Monkwhy Makes Movies | Monkwhy Audio Visual

As a Professional Editor, one of my favorite styles, is the Showreel. Just like the showreel’s I put together to gain my first job in the industry, Film & Television production houses need showreels to advertise their products and services. And this one was a ton of fun. I love working on films! Working in and around the industry is shear joy, and when the opportunity to work on a reel Advertising that industry presented itself , I leaped at the chance.
I started by creating and gathering all the elements I was going to need. I was given a rough brief of what the client wanted, and from then on I had free license to do what I chose. YEAY!

I had a lot of information to cram into this reel, including Gold Coast stock footage, Hi Res images, text, quotes and logos. A lot of the logos were already designed and used in the accomponing Print material for the Film GC Packs, so I thought it wise to use them throughout to reinforce the overall design.

Film GC Brochure

These came in handy for some off beat transitions between the split ken burns effected images and footage. Also Most of the images were such beautiful hi res panoramic views, that if I did a standard zoom in ken burns effect, it would leave either large black areas top bottom, left and right, or miss out on most of the image all together. So opting for the split screen images helped present as much information in a short time without crowding the screen or missing out on such stunning elements.
For this project I used Final Cut Pro on a MAC G5 w/ blackmagic card and my trusty FCP Logic Keyboard.
I’m able to work with Premiere Pro and AVID Media Composer on a PC workstation as well as FCP on MAC however I prefer FCP for small projects like showreels as it allows for fast trial and error edits for quickly piecing elements together to see which ones work and which don’t. I use both MAC and PC, so please don’t start a MAC vs PC argument with me!! Its just a matter of personal preference. The right tool for the right job, what ever that may be. cheers!
One of the key factors to a successful showreel, is the playback time. Generally I would NEVER go over 2 minutes unless specifically ordered to. The Idea is to capture the audiences attention and hold it, and considering most people have a very short attention span, keeping it short is a preference. Another key factor is to grab the attention of the audience instantly. If you cant get their attention within the first few seconds, they will switch off, walk away, or worse. Not only should the showreel present the company’s services, skills and reputation, but yours as well.
Really, every showreel you edit, is a showreel for your editing skills.