Highlight reels

What a highlight reel is

A highlight reel is one short film, usually between thirty and ninety seconds, cut from footage you already have. It runs at the top of a home page, at the start of a pitch, on a screen at a trade stand, or as the first thing a prospective client is sent. It assumes the viewer knows nothing about you and will not stay long.

It is not a set of separate clips for posting, which is short-form cutting and is a different edit with a different purpose. It is not a company film with a script and a shoot behind it, which is a bigger job that starts with a script. A reel is assembled from what exists, which is what makes it cheap, and the limits of what exists are the limits of the reel.

One honest warning, because it is the mistake nearly everybody makes. A reel of nice moments with no argument running through it is decoration. It fills a space at the top of a page, it is watched by almost nobody past the first few seconds, and it changes nothing. A reel has to be saying something — this is what we do, this is who we do it for, this is what it looks like when it goes right — or it should not be made.

When you need one

The home page is the common case. There is a slot at the top, the stock footage in it is embarrassing, and you have three years of footage from events, site visits and interviews that nobody has ever cut together.

The second is a pitch. A reel that opens a presentation buys thirty seconds of attention and shows work that would take five slides to describe. This is the version that is most often worth the money, because the audience is small, specific and holding a budget.

You do not need one if the footage you have is two interviews and a phone video of the office. There is no reel in that, and a person cutting one will produce something that looks like an apology. Spend the money on a set of clips from the interviews instead, which needs far less material. You also do not need one if what is really wrong with the page is the writing, in which case the home page copy is the cheaper fix and the reel can wait.

What goes in it

• A footage review. Everything you have, watched and logged: what is in it, what shape it is, what condition the sound is in, and what is unusable because of a departed employee, an old logo or a client who never signed a release.
• The argument. One page written before any editing: what the reel says, in what order, and what a viewer should be left holding. This is the part that separates a reel from a montage.
• The structure. The shot list against a clock, second by second, with the opening three seconds specified exactly, because that is where the film is won or lost.
• The words. Any spoken line pulled from an interview, and the on-screen text, written so the reel works silently. Most reels are seen with the sound off, including the one at your stand.
• The cut. Arranged with an editor as described on the video editing page, briefed by me and checked against the structure before you see it.

What you get

The reel. One finished film in a wide version for a page or a projector and a tall or square version where you need one, delivered with and without music, in a folder you own.

A silent version. The same cut with the on-screen text carrying the whole message, for looping on a stand or a reception screen and for any feed that starts muted.

The structure document. The argument, the shot list and the timings, so the reel can be updated in a year with new footage rather than rebuilt from nothing.

A gaps list. The shots you do not have and should get next time somebody is filming. Short, specific, and usually the most useful page in the delivery.

A worked example

An illustration, not a client. A Saskatoon commercial millwork shop is pitching for three large fit-out contracts. It has eleven folders of footage: site installs filmed on phones, a factory tour a student made, two client interviews, and a drone flight over a finished hotel lobby.

The argument is written first, and it is narrow: this shop builds complicated joinery on a working site without stopping the site. The reel runs fifty seconds. It opens on three seconds of a saw cutting, carries one sentence from a client interview across the middle, shows four installs in progress with on-screen lines naming the building and the trade, and ends on the finished lobby with the shop's name. The student factory tour is not used at all. The gaps list says the shop needs footage of one install filmed from start to finish, which the owner arranges on the next job. The reel opens all three pitches and sits at the top of the home page.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. What footage exists, where the reel will run, who watches it and what you want them to think afterwards. No charge.
2. The footage review. Everything logged and a plain answer about whether there is a reel in what you have. If there is not, I say so and we stop there.
3. A fixed price in writing. Agreed once the footage is known, with the editor's fee stated separately from mine.
4. The argument and the structure. Written and approved by you before a single cut is made. This is the approval that matters.
5. The cut. A first cut typically eight to twelve working days after approval, reviewed by me against the structure, then by you, then revised.
6. Delivery. Every version, the structure document and the gaps list, in a folder you own.

What it costs

Quoted as a fixed price in CAD after the half-hour call and the footage review, with my fee stated separately from the editor's fee, which is passed through at the rate you approve. The price depends on how much footage has to be watched, how many versions are needed, and whether music has to be licensed. The pricing page explains the four ways of working. The figure is fixed in writing before anything is cut.

What happens next

A reel usually reveals that the same footage has more in it, which is short-form cutting from the offcuts. If the reel is opening a pitch, the argument behind it belongs in the rest of the presentation, and that is pitch deck copy. And if it is sitting at the top of the home page, the words directly beneath it matter more than the film does, which is home page copy. None of that is assumed. A finished reel and its gaps list is a complete piece of work and can be the last thing you buy.