How to make a good martial arts demo reel
For the aspiring martial artist, breaking into the action cinema isn’t exactly easy. For starters, there is an unbelievable amount of competition. The entertainment industry is hard enough to break into by itself, but given the fact that action cinema is only a small subset of it, the competition can be even fiercer, as that means not just competing locally or nationally, but internationally as well.
While the fruits of success may mean getting to go all over the world for projects, it also means that if you plan to make it, you need to do so strategically, and not just leave your success up to the 1 in a million chance of ‘getting discovered’.
The very first step on this journey should be creating your own martial arts action demo reel. While a great deal of your success depends on other factors, such as knowing how to behave on set, and/or the kind of connections you have starting off, having a good demo reel up on youtube and other sites like it is a great first step. 1) Because it allows you to easily forward the link of it to anyone who may be interested in using you, and 2) because as Panic Attack! showed, people do get discovered on youtube from time to time. While making a great action demo reel on a meager budget may seem difficult or even impossible to do, if you know what you are doing, it is actually neither. Listed below are 4 things you can do to make it happen.
Find a hungry crew
The fact of the matter is, the entertainment industry never has a shortage of people who are trying to get in. This is actually a double-edged sword because in one respect, as aforementioned, that means that you always have a lot of competition (even after you become successful), but in another it means you will also never have a shortage of talented up and coming people who will be willing to work with you for cheap or free.
As such, the first step to producing a good demo reel is simply finding people like yourself who want more work experience and/or exposure. Whether you are staging fight scenes or just getting them edited, you should always be able to find up and coming people who are willing to cut you a deal just to get their name out there, and/or get some valuable actual experience. This is particularly true if you live in a college town where film majors will just be graduating. Much like for those starting a business the most important thing is that you network, network, network.
Don’t cut corners, Always go professional
As aforementioned, given the fact that there are always a myriad of educated and hungry people around, there is no reason to try and do everything yourself. If it looks homemade, then unless you are wildly talented, no established professionals are going to take you seriously. Search out specialized experts in their given fields, and work with them. In addition to it being a win, win for both of you, it will give you a chance to learn about the actual process of learning how to work effectively and efficiently as a part of a set team. This skill, in and of itself is invaluable, and if mastered will almost guarantee repeat jobs with production companies who are willing to give you a chance. (See my own resume for an example) Furthermore, it will also give you a chance to work and establish connections with other people who are working their way up as well, and should they make it, will remember you. One classic example of this was a short film I co-produced in Tokyo with someone who (at the time) was interning as the assistant director of a short vid I did for Norton Anti-Virus. Despite freezing weather, scheduling, and camera difficulties that resulted in us only getting half of the footage we needed, we discovered that we worked well together, and he has now since become a producer himself- and remains one of my very best friends. Another example of this is the editor of my own demo reel who despite the fact that I’ve never met him face to face, rests at the top of my list for any future projects I may be involved in requiring someone of his talents.
Even if it means paying for it, going professional also means using professional music. If or when you do post your demo reel on youtube, if you use music you don’t have official permission for, the sound is going to be cut off, and you will loose half of your reel’s pizzazz.
If you don’t have real footage, stage it
Getting all of your film footage professionally edited may be easy enough when you have a lot of it to choose from, but in the case that you don’t that simply means you have to stage it. Again, the worst thing you can do is put a lot of ‘home footage’ on a reel that is designed to get you professional work. Again, while it may seem like a pain to find costumes, hunt locations, and get a working crew together, the moment you do, you are getting professional working experience, and that makes it worth the effort in and of itself.
Don’t use repetitive footage
The final step (and arguably the most important) comes down to you and your editor, and that’s making sure that you edit the footage, such so that it is showing a variety of skills. Even the best footage (real or staged) will do you no good, if it’s just 3 minutes of you doing the exact same kick, fall, or dive roll over and over again. Your demo reel should show as many of your skills as it possibly can. In that regard, a little bit of ‘training footage’ is acceptable if there are skills you want to show case that aren’t in your professional footage (which I did in my my own reel), but it should certainly not be more than just a bit. Again, you want to give the impression that you know what you are doing already- NOT that you are still trying to figure it out.
While producing your own demo reel may take time, effort and even some of your personal resources and finances, if you really want to have a professional career in the martial arts action film genre, it is an effort that is well-worth the undertaking- and one that will pay itself off in the months and years to come.
