Creating a montage reel is as much an art as creating films themselves. It doesn’t show your previous work as much as highlighting the quality of your work. Think of montage reels as a “trailer” for your videography portfolio, cutting and combining clips into a cohesive piece that sells.
Overwhelmed with the idea of creating a montage reel? Here are the best tips to compile and edit a montage reel that highlights your skill, land clients, and even create montage reels for your clients as a service.
What Is a Montage Reel?
A montage–from the French montage for “assembly” or “editing”–is a technique of film editing that combines short clips or shorts into one full sequence, often with music.
The benefits of a montage reel is that it accelerates time and provides a lot of information to the audience at once, whether it is telling a complete story or highlighting your broad skill set, without dragging out the run time. One excellent use case for a montage is a 30 second or less teaser for a film that you can share on your website and social media, like the one cinematographer Othello Banaci includes for the documentary “Lynching Postcards.” It’s a way of “showing, not telling” that can be effective to evoke emotions and get–or keep–the viewer engaged.
Montage Reels for Filmmakers and Videography Portfolios
In your film portfolio, a montage reel–also called a demo or sizzle reel–showcases your skills, creativity, and versatility to potential clients or employers. It compiles your best work and highlights different projects, styles, and techniques.
Depending on your specialty, your montage reel may showcase dynamic cinematography excerpts, engaging advertising videos, emotional wedding highlights, or breathtaking panoramic landscapes and property shots. Whatever your creative and professional focus, a montage reel is an important part of exhibiting your talent and gaining new opportunities.
In your online portfolio, a montage reel inserted at the top of a page can highlight the range of your abilities, such as this one by Rasmus Kaessmann. Detailed descriptions and longer clips for visitors who are ready to take a closer look can be placed lower on the page.
How Long Should a Montage Reel Be?
More content doesn’t always mean the best content. An effective montage reel should only be about 60 seconds long. Videos under 90 seconds retain about 50% of viewers. If you try to make a longer reel, you’re more likely to lose the viewer’s interest.
Finding this balance can be tricky, but how well you accomplish it showcases another skill–editing. When you edit highlights cohesively and fit them into a dynamic, compelling 60-second spot, it shows that you know how to cut ruthlessly without losing the key message of your content.
How to Create a Montage Reel
Your montage reel is like a visual resume of your work and a creative portfolio, so take your time to develop it. Here’s how:
Determine Your Audience
What’s the purpose of your montage reel and who are you giving it to? Will it be used to attract new clients? Or are you looking to showcase your industry skills for a presentation or feature? Knowing the audience for your reel is vital to choosing the right content.
For example, new clients will want to see your film skills and the effects you can create. If you’re creating a montage reel to market your own business, it should reflect your skills and your personal brand.
Keep It Short
As mentioned, your montage reel should be short. Even before the rise of TikTok and other content that caters to short attention spans, the goal was to deliver short, snappy content that leaves the viewer wanting more.
Generally, you want 60-second montage reels. If you really can’t fit everything into that minute, you could go as long as two minutes, but do your best to challenge yourself to the 60-second mark. Your montage reel should only be the best of all the work you’ve ever done.
Keep in mind that a prospective client is likely looking at dozens, if not hundreds, of montage reels. If yours is too long, they won’t watch all of it. Worse yet, they may get bored with the length, which doesn’t help your standing.
Frontload the Best Clips
Even with a short montage reel, it’s possible that your viewer will not finish your reel. You can combat this by putting your best shots first to capture their attention and ensure that you leave a good impression right at the start.
A common mistake is to leave the show stopping work for the end as a climax or finale to a short film. However, if the viewer doesn’t watch the whole way through, the beginning is all you have to sell yourself. Get right to the point at the start.
Tailor Your Reel to the Viewer
You already have the audience in mind, so don’t reuse the same reel over and over for diverse viewers. Your reel should be easy to edit efficiently to keep the pitch relevant to the viewer or add content as projects come along.
For example, if you’re trying to get a job with a client who’s hiring videographers for marketing purposes, you may want a reel that contains several clips showcasing different types of product demos. When trying to attract new clients with different skill sets, you want each reel to have its own distinct feel and tone–a real estate agency has different expectations from a retail brand.
Add a Title Card and End Card
If you’re applying for a job with your montage reel, include a brief title card with your name and title. It only needs to be a few seconds. Similarly, include an end card with your portfolio website and contact information to make sure the viewer knows how to get in touch.
The reels page on Jenelle Pearring’s website showcases two distinctive film styles she offers, both great examples of using title and end cards to ensure your name and contact info are the first and last thing viewers see.
Don’t Forget Audio
Audio is part of video production. Make sure your reel has a music track or sound effects that bring the whole thing together. You should always use royalty-free music to avoid any copyright infringement.
Choose a Video Hosting Platform
You will need to host your montage reel to make it accessible. The primary choice is YouTube, which offers compatibility with almost all video hosts. However, YouTube automatically recommends other videos when the first ends, which can be distracting for the viewer.
Vimeo is another good option, but it’s not as streamlined or polished as YouTube. That said, Vimeo has more player and customization options, as well as superior video quality.
For greater control and customization of your web platform choice, Format offers hosted video on custom pages–this is a great way to get around having to use a 3rd party hosting site for your videos.
Make It Yours
Though it’s a standalone creative piece, your montage reel is all about you. Get creative with sound design, transitions, and effects to make it your own and stylize it. Make sure you leave time at the end of the process for this aspect.
The Importance of Professional Editing
Editing is a big part of film production. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if you’re using tools available for your iPad or professional software. How you reshape and polish your clips in post-production to create your montage reel is crucial.
Videography provides the raw footage, but the editing is the artistry that cuts and rebuilds a project together to tell a story and create the emotional tone that’s necessary for impact. While you’re choosing the clips you want in your montage, think about how they’ll be edited together.
Create a Standout Montage Reel
Your montage reel is your calling card in the business, so it should get as much time and effort as any film you create. These tips can help you target your audience. Remember, keep it focused, and polish and refine a showstopping montage that sells your personal brand and skillset.
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