When couples choose a vendor, a picture is worth a thousand words. With wedding videographers, a video is worth a thousand pictures and millions of words. A real challenge in our fast-paced world is to make couples actually watch your video examples.

To save their time and show the videographer’s style and expertise, a showreel plays a crucial role.

What is a showreel?

A showreel (or a demo reel, a reel, a promotional video, a recap video) is a mix of video clips that highlight the videographer’s best works from a period of time, usually one wedding season. It includes edited footage from a variety of weddings (somewhere between 3 and 10), including ceremonies, speeches, first dances, and other special moments. A showreel is also good for showcasing the videographer’s ability to capture the most important flashes of a couple’s wedding day.

How is a showreel different from a highlight or a teaser?

The goal of a demo reel is to show the videographer’s talent and their ability to shoot beautiful weddings in different locations and seasons. In addition to examples of best works, it can also present some information about the videographer. Typically, a showreel lasts from 1 to 3 minutes. This is the time during which it’s easy to hold the viewer’s attention, so they do not skip ahead. Thus, potential clients can have an idea of the services you provide without watching your wedding highlights, teasers, or feature films for hours. 

In terms of editing, a showreel has a more dynamic editing approach than a teaser or a highlight. Its goal is to attract attention with energy, drive, original musical solutions and sound design, titles, etc.

In mid-season we receive many requests from our client videographers to edit an epic demo reel for them, so we decided to describe what steps are needed to create it.

How to create an amazing showreel

Wedding video showreel tutorial
The process of creating a wedding videography showreel.

Everything starts with choosing materials.

1. Choose the best wedding videos

If we haven’t worked with you before, we’ll ask you to choose the weddings you would like to show to your future clients. Then, you can send us raw footage or cull the best moment we will use for a showreel. This might include most creative shots, emotional moments, and any other elements that make you proud of your work.

If you are a regular client and we edited all your videos during the year, we can pick the weddings and moments for you ourselves.

2. Create a script

After the weddings and the clips are chosen, we start thinking about a script that can guide the viewer through the showreel. It usually includes an introduction, a cinematic part with speeches, and an upbeat segment from the reception.

3. Choose the right music

Music is an essential part of any showreel, and it’s necessary to spend enough time choosing it. It should fit the mood of the showreel and connect all its parts harmoniously. There are two ways we can work with music here: an ordinary music approach or a sound design option. 

If you choose an ordinary music approach, we will take songs from Musicbed or Audiio and use them in the edit. If you’d like your reel to sound special, we can offer sound design for you. Our chief editor will use some creative techniques and make songs by mixing them with TrackClub. You can watch an episode of sound design creation for one of our projects on our YouTube Channel.

4. Put it all together in an editing program

Now it’s time to use an editing program (Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, or Final Cut Pro) to put it all together. We add transitions between clips, adjust the speed and length of each clip according to the script and music, and add a text intro if desired.

5. Send the ready showreel

Once a showreel is complete, we send the link to review it. When the filmmaker approves it, they can export the video in the highest quality and upload it to their website or social media platforms, where thousands of future brides and grooms can view it.

On our YouTube channel, you can dig deeper and watch our lead editor take some steps toward creating a showreel. Enjoy watching, and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay in the loop!

Learn how to make a unique and creative showreel for wedding films in this video.

Do you want us to edit a vivid demo reel for you? Reach out to us at [email protected], or send us a message via the contact form below.

Bride&Groom.video Team