Your Reel Sucks

If you're into any visual creative arts endeavor, more than likely in order to get a gig, they will have to look at your reel. A reel is a clip show of your best work. If you'd ask me what they wanted to see, I'd say something specific. For an actor's reel TOO many people make the mistake of putting their drama with their comedy, or their action with their comedy. For cinematographers, it's more specific than that. They want to see big money on screens. And a celebrity. Stars are shitty human beings. If you worked with a name, more than likely you have the patience of a saint. Twice as much if you work with straight up crone bitches who now trust you to light them well. A beautiful female star will drag you with her career. If you fuck that up, you will be dragged through the mud.

When I was casting my short film, I saw a lot of submissions of reels. Acting reels. Granted a lot were just starting out. But it did open my eyes to what constitutes a "reel" nowadays. I saw people standing in front of a white wall using lines from a movie, shot with an iPhone. I'm not sure how much less effort you can put into your collective work, but I think that would be the bare minimum. Actually, I think the bare minimum would be something sending you a link to a vine video. Yes, it's this Mickey Mouse. It stunned me as to how people think this to be their career why they didn't spend every single nickel or dime to have an editor pour through their work. I was about to bad-mouth the ones who pay people to set up a scene and tape it, but...at least it's something other than not giving a shit. Still, I think effort is better used in auditioning rather than getting into a project. My advice is to do something small first. Student films are stock full of people who need actors. Sometimes though, students are shittier than the professionals. I remember being in the same office as John Papsidera when I was just a copy boy intern. The guy was SO nice to people. Like, I thought he was faking it. But he's genuinely a nice person. Versus, AFI/USC students. Man, these kids are dickheads. So full of themselves and their supposed ability. They mistake kindness to weakness. So they lord these roles over people. Fuck them. But, unfortunately, these are the ones you will have to deal with to begin with. OR, the best is just to get out there and do something. ANYTHING. I get the sense, the ones who sent me reels did it as a carpet bombing. Seeing what hits. This is bad. And people can sense it. What you should do is more specific, BUT be the person others can't NOT watch. Technology is so cheap nowadays, you can make your own stuff, film it and make it look like a contender. The competition is ridiculous. And even good things you do will be overlooked. BUT at least you're doing SOMETHING. The caveat is this: don't let an asshat like me tell you your reel sucks. I've had that happened to me. My cinematography reel that had a project that actually won an award. Who cares? The guy who evaluated it, thought it sucked. And wasn't too timid to tell me so. You only need to hear someone say it once, to realize you aren't in OZ anymore. And your mommy won't be there to convince you you deserve the brass ring. That's when you really feel the sting of the business and stop goofing off by standing in front of a white fucking wall doing scenes from "Misery."