To celebrate our fifth year in business, and to support our cracking new website, we have created a stunning new showreel! The result of weeks of work, our directors searched through film after film and hours of footage to pick and choose only the very best of the best, our criteria being that every shot featured needed to be a ‘Shot of the Week’ candidate in our eyes. We asked Simon who produced it to give us some insight into why getting a showreel just right is so important.
>What is our showreel and why do we have it?
Our showreel is a showcase of our favourite shots and a demonstration of the quality and variety of films that we have produced over the years for all kinds of different clients.
>Why keep the showreel short and snappy?
We like to keep the showreel as short as possible so that it lets people get on with their busy day, whilst cramming in our must see shots and highlighting the variety of projects we have turned our cameras to. I think showcasing a lot of relevant shots in a short space of time, says more about our editing skills and keeps it dynamic and interesting – probably (hopefully) making people want to watch it again! It also focuses the mind on only having the very best shots in the film – you have to be ruthless in the edit!
>What’s the trickiest part of a showreel?
The music is always a big deal for our showreel – often the music will guide me on how I edit the film together. The music will get me in the mood for the energy and feel of the film. Once I’ve chosen the track I will listen to it over and over again and begin to create the edit in my head of what shots would work in which sections. As we have done previously we brought in international music maker and DJ (and long time friend of STANDBY) Jon Kennedy, to produce a bespoke track for us, from an outline brief I sent to him. Having our own bespoke music track is awesome, because it means you won’t hear it anywhere else or on anyone else’s film(s). I think this year’s track is one of the best Jon’s produced for us – so thanks Jon! He is a musical genius.
>How do you choose what makes it into the final edit?
Honestly, there’s so much content to choose from, it does take quite a while (and multiple versions) before I get to a place where I’m really happy with it. I usually have a selection of shots in my mind from each film we’ve produced and I know roughly what I want to include. By the time I’m nearing the end of the edit though I can kind of see what is working and what looks out of place, so sometimes I have to leave shots out that we love. That’s the hardest bit.
>Is there a structure in place when putting the showreel together?
At the start I have a basic idea of what I want to include, it’s only further down the line that I can start piecing it together into different sections and the showreel starts to take shape. This year I wanted to show groups of clips that are quite similar, but all from different locations or from different films. For example, the showreel opens with a series of shots following people walking away from camera, shortly followed by shots of the camera moving forward into rooms etc. – I felt this was a great introduction, like the viewer is ‘entering’ into the showreel. There’s also a section of outtakes where different people are being interviewed. I wanted to include this to show the energy, fun and relaxed atmosphere on set and for people to see how clients can >ENJOY the experience.
>Why is getting the showreel right so important?
The showreel is often the very first thing a person will see on our new new website and as we start our 5th year in business it will be the go-to film for anyone to see what STANDBY PRODUCTIONS is all about and the quality of films we produce.