Q: Who are you?
Anthony Holmes is an established specialist editor of actors’ reels, with over 20 years of experience editing showreels & demo reels, working directly with actors, talent management agencies and casting directors around the world. He has a proven track record of producing successful showreels that help actors get more work. Anthony is an expert in the field; he is a published author, having written articles about reels in The Actors & Performers’ Yearbook and on multiple talent agency websites, has teamed up with casting directors for Q&A sessions at industry events, and he is a guest tutor at RADA specialising in showreels. Whether you’re a recent graduate, or an established name, we can help focus your career with a successful showreel.
Q: What is a showreel, and why do I need one?
A showreel, also known as a demo reel, or simply as an acting reel, is an essential marketing tool for all actors, television broadcasters & hosts; a short edited video showcase helping them get called in for a casting, or getting that foot in the door with a new agent.
Q: Why should I use a specialist showreel editor, and not edit the reel myself / get a friend to edit / use an all-in-one service provider?
With over 20 years experience editing reels, and an extensive network of talent agents and casting directors, Anthony knows what makes an effective and successful showreel.
We provide a personalised service, and our aim is to build up a successful ongoing working relationship where we help you to get more work, and work again together on future updates. Many of our current clients have been with us for years, and we continue to help them get more work.
An actor’s life isn’t 9-5, and we’re there to support you any time. Need an urgent re-edit for a casting at 9am tomorrow morning, or need your reel to be uploaded at midnight for a US casting director? Just give us a call!
We provide an honest and truthful service; if we don’t believe a shot works for any reason, we’ll let you know – clients often comment that our advice has been invaluable.
We can re-edit the narrative of scenes to give you and your character more screen time and more of a focus in the scene, and of course use only the material most likely to help get the type of roles you’re looking for. We can edit alternate versions of your showreel for specific purposes; in addition to a main drama showreel, we can create a separate ‘comedy reel’ or ‘continental/US reels’ to assist you getting more specialist work or work overseas.
We have a good working relationship with many agents, and are happy to liaise with your agent to produce a showreel they will be proud to promote as a showcase for your skills.
Q: My footage is in a range of formats…can you use it?
Yes! Whether your material is in online (all formats from YouTube to Netflix), a digital file (.mov, .mp4, .flv, .avi – or any other format) or on DVD (or even VHS!) we can use it in your showreel.
Q: I don’t have copies of all of my material – can you source it for me? Some of my material is online at YouTube/Vimeo/iPlayer/Netflix, etc.
Yes, we can source and download or extract nearly all types of online video to use in a showreel.
Q: I’m going to be on television…can you record it for me?
Yes! We provide an aircheck service for clients, recording in HD high definition where possible, allowing for a much better technical quality than recording onto DVD. Just let us know when you’re next on tv, and we’ll record it and add to your folder so it’s ready whenever you are to next update your reel.
Q: Where are you? I’m in London/LA/NY/Australia/Europe.
The head office is based in London, with an office in LA, but we have clients based around the world. We can take payment in most currencies. You’re welcome to visit the studio and be present while we edit, but most clients prefer to liaise via email or phone, and we upload draft edits of your reel to a private webpage for you and your agent to view and get feedback from before finalizing.
Q: What are your rates?
Editing is at an hourly rate of £95 per hour ($115 US/hr). It can take anywhere between one and three hours to edit a typical showreel, depending on your material…please contact us with details for a quote. If you have many scenes to work with, it may take a little longer than this, or if you have only a very small amount of material it may take less; please contact us and we’ll advise. Discounts are available for talent management agencies & publicists – please contact us for details.
Q: How long will it take to edit or my showreel?
Each showreel is tailored to the material we have to work with; we often find that two or three hours is enough to create a strong showreel. If you’re an established artist with dozens of hours of material in leading roles and you’d like us to review all your material, the price would change accordingly. Please contact us, and we can provide a better idea of editing time and cost. Turnaround can be as little as 24-48 hours, with priority rates available for same-day turnaround for last-minute castings.
Q: I’ve got a few pieces to include, but I don’t know which scenes to include…can you help?
Absolutely – we can watch your material and advise on best scenes and shots to include, as well as most effective running order.
Q: I know what scenes I want to include. Can I have any input with the editing?
Yes, of course! We welcome input from both you and your agent. We will advise if we don’t think a scene works for any reason, and often suggest reworking scenes to give you more of a focus, but if you know exactly what you want to include, that’s fine. If you’d like to visit the studio while we edit, you’re welcome to do, or we can liaise over the phone or via email, with a draft work-in-progress edit uploaded to a private password-protected webpage for you and your agent to review.
Q: How long should my showreel be?
Each showreel is tailored to the material you have, crafted to target your desired audience of casting directors/producers. We usually advise around 3 minutes, but this depends both on material, your intended audience, and the level at which you’re working. High profile artists can often have the luxury of longer reels. As a general rule: Your showreel needs to be short, punchy and to the point, and show a character range appropriate for the roles you’re applying for.
Q: Do you also edit voice reels?
Yes! Our voicereel clients include such luminaries as Sir David Jason.
Depending on the nature of your voice work, as well a final audio reel, we can also provide a corresponding video giving context to the work; for example scenes from animated features or videogames. We can record footage from videogames.
Q: Do you film showreels from scratch?
No, we no longer film showreels from scratch. We can however assist with ‘self-tape’ editing for those all-important last-minute or overseas castings.
Q: Why should I use you?
Don’t just take our word for it! See what others have said about our showreels on our Testimonials page, and follow us on Twitter or Facebook to see some recent success stories for clients!
Q: I’m a talent agent. Can you help?
Yes, please contact us. We edit showreels directly for talent management agencies, and can incorporate your house style & branding on any video titles on your clients showreels, and can provide reels in formats suitable for upload to your website and to your clients’ preferred casting platforms (Spotlight, Actors Access, etc). Or we can upload showreels to casting platforms or your website on your behalf. If you don’t currently feature your clients’ reels on your website and would like to do so, we can arrange for the videos to be uploaded here, and provide the code for your web designer to ’embed’ the videos so they play in a frame within your website.
Q: I’ve got some more questions not answered here. How can I find more about your showreel editing service, or make a booking?
Easy – just give us a call any time at our London office 020 8144 8835, our Los Angeles office 323 763 7655 or contact us online here. Outside normal office hours the office line is forwarded to our cell phone.
Click here to return to our main page, and view some more samples of showreels we’ve edited.