Aaron Marcus, a working actor for 38+ years, breaks down six mistakes actors make with reels: adding extra music, flashy edits, missing titles for each piece, on-camera slates, and unclear file names. He recommends a final slide with your name and contact info instead.
Last week I created the one biggest acting reel mistake that actors make, and later on I thought, you know what, I came up with 6 other ideas of mistakes that actors make that can really ruin a good acting reel. And so I wanted to share it with you. So this is part 2. If you watch this to the end, you're gonna have an even stronger and better idea of how to create a great acting reel, I also have a wonderful bonus video for you, and you'll see the link at the end. It was just unbelievable. It was— you won't believe what 2 actors said to me at an audition. It was just absolutely crazy. Okay, let's get started. Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel and the Actor Career Center, where I share information with you from my 38-plus years of working as a full-time actor. If you haven't done this yet, don't forget, please subscribe, click the notification bell. If you like the video, give it a thumbs up. That's actually very helpful. And I'm giving you permission to share this link with fellow actors so we can continue to build a great channel of actors who are helping each other, sharing information, asking questions, answering them. So, uh, please do that. When you are creating a reel, I've seen this with a lot of actors, and I want to make sure that you don't do this. Here are 6 common mistakes that actors make on their acting reel. Number 1, don't add any music to your, your clips. You know, sometimes people like to Add some special music because it will make it more powerful. Don't do any of that stuff. If there's music in your clips, of course you're going to keep that, but don't add anything to it. Number 2, don't try to make things look really slick, have really interesting fading in and fading out and jump cuts. Don't do any of that stuff. Just go from one clip, go to the next clip. That's all people want to see. Because if you try to make it look really interesting, like you are producing this reel, then people are going to start judging you as a producer. And that's not what you want. You want to make it really simple for people to look at and look at your work. Number 3, And this is something that I see all the time. Make sure that you put the title of the piece that you were in at the very beginning of the clip. And I'll show you a sample of what I do, and you'll see it in A Man Called Otto. So in the bottom left-hand corner, I just add the title, A Man Called Otto, and that way people know where it's from. Look, even if it's a small independent film or a student film that nobody saw, I mean, that's fine. Still, Put the title so people know it's a real piece. Number 4, there's absolutely no need, and I think it's a bad idea, to do an on-camera slate for your reel. You know, hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, I am 6 feet tall, all that kind of— don't do that. Look, people are there to watch your work, period. Now, I do think it's a good idea at the very end have a slide that that does have your name, that does have either your agent's name and contact information, or if you're not working with an agent, uh, just have your contact information. So that way at the very end, if they're interested in getting in touch with you, they know how to do that. And the very last one, make sure that you label your reel properly so that way people know what it is. You can have You can label it with your name, you know, maybe dash or underscore film and TV reel. And that way, as soon as they see it, they know exactly what it is. You know, don't just have a blank MP4 or just a generic kind of label. Make it specific and allow people to know what it is. Oh, here's the link for the bonus video. That's what I wanted to share with you. Those are the things that came to me in the middle of the night after I shot my first video. And I thought, oh, wait a minute, these are really important things that I didn't mention in the first one. So I hope this is helpful to you. Don't forget, subscribe, click the notification bell. If you like it, give it a thumbs up, share it. And hey, if you have any ideas for ways that people can create better acting reels, please share it with us in the comments section. That's always really, really helpful. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
