Should I Use a Monologue or a Scene for My Showreel?
If you're putting together a showreel, you may be wondering whether your footage should be made up of scenes, monologues, or a mixture of both.
My preference would generally be to use a good scene.
But there is an important qualification:
A good monologue is far more useful than a bad scene.
And if you don't have good scene footage, I would absolutely not recommend waiting until you do before putting something in front of casting.
What does a scene allow casting to see?
A good, performance-focused scene is probably the best all-round piece of material you can include in a showreel.
The main advantage is that it allows casting to see you interacting and reacting with another character.
Those are fundamental parts of screen acting.
A good scene can give casting a quick insight into how you listen, respond, pursue something, affect another character and behave within an exchange.
It can also give them a broader sense of you as an actor because the performance is happening within the normal conditions of a screen scene rather than with all the attention on one character.
But this depends entirely on the quality of the scene — and, importantly, on how good the material is for you.
A scene isn't automatically useful simply because it is a scene.
So what does a monologue allow casting to see?
The biggest advantage of a monologue is that the attention is entirely on you.
That can be extremely powerful.
Imagine a casting director watching a two-minute monologue. For those two minutes, they are studying you.
Can you sustain a performance?
Do you understand the demands of screen acting?
Can you hold someone's attention without relying on another actor to create the energy of the scene?
Can you carry moments without the editor needing to cut away?
If you can do all of those things well, a relatively short piece of footage can say a great deal about you as an actor.
It can be a very good introduction.
And it may be enough for a casting director to think:
I'd like to see this actor read for the role.
What if I don't have any good scene footage?
A monologue can be perfectly sufficient.
The most important thing is that casting needs to be able to see something if they are going to make a judgement about whether you might be right for a particular role.
You don't need to have worked professionally on television or film before you can give them useful evidence of what you can do.
A short, simple monologue with the focus entirely on your performance can be a very efficient way of doing that.
And there is a practical advantage too: a monologue can be produced relatively quickly and at relatively low cost.
That matters because the potential upside can be disproportionately large.
A comparatively small investment in a strong piece of footage could be enough to help get you through the door for an audition or meeting.
A monologue can also be a very good way to update your reel
This isn't only useful for actors who have no footage.
Perhaps your existing reel is several years old.
Perhaps your appearance has changed.
Perhaps you've developed considerably as an actor since your last good piece of footage.
Perhaps the material you already have no longer reflects the kinds of roles you are now right for.
A short, professionally filmed monologue can be an incredibly efficient way to show casting where you are now.
You could add it to an existing reel, replace an older piece, or use it separately on your professional profiles.
It also demonstrates something beyond the footage itself: that you are still working, developing and creating new material.
So why not just make a showreel scene?
This is where I think actors can get themselves into trouble.
There is a natural assumption that “proper” showreel material should be a scene.
So an actor finds someone to write a scene, gets a few people together, hires some equipment and sets out to make one.
The problem is that producing a good screen scene is surprisingly difficult.
A professional television production has hundreds of largely unseen elements that contribute to making a scene work: script development, direction, camera, sound, lighting, locations, production design, other actors, continuity, editing and many other decisions.
All of those things cost money, time and expertise.
The viewer doesn't normally think about any of them when the production is working well.
But when you remove them, they can suddenly become very noticeable.
I've shot a lot of low-budget projects and scenes over the years, and one of the things this has repeatedly taught me is why all those different roles exist in professional screen production.
Trying to recreate the appearance of a television scene on a very small budget can easily result in something that looks like exactly what it is: a small production trying to look like a much bigger one.
An expensive camera, good lighting and an impressive location don't necessarily solve that.
They can become window dressing around a scene that simply isn't very good.
The script is the most important place to start
If you are going to create a showreel scene, I would not begin by asking:
How are we going to shoot this?
I would begin with:
Have I got a script that is actually worth shooting?
A genuinely good script is surprisingly hard to find.
And if the writing doesn't give you something interesting to play, you can end up fighting a losing battle before the camera is even switched on.
A good scene should give you an opportunity to do something interesting as an actor and give casting something useful to watch.
The production then needs to support that.
But no amount of technical polish can turn weak material into strong material.
So which should I choose?
My first choice would be a good scene.
It gives casting the opportunity to see you interacting and reacting with another actor, which is at the heart of most screen work.
But I would never advise an actor to leave a strong monologue out of their reel simply because they are waiting for the right scene.
If you have a genuinely good scene from professional work, use it.
If you don't, a well-made monologue can be an extremely effective alternative.
And if you're choosing between a strong monologue you can make now and a mediocre scene you're creating simply because you think you need a scene, I'd take the monologue.
Ultimately, the format is less important than the performance.
Get good material in front of casting.
That is the thing that matters.
