Analysing Showreels

I began to look at making a blockout showreel for myself. Before beginning I thought it would be best to look at what is out there and what makes a good showreel. I began by looking at various showreels from other environment artists and critiquing them.

1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5tsURn1QH8

Good points:
Shows a variety of work
Good resolution screenshots
Simple music in background
Professional text style
Contact and software details at the end

Bad points:
Zooming in of pictures crops edges and does not allow a detailed look around all the models
All still images, no camera flythroughs or turntables
Appears some of the work is of different quality - "a portfolio is only as good as the worst piece in it"

2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0cNYJCvrp4

Good points:
Nice screenshots and dynamic fly-throughs
Has footage from in-game
Music affect showreel - simple music and images and videos (especially afer 36 second mark) change with the beat making it a nice piece to watch

Bad points:
I feel some of the images and fly-overs go past too quickly just to fit in with the music. I would have liked to see some more close ups or more time showing each individual environment.
The camera moves very fast in some of the video clips

After looking at various showreels and researching a few interviews with industry professionals I have come up with a list of what I aim to include in my showreel.

1) Length - 1-2 minutes - any longer and the employee may get bored watching or simply skip to the end and miss good work which leads on to my second point...

2) Put the best work first and last - begin and end with interesting and great work, this will grab attention at the start and give something memorable at the end

3) Show various shots of the work - also add in wire frames, details about what areas you worked on and software used as well as a possible breakdown. All this will help an employee see your skills.

4) Specialise - don't put character work on an environment portfolio, especially if its bad character work. Generalising is not always a good thing if you're non-preferred work is bad. If its put on a portfolio you feel it is good enough and the best of your ability.

5) Add transitions between frames - cutting between images and videos quickly and suddenly is not always nice to watch and transitions will make the showreel feel more fluid.