The Top 1%
Showreel Strategy
The Top 3 Priorities
for a Top 1% Showreel...
We would need several hours of your time to guide you through every detail of our thorough research, so we've distilled the solution down to a simple equation:
Archetype
Specificity
+
Castable Qualities
+
Technical
Execution
=
Top 1%
Showreel
3
Technical Execution
"Industry Level Production Quality"
There is no point putting all that time and effort into priorities 1 and 2, if your showreel looks like it was filmed on ye Nan’s Nokia. The production quality has the biggest impact on the viewer’s experience, and is therefore directly proportional to your perceived value as an actor. A Top 1% Showreel is free of distraction and looks and sounds like it came straight out of a film. Prioritising a showreel that recreates a similar level of production quality as the jobs you are hoping to get, shows you take yourself and the Casting Director's time seriously.
1
Archetype Specificity
"Instantly recognisable and timeless character with the same purpose in every narrative"
It's not costume, time period, job role, or environment that helps an audience understand a character, but the practical obstacles the character must overcome and the emotional tendencies they will show throughout the story. Top 1% actors select no more than 3 archetypes to associate their personal brand with, showcasing they could play these personality types in a multitude of projects.
To view the the timeless archetypes and their respective emotional qualities, click here 👈🏼
2
Castable Qualities
"A truthful and interesting example of your emotional range"
A Top 1% Showreel is packed with as many Castable Qualities as possible. However, Casting Directors and Agents have an endless number of showreels in their inboxes, so you must be economical with their time. To maximise your display of emotional versatility and keep the viewer engaged, there has to be a dynamic shift every 20 seconds. Two lines delivered in the same way, is one missed opportunity to show a new Castable Quality.
While these principles are easy to understand, we know they can be tricky to apply yourself.
That's where we come in!
Executing these 3 priorities effectively is the quickest way to get saved on file by a Casting Director.
So if you’re not sure why your current showreel isn’t getting results, or if you want to start from scratch, or you’re simply excited to find out which Archetypes suit you…
Book a free 1-1 session with one of our Casting Strategists to create a clear plan of action to get those first 5 credits under your belt.
After scratching our heads for years, wondering how so many average actors make it, while so much talent ends up behind a Costa counter, we started to do a little digging.
Once we understood exactly what Casting Directors and Agents are looking for, we analysed over 1000 showreels, strategised, wrote and produced over 400 scenes, and distilled a secret sauce that provides consistent results.
It turns out that the No.1 difference between these actors is simple - they have an effective showreel. So we embarked on a quest to discover what made these showreels so great, and used our 12 years of industry experience to reverse engineer the casting process.
