Kym here. You can have an entire reel made of self tapes. Nobody will hold it against you, and nobody is fooled by produced footage anyway… they will look you up and see you have three credits.
So let’s build you one. Here is how I teach it in the Journey masterclass on reels.
A reel is a compilation of your work that shows your talent, type, range and style. Industry standard is 1 to 3.5 minutes. If you do not have a lot of known credits, aim for 1 to 2 minutes.
Three to seven clips is standard, each between 5 and 35 seconds. Those are guidelines, not laws. If you have one incredible one minute scene, it might be one of the only scenes on there.
Now the part that changes how you cut. Casting directors are looking at two to three thousand submissions to fill 10 or 15 roles, trying to get down to seeing maybe 20 to 40 actors. They watch in the little preview window and click forward 20 seconds at a time, hunting for one thing: is this person right for this role, right now.
If they decide you cannot act, they stop at about 20 seconds. So your best acting goes first. Always.
There are five sources, and most actors only think of one.
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Draw three circles: your dream roles, footage from produced projects, and what matches your look and essence.
Where your look and essence overlaps with your dream roles, that is the material you write and film yourself. Where all three overlap is the jackpot. Keep a running list of dream roles in your phone, because you will forget them.
Two warnings. Do not use an iconic scene made famous by a great actor, because they watch you and see that performer instead. And never use a self tape from a project that is pending release, because it can get you sued, especially if you signed an NDA.
If you are paying a production service, self tape the scene at home first and arrive knowing it backwards. Bring your own reader too, because the actors those companies supply are often there for free footage, and you do not want to be opposite a weaker actor.
Frame from your shoulders to the top of your head, with no headroom. That inch above your head tells nobody anything, and the tighter frame feels more intimate.
Shoot 1080p. A blue or grey background works well.
Light your face evenly: no shadows under your eyes or on your eyelids, and no shadow cast on the backdrop. If the image looks like it is twinkling or staticky, you do not have enough light. If you are shiny and the detail in your face is gone, you have too much.
Sound off your phone is fine. The big one is reader placement. Your reader must be as far from the camera as you are, and on the same side as the lens, so your eyeline sits close to camera. If they stand next to the phone, the phone hears them louder than it hears you.
Background noise barely matters for an audition. For a reel, clean it up.
I have written up the full kit and set up in self tape setup at home.
Towards the end of post production for non commercial projects. After release for bigger budget work.
Filmmakers are busy and some procrastinate, so expect to ask more than once, monthly or every couple of months. Do not get annoyed. They cast you, and you want that relationship for the rest of your career. Lead with a compliment and give them a real deadline.
The footage is so great. Is it okay if I get it by the 20th of December, because I think it’ll really help me get this agent? I’ve got the meeting on the 1st of January.
Ask for 1080p or ProRes, never standard definition, and wait until the scene is edited, colour corrected and the sound is complete.
Two cheeky extras: a version with no music, so you can cut around the other actor’s lines, and a version where the camera holds on you longer. Asking a filmmaker is a bit cheeky. Asking a reel production company is not, so ask every time.
Take the best 5 to 35 seconds of each scene. Most will land between 15 and 30 seconds, and I aim for most around 15 to 20, with one or two at 20 to 25 so people get to sit in a scene with you.
Start and end as many scenes as you can on your face. When the other character has a long line, cut it down and get the camera back to you.
Best scene first. If you have five seconds of something incredible, open with that and let your name come up over it. Never put your name on a black title card, because people often watch only the first 15 seconds and a blank card burns two or three of them showing zero acting.
Learn the pre-lap: the audio from the next scene starts while you are still on the picture from the last one. One to three seconds. It hides the edit and stops hard cuts feeling jerky.
Never fade to black, because the moment it goes black people think the reel is over.
An acting reel is not a resume. You are not showing people what you have done, you are showing people what you can do. It is better to have no footage than bad acting.
Match the link to the person. For casting, use your casting profile link. For everyone else, your IMDb reel share link looks most professional. If your credits are thin, send your website or a Vimeo link. Embed from Vimeo, not YouTube.
Assume people will only watch one thing, and only make something available if you would be happy for that to be the only thing they saw.
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Yes. The class says you can have an entire reel of self tapes and nobody will hold it against you. Agents already send self tapes to casting when they lack produced footage. Shoot them properly (1080p, tight frame, even light, reader beside the lens) and pick scenes that match your look and the roles you want.
Aim for 1 to 2 minutes. Industry standard is 1 to 3.5 minutes, but without known credits, shorter is better. Three to seven clips of 5 to 35 seconds each is standard, best acting first, and casting may only watch the first 20 seconds, so the opening scene matters most.
A reel production service runs around $500 per scene in the class’s figures, so roughly $1,200 for three, with group discounts around. Self tapes cost nothing beyond a phone, a light and a backdrop. Pulling footage from a released show through a service like Aircheck costs about $50, plus around $10 extra for HD.
No. Never open on your name over black. People often watch only the first 15 seconds, and a two to three second card shows zero acting. Open on your best scene, even five seconds of one great line, and bring your name up over the picture instead.
No. Host on Vimeo or IMDb. YouTube reads as cheap and runs ads over your work. Send casting your casting profile link, send everyone else your IMDb reel share link, and only make available what you would be happy for someone to watch as the one thing they see.
The full 2-hour reel masterclass and the scene assessment resources are inside every SAS plan, alongside 3,000+ videos and the community. Gold members get one personalised footage analysis (Kym’s recorded feedback) and Platinum gets one a year. 7-day free trial, 60-day refund.