Reel workshop: build a 60-second cut that gets you hired

Your reel gets about 15 seconds before someone decides. We're building tight 60-second cuts and cutting each other's ruthlessly. Actors, editors, filmmakers, photographers. FIRST TIME? This is a small, friendly group that meets twice a month on Saturday afternoons at Schuler Books on 28th Street, in the Chapbook Cafe. Free, no cover. WHAT WE'RE WORKING ON What goes in the first five seconds and what has to go entirely. Ordering clips by strength instead of chronology. Cutting your own work when you're attached to it. Different reels for different asks - an editing reel, an acting reel and a directing reel are not the same thing. Length, format, and where to host it. WHAT TO BRING Whatever footage you have, however rough, on a laptop. An existing reel if you've got one - we'll take it apart. Headphones. No footage yet? Come and cut someone else's. It's the fastest way to learn what works. WHO THIS IS FOR Actors who need something to send, editors building a portfolio, filmmakers with finished work nobody's seen, and anyone who's been meaning to make a reel for a year. HOW THE AFTERNOON GOES 1:00 - coffee, introductions, what everyone's got 1:20 - teardown: we watch an existing reel and say what's working 2:00 - build: everyone assembles or recuts, help available 2:40 - show what you made, take notes, plan the next pass Schuler Books, 2660 28th St SE - big parking lot. Look for the cowboy hat in the cafe.