A showreel is a short video showcasing a person's previous work used by many kinds of people involved in filmmaking and other media industries such as actors, animators, lighting designers, editing and models.
When making a showreel you need to keep it short, focus on the opening, think about the audience, check how it looks on the site, as a friend of a friend to look at the showreel and keep it up to date!
A portfolio is a collection of materials that exemplify your skills, qualifications, education, training and experiences.
A portfolio should contain all of your best work, similar to a showreel but not edited into a video.
A website is a good way to widen your work search. A good website should include a portfolio, showreel, CV and links to all social media. A website allows you to show off a gallery of your work, links to client work and even feedback from your clients. A website is a good place to host examples of personal projects as you never know who may see them when it is online and so it is easily accessible, meaning there is a higher chance of a wider range of people seeing and finding your work.
Social media sites such as LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook allow people to see your work and easily see what you can offer. LinkedIn is a professional social networking site, YouTube is an online site which allows people to share videos easily. Instagram is a good site to share images with the world, Facebook is a good site to have a professional page to be able to use as a portfolio of your work. Facebook also allows people to write reviews and references which can be seen by anybody who views the page.
A CV allows you to summarise your education, work, skills and experience enabling you to sell your abilities to potential employers. A CV gives the employer a rough idea of who you are as a person. Any relative work experience should be included on a CV. A CV should be suitably tailored to the field you want to work in as employers will be looking for relevant skills to what you will be doing at the place of work.
A letter of application is also sometimes referred to as a cover letter, this is a document that you send alongside a CV when applying for a job. This will outline the skills, qualifications and experience that you can’t fit into a CV. It is ideal to write a different letter of application for each job that you apply for so that you can tailor it to each job role or company.
When writing a letter of application you should research the company and the job opening, use a professional font, state the position that you are applying for, explain why you are the best person for the job role, summarize your qualifications and relate these to the job role, mention why you want the job and you should also include a professional closing to the letter. You should also make sure that you use the correct language and terminology and ensure that your letter of application is professional.
Getting a reference or multiple references is a good way to get other people to talk about your work experience, work habits, character and skills. If you have good references, you have a better chance of finding work because potential employers will not only choose the person with the most experience but also the best references. There are many different people that you can use to get a reference: recent bosses, co-workers, professors or previous teachers, or friends but only if they provide a professional reference or clients.