"The reel means everything," says Sarah Burmeister, executive producer for Means Street Productions. "It's what you're judged by. How that reel is put together is absolutely vital."
"Your reel is your portfolio, the visual explanation of what you're about," states Guy Tucker, creative recruiter and consultant who goes under the banner Ask Guy Tucker. "It tells your history, and suggests in your history your future. It says what you've done and suggests what you're capable of doing."
Keith Adams, president of Spin Production, a company specializing in special effects and design, likens the reel to a business card. "It's the way you communicate to people the quality and dynamics of the work you do," he explains. "It shows the type of work you've done, the clients you've worked with and your diversity."
Of course, the quality of the work is paramount, but sometimes, the presentation plays a key role. After all, what good is a killer reel if no one bothers to pop it into a playback machine? Along with good work, such factors as sequencing and packaging go into the equation for success.
There are some basic rules for compiling the killer reel. The chief format is a 3/4 inch videocassette, though it can also be sent out on a 1/2 inch tape if that's all the recipient has. Although such technologies as CD-ROM and DVD are gaining in popularity, they are not yet being used to present the content of a reel.
"We discourage 1/2 inch," says Burmeister. "We only do it under protest. It's your portfolio, and you wouldn't ask a photographer to print his pictures on newsprint stock."
There's no consensus on the number of spots that appear on the reel, but the general agreement is that less is more. Most people advise putting between five and ten thirty second spots on the reel. Any 60-second spots that appear on it should count as two.
"If you have less than five spots," says Sheryl Myers, executive producer of Comotion Films, "there's not enough of a body of work to make a judgement. I like a reel that has eight 30 second spots."
Myers says there's a practical reason for limiting the number of commercials to be viewed. "Ad agencies are shrinking in terms of the number of employees," she explains. "They're giving their producers more and more to do. Because of that and the amount of reels they're receiving, they don't have the time to look at really long reels."
Eddie Snyder, creative director/partner for Ivory Communications, says he prefers to receive director's reels containing about six minutes of work. He adds, however, "If it's a good director, I don't care. If the work is good, I can watch a reel all day long."
In putting together a reel for Pogo Pictures, his new production company, director/cinematographer Steve Colby says he wanted something with a running time of about 5 minutes. "If a reel is too long, it becomes arduous," he explains. "I think you can explain yourself with a shorter amount of work. You don't need a long reel to make an impression."
Putting together the right sequence of spots is critical. Like a great Rolling Stones album, the idea is to hook them in from the beginning and leave them with something to remember. To do this, the killer reel should lead off with the best spot and end with the second best.
Says Burmeister, "You've got to grab them from the first so they will keep your reel in the tape machine. You want them to remember the last spot because there's a good chance your reel will come out of the 3/4 machine and another director's will go right in."
"From what I've heard from top end agency producers in New York and Chicago," says Myers, "they look at the first three spots, and if there's not something that grabs them, your reel goes on the discard pile."
ucker feels that the sequence of spots should present a good picture of your abilities. "You want to cause someone to pay close attention to it when it comes on," Tucker explains, "stay with it through your experiences so it shows the variety of work you've done. and in the end, leaves them with an impact. You want them to feel they'd be fools not to call you."
Of course, the content of the reel is important as well. Choosing the five to ten spots that will be featured can be a major undertaking.
"The reel, hopefully, contains work the director really wants to and feels passionate about," says Burmeister. "You have to put on it the stuff you're most proud of, don't ever put a mediocre commercial on because it will bring the rest of the reel down to that level rather than elevate that mediocre commercial upwards."
Colby believes that the reel must be an emotional experience for the viewer, and that the content should provide insight into the director's way of thinking.
"I want it to express who I am the best I can," says Colby. "In some ways, the reel controls your destiny. If you continue to do good, solid and artistic work, it can create its own momentum. People can look at it and understand the kind of work they're going to get."
In many cases, the director may not have a significant body of work, or at least not a large number of spots which represent the kind of work he or she really wants to do. In such situations, spec work is more than advisable - it's an absolute necessity.
"I think you can see potential in a spec spot," says Myers. "Everybody knows it's a spec spot and we're not trying to hide it. You can see the ability and where the creative sensibilities lie."
Although she admits that many directors have succeeded in getting assignments through spec work, Burmeister warns that there are pitfalls that must be avoided with such commercials. "You must always remember that it should not be an over-indulgent idea that doesn't relate to advertising," she cautions. "It can't be a two-minute piece because they want to see if you can tell a story in 30 seconds. There can be no excuses. You can't say, ‘This was done for no money.' They won't be interested, but they will be if it's absolutely fabulous."
