An acting showreel in Sydney that a casting director will actually watch

Without one it is very hard to be seen for screen work at all; with a weak one you are seen and passed over. JJ Splice has been making showreel scenes for actors in Sydney since 2012, and there are two ways to get yours: shoot it as the end point of one of our courses, or book a standalone showreel shoot.

Why we shoot the showreel inside the training

Most showreel services film you cold. You arrive, you perform, you leave with footage of what you could do on the day. Our courses do it the other way round. The scene you shoot in week six, or in a production block of the Intensive, is a scene you have rehearsed for weeks on a two-camera set, watched back on a 10-foot screen with the room, and refined with a director's notes. By the time the single-camera shoot comes around you are not performing for a reel; you are doing the job. That is the difference between a scene that looks like a showreel and a scene that looks like a film.

It also means the reel is honest. What is on screen is what you can do now, repeatably, under set conditions, which is exactly what a casting director is trying to find out.

What a casting-director-ready scene needs

A strong scene is short, clearly lit, with clean sound and a performance that is simple and specific. The camera needs to be close enough to read your thinking. The scene partner matters: a two-hander with real listening reads better than a monologue to a wall. The edit matters: a scene cut by an editor who understands performance protects your best takes. And the technical standard matters more than actors expect, because a badly lit, badly recorded scene makes a casting director assume the performance is at the same level.

Every scene we make is shot on RED Digital Cinema cameras with wireless lapel microphones and professional studio lighting, directed by Dean Francis, and edited, colour-graded and delivered in high definition for you to use however you like.

The showreel inside the courses

On the eight-week Foundation you leave with one Cinema-Quality Showreel scene. On the thirty-week Screen Craft Intensive you leave with two two-hander scenes and two monologues, plus your own page on casting.directory where casting directors, producers and filmmakers can watch your work and contact you or your agent. Intensive students also sit in the edit suite with the director on shoot days, which is the single most useful afternoon an actor can spend learning what the camera actually captured.

A standalone showreel shoot

If you are a working actor who needs fresh material, or you want a reel without doing a course, JJ Splice Showreels runs full- and half-day shoots in the same studio with the same crew and cameras. You get guidance on choosing the right material, a directed shoot, and finished scenes. Packages and prices are on the showreel packages page, and you can book a free strategy call to work out which option suits you.

What actors say

Actors who have shot with us describe booking first auditions, guest roles and commercial leads off the back of their new scenes; their words are on the Showreels page. We cannot promise where your career goes. We can promise you will leave with scenes that give you a real shot.

Next step

Apply for a course, or book a showreel strategy call. If you are comparing options, how to choose an acting school in Sydney lists the questions worth asking anyone.