I’ve heard the term “Pro-Am” all my life but it just seemed like a sports thing (Pro Am golf, Pro Am racing teams) so I never gave it much thought.  But as I learned a few weeks ago, “Pro Am” stands for “Professional Amateur” and the term is now being applied to creative types that are “pursuing amateur activities to professional standards.”  I’ve never liked calling myself a “semi-pro filmmaker” because I don’t think of myself as a “pro” at all.  I sometimes shoot things like concerts, shows and music videos but no one ever hires me to shoot commercial projects. I just go shoot contest entries or spec ads on my own and sometimes I make a sale or win a prize. So “professional amateur” seems like a perfect way to describe video contest filmmakers; we are basically speculative freelancers who make money by creating hyper-low-budget videos that look and feel professional.

Whether you’re a pro, a semi-pro or a pro-am filmmaker, you really need to have a demo reel online so potential clients can get a quick feel for the kind of work you do.  Making a snazzy demo reel isn’t too tough if you’re a highly-skilled editor or animator or if you’ve worked with professional directors, actors, cinematographers before.  Here, check out this excellent reel that won the $500 first prize in Poptent’s “Demo Reel of the month” contest back in January:
 

 
That was pretty damn impressive.  If I were looking for a filmmaker I’d certainly want to hire that guy.  But not all of us can have a reel like that.  Very few members of Poptent have worked on professional projects or with people like Run DMC and Jerry Springer.  So how do you put together a reel if you’re a one-person, low budget, pro-am production company?  I personally only spend about $50 to $250 on each of my video contest entries.  So they don’t feature gorgeous cinematography, impressive stunts, eye-popping special effects or recognizable actors.  My videos are just simple, funny and kind of weird.  Fortunately, there are tons of companies that want low budget, simple, funny, weird videos for their online ad campaigns.

Reading about this “Pro-Am” stuff inspired me to finally cut together a demo reel of my own.  I realized it wouldn’t matter if I couldn’t fill my reel with fancy graphics or big budget production values since I wasn’t trying to get hired for big budget gigs.  At best I’m just hoping that my reel will get me invited to a few private Poptent assignments.  If that’s your goal too, you should focus getting two points across with your reel:

1.  You are technically competent:  Your reel needs to show off the simple fact that you know how to handle a camera, light a scene and edit together your footage.  I know that sounds pretty obvious but go check out some of the videos that are submitted to a typical Poptent assignment.  You’ll be surprised by the number of new and novice producers who are still trying to master the basics.

2.  Show off your personal style:  I feel like strong writing and weird/quirky plots and characters are what make my videos feel unique.  But demo reels aren’t really a great way to show off your writing.  Demo Reels should be short and snappy.  So instead of stringing together a series of my best videos, I decided to focus on my “visual style.”  I took clips of all the weirdest or coolest looking stuff I’ve shot in the last 2 years and smooshed them all together.  My goal was simple: I wanted people to look at the reel and think to themselves, “well, that guy certainly has a FUN style….I wonder what kind of FUN video he could shoot for us.”

I didn’t think my demo reel would be all that great but I’m actually pretty happy with the way it turned out.  Its a little cheesy at times but hey, so is most of my work. Here it is:
 

 
Man, I have really filmed some weird stuff over the years.  Looking back, I’m kind of surprised how professional some of those videos look. Anyway, right about you’re probably thinking that you could create a better demo reel so maybe it’s time you give it a shot. Here are a few more random tips for creating a reel of your low budget work:

1.  Pick a cool, indie song:  In a recent blog post, the Poptent staff gave some basic tips for creating better demo reels.  One of their suggestions was “Edit to great music.”  But you can’t just pick any great song.  Your reel is your chance to show off how cool and indie and artistic you are.  If you use a cliche piece of music or a well known track from a famous band, you’re going to come off as kind of lame.  Instead, you’re going to want to try and find an awesome song that will be totally new to most people.  Is this a little ridiculous?  Sure.  But watch 100 great demo reels and you’ll see that most of them feature amazing but unknown tracks.  I suggest you just pick one of your favorite songs by one of your favorite non-famous band. That’s what I did.

2.  Cut to the music:  This one is obvious but it’s important.  Try and get the emotion of the clips to match the emotion of the song and make cuts when there is some kind of punctuation in the music.  Just watch a bunch of music videos before you start editing and you’ll figure it out.

3.  Include some mini-stories:  Don’t just mix a bunch of random shots together.  If you’re proud of the stories you tell, try and edit down your videos to include condensed version of your videos.  You can get a lot of plot across in 5 seconds of visuals.

4.  Mix up your footage:  If you want to use multiple clips from the same video, spread them around.  10 continuous seconds from one project might get boring.

5.  Add a clickable link:  If you upload your demo reel to Poptent, you can add a clickable link to your website in the “details” box.  Just click on “settings” and add this line of code to the details box:

<a href=”your-website’s-link“>your-website’s-name</a>

6.  Stick with your recent stuff:  I know you probably shot some great SD videos back in the day (AKA 3 years ago) but you really shouldn’t put any clips in your reel if they aren’t HD.  Viewers are now so accustomed to HD that a boxy, SD video really seems out dated.  You don’t want to give a prospective client any reason to worry that you might shoot their project with a non-HD camera. However, if you have a clip that is really, really amazing you can probably get away with cropping it so it fits the HD screen size.