How to make a compelling sizzle reel.

Consider your video’s purpose.

What’s the point of your reel? Is it part of a larger presentation or does it need to stand alone on YouTube or Vimeo? If you’re just trying to set a mood before you launch into the details in person, you don’t need to pack everything into your reel. But if your reel is your resume or your whole pitch, it has to make the case on its own.

That might seem tough to do in 60 seconds, but that’s plenty of time to show off your best stuff. “It’s much better to make it shorter and leave people wanting more than to make it too long,” Kavanaugh says. “Create an emotion. Show that your work is premium, show what you do well and then point somebody to your website where they can dive in more fully.”

Also, when you’re showing off your work, make sure to clearly label the work you did in each snippet. If your expertise is in post-production, don’t let the viewer think you were the director or writer.

Tell a story.

Narrative is how human beings make sense of the world, so even your sizzle should tell a story. “You want it to be exciting, but you also want to make sure it’s coherent. You want to make sure that at the end, people know what they’ve watched. It’s still got to have a beginning, middle and end,” says Holtz. It should also be clear about what it wants the audience to do.

Make it look professional.

No matter your speciality, every aspect of your reel should combine sound and visuals that delight. These tutorials might help:

Explore editing tools in Premiere Pro.

Edit your video with precision, include up to three audio tracks and add titles, transitions and colour presets.

Learn how to customise titles.

Make default titles your own by adjusting font style, size, spacing and more in the Edit tab. Create animated titles by choosing a template from the Title panel. You can also search Adobe Stock for thousands of additional motion graphics templates to use in your video.

Discover demo reel best practices.

Learn how to take your video production skills to the next level with this practical Adobe Premiere Pro tutorial.

Once your reel is ready, run it by a few people in your field. Absorb their feedback and make necessary changes. Then, share it on social media and let the likes tell you how much your reel is sizzling.