Grab Their Attention
REEL BUILDING in Los Angeles
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Before an agent agrees to meet you. Before a casting director calls you in. Before anyone in this industry takes a serious look at you, it's likely that they'll watch your reel.
And if your reel doesn't show them something compelling within the first ten seconds, they'll move on.
Your reel is not a portfolio of everything you've ever done. It's a curated argument for why you should be hired. It needs to be short, strong, specific, and immediately clear about who you are as a castable type.
Building that reel, especially when you're early in your career and don't yet have professional footage, requires strategy, preparation, and performance.
Your Reel is Part of Your First Impression
What Makes a Strong Reel
Under 60 Seconds Total
Genuine moments of listening, reacting, and connecting. Not showcasing how much you can do, but showing what you honestly are.
Broken Out by Type
Opens with Your Single Strongest Moment
Shows You Acting, Not Performing
Looks and Sounds Professional
If you have enough footage, a comedy reel and a drama reel are more useful than one mixed reel. A casting director looking for a comedic lead doesn't want to find your dramatic range first.
Not your most recent work. Not your longest scene. Your best ten seconds. You have that long to create an impression before someone decides whether to keep watching.
Poor lighting, bad sound, or shaky camera work undermines even a strong performance. Technical quality is not a substitute for performance quality, but can be incredibly important.
Most reels are too long. Casting directors and agents are busy. They probably don't want to watch four minutes of scenes to find your best moment. Put your best moment first and keep the whole thing tight.
How BLS Approaches Reels
At BLS, reel building is a coaching-first process.
You don't just show up and tape scenes. You develop the scenes, build the characters, and prepare the material until your performance is genuinely strong. Then you tape it, on professional equipment, with Braden directing and reading opposite you.
The result is footage that actually represents you at your best. Not what you could do when you were rushed and unprepared, but what you can do when you've done the work.
Reel Building Sessions Include:
Scene Selection and Preparation
Same-day editing and electronic delivery of your footage.
Coaching and Direction
Professional Taping
Editing and Delivery
Reel Assembly Guidance
Real-time coaching as you develop the scenes. Braden works the material with you the same way he would in any coaching session — deepening choices, accessing emotion, sharpening specificity — until the performance is ready to tape.
Sony A7II camera, Rode microphones, professional lighting array, and neutral backdrop. The same setup used for Audition Taping. Unlimited takes.
Advice on how to cut your footage into a strong, effective reel. What to use, what to cut, how to order it, and where to post it.
Choosing material that fits your type and casting, and preparing it thoroughly using BLS Technique. This stage is as important as the taping itself.
What You'll Walk Away With
• Professional-quality footage representing you at your best
• Clear guidance on how to assemble it into an effective reel
• A foundation for a strong Actors Access profile and submission presence
Pricing
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Transparent, Competitive Rates
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*During the regular hours of M-F 10a-5p Pacific Time. Coachings outside of these hours are subject to a 1.5x overtime rate.
°Typically, tapings are booked in two-hour increments, as that usually leaves enough time for coaching, taping, editing, and delivery. More time may be booked when scheduling and will be billed as per BLS rates. If scheduled time runs out and more time is desired, it also be possible to add more time at the regular rate if Braden's schedule permits. If two hours are booked and only one hour is used, only one hour will be charged.
$350 / 2 hours*º
Or start with an Intro Eval if you're not sure whether this is right for you.
Who is acting reel building for?
Both. Reel building can help actors who do not have a reel yet and working actors who need stronger or more representative material. The goal is to create scenes that show what you can actually do and give casting a clear sense of you as an actor.
How do we choose scenes for my acting reel?
You can bring your own material, or we can choose scenes together. Existing film and television scenes are usually the best source. The important thing is choosing material that is concise, compelling, appropriate for your casting type, and gives you an opportunity to demonstrate your abilities quickly.
What makes a good acting reel scene?
A good reel scene gets to the point quickly and gives you something interesting to play. It should showcase your strengths, reveal something specific about you as an actor, and ideally represent the kinds of characters you could realistically be cast to play. Long scenes that take too much time to establish themselves or do not show your abilities quickly are usually poor reel material.
How many scenes can I shoot in a reel-building session?
It depends on the actor and the material. An actor who is well prepared and working with relatively straightforward scenes might shoot several scenes in a session. Another actor may spend most of the session on one challenging scene. The priority is getting strong material, not hitting a particular number of scenes.
What happens during a reel-building session?
The session includes scene selection when needed, acting coaching, professional taping, unlimited takes, and editing. We work on the performance first, then capture the strongest version on camera. I edit the footage and help you determine how the finished material should be used in your reel.
Do you edit the acting reel for me?
Yes. I edit the footage from the session and help you determine which clips belong in your reel and how they should be presented. The goal is not simply to give you a collection of footage, but to create material that represents you effectively.
How much does reel building cost?
A two-hour reel-building session is $350 total, which includes the $300 coaching session and $50 taping fee. Additional time is billed at the regular hourly coaching rate.
Can reel building be done online?
Yes. Depending on what you need, some or potentially all of the reel-building process can be handled online. We can work remotely on scene selection, preparation, and performance, and determine the best way to capture and edit the material.