While spec spots are acceptable, a reel containing director's cuts is a dicier proposition. While this kind of spot may show off the director's eye, at the same time, it may not concentrate on the agency creative's major concern - is this spot helping to sell a product?
Says Tucker, "My argument against director's cuts is that they aren't advertising, they're cinematography. It's tricky because more often than not, the agency is looking at how well the product is being sold, and the director is looking at how cool the images are. If the director moves too far away from the selling point and too close to how pretty the images are, he hasn't told the agency what he's able to do."
When putting together a reel, producers and directors need to put themselves in the shoes of the agency creative who will be viewing it. Very often, this person will have a stack of reels on his or her desk, and unless the director is somewhat known to them, that creative will give a reel just a cursory examination.
Myers relates a story she heard about how one major agency creative director evaluated a given reel. "When this agency's creative department received a reel," she says, "they would look at what they considered to be the weakest spot on the reel, and then ask themselves, ‘Can we live with this?' It makes you think hard about what goes on."
hen viewing a reel, Snyder says, "I never go into one with any preconceived notions of what to expect. It's a matter of how I feel after the first 10 seconds. If I'm 10 or 15 seconds into somebody's reel, I can tell whether I want to watch it any more."
One way of gaining notice in that stack of reels is to provide a creative package. One director in Texas, for example, covered the vinyl cases containing his reel with artificial turf - a tactic that guaranteed people would want to see what was on the reel.
Snyder advises that the best way to attract creative people's attention is to come up with a distinctive wrapper. It may be a colorful case, or a unique logo or an interesting type solution. Remember, the people receiving the reels are in their positions because of their ability to discern outstanding visual communications. Many a creative director started out in print and still retains a special place for a well done graphic solution.
Adams believes that creative ways of packaging the reel is essential. "As we're a creative shop dealing with creative people as clients, just to put [the reel] in a black VHS box with a typed cover was not very impressive," he says. "You want to do everything you can to make that reel compelling to look at. Everything is a product of who we are, so we have a total visual identity that carries over through everything."
Before the reel is in its final form, it's a good idea to ask for outside input into what it looks like and how it works. A friendly art director is a good candidate, but the rep who will take that reel around is probably the best choice for an opinion.
"The director is often too close to a project to know its real merit," states Tucker. "At times, they have more emotional involvement in the spot than the content warrants."
Adams says his company will bring in an array of people including editors, salespeople and even those outside the business to offer their two cents. "We do a kind of informal market research," he explains. "When I'm showing someone the reel, I'm looking at their face to see how they're reacting and responding. I tell them up front that I want their honest opinion. I don't want to hear compliments, I want to know where it was weak."
For certain situations, it may be necessary to create additional reels that focus on a particular kind of spot - such as commercials featuring kids or location work - to help in bidding a certain job. This "specialty" reel will go out in conjunction with the main reel and will contain spots that may not otherwise be sent.
Adams says that Spin sends out not only a reel containing spots they've done, but also an adjunct reel containing "before" and "after" footage of their contributions to the spot. This technical reel, according to Adams, is an outgrowth of client requests.
"So much of what we do is undetectable in the final product," Adams explains. "We show what was given, what the challenge was and how we met it. The technical reel allows us to communicate what we did on a commercial, something that can't be done on our demo reel."
No matter how good a reel might look, if it's doing the job, the result is more work - hopefully pieces which deserve to be included. It's important that time be spent periodically reviewing and updating the reel.
"Directors like to change their reels a lot," says Burmeister. "It's good because agencies are always wanting to see new stuff. But the biggest problem is getting work worth putting on the reel. You just can't put new stuff on. It has to be good."
Tucker says the reel should be reviewed on a regular basis, but adds a caveat to that: "There's a lot of thought, work, nail-biting and tongue-wagging that goes into putting together a reel, so you don't want to do that too often. The trick with reels is to keep them current. If your latest work is getting you in the direction you want to go in, then that spot should be on it."
The very moment that you think you've put together the Killer Reel of all time is also the moment that you need to take a few steps back and start thinking about what you need to do improve upon it.
"You never really get there," says Myers. "I don't think you ever get to the stage where you have the ‘Killer Reel' and life is wonderful. It's constantly evolving. Tastes change and new people come in and redefine what's hip. It's never a finished work. It's always a work in progress."