Creating a Showreel and My Create Britain

 

Creating a Showreel

To create a showreel, I first had to analyze existing ones to better understand what goes into a showreel and what I should include in mine.

I had a basic understanding that a showreel showcases someone's work, including video work. It can also include photography work, as long as it is edited well amongst the video pieces.

The first showreel that I looked at was Eirik Sundmarks 2022 showreel, which I found on YouTube: 

The showreel starts off with some short pieces of footage from Sundmarks projects, each clip shortening slightly until the title 'Showreel' appears, along with his name. Then, what I assume to be his logo appears on the screen, showcasing brand identity.

After the logo, Sundmark proceeds to showcase pieces of footage from his projects, alongside a music track in the background. He then starts a voiceover, mentioning how he got into filmmaking and what it means for him. Each of his shots are edited together uniquely. 

The voiceover also includes captions at the bottom of the screen.

When he finished his voiceover, the video turns to a black screen, with a slight pause before the rest of the showcase, and the music crescendos. Then the video turns towards a more dramatic feel, the footage now being of sports or big events to show the variety of Sundmark films.

Sundmark then continues another voiceover, talking more about his experience in the time he has been a filmmaker, showing more footage from different events.

I will take this showreel into consideration when creating my own, as well as other showreels I see.

The next showreel I analyzed was one from the University of Gloucestershire, as a students showreel: 

This showreel starts off with music, as with the previous one, and includes the universities name and logo, before transitioning into footage of student films. Each piece of footage is edited together nicely, with the music being a constant thing in the background.

Each piece of footage is different and unique, whether it is the lighting, the transitions, or the composition of the shots:

Each shot is unique, yet the music in the background stays the same, as do the transitions between each shot. There is no voiceover in this showreel, instead just showcasing the footage. Each film is included multiple times, showing the different shots included in one film, and this is done with every film. I will aim to do something like this in my showreel, aiming for something like this showreel, rather than having a voiceover.

My Showreel

After analyzing these showreels, I began creating my own, putting together my own footage from past projects together with copyright-free music from Bensound. I forgot to take screenshots of the progress, but as this will be my first draft I will screenshot the next few drafts of my showreel.

For my showreel, I will put the best pieces of footage together from the projects I have made. I will also try and integrate my photography work into my showreel to showcase my skills in film and photography.

After creating this first draft I created a google form to get feedback. A lot, if not all of it was positive.

When I asked how the cuts to the different pieces of footage were, the majority of people said it wasn't great, but it also was not terrible, leaving it somewhere in the middle. In my next draft, I will try and add in a few transitions to make it smoother. The majority of people also said that the music was alright, but I will experiment with different royalty-free songs.

The rest of the feedback is fairly self-explanatory. I will work on this feedback and then ask for more feedback. I will also add some more clips to increase the length to a minute.

I acted upon the feedback I was given, though this time I had more clips to edit as I had done some filming the week prior. I used the majority of this new footage, including one or two clips from my last showreel. I also changed the music and made the footage cuts sharper, to fit with the music.

I did originally include photos, but I found that it slowed the progression of the showreel, so I got rid of the photos and used all video instead.

I included text in the beginning to introduce my showreel, and then a sharp cut to the start of the footage.

I also included my logo at the end of the showreel, for branding.

I then added the sound and proceeded to edit the footage in line with the music beats to give it a sort of dramatic effect.

Second Draft: 

I then created a Google form to receive feedback on this draft so that I could act on it if I needed.

I asked a few basic questions, such as if the music was good, or if the cuts looked good. I then sent out the form to my class and other people to get feedback.

I acted upon this feedback, mainly the feedback about the cuts not matching up to the music. Once I did this I uploaded my third and hopefully final showreel draft.

Throughout the process of creating my showreel, I was given a lot of feedback from family as well as college classmates. I was told to try and make the music fit better to the cuts or to add in more footage to showcase my skills fully, to give a few examples. The feedback I received throughout this process helped me greatly in creating the final product of my showreel, which I will continue to use for anything I need, whether it is applying to university or applying for a job in the industry.

My Create Britain Profile: 

https://www.createbritain.com/Profiles/kadensowels

For B1 I had to create and edit a Create Britain profile. Create Britain is a website that allows creative individuals to express their skills and interests. It can be described as a LinkedIn or Indeed for creativity. It allows people around the country to find like-minded people in their areas of interest (Film, music, etc.) 

Create Britain allows you to showcase your skills in order of most to least skilled, and allows you to provide examples of where you have showcased these skills.

Each segment represents a different skill, with the red segments being skills in TV and film, the blue being photography, and the green being theatre production. 

Some of the skills in the red segments include Directing, producing, editing, and cinematography.

The skills in the blue segments include different types of photography, such as nature or landscape.

Create Britain also allows you to showcase where you have used these skills, by uploading videos or photos of times when you used the skill.

The dots above each skill also indicate how skilled you are in each thing, the more dots mean the more skilled.

You can also include your general location for prospective employers or others to find out where you are based.