs sad. Casting will know in less than a minute anyway. Think about your reel like it is a promo for a new TV show that is focused on one actor: you!”
2. Don’t use negatively-phrased dialogue.“Don’t be a downer in your footage. Any dialogue that is unnecessarily upsetting is garbage for promotional purposes. Go PG-13. It is jarring to hear certain things in the context-free zone of a reel. The negativity piles up and makes the viewer dislike the actor
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