Introducing the Idenna 2020 Showreel! We always produce a yearly showreel but lockdown really gave us the focus to create something special, something that really shines a spotlight on the incredible businesses we’re lucky enough to work with. Check it out here!
If you’re super jealous and wondering how you can create your own epic film montage, then scroll down for insight from Sherring (this year’s showreel producer).
Keen to get your business on screen? Get in touch.
HOW TO MAKE A KICKASS SHOWREEL
It’s more than a montage. The start of a showreel is much like the start of a book, or even a blog. It requires immediate intrigue and brevity to have a strong opening and capture people’s attention.
So I’ll just get on with it.
What is a showreel and why make one?
Essentially, it’s the highlights of all of your best film work in one edit – but it has so much more value than just that. A new showreel can raise morale across the board for the business; clients that feature are going to be excited to see their work as part of the mix; the team who worked on the films, not just Producers but Account Managers and Creative Directors, get a visual reminder of some of their hard work they’ve put in to various projects; and it’s a morale booster for the film team that created such a masterpiece – especially when they’ve got lots going on. It’s not only nice but essential to take a second, step off the treadmill and watch a kickass showcase that gets everybody stoked about our film work.
As the editor of the Idenna 2020 Showreel and having recently celebrated one year of being on the team, it was a chance to get stuck in creatively, use some out-there editing techniques and put my own stamp on something for Idenna. I wanted to be ambitious in my approach but like any showreel, there were several challenges to overcome as an editor.
Challenges of making a showreel
How do you condense over a year of film work into 1 minute and 3 seconds? We’re talking Terabytes upon Terabytes of media. How do you create a succinct edit whilst also making sure the footage varies in tones and has contrasting themes?
One of my favourite things about working creatively is that the problems that stand in your way at first ultimately make everything you do better, because you have to come up with solutions. It’s essentially just the creative process but without setting myself the limitations of time, quality and, in this instance, style, it’s likely we would have ended up having a totally different showreel as a result.
I started by familiarising myself with the material. After all, it might be over a year’s work but we are only going to use the best of the best. So that’s what I did; I gathered every export and every shot that the film team remembered as being stand out, and got them in one place.
I then started trying out a few edits I had in mind; some match cuts, on the beat logo reveal, sticking some footage in reverse. What I soon ended up with was an interesting idea with adequate execution – but it wasn’t a showreel. As with many things, balance is important. I wanted the showreel to be an ‘idea’ in itself, because that’s what Idenna does, ideas. But it’s useless having a great edit that doesn’t actually speak to our audience and reflect what we’ve been working on. So I started with a fresh angle…
Collaboration
A showreel is intrinsically collaborative. Any film always involves a team of people so it seems natural that a showcase of many different films would require collaboration.
My two colleagues in the Film Team are completely different types of creative and both, in my opinion, are great editors. Often when I get stuck with something I can turn around to one of them and they’re able to come up with solutions and ideas to move the project forward and get it going again. In my opinion, it’s a bit like getting a push start when your car breaks down.
For this showreel, I also brought in some drum sounds from a friend of mine to use in the opening sequence. I had actually bookmarked these for a concept film I was making during lockdown but by using them in the opening sequence, I was able to cut in more shots early on without sacrificing the pace and mood of the edit. Shout out Zach (@zachondrums) who kindly let me use his drum tracks.
I enjoyed making this showreel from start to finish and to have some of my work in there feels great. It certainly feels like a good way to cap off my first year of working at such an awesome agency. I’m stoked to see what next year’s showreel looks like.
You can check out more of our work (film, photography, graphic design, web design, creative copy, whatever takes your fancy) across our website – but if you only have 1 minute and 7 seconds to spare right now, then you know what to watch…