Expert Tips: Creating a Winning Videography Portfolio
Mar 13, 2024
8 mins
This article is part of our Video Production Collection.
The best videography portfolios are dynamic and constantly evolving tools. To an extent, attracting potential clients is as simple as showcasing your skills. However, when it comes to portfolios, there's a lot of pressure around getting everything right in one piece of content.
Luckily for you, we know just what it takes thanks to our in-house video wizard, Curtis. Here's how you can make your videography portfolio grab attention, complete with expert tips.
Select your best work
Portfolio creation starts with selecting the work you want to showcase. Granted, this is subjective, but that's what portfolios are all about.
To make matters a bit easier, think about the projects that truly showcase your skills and style. Your portfolio should reflect the range of what you can do, so you should include a variety of videos to highlight different aspects of your abilities.
Remember that quality trumps quantity. Don't be afraid to curate and only include pieces that you're proud of. Each video in your portfolio should serve a purpose, whether it's showing your creativity, technical skills, or the ability to capture emotions.
Power tip by Curtis
"When choosing videos to include in your portfolio, a good rule of thumb is to pick the latest ones with the best results. It's great to be proud of stuff, but if you've done a cool video with a friend just for fun, it probably doesn't make sense to use it in your portfolio."
Create an engaging showreel
Your showreel is the centerpiece of your videography portfolio. It's a short, impactful video montage that provides a quick overview of your best work.
Since your showreel is the first impression you're making on a potential client, it's also the most important part of your portfolio. That's why you have to make sure it's professionally edited, concise, and represents you as a creator.
When it comes to clients, they expect your showreel to be a short, impactful video that lets them know if you're the right fit quickly. That's why it's best to keep the length up to one minute.
While deciding on visuals, pick two to three scenes from your favorite videos. No matter how in love you are with a shot, make sure to get rid of all the fluff and only include the best parts.
And remember: music can make or break your showreel. Since audio is a huge part of how potential clients perceive your showreel, take your time to choose the music that fits the mood you're going for. Your audio choices should always reflect what you're showing on screen.
To give your showreel an extra edge, you can look at tools like music visualizer online, an audio spectrum analyzer, or a general music visualizer to create cool visual effects that match your soundtrack, making your showreel more engaging.
Power tip by Curtis
"If you're pitching for more than one niche, have separate showreels. A wedding video and a sports commercial don't have much in common, so you shouldn't be trying to incorporate both into one showreel."
Organize for easy navigation
Now that you've got a list of your best work, it's time to give potential clients a taste of what sets you apart from the rest. When displaying your work, think about how each video represents your capabilities as a videographer.
Whether it's visuals, editing techniques, or storytelling, make sure each piece reflects the range of skills and styles you bring to the table. Create different sections that highlight specific aspects of your videography expertise.
Organize your work strategically. This not only lets you emphasize your versatility, but also makes it easy for clients to navigate through your portfolio.
Power tip by Curtis
"Don't host your portfolio on Google Drive. It's messy and easy for people to get lost in. As a videographer, you're probably already paying for Adobe anyways, so you might as well use their free portfolio builder. It doesn't take that much more effort than uploading to Drive, and it looks much more professional."
Don't rely on social media to be your videography portfolio
While social media is a great way to display your most recent work, relying on it to serve as your portfolio is not a good idea. Why?
First off, your posts on social media mostly appear in chronological order. This means your potential clients will see your latest work first. If you're not aiming for one niche only, this can have a negative impact.
For example, imagine you've done a few sports commercials recently. You've added some snippets and behind-the-scenes footage to your page, and you're getting good engagement. However, you also do wedding shoots, but those are now buried under the recent sports videos.
As a result, a potential client looking over your page might not see that you also specialize in what they're looking for. If you're relying on social media only, you might be losing clients just because they haven't scrolled down enough.
What's more, social media doesn't give you as much control over your portfolio as you should have. Since sites like Instagram and YouTube are third-party websites, you don't want them to be the only places where your portfolio shows up.
Since you have no impact on third-party algorithm changes, you can't trust that your social media will always work the way it does today. A simple algorithm change can have a huge impact on how many people see your content and how your business operates.
Power tip by Curtis
"Include a link to your portfolio in your social media bio. That way, you get to show people what you're currently up to, but they can also get a quick overview of your best work."
Choose the right platform for your portfolio
Creating your own website is the best way to present your work and get clients. That said, you might not want to go through all the trouble of getting a domain, sorting out hosting, and setting everything up by yourself. If that's the case, you have other options that can work just as well.
Behance
Besides being an online portfolio site, Behance also helps creatives connect. You can showcase your work, get feedback, and be discovered by clients looking for your set of skills.
Its project-based structure lets you show the ins and outs of your creative process and its social aspect lets you connect to others in your creative community. It's a part of Adobe Creative Cloud, which means you can integrate it with other Adobe tools you're already using.
Since Behance also serves as a hiring platform, its pricing depends on how much work you're getting. They charge a platform fee both to the client and you, with an added percentage depending on the total payment made.
Adobe Portfolio
Adobe Portfolio is specifically designed for creating personal portfolio websites. It comes with a range of templates and it's also a part of Adobe Creative Cloud.
Since it's connected to other Adobe tools, it makes it easy to update your portfolio with new work. Compared to Behance, Adobe Portfolio gives you a more personalized and customizable format.
When it comes to pricing, Adobe Portfolio is free for anyone already paying for Adobe Creative Cloud. If you aren't, you can opt for their $9.99 or $59.99 plans depending on which Creative Cloud tools you need access to.
And what about your docs?
A great videography portfolio gets your clients excited about working with you. The last thing you want to do is to undermine that first impression by sending them an underwhelming proposal or contract.
So, you'll reach for InDesign or Illustrator to get your documents looking great. The only problem is, you'll be spending more time than you need to editing a doc and itching to get it over with so you can finally start on the client's video.
Instead of doing all that, how about you sign up for Better Proposals? We'll get your docs looking as good as a website (and as responsive) and you don't have to spend hours formatting.
What's more, you can personalize the docs even further by adding your own videos inside them and making them look like they're coming from your own website. All your client needs to do is sign and pay you - all from the same platform you've sent the doc from.
"I'm awesome, give me the job" doesn't work
But showcasing your skills with documents that look, feel, and sound great does. Take Better Proposals for a spin - the first 14 days are free.