"Must have" shots for reels

[Matt W.]

I'm cutting some reels. Finally making enough money at my day job to pay off my hobby of DPing lol.

For corporate/commercial what do clients want to see? I figure talking heads, a variety of b-roll. I'm weak on event coverage... Also throwing in montages and music videos? Should I throw in some time lapse of a city next time I see a nice day? Hate to count on cliches but hmm. Don't have any crane or quadcopter shots but I have access to them.

For narrative I have a lot of second unit stuff. Cars driving... inserts... etc. It's great stuff, but who wants to see b roll? Frustrating... Any tips on making that work?

 

[Louis Maddalena]

I always like to throw stuff in reels for corporate clients that people who are watching it have seen before in their normal lives. So they say when watching it "oh wow he did that, that was good" So if you shot any commercial, or maybe you second unit shot something on a TV show, etc. I'd put a shot of that in the reel. I think it helps build trust in you, for them to see projects that they have seen before they knew you, trusted you with their work.

Also a lot of corporate clients are not fantastic at seeing something amazing and thinking that you can do something lesser. So if you show an elaborate awesome B-Roll shot for a project you were working on that took you hours to block, light, and shoot, but they're looking for a simple talking head shot, many clients won't put two and two together to think you can do the easier simple talking head after doing the elaborate shot.

So just try to get some variety in the reel, and if you have anything that your corporate clients may have seen before throw that in as well. I find that helps.