Tabitha Vance
21 Nov 2025
373 views
Genuine chicken and egg. Every agent submission page says to include a reel. I have nothing to put in one because I cannot get seen for anything without representation.
How does anybody break this loop?
Getting Started
Do I need a reel before I can get an agent, or an agent before I can get a reel?
5 replies
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Curtis Mbadiwe
22 Nov 2025
You break it by making the footage yourself. Student films, short films, a two-hander you shoot with a friend who has a decent camera. It does not have to be prestigious, it has to show your face working.
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Ken Vasquez
22 Nov 2025
Agents want to see you act. They do not care whether it came off a network show. A well shot three minute short beats no reel by an enormous margin.
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Reeva Bhandari
23 Nov 2025
I got my first agent off a single scene from a student thesis film. That was it. One scene, ninety seconds.
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Marguerite Sowande
24 Nov 2025
Do not pay one of those "reel creation" services that shoots you against a green screen doing a monologue. Everyone in the industry knows what those look like and it reads as inexperience.
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Yvette Brossard
25 Nov 2025
Adding to the above: if you truly have nothing, a self-produced scene is fine, but shoot it properly. Good sound especially. Bad audio makes people stop watching in four seconds.
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